A Final Monument in Ely Cathedral with a Complex Display of Heraldry

For our final heraldic monument in Ely Cathedral (there are others, but as I noted at the beginning of this series from the Cathedral, we only had a limited amount of time to visit, and so I missed a fair bit of the heraldry to be found there), we come to the monument to Henry Caesar, Dean of Ely 1614-1636.

Henry Caesar, also known as Henry Adelmare, a member of the 400 year-old Adelmare family of Treviso in the Veneto, was the son of Giulio Cesare Adelmare, an Italian physician to Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. When Henry and his brother, Sir Julius Caesar, became English citizens, they adopted their father’s middle name as their surname.

As you can see, the monument is quite large, and consists of a kneeling representation of Dean Henry Caesar as well as two pillars and a long inscription in Latin, not to mention the three heraldic shields at the top.

The inscription reads:

Post Tempestatem Tranquillitas. Effigies Reverendi viri Henrici Caesaris alias Adelmarii, S. Theologiae Professoris, huius Eccl. 20 plus minus Annis Decani vigilantissimi; Filii illustris viri Julii Caesaris Adelmarii, Medicinae Docttoris, serenissimis Reginis Mariae & Elizabethae principis Medici, Fratris honoratisimi D. D. Julii Caesaris Militis, & juris utriusque Doctoris; binis Regibus Jacobo & Carolo Magistro sacrorum Scriniorum, & 3 Consiliis secretioribus; de antique stirpe Adelmaria Familia Trevesana Venetorum Annis prope 400 illustri oriundi; Vita celebis, Religione devoti, Humanitate candidi, Gravitate placidi, Charitate in huius Eccl. chorum & musas Cantabrigienses ultimo Testamento munifici, praesentis Vitae Bonis felicis, futura, Spe felicioris, Fruitione felicissimi : Qui 27 Junii, Anno Domini 1636, placide in Dom, obdormivit, Annum Ætatis suae agens 72. Qui & hoc memoriae sacrum meruit a Carolo Casare Agnato suo charisimo & Executore solo.

Of these three shields at the top of the monument, we have:

In the center, Gules two keys in saltire wards upwards in chief the letter D or (a variant of the arms of the Deanery of Ely), impaling Quarterly: 1 and 4, Gules three roses argent barbed and seeded proper on a chief argent three roses gules barbed and seeded proper (Caesar); 2, Sable two bars in chief three swans argent beaked and legged gules (Cesaryna or Adelmare); 3, Gules three crescents or (Perient).

Margaret Perient was Dean Henry Caesar’s mother.

To the left, we have: Gules three roses argent barbed and seeded proper on a chief argent three roses gules barbed and seeded proper (Caesar).

And to the right: Gules three roses argent barbed and seeded proper on a chief argent three roses gules barbed and seeded proper (Caesar), impaling Sable two bars in chief three swans argent beaked and legged gules (Cesaryna or Adelmare).

The shields in the center and on the right are somewhat unusual, containing as they do both the Caesar and Adelmare arms. To the best of my research, Dean Henry Caesar never married, so the marshalled shield on the right does not contain (in the usual fashion) the arms of a wife, but the (older?) arms of Aldemare.

All in all, a complex memorial, with even more complex heraldry, some of which leaves me wishing for more information.