Brewer's: Cross-legged Knights

indicate that the person so represented died in the Christian faith. As crusaders were supposed so to do, they were generally represented on their tombs with crossed legs.

“Sometimes the figure on the tomb of a knight has his legs crossed at the ankles, this meant that the knight went one crusade. If the legs are crossed at the knees, he went twice; if at the thighs he went three times. ” —Ditchfield: Our Villages, 1889.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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