Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/719

Rh INTRODUCTION.] HERALDRY 685 placed between charges, a common usage in later coats. An exception is Chandos, who bears three estoiles on a pile, which again is placed between six others ; but this stands alone. The roll of Edward II. blazons 957 coats of the bannerets of England, so that the use of arms had increased consider ably. The lions have risen to 225, the eagles to 43 ; and there are 102 crosses of various kinds. Of new beasts, fabu lous or real, there are the griffin, the wyvern, the stag, wolf, goat, and greyhound : of new birds, the falcon ; of fishes, the dolphin. Of other objects the additions are the millrind, buckle, covered cup, chaplet, gauntlet, arrow, trumpet, hammer, battle-axe, palmer s staff, pots, winnowing fans or vans, peris, cushions, and chessrooks. The character of the arms remains very simple, and the blazon employed agrees in the main with that still in use, and is in general perfectly intelligible. These rolls give various examples of changes of coats, either altogether or by the introduction of a difference to distinguish members of the same family ; and it is observable that when the figures are altered the colours are usually adhered to, as though it were considered undesirable to change them. Thus Gilbert de Segrave (died 1254) bore &quot;sable, 3 garbs argent.&quot; Of his grandsons John and Nicholas, John bore the paternal coat, but Nicholas, at Caerlavrock, had exchanged the garbs for a lion. This afterwards became the family bearing as &quot;sable, a lion rampant argent, crowned or,&quot; the colours being retained. No sooner had the great barons assumed arms for them selves than they began to grant them to their followers. Arms so granted commonly bore some resemblance to those of the grantor, and hence certain charges prevailed in certain districts. Thus the chevron of De Clare was common in South Wales, in the Honours of Gloucester and Clare, and about Tonbridge. The garb or wheat-sheaf was found in Cheshire ; the cinquefoils of the Beltomonts in Leicester shire ; the annulets of Vipont in Westmoreland ; the lion all over England, and the tressure in Scotland, both from the royal arms. Some of these grants remain; others can with certainty be inferred. Stephen Curzon, who held under the earls of Derby, bore &quot; vair, with a border of 8 popinjays argent,&quot; and Richard, his brother, bore &quot; vair, on a fess 3 horse-shoes.&quot; Hubert, earl of Kent, bore &quot; 7 lozenges vair ; &quot; and Anselm de Guise, on taking under him lands in Berks and Gloucester, assumed the same coat, with the addition of a canton or, charged with a mullet sable. In 1349 Robert Morle granted to Robert de Corby and his heirs the arms &quot; d argent, ove un saltier engraile&quot; de sable,&quot; which he himself had inherited from Baldwin de Manoirs. In 1356-7 William, baron of Greystock, who bore &quot;barry of 6 argent and azure, 3 chaplets gules,&quot; granted to Adam de Blencowe and his heirs for ever &quot; an escutcheon sable with a bend closetted [or barred] argent and azure, with 3 clnplets gules.&quot; In 1391-2 Thomas Grendale granted to William Morgue his heirs and assigns, &quot; argent, on a cross azure 5 garbs or,&quot; which, as cousin and heir, he himself hid inherited from John Beaumeys. Finally, in 1442, Humphrey, earl of Stafford, who bore &quot;or, a chevron gules,&quot; granted to Robert Whitgreaves &quot; un escue d azure, a quatre points d or, quitre chevrons de gules,&quot; to him and his heirs of lineage, in modern terms &quot;azure, a cross fl iarter-pierced or, on each limb a chevron gules.&quot; A coat o: arms was not only heritable, subject to certain heraldic customs, but could be willed or granted away, wholly or in pirt, like chattel property. The crusades, by bringing together soldiers of different nations, tended to produce a certain assimilation in their heraldries, but their influence upon the arms themselves has been exaggerated. The stories as to bearings adopted to commemorate feats of arms in Palestine are mostly inventions. The cross no doubt was a crusading bearing, but it was so because it was the emblem of Christianity, and primarily popular as such. The stars, torteaux, water budgets, and other charges attributed to the crusaders, were of earlier date and of independent origin. There is no evidence that the crosses pat^e of the Berkeleys, or the crosslets of Beauchamp, Clinton, Windsor, and Howard, were added to their simpler bearings in token of services in the Holy Land. The star of De Vere, always attributed to an adventure there, was evidently a mark of cadency, adopted by Robert de Vere, brother of Alberic, 2d earl of Oxford. The fact appears to be that most of the additions to or alterations in the earlier coats of arms were made for some genealogical reason, to commemorate a match with some great family or to distinguish between the several branches from the parent tree. After, usually long after, the period of the crusades, arms were invented for &quot; fabled knights in battles feigned,&quot; and but few of the Saracens heads which figure so formidably in many coats of arms are contemporary with any Saracenic war. The diversion of the tournament did even more than actual war to promote the glories of heraldry. On these occasions the presence of spectators, and especially of ladies, encouraged all sorts of heraldic display. At a tournament at Calais in 1381 Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, one of the most accomplished knights of the reigns of Richard II., Henry IV., and Henry V., suspended on three shields three several coats of arms, as representing three several knights who professed to be ready successively to meet all comers. Three French knights appeared to the challenge. Against the first the earl came forth as the green knight with a black quarter, bearing &quot; silver, a maunch gules,&quot; the arms of De Tony, a maternal ancestor, and so overcame his adversary and retired unknown to his pavilion. On the second day he appeared as the green knight, and bearing &quot; silver, .two bars gules,&quot; the arms of Mauduit of Hanslape, another ancestor, he met a second knight with equal success. On the third day he appeared in his proper person bearing the arms of Guy of Warwick and Beauchamp on his shield, and those of De Tony and Mauduit on his caparisons, and thus with great honour won the third day also. The shield, as the most obvious piece of the defensive armour, was that upon which arms were first displayed. The Norman shield was of wood covered with hide, and clamped and stiffened in a fashion which is thought to have given rise to the first simple bearings. It was 3 to 4 feet long, pointed below, and 18 inches broad. This shield is common on early monumental effigies armed in chain mail, and it is unusual to find it with armorial bearings. It was succeeded by the small triangular heater shield, and that, in the reign of Edward III., by a somewhat larger and full bottomed shield, which by degrees ceased to be used in war, and became more and more an architectural ornament. The arms were also displayed upon the breast-plate, and upon the camise or surcoat that covered the armour, and were repeated upon the housings of horses both before and behind the saddle. When the Comte d Artois fell at Damietta, the Saracens showed 1 * in triumph his &quot; cotte d armes toute cloree et fleur-de-liseV The emperor Henry of Luxembourg is described in the Chronicle of Flanders as bearing &quot; an aigle noir, sur un tornicle d or qui pendoit jusq a mi-jambe.&quot; Sir Alexander Nevile appeared at Halidon Hill in a surcoat of his own arms, the quarters filled up with the arms of his friends. The fine effigy of William de Valence at Westminster is decorated with small escutcheons of his arms on various parts of his dress and weapons. An actual remnant of the richly embroidered surcoa&quot;t of William de Fortibus, earl of Albemarle (died 1261), is still preserved, and has been engraved in the