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These coats were not at first strictly hereditary, or even always permanent. The families of Ferrers, Earls of Derby; of Quincy, Earls of Winchester; Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick; the old Earls of Chester, Essex, and Norfolk, among many others, changed their armorial bearings from father to son. Sir Nicholas Carru, in 1283, seals with a tricorporate lion; but at the siege of Caerlaverock we find him with a

Baniere et jaune bien passable
O trois passans lyons de sable,-

the arms of his illustrious descendant Sir Nicholas, and of the Carews of our own day. In most cases, however, arms became regarded as hereditary during the reign of Henry the Third. The nave of Westminster, completed by that monarch in 1270, was decorated with the arms of forty great barons of the realm, painted in distemper. These paintings are still extant; and the arms are in most cases those used by their descendants.

No sooner had the great barons assumed armour for themselves than they began to grant them to their feudal inferiors. Arms so granted commonly bore some resemblance to those of the granter; and hence certain charges are still found to prevail in particular districts. Thus the chevron of the Clares occurs in Gloucestershire, South Wales, Kent, and Essex; the garb, or wheat-sheaf of its old earls in Cheshire; the cinquefoil of the Bellomonts in the midland counties; the annulet of the Viponts in Westmoreland; the lion all over England, and the tressure in Scotland, both from the royal arms. Thus also William Ferrers, Earl of Derby, bore "vair or and gules," and sometimes "fers de cheval or horse-shoes." phen Curzon, his man tenant, from the time of Henry the First, bore vair with a border of popinjays;" and Richard Curzon, his brother, ancestor of the Scarsdale family, bore also "vair on a fess, three horse-shoes." The four squires who attended Lord Audley at Poictiers, each assumed coats derived from their masters. Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, bore "seven lozenges vair;" and Anselm de Guise, upon obtaining from this earl lands in Berks and Gloucestershire, assumed the same coat with the addition of a canton, as still borne by the family. In the case of Humfrey, Earl of Stafford, and Robert Whitgreaves, the actual grant has been preserved.

The later crusaders not only gave a great impulse to heraldry by the introduction of new and peculiar charges, but from the mixed constitution of the armies, such additions were adopted by soldiers of different nations, and thus a general resemblance sprung up between the heraldic insignia of all Christendom. Many coats of arms are entirely due to this period, and many older coats then received an addition. The chevron of the Berkleys, the bend of the Howards, the chief of the Clintons, the saltire of the Windsors, the

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fess of the Beauchamps, were all originally borne singly, and received the crosses and crosslets with which they are now combined, when their respective owners joined in the crusade. The simple quarter of De Vere received its "star" in the Holy Land; and many of the most illustrious sovereigns in Europe date their armorial bearings from the achievements real or imputed of their ancestors in the East. Thus the Visconti Dukes of Milan bore "a serpent devouring a child;" their ancestors having slain and despoiled Volux, a Saracen giant, who came forth like Goliah to challenge the host, with this emblem upon his helm. It was doubtless a desire to emulate this respectable bearing, that led Barnabas Visconti in 1370 to force the papal legate to eat up an obnoxious bull, with its leaden seals, silken strings, and other indigestible appendages,-a fare almost equal to the "fers de glaive á la moutarde et haubers desmaillies au poivre" mentioned in the lay of the gentle batchelor.

The heraldic gold plate, or Byzant, derives its name from the current coin of Byzantium, which circulated among the troops. The water budget, or bucket, was used by the soldiers in the desert; the stars, suns, and crescents, and the terrific Moor's head couped, were trophies won from the Saracen, together with the pilgrim's gear. my scallop-shell of quiet,

My staff of faith to walk upon,
My scrip of joy-immortal diet-
My bottle of salvation,

My gown of glory, hope's true gage,
And thus I take my pilgrimage.

The staff, the shell, the scrip, and the bottle, and the cross in all its varieties, were charges directly derived from the professions and usages of the earlier crusaders, "who went to the Holy Land, like that good Bishop Hieronymo, that perfect one with the shaven crown, to smite the Saracens for the love of charity, with both hands." It was natural that all the emblems of so ardent a charity should be carefully preserved. De Joinville indeed speaks of some of these "Saracens" who were smitten in a more friendly manner. A Turkish leader, whose name has been converted into "Secedune Facardin,” was knighted by Frederick the Second, and in gratitude combined the imperial arms with the emblems of Aleppo upon his own banSuch a proceeding, however, must be regarded as highly irregular, and one which "that perfect one with the shaven crown" would have regarded as little better than profanity.

ner.

Wager by battle, and the diversion of the tournament, performed before a great number of disengaged critical spectators, called for a greater display than even war itself. Here, as in the field of battle, the knight was only known by his armorial bearing, and hence the use of close or plate armour was followed by the institution of strict heraldic rules.

At a tournament at Calais in 1381, Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, one of the most accomplished knights in the reigns of Richard II. and Henry IV. and V., suspended three shields with three several coats of arms and devices, as representing three distinct knights who professed to be ready to meet all comers.

Three French knights successively appeared to meet the three challengers. Against the first the earl came forth as "the green knight with a black quarter," bearing the arms of "Tooney," his maternal ancestor, "silver a maunch gules," and so encountered and overcame his opponent, and returned unknown to his pavilion.

Against the second knight he appeared with equal success as "the green knight," bearing the arms of "Hanslape," another maternal ancestor," silver two bars gules."

Upon the third day he appeared in his proper person, with the arms of Guy of Warwick and Beauchamp quarterly upon his shield, and those of Tooney and Hanslape upon his caparisons, and thus with great honour he won the third day also. Who can marvel at the old proverb, "As bold as a Beauchamp?"

Tournaments, however, were games at which life was often lost. Raoul Count of Guisnes, Robert of Jerusalem, Earl of Flanders, Geoffrey Earl of Essex, Florence Count of Hainault, and Philip Earl of Bologne and Clarmont, all were thus slain about the beginning of the thirteenth century. The same fate was shared by John Marquess of Brandenberg in 1269, by Henry II. of France, by Louis Count Palatine of the Rhine in 1289, by Crymer de Valence,

the husband of

sad Chatillon, on her bridal morn, That wept her bleeding love;

and by their descendant John, the last Earl of Pembroke of the blood of Hastings and Valence, in 1369. Altogether the names of about a dozen great knights, many of them sovereign princes, are upon record as having been slain at tournaments, which were in consequence severely, though ineffectually, forbidden by the popes.

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; triangular in figure, and from two to three feet long by about eighteen inches broad. A shield of this description, elaborately strengthened with plates of iron and horn, and painted with the arms of England, long hung above the tomb of John of Gaunt, at St. Paul's, and the remains of one are still shown at Westminster. The later shield, so frequently seen as an ornament in the buildings of Henry VII. and VIII., has a notch in the side for the lance, and is thence called "l'escu chancré;" it is usually charged with arms. So long as shields were carried in war, their figure was regulated by the safety they afforded; but in later times,

when the shield became useful only for the display of the armorial bearings, its figure depended, as it now does, upon caprice. The lozenge-shaped shield upon which the arms of maids and widows are still represented, was probably never actually constructed. As early as 1347, Maud, Countess of Ulster, uses a seal upon which her own arms appear upon a lozenge, and in the seal of her niece Maud, Lady Wade, similar lozenges appear as subordinate to the central shield. The seal of Joan, Countess Dowager of Juney, and granddaughter of Edward III., though a later, is a better marked example.

Armorial bearings were also painted and enamelled upon household goods and personal chattels, as well as upon swords and other offensive weapons. The sword of the Earls of Chester is a curious example of this description of ornament, and one of the brass effigies at Cirencester exhibits arms upon the sword chapé. The citizens of London were bound to provide the Barons Fitzwalter, their banner bearers, with " a saddle with his arms," and the seal of one of this family, about the year 1300, shows the arms upon the back or rest of his war-saddle. Various bequests of plate and furniture with arms occur in the fourteenth century. In 1380, Edward Mortimer devises "á notre tres-chier friere John Gilbert, Evesque de Hereford, une plate de argent pour espices et enamaillez ove les armes de Mortimer en la fonce (fonds), and such bequests were common. Arms were also early displayed upon the guidons and banners of temporal knights and barons, but ecclesiastics commonly used either a plain banner or one adorned with a figure of their patron saint. Thus the great banner or Oriflamme, borne by the kings of France, who, as Counts of Vescin and Pontoise, were vassals of the Abbey of St. Denis, and signifieri ecclesiæ, was a square red banner, fringed, and suspended by a cross-staff, or yard. The banner of London was blazoned with a figure of St. Paul; that of Bury Abbey with one of St. Edmund.

In the days of mail armour a camise or linen tunic was worn over the mail, and was commonly embroidered with arms. When the Comte d'Artois was slain under St. Louis, by the Turks, they elevated as a trophy his "Cotte d'Armes toute doree et fleur de lisèe." Froissart also describes Sir John Chandos, and the Emperor Henry of Luxemberg, as wearing "coats of arms" of this description. Leopold the Virtuous, Duke of Austria, in 1193, came out of the press at Acre covered with blood, and upon removing the belt off, the part of the camise beneath it was the only part which retained its white colour; hence, we are told, the arms of the house of Austria "gules a fess argent." An actual remnant of the richly embroidered camise of Wm. de Fortibus, Earl of Albemarle, who died in 1261, is still preserved, and has been engraved in the Archæologia, and the surcoat of the Black Prince, bearing the arms

of England, still hangs over his tomb at Canterbury. Sir Alexander Neville appeared at Halidon Hill in a surcoat of his own arms, the quarters being filled up with the arms of his friends; and the effigy of Wm. de Valence, in Westminster Abbey, is decorated with small escutcheons of his arms upon various parts of his dress and weapons. It was against the embroidery of the camise that the severe sumptuary laws of Richard and Philip Augustus were directed. As mail gave way to plate, the camise became gradually shorter, and finally assumed its appearance as we now see it in the tabard or official costume of the heralds, giving them very much the air of a hog in

armour.

The importance formerly attached to armorial bearings is strongly shown in the uses to which they were applied. A sovereign who wished to assert his claim to a kingdom, placed its arms upon his shield. Edward of England thus assumed the lilies of France; and the kings of Spain and Naples thus assert their claim to the throne of Jerusalem. In like manner Savoy assumes the arms of Cyprus, and Denmark those of Sweden. In 1479, when Alphonso of Portugal resigned his claim to the kingdom of Castile, he was also required to lay aside its armorial ensigns. Arms were also considered as a valuable consideration. Thus among the more solid bribes which Louis the Eleventh bestowed upon Edward's followers, occurs a grant of "three fleur-de-lys" to a knight of the Croker family. The armorial bearings of the great English barons were treated with as much respect as the barons themselves; and the same bard who tells

In deeds of arms how Audley did excel,
How bravely Basset did behave him there:

How Oxford charged the front, Warwick the rear ;

has not neglected

The sum of Stafford's guly shield to show,
What colours Ross and Courtney did unfold;
Great Warren's blazon-

The eagles, lions, Talbot bears,

The badges of our famous ancestries.

When Pope Innocent wished to do honour to Reginald Mohun, he presented him with a consecrated rose, in memory of which honour the family added to their paternal coat of "the maunch," a hand grasping a flower. The dagger in the arms of London, is generally supposed to have been given in honour of the service of Sir William Walworth.

Richard II. was fond of this description of reward; but it was not confined to his day or country. Thus when Juan de Urbieta took Francis of France prisoner at the Ticino, he was rewarded by a grant from the emperor of "en campoverde, primero, un medio cavallo VOL. II. (1843) No. I.

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