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THE
CURIOSITIES OF HERALDRY.
WITH
Illustrations from Old English Writers.
BY
MARK ANTONY LOWER,
AUTHOR OF "ENGLISH SURNAMES," ETC.
WITH NUMEROUS WOOD ENGRAVINGS,
From Designs by the Author.
LONDON:
JOHN RUSSELL SMITH,
4, OLD COMPTON STREET, SOHO.
MDCCCXLV.
C. AND J. ADLARD, PRINTERS, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.
PREFACE.
[Illustration]
Little need be said to the lover of antiquity in commendation of the
subject of this volume; and I take it for granted that every one who reads
the history of the Middle Ages in a right spirit will readily acknowledge
that Heraldry, as a system, is by no means so contemptible a thing as the
mere utilitarian considers it to be. Yet, notwithstanding, how few are
there who have even a partial acquaintance with its principles. To how
many, even of those who find pleasure in archaeological pursuits, does the
charge apply:
"--_neque enim clypei caelamina norit_."
Two hundred years ago, when the study of armory was much more cultivated
than at present, this general ignorance of our 'noble science' called
forth the censure of its admirers. Master Ri. Brathwait, lamenting it,
says of some of his contemporaries:
"They weare theire grandsire's signet on their thumb,
Yet aske them whence their crest is, they are _mum_;"
and adds:
"Who weare gay _coats_, but can no _coat_ deblaze,
Display'd for _gulls_, may bear _gules_ in their face!"[1]
This invective is perhaps a little too severe, yet it is mildness itself
when compared with that of Ranulphus Holme, son of the author of the
'Academy of Armory,' who declares that unless the reader assents to what
is contained in his father's book he is
"neither Art's nor Learning's friend,
But an ignorant, empty, brainless sot,
Whose chiefest study is the _can_ and _pot_!"
Now, though I would by no means place the objector to Heraldry upon the
same bench with the devotee of Bacchus, nor even upon the stool of the
dunce, yet I hope to make it appear that the study is worthy of more
attention than is generally conceded to it.[2] At the same time I wish it
to be distinctly understood that I do not over-rate its importance. "The
benefit arising from different pursuits will differ, of course, in
degree, but nothing that exercises the intellect can be useless, and in
this spirit it may be possible to study even conchology without
degradation."
Many persons regard arms as nothing more than a set of uncouth and
unintelligible emblems by which families are distinguished from one
another; the language by which they are described as an antiquated
"jargon;" and both as little worthy of an hour's examination as astrology,
alchemy or palmistry. This is a mistake; and such individuals are guilty,
however unintentionally, of a great injustice to a lordly, poetical, and
useful science.
That Heraldry is a _lordly_ science none will deny; that it is also a
_poetical_ science I shall shortly attempt to prove; but there are some
sour spirits who know not how to dissever the idea of lordliness from that
of tyranny, and who "thank the gods for not having made them poetical."
These, therefore, will be no recommendations of our subject to _such_
readers; but should I be able to show that it is a _useful_ science, what
objections can those cavillers then raise?
I purpose to give a short dissertation on the utility of Heraldry, but
first let me say a few words on the _poetry_ of the subject. Do not the
'Lion of England,' the 'Red-Cross Banner,' the 'White and Red Roses,' the
'Shamrock of Ireland,' and 'Scotia's barbed Thistle' occupy a place in the
breast of every patriot? and what are they but highly poetical
expressions? Do not the poetry of Chaucer and Spenser and Shakspeare, not
to mention our old heroic ballads and the pleasant legends of a Scott,
abound with heraldrical allusions? Tasso is minute, though inaccurate, in
the description of the banners of his Christian heroes; he was far from
despising blazon as a poetical accessory. And, lastly, see how nobly the
stately Drayton makes the 'jargon' of Heraldry chime in with his glorious
numbers:
"Upon his surcoat valiant _Neville_ bore
A SILVER SALTIRE upon martial red;
A LADIE'S SLEEVE high-spirited _Hastings_ wore;
_Ferrers_ his tabard with rich VAIRY spred,
Well known in many a warlike match before;
A RAVEN sate on _Corbet's_ armed head;
And _Culpeper_ in SILVER ARMS enrailed
Bore thereupon a BLOODIE BEND ENGRAILED;
The noble _Percie_ in that dreadful day
With a BRIGHT CRESCENT in his guidhomme came;
In his WHITE CORNET _Verdon_ doth display
A FRET OF GULES," &c.
_Barons' War_, B. 1, 22, 23.
I now proceed to show that Heraldry is a _useful_ science. It has already
been said that nothing which calls into exercise the intellectual powers
can be useless. But it may be said that there is an abundance of studies
calculated more profitably to exercise them. Granted: but it should be
remembered that, as there is a great diversity of tastes, so there is a
great disparity in the mental capacities of mankind. Heraldry may
therefore be recommended as a study to those who are not qualified to
grasp more profound subjects, and as a source of amusement to those who
wish to relieve their minds in the intervals of graver and more important
pursuits. To either class a very brief study will give an insight into the
theory of heraldry, and a competent knowledge of the terms it employs.
The nomenclature of Heraldry is somewhat repulsive to those who casually
look into a treatise on the subject, and often deters even the
unprejudiced from entering upon the study; but what science is there that
is not in a greater or less degree liable to the same objection?
A recent writer observes: "The language of Heraldry is occasionally
barbarous in sound and appearance, but it is always peculiarly expressive;
and a practice which involves habitual conciseness and precision in their
utmost attainable degree, and in which tautology is viewed as fatally
detrimental, may insensibly benefit the student on other more important
occasions."[3]
But Heraldry is useful on higher grounds than these, and particularly as
an aid to the right understanding of that important period of the history
of Christendom, the reign of feudalism. An eminent French writer, Victor
Hugo, declares that "for him who can decipher it, Heraldry is an
_algebra_, _a language_. The whole history of the second half of the
middle ages is written in blazon, as that of the preceding period is in
the symbolism of the Roman church." To the student of history, then,
Heraldry is far from useless.
The sculptured stone or the emblazoned shield often speaks when the
written records of history are silent. A grotesque carving of coat or
badge in the spandrel of some old church-door, or over the portal of a
decayed mansion, often points out the stock of the otherwise forgotten
patron or lord. "A dim-looking pane in an oriel window, or a discoloured
coat in the dexter corner of an old Holbein may give not only the name of
the benefactor or the portrait, but also identify him personally by
showing his relation to the head of the house, his connexions and
alliances."[4] The antiquary and the local historian, then, possess in
Heraldry a valuable key to many a secret of other times.
To the genealogist a knowledge of Heraldry is indispensable. Coats of arms
in church windows, on the walls, upon tombs, and especially on seals, are
documents of great value. Many persons of the same name can now only be
classed with their proper families by an inspection of the arms they bore.
In Wales, where the number of surnames is very limited, families are much
better recognized by their arms than by their names.[5]
The painter, in representing the gaudy scenes of the courts and camps of
other days, can by no means dispense with a knowledge of our science; and
the architect who should attempt to raise some stately Gothic fane,
omitting the well-carved shield, the heraldric corbel, and the blazoned
grandeur of
"rich windows that exclude the light,"
would inevitably fail to impart to his work one of the greatest charms
possessed by that noblest of all styles of building, and produce a meagre,
soulless, abortion! Heraldry is, then, in the eyes of every man of any
pretensions to taste, a useful, because an indispensable, science.
Now for an argument far stronger than all: Heraldry has been known to
further the ends of _justice_. "I know three families," says Garter
Bigland, "who have acquired estates by virtue of preserving the arms and
escutcheons of their ancestors." I repeat, therefore, without the fear of
contradiction, that Heraldry is a _useful_ science. Q. E. D.
* * * * *
With respect to the sheets now submitted to the reader a few observations
may be necessary. In the first place, I wish it to be understood that I
have avoided, as much as possible, the technicalities of blazon: it was
not my wish to supersede (even had I been competent to do so) the various
excellent treatises on the subject already extant. The sole motive I
entertained in writing this volume was a desire to render the science of
Heraldry more intelligible to the general reader, and to present it in
aspects more interesting and attractive than those writers can possibly
do who treat of blazon merely as an art, and to make him acquainted with
its origin and progress by means of brief historical and biographical
sketches, and by inquiries into the derivation and meaning of armorial
figures. In such an antient and well-explored field there has been but
little scope for original discovery; but if I have succeeded in
concentrating, and placing in a somewhat new light, old and well-known
truths, my labour has not been lost, and my wish to render popular a
too-much neglected study has been in some measure realized.
The references at the foot of nearly every page render acknowledgments to
the authors whose works I have consulted almost unnecessary. It is,
however, but justice to confess my obligations to Dallaway and Montagu for
the general subject, to Noble for the notices of the heralds, and to Moule
for the bibliography. For the illustrations and extracts I am principally
indebted to the Boke of St. Albans, Leigh, Bossewell, Ferne, Guillim,
Morgan, Randle Holme, and nearly all the writers of the antient school;
whose works are rarely met with in an ordinary course of reading. From all
these, both antient and modern, it has been my aim to select such points
as appeared likely to interest both those who have some acquaintance with
the subject and those who are confessedly ignorant of it.
Besides the authors of acknowledged reputation named above, I have
consulted many others of comparatively little importance and value,
convinced with Pliny, "nullum esse librum tam malum ut non aliqua parte
posset prodesse." Should a small proportion only of the reading public
peruse my 'Curiosities of Heraldry' on the same principle, I shall not
want readers!
My thanks are due to William Courthope, Esq. Rouge-Croix pursuivant of
arms, for several obliging communications from the records of the Heralds'
Office, as well as for the great courtesy and promptitude with which he
has invariably attended to every request I have had occasion to make
during the progress of the work.
For the notice of the interesting relic discovered at Lewes (Appendix E),
I am indebted to the kindness of W. H. Blaauw, Esq., M.A., author of the
'Barons' War,' some remarks from whom on the subject were read at the late
meeting of the Archaeological Association at Canterbury, where the relic
itself was exhibited.
The reader is requested to view the simple designs which illustrate these
pages with all the candour with which an amateur draughtsman is usually
indulged. Every fault they exhibit belongs only to myself, not to Mr.
Vasey, the engraver, who, unlike Sir John Ferne's artist,[6] must be
acknowledged to have "done _his_ duety" in a very creditable manner.
It is not unlikely that I may be called upon to justify the orthography of
several words of frequent occurrence in this work. I will therefore
anticipate criticism by a remark or two, premising that I am too
thoroughly imbued with the spirit of antiquarianism to make innovations
without good and sufficient reason. The words to which I allude are
_antient_, _lyon_, _escocheon_, and, particularly, _heraldric_. The first
three cannot be regarded as innovations, as they were in use centuries
ago. For 'an_t_ient,' apology is scarcely necessary, as many standard
writers have used it; and it must be admitted to be quite as much like the
low Latin _antianus_ as _ancient_ is. 'Lyon' looks _picturesque_, and
seems to be in better keeping with the form in which the monarch of the
forest is pourtrayed in heraldry than the modern spelling: an antiquarian
predilection is all that I can urge in its defence. I would never employ
it except in heraldry. 'Escocheon' is used by many modern writers on
heraldry in preference to _escutcheon_, not only as a more elegant
orthography, but as a closer approximation to the French _ecusson_, from
which it is derived.
For 'HERALDRIC' more lengthened arguments may be deemed necessary, as I am
not aware that it occurs in any English dictionary. This adjective is
_almost_ invariably spelt without the R--heraldic; and that orthography,
though sometimes correct, is still oftener false. I contend that two
spellings are necessary, because _two totally different words_ are
required in different senses,--to wit,
I. Heraldic, belonging to a herald; and
II. Heraldric, belonging to heraldry.
I will illustrate the distinction by an example or two.
(I) "The office of Garter is the 'ne plus ultra' of _heraldic_ ambition,"
i. e., it is the height of the herald's ambition ultimately to arrive at
that honour. The word here has no relation whatever to proficiency in the
science of coat-armour or heraldry, since it is possible that a herald or
pursuivant may entertain the desire of gaining the post, _causa honoris_,
without any particular predilection for the study. Again,
"Queen Elizabeth was a staunch defender of _heraldic_ prerogatives;" in
other words, she defended the rights and privileges of her _officers_ of
arms; not the prerogatives of _coats_ of arms, for to what prerogatives
can painted ensigns lay claim?
(II) "A. B. is engaged in _heraldric_ pursuits;" that is, in the study of
armorial bearings; not in the pursuits of a herald, which consist in the
proclamation of peace or war, the attendance on state ceremonials, the
_granting_ of arms, &c. To say that A. B., who has no official connexion
with the College of Arms, is a herald, would be an obvious misnomer,
although he may be quite equal in _heraldrical_ skill to any gentleman of
the tabard.
"The so-called arms of the town of Guildford have nothing _heraldric_
about them," that is, they are not framed in accordance with the laws of
blazon. To say that they are not _heraldic_, would be to say that they do
not declare war, attend coronations, wear a tabard, or perform any of the
functions of a herald--a gross absurdity.
A literary friend, who objects to my reasoning, thinks that the _one
word_, _heraldic_, answers every purpose for both applications. That it
has done so, heretofore, is not certainly a reason why it should after the
distinction has been pointed out. Besides, my doctrine is not unsupported
by analogy. We have a case precisely parallel in the words _monarchal_ and
_monarchical_; and he who would charge me with innovation must, to be
consistent with himself, expunge _monarchical_ from his dictionary as a
useless word.
LEWES; DEC. 1844.
Contents.
CHAP. PAGE
I. THE FABULOUS HISTORY OF HERALDRY 1
II. THE AUTHENTIC HISTORY OF HERALDRY 15
III. RATIONALE OF THE FIGURES EMPLOYED IN HERALDRY 49
IV. THE CHIMERICAL FIGURES OF HERALDRY 89
V. THE LANGUAGE OF ARMS 105
VI. ALLUSIVE ARMS--ARMES PARLANTES 119
VII. CRESTS, SUPPORTERS, BADGES, etc. 133
VIII. HERALDRIC MOTTOES 151
IX. HISTORICAL ARMS--AUGMENTATIONS 161
X. DISTINCTIONS OF RANK AND HONOUR 197
XI. HISTORICAL NOTICES OF THE COLLEGE OF ARMS 219
XII. BRIEF NOTICES OF DISTINGUISHED HERALDS AND HERALDRIC
WRITERS, WITH QUOTATIONS FROM THEIR WORKS 245
XIII. GENEALOGY 281
Appendix.
A. ON DIFFERENCES IN ARMS, NOW FIRST PRINTED FROM A MS. BY
SIR EDWARD DERING, BART. 297
B. THE ANTIENT PRACTICE OF BORROWING ARMORIAL ENSIGNS
ILLUSTRATED FROM THE ARMS OF CORNISH FAMILIES 309
C. ABATEMENTS 313
D. GRANT OF ARMS TEMP. EDW. III. 315
E. NOTICE OF AN ANTIENT STEELYARD WEIGHT DISCOVERED AT LEWES 317
ERRATA.
Page 15, line 6, _for_ pays? _read_ pays!
20, -- 15, for _preterea_ read _praeterea_.
The distinction between the _supports_ and _tenans_ of French heraldry
made at page 144 is erroneous. The true distinction is that human figures
and angels, when employed to support the shield, are called _tenans_,
while quadrupeds, fishes, or birds engaged in the same duty are styled
_supports_.
THE CURIOSITIES OF HERALDRY.
CHAPTER I.
Fabulous History of Heraldry.
[Illustration]
"You had a maister that hath fetched the beginning of Gentry from
Adam, and of Knighthood from Olybion."
_Ferne's Blazon of Gentrie._
"Gardons nous de meler le douteux an certain, et le chimerique avec le
vrai."
_Voltaire, Essai sur les Moeurs._
Antiquity has, in a greater or less degree, charms for all; and it is
supposed to stamp such a value on things as nothing else can confer. This
feeling, unexceptionable in itself, is liable to great abuse; especially
in relation to historical matters. In States and in Families, Antiquity
implies greatness, strength, and those other attributes which command
veneration and respect. Hence the first historians of nations have
uniformly endeavoured to carry up their annals to periods far beyond the
limits of probability, thus rendering the earlier portions of their works
a tissue of absurdity deduced from the misty regions of tradition,
conjecture, and song.[7]
This reverence for antiquity has extended itself to genealogists, and to
those who have recorded the history of sciences and inventions. Thus has
it been with the earliest writers on =Heraldry=, a system totally unknown
till within the last thousand years; but which in the fancies of its
zealous admirers has been presumed to have existed, not merely in the
first ages of the world, but at a period
"Ere Nature was, or Adam's dust
Was fashioned to a man!"
We are gravely assured by a writer of the fifteenth century that heraldric
ensigns were primarily borne by the 'hierarchy of the skies,' "_At
hevyn_," says the author of the Boke of St. Albans, "_I will begin_; where
were V orderis of aungelis, and now stand but IV, in _cote armoris_ of
knawlege, encrowned ful hye with precious stones, where Lucifer with
mylionys of aungelis, owt of hevyn fell into hell and odyr places, and
ben holdyn ther in bondage; and all [the remaining angels] were erected in
hevyn of gentill nature!"
Thus, in one short sentence, the origin both of nobility and of its
external symbols is summarily disposed of. When _proofs_ are not to be
adduced, how can we regret that it is no longer?
But to descend a little lower, let us quote again the poetical language of
this indisputable authority: "Adam, the begynnyng of mankind, was as a
stocke unsprayed and unfloreshed,"--having neither boughs nor leaves--"and
in the braunches is knowledge wich is rotun and wich is grene;" that is,
if I rightly understand it, (for poetry is not always quite intelligible,)
both the gentle and the ungentle, the earl and the churl, are descended
from one progenitor; _omnes communem parentem habent_; a truth which, it
is presumed, will not be called in question.
The _gentility_ of the great ancestor of our race is stoutly contended
for, and, that his claim to that distinction might not want support,
Morgan, an enthusiastic armorist of the seventeenth century, has assigned
him _two coats of arms_; one as borne in Eden--when he neither used nor
needed either _coat_ for covering or _arms_ for defence--and another
suited to his condition after the fall. The first was a plain red shield,
described in the language of modern heraldry as 'gules,' while the arms of
Eve, a shield of white, or 'argent,' were borne upon it as an 'escocheon
of pretence,' she being _an heiress_! The arms of Abel were, as a matter
of course, those of his father and mother borne 'quarterly,' and ensigned
with a crosier, like that of a bishop, to show that he was a
'shepheard'[8]
Sir John Ferne, a man of real erudition, was so far carried away by
extravagant notions of the great antiquity of heraldric insignia, as
seriously to deduce the use of furs in heraldry from the 'coats of skins'
which the Creator made for Adam and Eve after their transgression. This,
independently of its absurdity, is an unfortunate idea; for coats of arms
are as certainly marks of honour as these were badges of disgrace; and as
Morgan says, 'innocens was Adam's best gentility.'[9] The second coat of
Adam, says this writer, was '_paly tranche_, divided every way and
tinctured of every colour.' Cain, also, after _his_ fall, changed his
armorials "by ingrailing and _indented_ lines--to show, as the preacher
saith, There is a generation whose _teeth_ are as swords, and their
jaw-_teeth_ as knives to devour the poor from the earth." He was the
first, it is added, who desired to have his arms changed--'So God set a
mark upon him!'[10]
This ante-diluvian heraldry is expatiated upon by our author in a manner
far too prolix for us to follow him through all his grave statements and
learned proofs. I shall therefore only observe, _en passant_, that arms
are assigned to the following personages, viz.: Jabal, the inventor of
tents, _Vert, a tent argent_, (a white tent in a green field!) Jubal, the
primeval musician, _Azure, a harp, or, on a chief argent three rests
gules_;[11] Tubal-Cain, _Sable, a hammer argent, crowned or_, and Naamah,
his sister, the inventress of weaving, _In a lozenge gules, a carding-comb
argent_.
Noah, according to the Boke of St. Albans, "came a _gentilman_ by kynde
... and had iij sonnys begetyn by kinde ... yet in theys iij sonnys
gentilness and ungentilnes was fownde." The sin of Ham degraded him to the
condition of a churl; and upon the partition of the world between the
three brethren Noah pronounced a malediction against him. "Wycked
kaytiff," says he, "I give to thee the north parte of the worlde to draw
thyne habitacion, for ther schall it be, where sorow and care, cold and
myschef, as a churle thou shalt live in the thirde parte of the worlde
wich shall be calde Europe, that is to say, _the contre of churlys_!"
"Japeth," he continues, "cum heder my sonne, thou shalt have my blessing
dere.... I make the a gentilman of the west parte of the world and of
Asia, that is to say, _the contre of gentilmen_." He then in like manner
creates Sem a gentleman, and gives him Africa, or "_the contre of
tempurnes_."[12]
"Of the offspryng of the gentleman Japheth come Habraham, Moyses, Aron,
and the profettys, and also the kyng of the right lyne of Mary, of whom
that gentilman Jhesus ... kyng of the londe of Jude and of Jues, gentilman
by his modre Mary prynce[ss] of cote-armure!"... "Jafet made the first
target and therin he made a ball in token of all the worlde."
Morgan's researches do not seem to have furnished him with the arms of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but those of the twelve patriarchs are given by
him and others. Joseph's "coat of many colours," Morgan, by a strange
oversight, makes to consist of two tinctures only, viz. black, chequered
with white--in the language of heraldry, _chequy sable and argent_,--to
denote the lights and shadows of his history.
The pathetic predictions and benedictions pronounced by the dying
patriarch Jacob to his sons, furnished our old writers with one of their
best pretences for giving coat-armour to persons in those remote ages. The
standards ordered to be set up around the Israelitish camp in the
desert[13] are likewise adduced in support of the notion that regular
heraldry was then known. The arms of the twelve tribes are given by Morgan
in the following hobbling verses:[14]
"Judah bare Gules, a lion[15] couchant or;
Zebulon's black Ship's[16] like to a man of war;
Issachar's asse[17] between two burthens girt;
As Dan's[18] sly snake lies in a field of vert;
Asher with _Azure_ a Cup[19] of gold sustains;
And Nephtali's Hind[20] trips o'er the flow'ry plains;
Ephraim's strong Ox lyes with the couchant Hart;
Manasseh's Tree its branches doth impart;
Benjamin's Wolfe in the field gules resides;
Reuben's field argent and blew bars wav'd glides;
Simeon doth beare his Sword; and in that manner
Gad, having pitched his Tent, sets up his Banner."
The same authority gives as the arms of Moses a _cross_, because he
preferred "taking up the cross," and suffering the lot of his brethren to
a life of pleasure and dignity in the court of Pharaoh. The 'parfight
armory of Duke Joshua,' given by Leigh, is _Partie bendy sinister, or and
gules, a backe displayed sable_. The arms of Gideon were _Sable, a fleece
argent, a chief azure gutte d'eau_,[21] evidently a 'composition' from the
miracle recorded in the Book of Judges. To Samson is ascribed, _Gules, a
lion couchant or, within an orle argent, semee of bees sable_, an equally
evident allusion to a passage in the bearer's history. David, as a matter
of course, bore _a golden harp in a field azure_.[22]
But it is not alone to the worthies of sacred history that these
honourable insignia are ascribed--the heroes of classical story, too, had
their 'atchievements,' Hector of Troy, for example, bore, _Sable, ij lyons
combatand or_.[23] Here again our great authority, Dame Julyan
Berners,[24] may be cited. "Two thousand yere and xxiiij," says she,
"before thyncarnation of Christe, =Cote-Armure= was made and figurid at
the sege of Troye, where in gestis troianorum it tellith that the first
begynnyng of the lawe of armys was; the which was effygured and begunne
before any lawe in the world bot the lawe of nature, and before the X
commaundementis of God."
I have been favoured with the following curious extract from a MS. at the
College of Arms,[25] which also refers the origin of arms to the siege of
Troy. I believe it has never been printed.
"=What Armes be, and where they were firste invented.= As kinges of Armes
record, the begynynge of armes was fyrste founded at the great sege of
Troye w{th}in the Cytie and w{th}out, for the doughtines of deades don on
bothe partyes and for so mouche as thier were soo many valliaunt knights
on bothe sydes w{ch} did soo great acts of Armes, and none of them myght
be knowen from other, the great Lords on both p'ties by thier dyscreate
advice assembled together and accorded that every man that did a great
acte of armes shoulde bere upon him a marke in token of his doutye deades,
that the pepoell myght have the bet{r} knowledge of him, and if it were
soo that suche a man had any chylderen, it was ordeyned that they should
also bere the same marke that their father did w{th} dyvers differences,
that ys to saye, Theldeste as his father did w{th} a labell, the secounde
w{th} a cressente, the third w{th} a molett, the fourth a marlet, the
v{th} an annellet, the vj{th} a flewer delisse. And if there be anye more
than sixe the rest to bere suche differences as lyketh the herauld to geve
them. And when the said seige was ended y{e} lordes went fourth into
dyvers landes to seke there adventures, and into England came Brute and
[his] knights w{th} there markes and inhabited the land; and after,
because the name of MERKES was rewde, they terned the same into ARMES, for
as mouche _as that name was far fayerer_, and becausse that markes were
gotten through myght of armes of men."
The humour of Alexander the Great must have been somewhat of the
quaintest when he assumed the arms ascribed to him by Master Gerard Leigh,
to wit, _Gules a_ GOLDEN LYON SITTING IN A CHAYER and holding _a
battayle-axe of silver_.[26] The 'atchievement' of Caesar was, if we may
trust the same learned armorist, _Or, an eagle displayed with two heads
sable_.[27]
Arms are also assigned to King Arthur, Charlemagne, Sir Guy of Warwick,
and other heroes, who, though belonging to much more recent periods, still
flourished long before the existence of the heraldric system, and never
dreamed of such honours.
That these pretended armorials were the mere figments of the writers who
record them, no one doubts. In these ingenious falsehoods we recognize a
principle similar to that which produced the 'pious frauds' of
enthusiastic churchmen, and to that which led self-duped alchemists to
deceive others. In their zeal for the antiquity of arms--a zeal of so
glowing a character that no one who has not read their works can estimate
it--they imagined that they must have existed from the beginning of the
world. Then, throwing the reins upon the neck of their fancy, they
ascribed to almost every celebrated personage of the earliest ages, the
ensigns they deemed the most appropriate to his character and pursuits.
The feeling inducing such a procedure originated in a mistake as to the
antiquity of chivalry, of which heraldry was part and parcel. Feelings
unknown before the existence of this institution are attributed to the
heroes of antiquity. '_Duke_ Joshua' is presumed to have been only another
Duke William of Normandy, influenced in war by similar motives and
surrounded by the same social circumstances in time of peace. Chaucer
talks of classical heroes as if they were knights of some modern order;
and Lydgate, in his =Troy Boke= invests the heroes of the Iliad with the
costume of his own times, carrying emblazoned shields and fighting under
feudal banners:
"=And to behold in the knights shields
The fell beastes.
"Where that he saw,
In the shields hanging on the hookes,
The beasts rage.
"The which beastes as the storie leres
Were wrought and bete upon their banners
Displaied brode, when they schould fight.="[28]
The fabulous history of the science might be fairly deduced to the
eleventh century, as the Saxon monarchs up to that date are all
represented to have borne arms. Yet as there are not wanting, even in our
day, those who admit the authenticity of those bearings, their claims will
be briefly referred to in the next chapter.
In justice to the credulous and inventive armorists of the 'olden tyme,'
the reader should be reminded that warriors did, in very antient times,
bear various figures upon their shields. These seem in general to have
been engraved in, rather than painted upon, the metal of which the shield
was composed. The French word _escu_ and _escussion_, the Italian _scudo_,
and the English _escocheon_, are evident derivations from the Latin
_scutum_, and the equivalent word _clypeus_ is derived from the Greek verb
[Greek: gluphein], TO ENGRAVE. But those sculptured devices were regarded
as the peculiar ensigns of one individual, who could change them at
pleasure, and did not descend hereditarily like the modern coat of arms.
A few references to the shields here alluded to may not be unacceptable.
Homer describes the shield of Agamemnon as being ornamented with the
Gorgon, his peculiar badge; and Virgil says of Aventinus,[29] the son of
Hercules--
"Post hos insignem palma per gramina currum,
Victoresque ostentat equos, satus Hercule pulchro
Pulcher Aventinus: clypeoque, _insigne paternum_,
Centum angues, cinctamq: gerit serpentibus _hydram_."
_AEneid._ vii, 655.
"Next Aventinus drives his chariot round
The Latian plains, with palms and laurels crowned;
Proud of his steeds he smokes along the field,
His father's _hydra_ fills his ample shield."
_Dryden_, vii, 908.
The Greek dramatists describe the symbols and war-cries placed upon their
shields by the seven chiefs, in their expedition against the city of
Thebes. As an example, Capaneus is represented as bearing the figure of a
giant with a blazing torch, and the motto, "_I will fire the city_!" Such
ensigns seem to have been the peculiar property of the valiant and
well-born, and so far they certainly resembled modern heraldry. Virgil,
speaking of Helenus, whose mother had been a slave, says,
"Slight were his arms--a sword and silver shield;
No _marks of honour_ charged its empty field."[30]
Several of our more recent writers, while they disclaim all belief of the
existence of armorial bearings in earlier times, still think they find
traces of these distinctions in the days of the Roman commonwealth. The
family of the Corvini are particularly cited as having hereditarily borne
a raven as their crest; but this device was, as Nisbet has shown,[31]
merely an ornament bearing allusion to the apocryphal story of an early
ancestor of that race having been assisted in combat by a bird of this
species. The _jus imaginum_ of the Romans is also adduced. In every
condition of civilized society distinctions of rank and honour are
recognized. Thus the Romans had their three classes distinguished as
_nobiles_, _novi_, and _ignobiles_. Those whose ancestors had held high
offices in the state, as Censor, Praetor, or Consul, were accounted
nobiles, and were entitled to have statues of their progenitors executed
in wood, metal, stone, or wax, and adorned with the insignia of their
several offices, and the trophies they had earned in war. These they
usually kept in presses or cabinets, and on occasions of ceremony and
solemnity exhibited before the entrances of their houses. He who had a
right to exhibit his own effigy only, was styled _novus_, and occupied the
same position with regard to the many-imaged line as the upstart of our
own times, who bedecks his newly-started equipage with an equally new coat
of arms, does to the head of an antient house with a shield of forty
quarterings. The ignobiles were not permitted to use any image, and
therefore stood upon an equality with modern plebeians, who bear no arms
but the two assigned them by the heraldry of nature.
The patricians of our day to a certain extent carry out the _jus imaginum_
of antiquity, only substituting painted canvas for sculptured marble or
modelled wax; and there is no sight better calculated to inspire respect
for dignity of station than the gallery of some antient hall hung with a
long series of family portraits; in which, as in a kind of physiognomical
pedigree, the speculative mind may also find matter of agreeable
contemplation. The _jus imaginum_ doubtless originated in the same class
of feelings that gave birth to heraldry, but there is no further connexion
or analogy between the two. It is to hereditary shields and hereditary
banners we must limit the true meaning of heraldry, and all attempts to
find these in the classical era will end in a disappointment as inevitable
as that which accompanies the endeavour to gather "grapes of thorns or
figs of thistles."
[Illustration]