Before entering upon our subject during this period, it is necessary to
consider the great changes, social and legal, which passed over England
from say 1450 to the end of the reign of Henry VIII.
Events for thirty years before the accession of Henry VII. (1485)
had been gradually reducing the power of the nobility. Enactments
had been passed which facilitated the transfer of lands; and the
disastrous wars of the Roses, in which the blood of the nobility
flowed like water, brought also the dispersion of a large portion of
their estates, and the consequence was that when Henry VII. began his
reign, and the conflicts between the rival Houses of York and Lancaster
were completely hushed [say 1485], he found himself in possession of
the sole power. The great nobles who had hampered the actions of his
predecessors had disappeared from the scene. At his first Parliament
Henry VII. only summoned twenty-eight peers; and so gradually did this
class recover itself that we find at the first Parliament of Henry
VIII. only thirty-eight peers were summoned to attend.
We can thus understand how those seals of exceeding size and
magnificence, which we found prevailing during the middle and third
quarter of the fifteenth century, entirely disappear. The greater
nobility, as an assertion of their dignity and importance, had then
attached to their charters seals of great pretensions, and gradually
increasing in size until, as Sandford [_Genealogical History_, p.
108] remarks of those of the Dukes of Lancaster, they rivalled or
even exceeded in size what were used by the crown itself. Had their
embarrassed affairs allowed them to enter again into mutual rivalry,
the stern government of Henry VII. would have regarded such an
assumption of dignity as treason to the throne, and therefore we can
fix the date 1485 for the disappearance of such large and splendid
seals. Only occasionally do they continue to appear, and within the
limit of ten years after this time.
The landed gentry, the descendants in many instances of a much earlier
feudal aristocracy, had suffered almost as much from the rivalries and
conflicts which had devastated the country. They, too, laboured under
the same depression and necessity for retirement; and hence, if we
take up a bundle of deeds, say of the third quarter of the fifteenth
century, we shall find them loaded with large and beautiful seals,
while in a similar parcel, dated early in the sixteenth, small bits
of wax only are found, many of them bearing one or more initials, or
a crest surrounded by a circle of large dots, and the coats of arms,
which do occur, are altogether small and insignificant: in fact,
personal seals are now reduced in size to what may be conveniently hung
on a watch chain, or worn as a somewhat large signet ring. I annex some
heraldic seals just to show what after this time are looked upon as
unusually fine. They are a very great contrast to those we have been
considering.
[Illustration: Ivory Thumb-ring Signet of Francis, 5th Earl of
Shrewsbury, 1545. [_Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries_, 22nd
December, 1859.]]
[Illustration: Robert Ap Rece, 1548. Engraved in _Visit. of Hunts_,
1613 [Camden Soc.], p. 32.]
[Illustration: Seal engraved by Thomas Simon for Sir Edward Nicholas,
Secretary to Charles I., _circa_ 1649. [_Collect. Gen. et Topog._, vol.
viii, p. 214.]]
[Illustration: Thomas Bate, of Ashby-de-la-Zouche; born 1648, died
1707.]
But still further reasons have to be considered. The ancient form of
drawing charters was gradually disappearing, which after declaring
the transaction, ended with the all-important seal, put on in the
presence of such responsible witnesses as could be got together, and
who were afterwards always to be found to come forward and vouch for
the transaction. Writing also now, early in the sixteenth century, was
becoming much more common, and the sense of the nation showed that a
deed signed and sealed by the parties was much more satisfactory than
any number of witnesses, the limit of whose testimony was bounded by
that of their lives. I am only putting into few words what is ably
pointed out by Williams in his work on _Real Property_, ed. 1882, p.
153, and by Blackstone in his _Commentaries_, ed. 1823, book ii, p.
305. But the curious thing is that this change seems to have gradually
taken place without any enactment directing it. The Statute of Frauds
and Perjuries, 29 Charles II. (1677-8, cap. 5), is the first instance
where it is expressly declared by act of Parliament that all devises of
lands or tenements must be in writing and signed by the party and three
or four credible witnesses. Such had already been occasionally the
practice for at least two hundred years, for I find a deed of gift of
Thomas Hoo to the Abbot of the Monastery of Battle is thus established
"Sigillum meum, una cum subscriptione propria manu et signo manuali
apposito"; the date is 21st September, 1480 [Thorpe's _Battle Abbey
Deeds_, 1835, p. 124]. Occasional instances occur of the old system
of sealing only before a number of witnesses, but after say 1520 the
almost universal method of executing deeds was by sign manual and seal,
and two or three attesting witnesses.
The earliest instance I have noticed of executing a deed by sign manual
is as above, in 1480. The latest which I have met with, in which the
ancient form of execution had been followed, is a charter printed in
the Salop Archæological Society's vol. x, p. 222:--"Thomas Scriven,
armig., grants a yearly payment of 8/ sterling out of his meadow at
Coleham, juta sive prope Ville Salop, hiis testibus &c. &c., dat. Salop
25th Sept., 10 Henry VIII., 1518"; but probably yet later instances may
be found.
The further reason, lying at the root of the whole matter, was the
wonderful expansion of trade, wealth, and intelligence which broke
upon England at this time,--the English renaissance, as it is called,
and which culminated in the brilliant company of poets and authors of
Elizabeth's reign. Following upon the breaking-up of the old nobility,
and the resumption of peace at home, wealth was rapidly accumulated
by many self-made men, and by many younger sons of old families, who
entered into trade. These purchased lands and became the county gentry.
So expansive was this spirit of trade, that ancient towns like York,
Chester, Lancaster, Coventry, and Lincoln, where long-established
guilds restricted trading to the burghers alone, fell off in population
and importance, while new districts without such restrictions, such as
Manchester and Birmingham, as rapidly increased. In an act, 33 Henry
VIII., c. 15 [1541], it is stated that the people of Manchester were
then "well set to work in making of cloths, as well of linen as of
woollen, whereby the inhabitants of the said town have gotten and come
into riches and wealthy livings: and by reason of great occupying, good
order, strict and true dealing of the inhabitants of the said town,
many strangers, as well of Ireland as of other places, had resorted
thither."
[Illustration: _Plate V._]
Over all this boiling-up of busy-ness sat Henry VII. and Henry VIII.,
as almost irresponsible sovereigns, and out of it grew the Commons of
England! The population meantime increased with wonderful strides. In
1377 the population of England and Wales did not exceed 2,500,000. By
the military musters, taken 1574-5, there were 1,172,674 of able men
for service, which it is estimated would give a total population of
about 4,700,000. This astonishing revolution of trade and learning is
so remarkable that I must quote a portion of what old Harrison says
on the changes he had noticed within fifty years. His most curious
_Description of Britain_ was printed with Hollingshed's _Chronicle_
in 1586, but was probably written some ten years earlier: an exacter
date I have not yet been able to fix. "There are old men yet dwelling
in the village where I remaine which have noted three things to be
marvellouslie altered in England within their sound remembrance: and
other three things too, too much increased. One is the multitude of
chimnies latelie erected, whereas in their young daies there were
not abouve two or three, if so many, in most uplandish townes of the
realme [the religious houses and manor places of their lords alwaies
excepted, and peradventure some great personages], but eche one made
his fire against a reredosse in the haull where he lived and dressed
his meat; secondly, the bedding [now feathers and comfort, &c., then
straw or wood only, &c.]; thirdly, the exchange of vessells as of
treene platters into pewter, and wooden spoones into silver or tin. So
common were all sorts of treene stuff in old time, that a man should
hardlie find four pieces of pewter [of which one was peradventure a
salt] in a good farmer's house, &c., &c., &c. Whereas, in my time,
altho' peradventure £4 of old rent be improved to £40, £50 or £100, yet
will the farmer, as another palm or date tree, think his gaines verie
small toward the end of his term if he have not six or seven years'
rent lieng by him, therewith to purchase a new lease, besides a faire
garnish of pewter on his cupbord, with so much more in od vessell going
about the house, three or four feather bedds, so many coverlids and
carpets of tapistrie, a silver salt, a bowle for wine [if not an whole
neast], and a dozzen of spoones to furnish up the sute."
But, alas, there is another side to all this national prosperity. From
this time, also, agriculturists--required in fewer numbers under the
new styles of cultivation (which aimed at grazing and the production of
wool)--crowded into the towns in hope of work, and large portions of
the population began to sink into the lowest depths of poverty.
In our researches as to the shapes of shields we have now, therefore,
lost that rich body of evidence supplied by the seals on charters,
which extended to nearly the end of the fifteenth century, and the
MS. pictures of knights and tournaments. The evidences now available
consist of pedigrees, the smaller heraldic seals attached to documents
and deeds, heraldic visitations and grants of arms, printed books
on heraldry, which begin 1496, stained glass, the stone carvings
on buildings, tombs, and ledger stones, and, from the end of the
seventeenth century or a little earlier, book-plates. Coins, too,
now prove of some value to us, showing what were prevailing types of
shields.
But inasmuch as there were no shields actually in use, the shapes
prevailing now became entirely a matter of fashion and taste. Randle
Holme prints sixty-five varieties of shields, and remarks (p. 10 in his
_Academy of Armoury_, Chester, 1688):--"But [as to the former shield]
so to this, a question may be made, whether such an one was used by
him, or only the invention of the cutter? If so, then the shapes and
forms of shields, targets, and bucklers would be as many as carvers,
stone cutters, engravers, and painters please." Gerard Legh gets the
credit of having greatly multiplied, in his _Accedens of Armoury_,
1562, the fanciful shapes of shields; and later writers on heraldry
seem to have followed him. [_Herald and Genealogist_, vol. i, p. 191.]
But an examination of the _Wappenbüch_, published in Germany in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and similar heraldic drawings of
Italian coats, have opened out to me a vastly wider field for variety
than old Randle Holme ever supposed. I have before me a copy of _Virgil
Solis_, which was published at Nurnberg in 1555. This contains hundreds
of coats, in shields of an endless variety of shapes and great boldness
of design; and when we come to critically compare these shields with
one another, we discover that their outlines depend upon the charges!
These were _first_ laid down with grotesque boldness, and the outline
of the shield to bear them was then drawn around them, to the artist's
fancy of what best suited the bearings and would most reduce the
amount of empty field. This is, after all, only reversing the ancient
method, where a lion was distorted to suit a pointed heater; and it is
suggested that a pale, for a similar reason, might sometimes be pointed
into a pile. With this revelation from _Virgil Solis_, we can detect
that the same method of designing prevails elsewhere. We must therefore
multiply Randle Holme's carvers, stone cutters, engravers, and
painters by the possible variety of their fancies, and then multiply
the quotient by the number of all the heraldic bearings--plus all the
positions and forms they may be made to assume--if we wish to arrive at
the variety of shields possible during the period we are now about to
consider.
In deference to this unanswerable position, I find it necessary to
alter entirely the classification pursued in the earlier centuries--to
take Mr. Rylands' drawings seriatim, and to give for each shape the
earliest and latest dates at which, in my limited researches, I have
found them in use. This method of treatment eliminates from our enquiry
all strictly fanciful shields which did not gain a hold on public
taste, and leaves us still with a sufficiently heavy list of variations
to which it is possible, from their frequent recurrence, to attach the
dates.
A few leading remarks on points bearing on our subject will prove
useful at this stage of our enquiry.
Before watches became common, seals were sometimes attached to the
arms, like bracelets. In _Mercurius Rusticus_, No. 30 (for 19/20 July,
1660), an advertisement appears for "a gold seal, being a coat of arms,
cut in a piece of gold, in the form of a lozenge, fastened to a black
ribband to tye about the wrist." In the _Visitation of Essex, 1634_
[Harleian Society, p. 455], appears the following certificate:--"This
coate is certiffied by Thomas Scott to bee by him seen on a seale some
40 years since, and to be the seale of armes of Thomas Moore Esq.
father of the said Hunting Moore, and that Robert Scott his father did
weare the same about his neck in a scarffe about xx yeares--in witnes
whearof I have sett to my hand. Tho. Scott." [Robert Scott had married
Anne, daughter of Richard Hunting and relict of Thomas Moore, of
Orsett, co. Essex.] This seal was, of course, a ring.
Watches, which naturally suggest small attached seals, were, however,
in pretty general use in Queen Elizabeth's reign. In Shakespeare's
_Twelfth Night_, Malvolio says:--"I frown the while, and perchance
_wind up my watch_, or play with some rich jewel." A watch was found
upon Guy Fawkes, 3 James I. (1605/6), which he and Percy had bought the
day before, "to try conclusions for the long and short burning of the
powder."--Stow's _Chronicle_, p. 878, and introduction to Mr. Reuben
Burrow's _Almanac_ for 1778.