AUGMENTATIONS OF HONOUR
Of all heraldic distinctions the possession of an augmentation of honour is
the one most prized. The Sovereign is of course the fountain of honour, and
though ordinary grants of arms are made by Letters Patent under the hands
and seals of the Kings of Arms, by virtue of the powers expressly and
specifically conferred upon them in the Letters Patent respectively
appointing them to their offices, a grant of arms is theoretically a grant
from the Crown. The privilege of the possession of arms in the ordinary
event is left in the discretion of the Earl Marshal, whose warrant is a
condition precedent to the issue of a Grant. Providing a person is palpably
living in that style and condition of life in which the use of arms is
usual, subject always to the Earl Marshal's pleasure and discretion, a
Grant of Arms can ordinarily be obtained upon payment of the usual fees.
The social status of present-day grantees of arms is considerably in
advance of the status of grantees in the Tudor period. An augmentation of
arms, however, is on a totally and entirely different footing. It is an
especial mark of favour from the Sovereign, and the effective grant is a
Royal Warrant under the hand and Privy Seal of the Sovereign. The warrant
recites and requires that the augmentation granted shall be exemplified and
recorded in the College of Arms. Augmentations have been less frequently
conferred in recent years than was formerly the case. Technically speaking,
a gift of arms by the Sovereign direct where none previously existed is not
an augmentation, though one is naturally inclined to include such grants in
the category. Such an example is met with in the shield granted to Colonel
Carlos by King Charles to commemorate their mutual adventures in the oak
tree ("Or, issuing from a mount in base vert, an oak tree proper, over all
on a fess gules, three Imperial crowns also proper") (Plate II.).
There are many gorgeous legends relating to augmentations and arms which
are said to have been granted by William the Conqueror as rewards after the
Battle of Hastings. Personally I do not believe in a single one. There was
a certain augmentation borne by the Dodge family, which, if it be correct,
dates from the thirty-fourth year of Edward I., but whether this be
authentic it is impossible to say. Most {590} people consider the alleged
_deed of grant_ a forgery, and if this be so, the arms only exist by right
of subsequent record and the question of augmentation rests upon tradition.
The curious charge of the woman's breast distilling drops of milk to typify
the nourishment afforded to the king's army is at any rate most interesting
(Plate VI.). The earliest undoubted one in this country that I am aware of
dates from the reign of Edward III. Sir John de Pelham shared in the glory
of the Battle of Poictiers, and in the capture of the French King John. To
commemorate this he was granted two round buckles with thongs. The Pelham
family arms were "Azure, three pelicans argent," and, as will be seen,
these family arms were quartered with the buckles and thongs on a field
gules as an augmentation. The quarterly coat forms a part of the arms both
of Lord Chichester and of Lord Yarborough at the present day, and "the
Pelham buckle" has been the badge of the Pelham family for centuries.
Piers Legh fought with the Black Prince and took the Count de Tanquervil
prisoner at the Battle of Crecy, "and did valiantly rere and advance the
said princes Banner att the bataile of Cressy to the noe little
encouragement of the English army," but it was not until the reign of Queen
Elizabeth that the augmentation to commemorate this was granted.
The Battle of Flodden was won by the Earl of Surrey, afterwards the Duke of
Norfolk, and amongst the many rewards which the King showered upon his
successful Marshal was the augmentation to his arms of "a demi-lion pierced
in the mouth with an arrow, depicted on the colours for the arms of the
Kingdom of Scotland, which the said James, late King of Scots, bore."
According to the Act of Parliament under which it was granted this
augmentation would seem now to belong exclusively to Lord Mowbray and
Stourton and Hon. Mary Petre, but it is borne apparently with official
sanction, or more likely perhaps by official inadvertence, by the Duke of
Norfolk and the rest of the Howard family.
The Battle of Agincourt is referred to by Shakespeare, who puts these words
into King Henry's mouth on the eve of that great battle (Act iv. sc. 3):--
"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition."
There is actual foundation in fact for these lines. For in a writ couched
in very stringent and severe terms issued by the same king in after years
decreeing penalties for the improper assumption and use of false arms,
specific exception is made in favour of those "who bore {591} arms with us
at the Battle of Agincourt." Evidently this formed a very extensive kind of
augmentation.
The reign of Queen Elizabeth furnishes an interesting example of the gift
of a complete coat in the case of Sir Francis Drake, who had been using the
arms of another family of the same name. The representative of that family
complained to the Queen that Sir Francis, whom he styled an upstart, should
take such liberties with his arms; whereupon the Queen said she would give
Sir Francis arms which should outrival those of his namesake. At least,
such is the legend, and though the arms themselves were granted by
Clarenceux King of Arms, and I have not yet found any Royal Warrant
indicating that the grant was made by specific Royal command, it is
possible the story is correct. The arms are: "Sable, a fess wavy between
two stars argent. Crest: a ship under reef, drawn round a terrestrial globe
with a cable by a hand issuing from clouds all proper" (Plate VI.). The
stars upon the shield are the two pole stars, and the wavy band between
them typifies Drake's voyage round the world, as does also the peculiar
crest in which the Divine hand is shown guiding his ship around the globe.
At the Battle of Naseby Dr. Edward Lake fought bravely for the King, and in
the service of his Majesty received no less than sixteen wounds. At the end
of the battle, when his left arm was useless, he put the bridle of his
horse between his teeth and still fought on. The quartering of augmentation
given to him was: "Gules, a dexter arm embowed in armour holding in the
hand a sword erect all proper, thereto affixed a banner argent charged with
a cross between sixteen escutcheons of the field, on the cross a lion of
England." The sixteen shields upon the banner typify his sixteen wounds.
After the Commonwealth was established in England, Charles II. made a
desperate effort to regain his crown, an effort which culminated in his
disastrous defeat at the Battle of Worcester. The King escaped through the
gate of the city solely through the heroic efforts of Colonel Newman, and
this is kept in remembrance by the inescutcheon of augmentation, viz.:
"Gules, a portcullis imperially crowned or." Every one has heard how the
King was accompanied in his wanderings by Colonel Carlos, who hid with him
in the oak tree at Boscobel. Afterwards the king accompanied Mistress Jane
Lane on horseback as her servant to the coast, whence he fled to the
Continent. The reward of Colonel Carlos was the gift of the entire coat of
arms already referred to. The Lanes, though not until after some years had
passed and the King had come back to his own again, were granted two
remarkable additions to their family arms. First of all "the canton of
England" (that is, the arms of England upon a canton) was added {592} to
their shield. They are the _only_ family to whom such an honour has been
given, and a most curious result has happened. When the use of armorial
bearings was taxed by Act of Parliament the Royal Arms were specially
exempted, and on account of this canton the Lane family claimed and
obtained exemption from the tax. A few years later a crest was granted to
them, namely, a strawberry-roan horse, "couped at the flanks," holding in
its feet the Royal crown (Plate II.). It was upon a horse of this colour
that the King and Mistress Lane had escaped and thereby saved the crown.
Mr. Francis Wolfe, of Madeley, who also was a party to the escape, received
the grant of an inescutcheon gules charged with a lion of England. Another
family which bears an augmentation to commemorate King Charles' escape is
Whitgreave.
The reign of Queen Anne produced in the Duke of Marlborough one of the
finest generals the world has ever seen; and in the Battle of Blenheim one
of its greatest victories. The augmentation which commemorates this is a
shield bearing the cross of St. George and in the centre a smaller shield
with the golden lilies of France.
In the year 1797 the Battle of Camperdown was fought, when Admiral Duncan
defeated the Dutch Fleet and was created Lord Camperdown. To his family
arms were added a naval crown and a representation of the gold medal given
by George III. to Lord Camperdown to commemorate his victory.
The arms of Nelson are most interesting, inasmuch as one version of the
arms carries two separate and distinct augmentations. It is not, however,
the coat as it was granted to and borne by the great Admiral himself. After
the Battle of the Nile he received the augmentation on the chief, a
landscape showing the palm-tree, the disabled ship, and the battery in
ruins. The one crest was the plume of triumph given to the Admiral by the
Sultan Selim III., and his second crest, which, however, is not a crest of
augmentation, was the stern of the Spanish ship _San Josef._ After his
death at the Battle of Trafalgar his brother was created Earl Nelson, and a
second augmentation, namely, a fess wavy sable with the word "Trafalgar"
upon it in gold letters, was added to the arms. This, however, has since
been discontinued, except by Lord Bridport, who quarters it, whilst the
Nelson family has reverted to the arms as they were borne by the great
Admiral.
After the death of Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, Lord Collingwood took
command, and though naval experts think that the action of Collingwood
greatly minimised the number of prizes which would have resulted from the
victory, Lord Collingwood received for an augmentation a chief wavy gules,
thereon the lion of England, navally {593} crowned, with the word
"Trafalgar" above the lion. He also received an additional crest, namely,
the stern of his ship, the _Royal Sovereign_, between a wreath of oak on
the one side and a wreath of laurel on the other.
The heroic story of the famous fight between the _Shannon_ and the
_Chesapeake_ has been often told. Captain Broke sent in a challenge to the
_Chesapeake_ to come out and fight him, and, though a banquet was prepared
by the Mayor of Boston for that evening "to meet the English officers,"
Captain Broke defeated the _Chesapeake_ in an engagement which only lasted
a very short time. He was granted an additional crest, namely, an arm
holding a trident and issuing from a naval crown, together with the motto,
"Sævumque tridentem servamus."
General Ross fought and won the Battle of Bladensburg, and took the city of
Washington, dying a few days afterwards. The story is that the family were
offered their choice of a baronetcy or an augmentation, and they chose the
latter. The augmentation (Plate II.), which was specially granted with
permission for it to be placed upon the monument to the memory of General
Ross, consists of the arm holding the flag of the United States with a
broken flag-staff which will be seen both on the shield itself, and as an
additional crest. The shield also shows the gold cross for previous
services at Corunna and in the Peninsula. The family were also given the
surname of "Ross-of-Bladensburg."
The capture of Curaçoa by Admiral Sir Charles Brisbane, K.C.B., is
commemorated by the representation of his ship passing between the two
Dutch forts; and by the additional crest of an arm in a naval officer's
uniform grasping a cutlass. Admiral Sir Robert Otway, for his distinguished
services, was granted: "On a chief azure an anchor between two branches of
oak or, and on the dexter side a demi-Neptune and on the sinister a mermaid
proper," to add to his shield. Admiral Sir George Pocock, who captured
Havannah, was given for an augmentation: "On a chief wavy azure a
sea-horse" (to typify his naval career), between two Eastern crowns (to
typify his services in the East Indies), with the word "Havanna," the scene
of his greatest victory.
Sir Edward Pellew, who was created Viscount Exmouth for bombarding and
destroying the fort and arsenal of Algiers, was given upon a chief a
representation of that fort, with an English man-of-war in front of it, to
add to his arms. It is interesting to note that one of his supporters,
though not a part of his augmentation, represents a Christian slave, in
memory of those in captivity at Algiers when he captured the city.
There were several augmentations won at the Battle of Waterloo, {594} and
the Waterloo medal figures upon many coats of arms of Waterloo officers.
Colonel Alexander Clark-Kennedy, with his own hand, captured the French
Eagle of the 105th French Regiment. For this he bears a representation of
it and a sword crossed upon a chief over his arms, and his crest of
augmentation is a demi-dragoon holding the same flag. Of the multitude of
honours which were showered upon the Duke of Wellington, not the least was
his augmentation. This was a smaller shield to be superimposed upon his
own, and charged with those crosses of St. George, St. Andrew, and St.
Patrick, which we term "the Union Jack." Sir Edward Kerrison, who
distinguished himself so greatly in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, was
granted a sword with a wreath of laurel and representations of his medals
for Orthes and Waterloo, and, for an additional crest, an arm in armour
holding a banner inscribed "Peninsula."
Sir Thomas Munro, who will be long remembered as the Governor of Madras,
was rewarded for his capture of Badamy by a representation of that
hill-fort in India. The augmentation of Lord Keane is very similar, being a
representation of the Fortress of Ghuznee in Afghanistan, which he
captured. Other instances of a similar character are to be found in the
arms of Cockburn-Campbell and Hamilton-Grace.
The arms of Lord Gough are most remarkable, inasmuch as they show no less
than two distinct and different augmentations both earned by the same man.
In 1816, for his services in the Peninsula, he received a representation of
the Spanish Order of Charles III., and on a chief the representation of the
Fortress of Tarifa, with the crest of the arm holding the colours of his
own regiment, the 87th, and a French eagle reversed and depressed. After
his victories in the East, particularly at Goojerat, and for the
subjugation and annexation of the Punjab, he was granted, in 1843, an
additional quartering to add to his shield. This has the Lion of England
holding up the Union Jack below the words "China" and "India." The third
crest, which was then granted to him, shows a similar lion holding the
Union Jack and a Chinese flag.
Sir George Pollock, "of the Khyber Pass," Bart., earned everlasting fame
for himself in the first Afghan War, by forcing the Khyber Pass and by the
capture of Cabul. For this he was given an Eastern crown and the word
"Khyber" on a chief as well as three cannon upon a canton, and at the same
time he was granted an additional crest--a lion holding an Afghan banner
with the staff thereof broken. With him it seemed as if the practice of
granting augmentations for military services had ceased. Lord Roberts has
none, neither has Lord Wolseley. But recently the old practice was reverted
to in favour of Lord Kitchener. His family arms were: "Azure, a chevron
cottised {595} between three bustards," and in the centre chief point a
bezant; with a stag's head for a crest; but for "smashing the Khalifa" he
has been given the Union Jack and the Egyptian flag with the staves
encircled by a coronet bearing the word "Khartoum," all on a pile
superimposed over his family arms. He also received a second crest of an
elephant's head holding a sword in its trunk issuing from a mural crown. At
the conclusion of the South African War a second augmentation was granted
to him, this taking the form of a chief.
Two other very interesting instances of augmentation of arms are worthy of
mention.
Sir Ralph Abercromby, after a distinguished career, fought and won the
Battle of Aboukir Bay, only to die a few days later on board H.M.S.
_Foudroyant_ of his wounds received in the battle. But long before he had
fought and conquered the French at Valenciennes, and in 1795 had been made
a Knight of the Bath. The arms which are upon his Stall plate in
Westminster Abbey include his augmentation, which is an arm in armour
encircled by a wreath of laurel supporting the French Standard.
Sir William Hoste gained the celebrated victory over the French fleet off
the Island of Lissa in 1811, and the augmentation which was granted was a
representation of his gold medal hanging from a naval crown, and an
additional crest, an arm holding a flag inscribed with the word "Cattaro,"
the scene of another of his victories.
Peace has its victories no less than war, but there is generally very much
less fuss made about them. Consequently, the augmentations to commemorate
entirely pacific actions are considerably fewer in number. The Speke
augmentation has been elsewhere referred to, and reference may be made to
the Ross augmentation to commemorate the Arctic exploits of Sir John Ross.
It is a very common idea that arms were formerly to be obtained by conquest
in battle. Like many other heraldic ideas, there is a certain amount of
truth in the idea, from which very erroneous generalisations have been
made. The old legend as to the acquisition of the plume of ostrich feathers
by the Black Prince no doubt largely accounts for the idea. That legend, as
has been already shown, lacks foundation. Territorial or sovereign arms
doubtless would be subject to conquest, but I do not believe that because
in battle or in a tournament _à outrance_ one person defeated another, he
therefore became entitled to assume, of his own motion, the arms of the man
he had vanquished. The proposition is too absurd. But there is no doubt
that in some number of historic cases his Sovereign has subsequently
conferred upon the victor an augmentation which has closely approximated to
the arms of his victim. Such cases occur in the arms of the Clerkes,
Barts., {596} of Hitcham, Bucks, who bear: "On a sinister canton azure, a
demi-ram salient of the first, and in chief two fleurs-de-lis or, debruised
by a baton," to commemorate the action of Sir John Clerke of Weston, who
captured Louis D'Orleans, Duke of Longueville, at Borny, near Terouenne, 5
Henry VII. The augmentation conferred upon the Duke of Norfolk at the
battle of Flodden has been already referred to, but the family of Lloyd of
Stockton, co. Salop, carry a remarkable augmentation, inasmuch as they are
permitted to bear the arms of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, to
commemorate his recapture by their ancestor after Lord Cobham's escape from
the Tower.
[Illustration: FIG. 773.--Arms of Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland and Earl
of Oxford: Quarterly, 1 and 4 (of augmentation), azure, three crowns or,
within a bordure argent; 2 and 3, quarterly gules and or, in the first
quarter a mullet argent.]
Augmentations which have no other basis than mere favour of kings, or
consanguinity to the Royal Family, are not uncommon. Richard II., who
himself adopted the arms of St. Edward the Confessor, bestowed the right to
bear them also upon Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk (Fig. 675). No
difference was added to them in his case, which is the more remarkable as
they were borne by the Duke impaled with the arms of England. In 1397 the
King conferred the same arms upon John de Holland, Duke of Exeter,
differenced by a label argent, and upon Thomas de Holland, Duke of Surrey,
within a bordure ermine. Richard II. seems to have been inclined to the
granting of augmentations, for in 1386, when he created the Earl of Oxford
(Robert de Vere) Duke of Ireland, he granted him as an augmentation the
arms of Ireland ("Azure, three crowns or") within a bordure argent (Fig.
773). The Manners family, who were of Royal descent, but who, not being
descended from an heiress, had no right to quarter the Royal Arms, received
the grant of a chief "quarterly azure and gules, in the first and fourth
quarters two fleurs-de-lis, and in the second and third a lion passant
guardant or." This precedent might well be followed at the present day in
the case of the daughters of the Duke and Duchess of Fife. It was adopted
in the case of Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain. The Waller family, of
Groombridge, co. Kent, one of whom, Richard Waller, captured Charles, Duke
of Orleans, at the battle of Agincourt, received as an augmentation the
right to suspend from the crest ("On a mount a walnut-tree proper") an
escutcheon of the arms of that Prince, viz.: "Azure, three fleurs-de-lis
or, a label of three points argent." Lord Polwarth bears one of the few
augmentations granted by William III., viz.: "An inescutcheon azure charged
with an orange ensigned with an Imperial crown {597} all proper," whilst
the titular King James III. and VIII. granted to John Græme, Earl of
Alford, a coat of augmentation, viz.: "The Royal Arms of Scotland on the
field and cross of St. Andrew counterchanged," the date of the grant being
20th January 1734. Sir John Keith, Earl of Kintore, Knight Marischal of
Scotland, saved the regalia of Scotland from falling into the hands of
Cromwell, and in return the Keith arms (now quartered by Lord Kintore) were
augmented with "an inescutcheon gules, a sword in bend sinister surmounted
by a sceptre in bend dexter, in chief an Imperial crown, the whole within
an orle of eight thistles."
The well-known augmentation of the Seymour family: "Or, on a pile gules,
between six fleurs-de-lis azure," is borne to commemorate the marriage of
Jane Seymour to Henry VIII., who granted augmentations to all his wives
except Catharine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves. The Seymour family is,
however, the only one in which the use of the augmentation has been
continued. The same practice was followed by granting the arms of England
to the Consort of the Princess Caroline and to the late Prince Consort. See
page 499.
[Illustration: FIG. 774.--Device from the chief of the "Prussian Sword
Nobility."]
The frequent grant of the Royal tressure in Scotland, probably usually as
an augmentation, has been already referred to. King Charles I. granted to
the Earl of Kinnoull as a quartering of augmentation: "Azure, a unicorn
salient argent, armed, maned, and unguled or, within a bordure of the last
charged with thistles of Scotland and roses gules of England dimidiated."
The well-known augmentation of the Medicis family, viz.: "A roundle azure,
charged with three fleurs-de-lis or," was granted by Louis XII. to Pietro
de Medicis. The Prussian Officers, ennobled on the 18th of January 1896,
the twenty-fifth anniversary of the foundation of the new German Empire,
bear as a device a chief purpure, and thereupon the Prussian sceptre and a
sword in saltire interlaced by two oak-branches vert (Fig. 774). The late
Right Hon. Sir Thomas Thornton, G.C.B., received a Royal Licence to accept
the Portuguese title of Conde de Cassilhas and an augmentation. This was an
inescutcheon (ensigned by his coronet as a Conde) "or, thereon an arm
embowed vested azure, the cuff gold, the hand supporting a flagstaff
therefrom flowing the Royal Standard of Portugal." The same device issuing
from his coronet was also granted to him as a crest of augmentation. Sir
Woodbine Parish, K.C.H., by legislative act of the Argentine Republic
received in 1839 a grant of {598} the arms of that country, which was
subsequently incorporated in the arms granted to him and registered in the
Heralds' College in this country. He had been Consul-General and Chargé
d'Affaires at Buenos Ayres, 1823-1832; he was appointed in 1824
Plenipotentiary, and concluded the first treaty by which the Argentine
Republic was formally recognised. Reference has been already made (page
420) to the frequent grant of supporters as augmentations, and perhaps
mention should also be made of the inescutcheons for the Dukedom of
Aubigny, borne by the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, and for the Duchy of
Chatelherault, borne by the Duke of Abercorn. Possibly these should more
properly be ranked as territorial arms and not as augmentations. A similar
coat is the inescutcheon borne by the Earl of Mar and Kellie for his
Earldom of Kellie. This, however, is stated by Woodward to be an
augmentation granted by James VI. to Sir Thomas Erskine, one of several
granted by that King to commemorate the frustration of the Gowrie Plot in
1600.
The Marquess of Westminster, for some utterly inexplicable reason, was
granted as an augmentation the right to bear the arms of the city of
Westminster in the first quarter of his arms. Those who have rendered very
great personal service to the Crown have been sometimes so favoured. The
Halford and Gull (see page 250) augmentations commemorate medical services
to the Royal Family, and augmentations have been conferred upon Sir
Frederick Treves and Sir Francis Laking in connection with His Majesty's
illness at the time of the Coronation.
The badges of Ulster and Nova Scotia borne as such upon their shields by
Baronets are, of course, augmentations.
Two cases are known of augmentations to the arms of towns. The arms of
Derry were augmented by the arms of the city of London in chief, when,
after its fearful siege, the name of Derry was changed to Londonderry to
commemorate the help given by the city of London. The arms of the city of
Hereford had an azure bordure semé of saltires couped argent added to its
arms after it had successfully withstood its Scottish siege, and this, by
the way, is a striking example of colour upon colour, the field of the coat
being gules.
There are many grants in the later part of the eighteenth and the beginning
of the nineteenth centuries recorded in Lyon Register which at first sight
appear to be augmentations. Perhaps they are rightly so termed, but as the
additions usually appear to be granted by the Lyon without specific Royal
Warrants, they are hardly equivalent to the English ones issued during the
same period. Many ordinary grants made in England which have borne direct
reference to particular achievements of the grantee have been (by the
grantees and their {599} descendants) wrongly termed augmentations. A rough
and ready (though not a certain) test is to imagine the coat if the
augmentation be removed, and see whether it remains a properly balanced
design. Few of such coats will survive the test. The additions made to a
coat to make it a different design, when a new grant is founded upon arms
improperly used theretofore, are not augmentations, although spoken
departures from the truth on this detail are by no means rare. {600}