Chelsea.
_The Arms of Richard, King of the Romans_ (Vol. viii., pp. 265. 454.). With
every respect for such heraldic authorities as MR. GOUGH and MR. LOVER, I
think the question as to whether the so-called bezants in the arms of
Richard, King of the Romans, referred to his earldom of Poictou or of
Cornwall, inclines in favour of the former: for instance, in 1253 he
granted to the {654} monks of Okebury a release of suit and service within
his manor of Wallingford, which charter has a seal appended bearing an
impress of the earl armed on horseback, with a _lion rampant crowned_ on
his surcoat, inscribed "Sigillum Richardi Comitis Cornubiae." Now this
inscription seems to identify the lion as pertaining to the earldom of
Cornwall; surely, if the bezants represented this earldom, they would not
have been omitted on his seal as _Comes Cornubiae_.
Again, a very high heraldic authority, one of deep research, Mr. J. R.
Planche, gives this opinion on the subject:
"The border bezantee, or talentee, of Richard, King of the Romans, is
no representation of coins but of peas (_poix_), being the arms of
Poitiers or Poictou (Menestrier, _Orig._, p. 147.), of which he was
earl, and not of his other earldom of Cornwall, as imagined by Sandford
and others. The adoption of bezants as the arms of Cornwall, and by so
many Cornish families on that account, are all subsequent assumptions
derived from the arms of Earl Richard aforesaid, the peas having been
promoted into bezants by being gilt, and become identified with the
Cornish escutcheon as the garbs of Blundeville are with that of
Chester, or the coat of Cantelupe with that of the see of
Hereford."--_The Pursuivant at Arms_, p. 136.
A simple Query then would seem to settle this matter. Is any instance known
of bezants occurring as the arms of Cornell previous to the time of Earl
Richard, or earlier than the commencement of the thirteenth century?