The Curiosities of Heraldry Part 17

"Of myne old ancestors, by help of G.o.ddes might, (By reason of marriage and lineal descent,) A Sarasyn king discomfit was in fighte, Whose head my creste, shall ever be presente."

Sir Christopher Seton, ancestor of the Earls of Wintoun, at the battle of Methven, in 1306, rescued King Robert Bruce from the English. For this service Robert gave him his sister, the lady Christian, in marriage, and the following augmentation to his paternal arms: 'Surtout, an inescocheon per pale gules and azure; the first charged with a sword in pale proper, hilted and pommelled, and _supporting a falling crown_ within a double tressure all or; the second azure a star of twelve points argent, for Wintoun.'

Robert Bruce desired that his heart might be carried to Jerusalem, and there interred in holy ground. The office of conveying it thither devolved upon his faithful and now sorrowing knight, Sir James Douglas, who was unfortunately slain on his return by the infidels, in the year 1331. To commemorate this service his descendants have ever since borne 'Argent, a human heart royally crowned proper; on a chief azure, three mullets of the first.' This stalwart soldier is said to have been engaged in fifty-seven battles and rencontres with the English, and thirteen with the Saracens, all in the s.p.a.ce of twenty-four years. Certes, he must have been one of the n.o.blest 'butchers' of his time!

The family of Pelham (now represented by the Earl of Chichester) bear, as a quartering, 'Gules, two demi-belts, paleways, the _buckles_ in chief argent.' This augmentation was allowed to the family in the early part of the seventeenth century; but they had previously, for many generations, borne the Buckle as a badge. They also occasionally gave it as a crest, together with a cage--both in commemoration of the capture of John, king of France, at Poictiers, by Sir John de Pelham. The story is thus briefly told by Collins:[207]

"Froysart gives an account, that with the king were taken beside his son Philip, the Earl of Tankerville, Sir Jaques of Bourbon, the Earls of Ponthieu and Eue, with divers other n.o.blemen, who being chased to Poictiers, the town shut their gates against them, not suffering any to enter; so that divers were slain, and every Englishman had four, five, or six prisoners; and the press being great to take the King, such as knew him, cry'd, _Sir, yield, or you are dead_: Whereupon, as the chronicle relates, he yielded himself to Sir Dennis Morbeck, a Knight of Artois, in the English service, and being afterwards forc'd from him, more than ten Knights and Esquires challeng'd the taking of the King. Among these Sir Roger la Warr, and the before-mentioned John de Pelham, were most concerned; and in memory of so signal an action, and the King surrendering his sword to them, Sir Roger la Warr, Lord la Warr, had the crampet, or chape of his sword, for a badge of that honour; and John de Pelham (afterwards knighted) had the buckle of a belt as a mark of the same honour, which was sometimes used by his descendants as a seal-manual, and at others, the said buckles on each side a cage; being an emblem of the captivity of the said King of France, and was therefore borne for a crest, as in those times was customary. The buckles, &c. were likewise used by his descendants, in their great seals, as is evident from several of them appendant to old deeds."

It is somewhat remarkable that Froissart, Walsingham, Knyghton, and the other early chroniclers, are silent as to the names of the King's captors; and were the story unsupported by strong indirect evidence, their silence would be almost fatal to its authenticity; but the occurrence of the Buckle upon the stonework of many ecclesiastical buildings founded by Sir John de Pelham himself and his immediate successors,[208] sufficiently corroborates the undisputed family tradition.[209]

The chape or crampet of a sword (the ornament at the end of the scabbard which prevents the point from protruding) is still borne as a badge by the Earl de la Warr, a lineal descendant of the Sir Roger la Warr referred to in the above extract.

The crest of the ancient family of De la Bere is 'a ducal coronet or, therefrom issuant a plume of five ostrich feathers per pale argent and azure.' This was conferred upon Sir Richard de la Bere, knight-banneret, by Edward the Black Prince, in reward for his having rescued him from imminent danger on the memorable field of Cressy. The ducal coronet is emblematical of military command, and the feathers are an evident derivation from the Prince's own badge. There is (or was at the beginning of the present century) in an old house at Cheltenham, the property of his lineal descendants, a painting supposed to be nearly contemporary with the occurrence, which represents the Prince in the act of conferring this mark of honour upon his faithful follower.[210]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The crest of Dudley of Northamptonshire, Bart. was 'Out of a ducal coronet or, a woman's bust: her hair dishevelled, bosom bare, a helmet on her head with the stay or throat-latch down proper.' From a MS. in the possession of this family, written by a monk about the close of the fourteenth century, it appeared that the father of Agnes Hotot (who, in the year 1395, married an ancestor of the Dudleys,) having a quarrel with one Ringsdale concerning the proprietorship of some land, they agreed to meet on the 'debateable ground,' and decide their right by combat.

Unfortunately for Hotot, on the day appointed he was seriously ill; "but his daughter Agnes, unwilling that he should lose his claim, or suffer in his honour, armed herself cap-a-pie, and, mounting her father's steed, repaired to the place of decision, where, after a stubborn encounter, she dismounted Ringsdale, and when he was on the ground, she loosened the stay of her helmet, let down her hair about her shoulders, and, disclosing her bosom, discovered to him that he had been conquered by a woman." This valiant lady became the heiress of her family, and married a Dudley, whence the latter family derived their right to this crest.

Sir Richard Waller was at the battle of Agincourt, where he took prisoner Charles, duke of Orleans, father of Charles XII (afterwards King of France). This personage was brought to England by his captor, who held him in 'honourable restraint' at his own mansion, at Groombridge, co. Kent, during the long period of twenty-four years, at the termination of which he paid 400,000 crowns for his ransom. In accordance with the chivalrous spirit of that age, the captor and captive lived together on terms of the strictest friendship. This appears from the fact that the Duke, at his own expense, rebuilt for Sir Richard the family house at Groombridge. He was also a benefactor "to his parish church of Speldhurst, where his arms remain in stonework over the porch."[211] Previously to this event the family arms had been the punning device of 'Sable, on a bend voided argent, three _walnut_ leaves or,' and the crest, 'A _walnut_ tree fructed proper.' To one of the lower boughs of this tree was now appended a shield, charged with the arms of France--'Azure, three fleurs-de-lis or, differenced with a label of three points;' an augmentation which continues to be borne by the descendants of Sir Richard Waller to this day.

Burton of Salop, and Rivers of Kent, bear[212] white roses, commemorative of the services rendered by their ancestors to the faction distinguished by this badge, while the Lutterells of Somerset, bear, as a crest, the white boar of Richard III, ensigned on the shoulder with the Lancastrian red rose! The white and red roses in the arms of families, as partisans of the two rival houses, would furnish matter for a whole chapter; but I must pa.s.s on.

Augmentations have sometimes been made to the arms of English families by foreign monarchs. Thus Sir Henry Guldeforde, knight, having rendered a.s.sistance to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, in the reduction of Granada, received from them the honour of knighthood, with permission to add to his ancestral arms, 'On a canton Argent, the arms of Granada, viz.

a pomegranate, the sh.e.l.l open, grained gules, stalked and leaved proper.'

John Callard, esq. a retainer of the said Sir Henry, for his valour on the same occasion, acquired the following coat: 'Gyronny of six pieces, or and sable; on each division or, a Moor's head couped sable.' William Browne, esq. called by Holinshed "a young and l.u.s.ty gentleman," another follower of Guldeforde, was honoured with an augmentation, viz. 'On a chief argent, an eagle displayed sable,'--the arms of Sicily, which was then an adjunct to the Spanish crown.

The Duke of Norfolk bears on his 'bend argent' 'an escocheon or, charged with a demi-lion rampant within a double tressure, flory and counter-flory; an arrow pierced through the lion's mouth all gules.' This is an augmentation nearly resembling the arms of Scotland, and was granted to the Earl of Surrey, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, for his services against the Scots at Flodden Field, in 1513. It will be recollected that when the body of James IV was found after the battle, it was pierced with several arrows, the cause of his death.

As a further memorial of this victory the Earl gave, as the badge of his retainers, a white lion, one of the supporters of his house, trampling upon the red lion of Scotland, and tearing it with his claws.

Several English families bear their arms upon the breast of an eagle with two heads. This is the standard of the German empire, and it has been granted to such families for military and other services. The Lord Arundel of Wardour, in the reign of Elizabeth, received this distinguished mark of honour by patent from the Emperor Rodolph II, for valorous conduct against the Turks, whom, as the avowed enemies of Christianity, he opposed with all the enthusiasm of a crusader of more antient times. He was at the same time created a Count of the Empire, and, on returning to England, was desirous of taking precedence according to his German t.i.tle. But this step was violently opposed by the peers, and the Queen, being asked her opinion of his claim, answered, "that faithful subjects should keep their eyes at home, and not gaze upon foreign crowns, and that she, for her part, did not care her sheep should wear a stranger's mark, nor dance after the whistle of every foreigner!"[213]

The Bowleses of Wiltshire, and the Smiths of Lincolnshire, received appropriate arms about the same time for their services against the Turks, under the same Emperor.[214]

The a.s.sumption of the arms of an enemy slain or captured in war, though permitted by the heraldric canon of early times, seems not to have been very usual in this country; yet instances are not wanting of arms so acquired. In 1628, Sir David Kirke, knight, reduced Canada, then in the power of the French, and took the admiral De la Roche prisoner. For this service he received as an augmentation, 'A canton azure charged with a talbot sejant, collared and leash reflexed argent, sustaining a faulchion proper,' this being the coat of his captive.

Charles I rewarded many of his adherents with augmentations of arms--the only recompense some of them ever received. The favourite marks of honour were the crown, rose, and lion of England.

Sir Palmes Fairborne, knighted by Charles II for his defence of Tangier against the Moors, had permission to bear as his crest, 'An arm in armour couped at the elbow, lying on a wreath sustaining a sword; on the point thereof a Turk's head, turbaned all proper.' The epitaph on this commander, on his tomb in Westminster Abbey, was written by Dryden; and had nothing more sublime proceeded from his pen, his name would be as little known to posterity as that of the hero he celebrates.

"Alive and dead _these_ walls he will defend, Great actions great examples must attend; The Candian siege his early valour knew, Where Turkish blood did his young hands imbrew; From thence returning with deserved applause, Against the Moors his _well-fleshed_ sword he draws," &c. &c.

Sir Cloudesley Shovel, the celebrated admiral, received, by the express command of William III, a grant of arms blazoned thus: 'Gules a cheveron ermine between two crescents in chief argent, and a fleur-de-lis in base or,' to commemorate two great victories over the Turks and one over the French. This is one of the most appropriate coats I remember to have seen.

It would be impossible (even were it desirable) within the limits I have a.s.signed myself, to notice all the arms and augmentations which have been granted to heroes, naval and military, for services performed during the last, and at the commencement of the present, century. A superabundance of them will be found in the plates attached to the ordinary peerages, &c.

Suffice it to say, that in general they exhibit a most wretched taste in the heralds who designed them, or rather, perhaps I should say, in the personages who dictated to the heralds what ensigns would be most agreeable to themselves. Figures never dreamed of in cla.s.sical armory have found their way into these bearings: landscapes and _words_ in great staring letters across the shield, bombsh.e.l.ls and bayonets, East Indians and American Indians, sailors and soldiers, medals and outlandish banners, _figures of Peace, and grenadiers of the 79th regiment_![215] Could absurdity go farther?

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But, lest I should be thought unnecessarily severe upon the armorists of the past age, I annex the arms of Sir Sidney Smith, a veteran who certainly deserved _better things_ of his country. I shall not attempt to blazon them, as I am sure my reader would not thank me for occupying a page and a half of a chapter--already perhaps too long--with what would in this case be _jargon_ indeed. Shades of Brooke, and Camden, and Guillim, and Dugdale! what think ye of this?

II. The second cla.s.s of Historical Arms is composed of those derived from ACTS OF LOYALTY. The earliest coat of this kind mentioned by the author of the volume before quoted, is that of Sir John Philpot, viz. 'Sable a bend ermine,'--his paternal arms--impaling, 'Gules a cross between four swords argent, hilts or'--an augmentation granted to Philpot for killing Wat Tyler with his sword after Walworth, the mayor, had knocked him down with his mace, in the presence of Richard II, in 1378.

Ramsay, earl of Holderness, temp. James VI, bore as an augmentation impaling his paternal arms, 'Azure, a dexter hand holding a sword in pale, argent, hilted or, piercing a human heart proper, and supporting on the point an imperial crown of the last.' This was granted to Sir John Ramsay, who was also rewarded with the t.i.tle just mentioned, for having saved the young monarch's life from a.s.sa.s.sination by Ruthven, earl of Gowrie, by piercing the a.s.sa.s.sin to the heart. The story of this attempt upon the 'British Solomon' is too well known to the reader of Scottish history to need copying in these pages. The whole narration, enshrouded in mystery, is now almost universally discredited, and the affair regarded as a pretended plot, to answer a political purpose. It is sufficient to say that Gowrie and his father, Alexander Ruthven, fell victims to it, while Ramsay was rewarded for his share in the transaction as above stated.[216] Erskine, earl of Kelly, and Sir Hugh Harris, two other individuals concerned in this plot, also received augmentations.[217]

The notorious Colonel t.i.tus, temp. Charles II, was rewarded for his services in the restoration of the king, with an augmentation, viz.

'quarterly with his paternal arms, Or, on a chief gules, a lion of England.' 'Lions of England' were likewise a.s.signed to the following families for their loyalty to the Stuarts: Robinson of Cranford, Moore, Lord Mayor of London, Lane of Staffordshire, &c. The crest of the last-mentioned family is 'A demi-horse salient argent, spotted dark grey, bridled proper, sustaining with his fore feet a regal crown or;' in allusion to the circ.u.mstance of Charles's having been a.s.sisted in his escape, after his defeat at Worcester, by a lady of this family, whose servant the king personated by riding before her on horseback. In this guise Charles arrived safely at Bristol, and at length, after many hair-breadth escapes and a circuitous tour of the southern counties, reached Brighthelmstone, whence he set sail for the continent.

The arms granted to the family of Penderell for concealing Charles II in the oak at Boscobel, and otherwise a.s.sisting his escape, and those a.s.signed on the same occasion to Colonel Careless (or CARLOS, as it was the king's humour afterwards to name him) were exactly _alike_ in charges, though different in tincture.

CARLOS. 'Or, on a mount an oak-tree proper; over all a fesse gules, charged with three regal crowns proper.'

PENDERELL. 'Argent, on a mount an oak-tree proper; over all a fesse sable, charged with three regal crowns proper.'[218]

III. The third cla.s.s of Historical Arms are those of ALLIANCE. I shall content myself with an example or two. The arms[219] and dexter supporter[220] of the Lyons, earls of Strathmore, evidently allude to a connexion with the royal line of Scotland, and the crest of the family is, 'On a wreath vert and or, a _lady_ couped below the girdle, inclosed within an arch of laurel, and holding in her right hand the royal thistle, all proper.' Sir John Lyon, an ancestor of this house, having gained the favour of King Robert II, that monarch gave him in marriage his daughter, the lady Jane. To perpetuate so splendid and beneficial an alliance, his descendants have ever since continued to represent this princess as their crest.

The Seymours, dukes of Somerset, bore quarterly with their paternal arms, the following: 'Or, on a pile gules, between six fleurs-de-lis azure, three lions of England,' an augmentation originally granted by Henry VIII to Jane Seymour, his third wife. These ensigns, it will be seen, are a composition from the royal arms.

IV. The fourth are derived from FAVOUR and SERVICES. The antient arms of Compton, subsequently created earls of Northampton, were 'Sable, three helmets argent.' For services rendered to Henry VIII, William Compton, esq. received permission to place 'a lion of England' between the helmets.

Thomas Villiers, first Earl of Clarendon, bore, 'Argent, on a cross gules, five escallops or [originally derived from the Crusade under Edward I] a crescent for difference; and on an inescocheon argent, the eagle of Prussia, viz. displayed sable, &c. &c., charged on the breast with F. B.

R. for Fredericus, Borussorum Rex.' This was an augmentation granted to that n.o.bleman by Frederick, king of Prussia, as a mark of the high value he set upon certain diplomatic services in which he had been engaged. The augmentation was ratified at the Heralds' office by the command of George III.

The Earl of Liverpool, in addition to his paternal arms, bears 'on a chief wavy argent, a cormorant sable, holding in his beak a branch of laver or sea-weed vert.' This augmentation (being the arms of the town of Liverpool) was made to the arms of Charles Jenkinson, first Earl of Liverpool, at the unanimous request of the mayor and munic.i.p.ality of that town, signified by their recorder.

V. A very interesting cla.s.s of Allusive Arms is composed of those derived from the SITUATION of the original residences of the respective families.

The following are instances:

Wallop, earl of Portsmouth, 'Argent, a bend wavy sable.' The name of Wallop is local, and it was antiently written Welhop. Wallop, or Welhope, is the name of two parishes in Hampshire, so denominated from a fountain or _well_, springing from a _hope_ or hill in the vicinity, and giving birth to a small river, which becomes tributary to the Tese. Here, in very antient times, this family resided, and from the little river referred to the surname was adopted, while the bend wavy in the arms alludes both to the river and the name.

Stourton, Lord Stourton, 'Sable, a bend or, between six fountains proper.'

The river Stour rises at Stourton, co. Wilts, from six fountains or springs. The family name is derived from the place, and the arms from this circ.u.mstance. The bend may be regarded as the pale of Stourton park, as three of the sources of the river are within that inclosure and three beyond it.

Shuckburgh, a parish in Warwickshire, is remarkable for that kind of fossil termed _astroit_, which resembles the mullet of heraldry. The family who, in very antient times, derived their surname from the locality, bear three mullets in their arms.[221]

The Swales of Swale-hall, co. York, bear 'Azure, a bend unde argent.' Some consider this a representation of the river Swale, though Peter Le Neve thinks it a rebus for the name of _Nunda_, whose heiress married a Swale.[222]

Highmore of High-moor, co. c.u.mberland: 'Argent, a crossbow erect between _four_ moor-c.o.c.ks sable; their legs, beaks, and combs, gules.' This family originated in the moors of that county, _unde nomen et arma_. The author of 'Historical and Allusive Arms' says that they branched out into three lines, called from the situation of their respective places of abode, HIGHMORE, MIDDLEMORE, and LOWMORE. It is curious that the Middlemore branch gave as arms the crossbow and _three_ moor-c.o.c.ks; while the Lowmores bore the crossbow and _two_ moor-c.o.c.ks only. Had the family ramified still further into '_Lowermore_,' it is probable that branch must have rested content with a _single_ moor-c.o.c.k, while the '_Lowestmores_,'

carrying out the same principle of gradation, could not have claimed even a solitary bird, but must have made shift with their untrophied crossbow.

On the other hand, '_Highermore_' would have been ent.i.tled to _five_, and '_Highestmore_' to _six_, head of game, in addition to the family weapon!

Hume, of Nine Wells, the family of the great historian, bore 'Vert, a lion rampant argent within a bordure or, charged with _nine wells_ or springs barry-wavy azure and argent,' "The estate of Nine Wells is so named from a cl.u.s.ter of springs of that number. Their situation is picturesque; they burst forth from a gentle declivity in front of the mansion, which has on each side a semicircular rising bank, covered with fine timber, and fall, after a short course, into the bed of the river Whitewater, which forms a boundary in the front. These springs, as descriptive of their property, were a.s.signed to the Humes of this place as a difference in arms from the chief of their house."[223]

VI. Of arms alluding to the PROFESSION or pursuits of the original bearer, I shall adduce but few instances, as they generally exhibit bad taste, and a departure from heraldric purity; _e. g._ Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester and Worcester, the champion and martyr of the Protestant cause, bore '...

a lamb in a burning bush; the rays of the sun descending thereon proper.'