Kings.Garter, Clarenceux, Norroy.Heralds.Windsor, Richmond, York, Lancaster, Carlisle, Montorgueil, Somerset.Pursuivants in Ordinary.Rouge-Cross, Blue-Mantle, Portcullis, and Rouge-Dragon.Pursuivants Extraordinary.Calais, Risebank, Guisnes; and Hampnes. These four took their titles from places in France within the English pale.
Kings.Garter, Clarenceux, Norroy.
Heralds.Windsor, Richmond, York, Lancaster, Carlisle, Montorgueil, Somerset.
Pursuivants in Ordinary.Rouge-Cross, Blue-Mantle, Portcullis, and Rouge-Dragon.
Pursuivants Extraordinary.Calais, Risebank, Guisnes; and Hampnes. These four took their titles from places in France within the English pale.
The armorial bearings devised in this reign had little of the chaste simplicity of those of an earlier date. Those coats which contain a great variety of charges may be generally referred to this period, and they are familiarly styled ‘Henry-the-Eighthcoats.’ Such arms have been humorously compared to “garrisons,well stockedwith fish, flesh, and fowl.”[266]
Edward VI bestowed upon the heralds many additional immunities and privileges; and Mary, his successor, by charter dated 1554, granted them Derby House for the purpose of depositing their rolls and other records.
Elizabeth inherited from her father the spirit of chivalry, and its concomitant fondness for pageantry. Hence she necessarily patronized the officers of arms. In this reign the quarrels which for some time previously had been hatching between various members of the body touching their individual rights, broke out with great virulence. “Their accusations against each other,” Noble remarks, “would fill a volume.” Broke, or Brokesmouth, York Herald, whose animosities against the great and justly venerated Camden have given to his name a celebrity which it does not deserve, was foremost amongst the litigants.[267]
A new order of gentry had sprung up in the two or three preceding reigns, some of whom had enriched themselves by commercial enterprise, while others had acquired broad lands at the dissolution of the monasteries. Thesenovi homineswere very ambitious of heraldric honours, and accordingly made numerous applications for grants of arms. Cooke, Clarenceux, granted upwards of five hundred coats, and the two Dethicks twice that number in this reign. Great pains were taken by the sovereign to preserve inviolate the rights of the college; yet notwithstanding there were some adventurers who, for the sake of lucre, devised arms and forged pedigrees for persons of mean family, to the no small umbrage of the antient gentry, and the pecuniary loss of the corporation. One W. Dawkeyns compiled nearly a hundred of these spurious genealogies for families in Essex, Herts, and Cambridgeshire, an offence for which he was visited with the pillory; but though he stood “earless on high,” he seems to have been “unabashed;” for after an interval of twenty years he was found ‘at his olde trickes againe,’ andagain fell under the lash of the earl-marshal. The warrant for his second apprehension is dated Dec. 31st, 1597.
James I advanced the regular salaries of the heralds, and indirectly promoted their interests, further, by a lavish distribution of new titular honours. In this reign occurs an instance of the antient custom of degrading a knight. Sir Frances Michel having been convicted of grievous exactions was sentenced, in 1621, to a ‘degradation of honour.’ Being brought by the sheriff of London to Westminster-Hall, in the presence of the commissioners who then executed the office of earl-marshal and the kings of arms, the sentence of parliament was openly read by Philipot, a pursuivant, when the servants of the marshall hacked off his spurs, broke his sword over his head, and threw away the pieces, and the first commissioner proclaimed with uplifted voice, that he was “no longer knight, but a scoundrel-knave!”
The disputes in the College concerning the duties and prerogatives of its members, and their jealousies respecting preferments continued unabated. Broke (or Brokesmouth), York, and Treswell, Somerset, carried their effrontery so far as to defy the authority of their superiors in office, for which offence, added to contempt of the earl-marshal, they were committed to prison. The house was ‘divided against itself,’ and consequently could not ‘stand,’ at least in the respect and estimation of the public. Francis Thynne, a herald of the period, speaks of the poverty of the College as compared with its antient condition; complains that ‘the heralds are not esteemed,’ and that ‘every one withdraweth his favour from them;’ and prays the superior powers to repair their ‘ruined state.’
Of Charles I it has been truly said, that he wasnot more arbitrary in his government than several of his predecessors had been. His mistake was, that he did not march with the times, but wished, amid the increased enlightenment of the 17th century, to exercise the monarchical prerogatives of the middle ages. Most of the acts which led to his downfall were not greater violations of the fundamental principles of the constitution than had been committed by earlier monarchs; but the time was now come when they could no longer be tolerated by a free and generous nation. In relation to heraldic usages Charles only copied the acts of former sovereigns; yet they added not a little to his unpopularity. One of his commissions directed to the provincial kings of arms, authorized them to visit all churches, mansions, public halls, and other places, to inspect any arms, cognizances, or crests, set up therein; and, if found faulty in regard of proof, to pull down and deface the same. It further empowered them to reprove, control, andmake infamous, by proclamation at courts of assize, all persons who had without sufficient warrant assumed the title of esquire or gentleman; to forbid the use of velvet palls at the funerals of persons of insufficient rank; and to prevent any painter, glazier, engraver, or mason, from representing any armorial ensigns, except under their sanction and direction. All delinquents were to be cited into the earl-marshal’s Court of Chivalry, an institution almost as arbitrary and unconstitutional as the court of Star-Chamber itself. Nothing perhaps, as Noble observes, injured the Heralds’ College more than this shameful tribunal, which proceeded to fine and imprisonment for mere words spoken against the gentility of the plaintiff. “Had it only decided upon what usually ends in duels it would have been a most praiseworthy institution.” But it went further, and its severity became deservedly odiousto the nation. Mr. Hyde (afterwards Lord Clarendon) deprecated its insolence and said, “the youngest man remembered the beginning of it, and he hoped the oldest might see the end of it.”—“A citizen of good quality,” said he, “a merchant, was by that court ruined in his estate and his body imprisoned,for calling a swan a goose!”
It is needless to say that the Court of Chivalry was swept away along with other grievances of a like nature in the revolution which succeeded. It was revived, however, at the restoration of Charles II, and continued, though rather feebly, to execute its functions until the year 1732. Some of its proceedings, as recited by Dallaway, are very curious. I give an abstract of a case or two.
29th May, 1598. The earl-marshal, assisted by several peers and knights, held a court of chivalry to decide on a quarrel between Anthony Felton, Esq., and Edmund Withepool, Esq. It appears that a dispute had occurred between these two gentlemen at the town of Ipswich, when Withepool so far forgot himself as to bastinado the other, for which the latter summoned him into this court. The decree of the earl-marshal was that Withepool should confess to his prosecutor “that he knew him to be a gentleman unfitt to be stroken,” and promise that he would hereafter maintain Mr. Felton’s reputation against all slanderous persons. The delinquent submitted to this judgment, and the proceedings were at an end. Pity it is that a similar court of honour, voluntarily supported, should not now exist for the purpose of settling those quarrels among the aristocracy, which are generally adjudicated by the stupid, illegal, and wicked ordeal of the bullet.[268]Let it form part of every gentleman’s code of honour to bow to the decision of a tribunal soconstituted, and duelling—that purest relic of mediæval barbarism, which has descended to our time—would be numbered among the absurdities of the past.
1638. Fowke contra Barnfield. Walter Fowke of Ganston, co. Stafford, prosecuted Richard Barnfield of Wolverhampton for a libel, for that he had said ‘that complainant was never a soldier or captain before the Isle of Rhe voyage, when he was made a captain, and afterwards ran away; and that he dared the said W. F. to go to a fencing-school to fight it out with him, &c.’ The decree of the court was, that Barnfield should make submission, find security for his good behaviour towards Fowke, and pay a fine of £10 to the king, £10 to the complainant, and 20 marks costs; and, in default, be committed to prison.
The assumption of the arms of a family, by persons bearing the same name, though unauthorized by family connexion, brought many causes into this court.
West, Lord Delawarr, against West. A man who had been a famous wrestler, and bore the sobriquet of ‘Jack in the West,’ acquiring a fortune by keeping a public-house, assumed the regular surname of West, and the arms of Lord Delawarr’s family. In support of this double assumption he got some venal member[269]of the College of Arms to furnishhim with a pedigree, deducing his descent, through three or four generations, from the fourth son of one of the Lords Delawarr. His son, who had been bred in the Inns of Court, and was resident in Hampshire, presuming, upon the strength of his pedigree, to take precedence of some of his neighbours, they instigated Lord Delawarr to prosecute him in the Court of Honour. At the hearing, the defendant produced his patent from the heralds; but, unfortunately for his pretensions, an antient gentleman of the house of West, who had been long abroad and was believed to be dead, and whom our innkeeper’s son had claimed as his father’s father, returned at this juncture to England, and ‘dashed the whole business.’[270]The would-be West was fined £500, and commanded ‘never more to write himself gentleman.’
On the breaking out of the civil wars the heralds espoused opposing interests. The three kings of arms, with a few of their subordinates, adhered totheir brother monarch: the others sided with the Parliament.
When, in 1642, Charles was compelled to take up his residence at Oxford, several of the officers of arms were in attendance upon him; and it affords very high testimony of their respectability and learning that some of them were admitted to the first distinctions the university could bestow. The afterwards famous Dugdale (then Rouge-Croix) and Edmund Walker, Chester, were created masters of arts, and Sir William le Neve, Clarenceux, was admitted to the dignity of LL.D. In 1643 and 1644, George Owen, York, John Philipot, Somerset, Sir John Borrough, Garter, and hissuccessor, Sir Henry St. George, were also honoured with the last-mentioned degree.
It is singular that an institution so immediately connected with royalty as was the College of Arms, should have been permitted to exist during the Commonwealth; and still more so that while the republicans carried their hatred to the very name of king so far as to alter the designation of theKing’sBench, and to strike the wordkingdomout of their vocabulary, that the principal functionaries of the College should have been allowed to retain their antient titles of kings of arms. The royal arms, of course, disappeared from the herald’s tabard, though it does not very clearly appear what was substituted; probably the state arms, namely, two shields conjoined in fesse; dexter, the cross of St. George, and, sinister, the Irish harp.[271]
Oliver Cromwell was, as Noble justly remarks, “a splendid prince, keeping a most stately and magnificent court.” Hence the heralds could by no means be dispensed with. They attended at his proclamation, and on all subsequent state occasions. The Protector’s funeral was a pageant of more than regal magnificence, and cost the extravagant sum of £28,000.[272]But, notwithstanding the patronage of Cromwell, the College was far from prosperous at this period, for the visitations were discontinued, and the nobility and antient gentry, awaiting in moody silence the issue of the system ofgovernment then in operation, paid little attention to heraldric honours, which were disregarded by the nation at large, or, if recognized at all, only to be associated (as they have too often since been[273]) with the idea of an insolent and overbearing aristocracy.
The College of Arms, like all other public bodies, was put into very great disorder by the return of the exiled Charles. Several of the officers who had been ejected on account of their loyalty to his father were restored to their former posts; those who had changed with the times were degraded to the inferior offices; while those who had been appointed during the Commonwealth and Protectorate were expelled. In Scotland the heralds were restored to their former privileges. Sir Andrew Durham, created Lyon king of arms in 1662, had, at his investment, a crown of gold placed upon his head in full Parliament, and was harangued by the Chancellor and the Lord Register on the duties and importance of the office conferred upon him.
The great fire of 1666 destroyed the buildings of the College of Arms; but fortunately all the records and books were rescued from the flames and deposited at Whitehall, whence they were afterwards removed to an apartment in the palace at Westminster. The College was rebuilt some years subsequently; a small portion of the necessary funds having been raised by subscription; but by far the greater part wascontributed by the officers themselves.[274]At its completion in 1683 it was considered ‘one of the handsomest brick buildings in London.’ The income of the heralds was, at this time, little more than nominal; but they were principally persons of good family, who possessed private property.
County Visitations were revived soon after the Restoration, but (with the exception of those of Sir William Dugdale, which are amongst the best in the College) they do not appear to have been conducted with so much strictness as in former times; and at the Revolution of 1688 they were entirely abandoned. During the intolerant proceedings against the nonconformists under Charles II, the pursuivants were occasionally employed in that disagreeable duty of their office from which they originally borrowed their designation, (Poursuivre, Fr. v. a. to pursue), that of bringing suspected persons up to London. Noble gives (from Calamy) some instances of their being despatched to apprehend nonconformists in Cheshire.
James II “affected great state, and was the last of our monarchs who kept up the regal state in its full splendour.”[275]The investiture of some new officers of arms in this reign was probably more splendid than any that had previously taken place. But all the benefits they received from the sovereign were countervailed by his insisting upon their attending him to the Catholic worship on all high days and holidays, a proceeding which very much disgusted them.
Nothing of particular importance relating to the College occurs in the reign of William and Mary, except the refusal of the usual commissions to hold visitations, as a practicediscordant with the spirit of the times. Under the antient system, a broad line of demarcation had separated the nobility and gentry from the common people; but gradually the commercial interests of the nation introduced that intermediate rank recognized as the middle classes of society, and these, by means of the wealth acquired in merchandise and trade, often eclipsed in the elegancies of life many of the antient gentry. Hence the Heraldic Visitations, had they been continued to our times, would have necessarily led to much invidiousness of distinction on the part of the heralds, and probably to much ill feeling between the representatives of far-descended houses and the upstarts of a day.
At the union with Scotland, temp. Anne, it was determined that Lyon, the Scottish king of arms, should rank in dignity next after Garter, the principal English king.[276]
The reign of George I presents us with two incidents deserving of notice. The first is the ceremony of the degradation of the Duke of Ormond, attainted of treason, from the order of the Garter, which was performed with theusual ceremonials at Windsor, in 1716. The other I give in the words of Noble:
“In the year 1727, an impostor, of the name of Robert Harman, pretending to be a herald, was prosecuted for the offence by the College of Arms, at the quarter-sessions for the county of Suffolk, held at Beccles, and being convicted of the offence, was sentenced to be placed in the pillory in several market-towns on public market-days, and afterwards to be imprisoned and pay a fine, which sentence was accordingly executed, proving that the impudent and designing were not to encroach upon the rights of the College with impunity.”[277]
When war with Spain was proclaimed in the thirteenth year of George II, the proclamation was made in the metropolis by the officers of arms, according to antient usage. They also attended at the trial of the three Scottish rebel lords in Westminster-Hall, in 1746. Fourteen standards taken from the adherents of the Pretender were publicly burnt at Edinburgh, by the common hangman. “The prince’s own standard was carried by the executioner, each of the others bychimney-sweepers(!) The former was first committed to the flames, with three flourishes of the trumpets, amidst repeated acclamations of a vast concourse of people. The same was done with each of the other colours separately; theheraldsalways proclaiming the names of the ‘rebel traitors to whom they belonged.’”[278]
“After the battle of Dettingen, fought in 1743, his Majesty revived the order of Knights-Bannerets, the last of whom had been Sir John Smith, created a banneret by Charles I at the battle of Edgehill, the first in the fatal civil war. The form of treating them formerly was, the candidatepresented his standard or pennon to the sovereign or his general, who cutting off the skirt or tail of it made it square, when it was returned: hence they are sometimes called knights of the square banner. They precede all knights, not of the Garter or Bath, of England, and even baronets, being reputed next to the nobility after those preceding orders.”[279]They have the privilege of using supporters to their arms; but, as the honour is not hereditary, their descendants cannot claim it.
In 1732 an unsuccessful attempt was made to revive the Court of Chivalry. The earl-marshal’s deputy and his assistant lords and the officers of arms being present, the king’s advocate exhibited complaints,First, against Mrs. Radburne, for using divers ensigns at the funeral of her husband not pertaining to his condition;secondly, against the executors of a Mr. Ladbrook for using, on a similar occasion, arms not legally belonging to the defunct; and,thirdly, against Sir John Blunt, Bart. for assuming, without right, the arms of the antient family of Blount of Sodington. This gentleman had been a scrivener, and was one of the projectors of the well-known South-Sea Scheme or ‘Bubble,’ which ended in the total ruin of so many respectable families. But “the whole business was imprudently begun, and unskilfully conducted; the lawyers who were consulted laughed at it;”[280]and, though the court proceeded so far as to fine some of the parties, it was unable to carry its decisions into effect; and we hear no more of the Court of Chivalry.
It would be tedious, and beyond the design of the present hasty sketch, to notice all the great occasions on which the heralds were in requisition during the reigns of the three predecessors of her present Majesty. During thisperiod several members of the College have shed lustre on their office, and on the antiquarian literature of England. These will come under review in my next chapter; and it will only be necessary here to add a few particulars relating to the present state of the College.
The building, which stands upon the site of theDerby Housebefore referred to, is approached by an archway on St. Benet’s Hill, and has a sombre appearance perfectly in keeping with the purposes to which it is devoted. It comprises the great hall, the library, consisting of two rooms; the outer one of the time of Charles II, fitted with dark carved-oak panels, and containing a beautifully executed chimney-piece, said to be the work of Sibborn; the inner, a spacious and lofty octangular apartment, recently erected and rendered fire-proof, for the safer preservation of the records and more valuable documents; and besides these rooms there are separate apartments appropriated to the use of the several officers. The great hall, where the Courts of Chivalry were antiently held, and where the ‘Chapters’ of the heralds still take place, remains almostin statu quo, with its high-backed throne for the earl-marshal, surrounded with balustrades, and retaining somewhat of the awe-striking solemnity of the tribunal. The panelling has recently been decorated with shields of the several lords and earls-marshal from the origin of that office till the present time. The library, it is scarcely necessary to state, contains a large and extremely valuable collection of original visitation books, records of the arms and pedigrees of families, funeral certificates of the nobility and gentry, antient tournament and other rolls of great curiosity; the sword, dagger, and ring of King James IV, of Scotland; and probably every work illustrative, in any degree, of heraldry and genealogy, that hasissued from the press of this country, together with many foreign works on those subjects. Of the great value of this inexhaustible mine of information the historian and the antiquary are well aware, and there is scarcely any work in their respective departments that has not received some addition from this library.
The following is a list of the Corporation of the College as it now exists:
Earl-Marshaland Hereditary Marshal of England.Henry-Charles, Duke of Norfolk, &c. &c. &c.Kings of Arms.Garter.Sir Charles George Young, Knt., F.S.A.Clarenceux.Joseph Hawker, Esq., F.S.A.Norroy.Francis Martin, Esq., F.S.A.Heralds.Somerset.James Cathrow Disney, Esq.Chester.Walter Aston Blount, Esq. Genealogist and Blanc-Coursier Herald, of the Order of the Bath.Richmond.James Pulman Esq., F.S.A. Registrar of the College of Arms, and Yeoman-Usher of the Black Rod to the House of Lords.Windsor.Robert Laurie, Esq.Lancaster.Albert William Woods, Esq. Gentleman-Usher of the Red Rod, and Brunswick Herald of the Order of the Bath.York.Edward Howard Gibbon, Esq., Secretary to the Earl-Marshal.Pursuivants.Bluemantle.George Harrison Rogers Harrison, Esq., F.S.A.Rouge-Dragon.Thomas William King, Esq., F.S.A.Rouge-Croix.William Courthope, Esq.Portculis.George William Collen, Esq.
Earl-Marshaland Hereditary Marshal of England.
Henry-Charles, Duke of Norfolk, &c. &c. &c.
Kings of Arms.
Garter.Sir Charles George Young, Knt., F.S.A.
Clarenceux.Joseph Hawker, Esq., F.S.A.
Norroy.Francis Martin, Esq., F.S.A.
Heralds.
Somerset.James Cathrow Disney, Esq.
Chester.Walter Aston Blount, Esq. Genealogist and Blanc-Coursier Herald, of the Order of the Bath.
Richmond.James Pulman Esq., F.S.A. Registrar of the College of Arms, and Yeoman-Usher of the Black Rod to the House of Lords.
Windsor.Robert Laurie, Esq.
Lancaster.Albert William Woods, Esq. Gentleman-Usher of the Red Rod, and Brunswick Herald of the Order of the Bath.
York.Edward Howard Gibbon, Esq., Secretary to the Earl-Marshal.
Pursuivants.
Bluemantle.George Harrison Rogers Harrison, Esq., F.S.A.
Rouge-Dragon.Thomas William King, Esq., F.S.A.
Rouge-Croix.William Courthope, Esq.
Portculis.George William Collen, Esq.
Distinguished Heralds and Heraldric Writers.
Inthe earliest ages after the introduction of Heraldry the laws of the science must have been orally taught to novitiate heralds: but when the regulations of chivalry were framed into a code they began to be committed to writing, and among the earliest MSS. are some on this subject.[281]But these generally have reference rather to feats of arms than to the technicalities of blazon.
A.D. 1441.
The first author, of any note, on this subject is Doctor Nicholas Upton, a native of Devonshire, who was honoured with the patronage of Humphrey, “the good” Duke of Gloucester, temp. Henry IV, by whose influence he became canon of Sarum, Wells, and St. Paul’s. Previously to obtaining these preferments he had served in the French wars under Thomas de Montacute, earl of Salisbury; and it was during those campaigns he wrote a Latin treatise, entitled ‘De Studio Militari,’ MS. copies of which are preserved in the College of Arms, and elsewhere.[282]It consists of five books; viz. 1, Of officers of Arms; 2, Of Veterans, now styled Heralds; 3, Of Duels; 4, Of Colours; 5, Of Figures; forming altogether a systematic grammar of Heraldry. The latinity of Upton is considered very classical for the age in which he flourished.
One of the earliest treatises on Heraldry, as well as one of the first productions of the press in this country, is contained in the highly-celebratedBoke of St. Albans, printed within the precincts of the monastery from which it is designated, in the year 1486. This singular work contains tracts on hawking, hunting, and ‘coot-armuris’—the last constituting the greater portion of the volume. It is printed in a type resembling the text-hand written at the period, and with all the abbreviations employed in manuscript. The margin contains exemplifications of the arms described in the text, stained with coloured inks. This edition, like others of that early date, is now exceedingly scarce, there being probably not more than five or six copies extant. Another edition was published in 1496 by Wm. Copeland, and a single copy occurs of the same date with the imprint of Wynkyn de Worde: these were probably of the same impression with different title-pages. A new edition appeared in 1550; and another was included in Gervase Markham’s ‘Gentleman’s Academie,’ in 1595.[283]The entire work was attributed, for the first three centuries after its publication, to Dame Julyan Berners,[284]prioress of Sopewell, and sister of Richard, Lord Berners, a woman of great personal and mental endowments.[285]That a woman, and especially thesuperior of a religious sisterhood, should have devoted her pen to the secular subjects of heraldry and field-sports, at first sight, seems singular; but the rude complexion of the times in which she lived renders little apology necessary for this apparent violation of propriety; and we may fairly venerate the memory of this gentle lady as a promoter of English literature. Dallaway is the first, and, as far as I am aware, with the exception of Mr. Haslewood, the only author who questions the pretensions of Dame Juliana to the authorship of the whole work; and he founds his doubts upon the difference observable between the style of the heraldric essay and the previous ones. He considers the former as the work of some anonymous monk of St. Albans. But as several almost contemporary authors ascribe it to her, and there is no positive proof to the contrary, far be from me that want of gallantry which would despoil the worthy prioress of the honour of having indited this goodly tractate, this ‘nobull werke!’[286]
If the reader has never seen the Boke of Saint Albans, and feels only half as much curiosity to become acquainted with its contents as I did before I had the good fortune to meet with it, I am sure he will not consider the following choice bits of Old English, extracted from it, impertinently introduced.
Dame Julyan Berners merits honourable notice as one of the earliest of English poetesses. The treatise on hunting is in rhyme, and consists of 606 verses. The style is didactic. Take a specimen:
“Bestys of venery.“Whersoever ye fall by fryth or by fell,My dere chylde take heed how Tristrom dooth you tell,How many maner beestys of venery ther were,Lysten to your dame and then schall you lere,Ffour maner beestys of venery there are;The first of them is the hert—the secunde is the hare,The boore is oon of them—the woolff and not oon moe.”“How ye schal break an hert.“Then take out the suet that it be not lefte,For that my child is good for lechecrafte (medicine),And in the myddest of the herte a boon shall ye fynde,Loke ye geve hit to a lord—and chylde be kynde.For it is kynd for many maladies.”
In subsequent parts of the poem, ‘the namys of diverse maner houndys,’ ‘the propertees of a good hors,’ ‘the company of bestys and fowles,’ and other sporting subjects are discussed, and interspersed with proverbs of a somewhat caustic description. The composition very oddly concludes with an enumeration of “all the shyeris and the bishopryckes of the realme of England.”
From the heraldrical portion of the Boke many short extracts have already been given. Some others follow:
“Note here well who shall gyue cotarmures:
“Ther shall none of theIV.orduris of regalite bot all onli the soueregne kyng geue cootarmur. for that is to hymimproperid by lawe of armys.[287]And yit the kyng shall nott make a knyght with owte a cootarmure byfore.
“Ev’y knyght cheftayn i the felde mai make a cootarmur knight.
“In how many places a knyght may be made:
“A knyght is made inIV.dyuerse placis. in musturing in lond of werys. In semblyng under baneris. In listys of the bath and at the sepulcur.
“A gentylman spirituall:
“Ther is a gentylman a churls sone a preste to be made and that is a spirituall gentylman to god and not of blode. Butt if a gentylmannys sone be made a preste he is a gentilman both spirituall and temperall. Criste was a gentylman of his moder’s behalue and bare cotarmure of aunseturis. The iiij Euangelists berith wittenese of Cristis workys in the gospell with all thappostilles. They were Jewys and of gentylmen come by the right lyne of that worthy conqueroure Judas Machabeus but that by succession of tyme the kynrade fell to pouerty, after the destruction of Judas Machabeus, and then they fell to laboris and ware calde no gentilmen. and the iiij doctores of holi church Seynt Jerom Ambrose Augustyn and Gregori war gentilmen of blode and of cotarmures!”
The following are specimens of her directions for ‘blasing of armys,’ the most important part of the work:
“Off armys palit crokyt and sharpe now I will speke.
“Loke and beholde how mony maner of wyse thes palit armys be borne dyuersli, as it is shewyt in thys boke, and theis armys now shewyt here [referring to the exemplification in the margin] be calde palit, crokyt and sharpe, for in theys armys ij coloris paly ar put togethir: oon into anothercrokytly and sharpe. Therefore it shall be sayd of hi’ the wich beris thes armis in thys wyse, first in latyn thus. Portat arma palata tortuosa acuto de nigro et argento. Gallice sic: Il port pale daunsete de sable et dargent. Anglice sic: He berith pale crokyt and sharpe of sable and syluer.”
“Off armys the wich ar calde frectis (Frets) here now I will speke:
“A certain nobull baron that is to say the lorde awdeley of the reame of England baar in his armys a frecte, the wich certain frectis in mony armys of dyurse gentillmen ar founde, other while reede other while golde, and other while blac oderwhile simple and oderwhile double otherwhile tripull and other while it is multepliet ou’ (over) all the sheld as here it apperith, and ye most vnderstande on gret differans bytwix armys bendit and theis armys the wich be made with the forsayd frettys, wherefore it is to be markyt that in bendyt armys the colouris contenyt equally ar dyuydit. Bot in this frectis the felde alwai abydys hool as here, and this forsayd lorde Audeley beris thus in latyn. Portat arma frectata de auro in campo rubreo. Et gallice sic. Il por de gowles vng frecte dor. Anglice sic. He berith gowles and a frecte of golde.”
1562
The next author of any note on the subject of Heraldry isGerard Legh, whose ‘Accedens of Armorie’ became, as Anthony à Wood phrases it, “the pattern or platform of those who came after.” This gentleman was son of Henry Legh, of London, an illegitimate scion of a Cheshire family, who, according to the proverb, were “as plenty as fleas.” He was educated at Oxford, and died in 1563, the year after the first appearance of his work. The ‘Accedens’ obtained a degree of popularity not usual at that period, and reached a fifth edition within half a century.It was the text-book on the science until Guillim’s ‘Displaie’ superseded it. The author, in his preface, acknowledges the aid he had received from a work “on the whole subject,” by one Nicholas Warde, concerning whom nothing further is known. He likewise acknowledges his obligations to eight other authors, but somewhat singularly omits to mention the Boke of St. Albans, the method of which he follows, and the very words of which he frequently borrows. After the literary fashion of his times, his work is cast in the form of a dialogue, the speakers being Gerard and Legh, his own christian name and surname. The style is highly pedantic, yet withal sufficiently amusing, and the illustrative woodcuts are executed with great spirit. Specimens of his composition have already been cited.[288]
1572
John Bossewell, gentleman, of whose personal history little or nothing is known, next appears in the field of heraldric literature. His ‘Workes of Armorie, devyded into three bookes,’ reached a second edition in 1597. His design was an improvement upon the treatise of Legh, in which he partly succeeded; but the admixture of the antient mythology, the moral virtues, the marvellous attributes and fictitious anecdotes of animals, and other foreign topics, with the more immediate subject of his work, renders it, like that of his predecessor, almost unreadable, except to the initiated. The following short extract will serve as a specimen of Bossewell’s lucubrations:
“The field is of the Saphire, on a chiefe Pearle, a Musion.... Ermines. This beaste is called a Musion, for that he is enimie to Myse andRattes ... he is slye and wittie and ... seeth so sharpely that he overcommeth darknes of the nighte by the shyninge lyghte of his eyne. In shape of body he is like vnto a Leoparde, and hathe a great mouth. He dothe delighte that he enioyeth his libertie; and in his youthe he is swifte, plyante, and merye. He maketh a rufull noyse and a gastefull when he profereth to fighte with an other. He is a cruell beaste, when he is wilde, and falleth on his owne feete from moste highe places: and vneth is hurte therewith. When he hathe a fayre skinne, he is, as it were, prowde thereof, and then he goeth faste aboute to be seene.”[289]
Need the reader be informed that this beast of the ‘rufull noyse,’ which falleth from ‘highe places on hisownefeete,’ is the common houseCAT?
An anonymous quarto, which reached a fourth edition, made its appearance in 1573, bearing the modest title of ‘A very proper Treatise, &c.’ and it shows the attention paid to heraldrical ‘tricking and painting’ in the time of queen Elizabeth, when an art which is now limited to herald-painters was deemed a fitting accomplishment for ‘gentlemenne.’
Among a host of small works on subjects connected with heraldry which appeared about this time, one may be mentioned as a great curiosity. This is a funeral sermon on the death of Walter, earl of Essex, to which are prefixed copies of verses on his lordship’s pedigree in Latin,Hebrew, Welsh,and French! The author of this tract was ‘Richard Davis, Bishoppe of Saint Davys.’
1586
Sir John Ferne, Knight, descended from a good family in Leicestershire, and connected, on his mother’s side, with the noble house of Sheffield, is believed to have studied at Oxford, though he never graduated. Great part of his life was spent as a member of the Inner Temple. King James gave him the office of secretary and keeper of the signet for the northern parts, then established at York. He died about 1610. Henry Ferne, his eighth son, was the loyalist bishop of Chester, and a writer of some note.
His ‘Blazon of Gentrie,’ published in 1586, is divided into two parts, ‘The Glorie of Generositie,’ and ‘Lacie’s Nobilitie;’ the former treating of blazon, and the latter of the genealogy of the family of Lacy, with a view to disprove the claim of affinity to it set up by Albertus a Lasco, Count-Palatine of Syradia, which is very successfully refuted. Of this learned work, which our author tells us is “compiled for the instruction of all gentlemen, bearers of arms, whom and none else it concerneth,” Peacham speaks as “indeed very rare, and sought after as a jewell.” Dallaway describes it as “a continued dialogue, alternately supported by six interlocutors, who discuss the original principles of nobility and the due gradations of the other ranks in society, adjust military distinctions, describe orders of knighthood, and adduce proofs of certain symbols and devices, concluding with high commendations of heraldic investigation. To Ferne the rank of a classic in heraldry will not be denied. His studies were directed to the investigation of the laws of chivalry, and he has transfused into his work the spirit of the voluminous codes now forgotten, which he delighted to consult. It may be considered therefore as the most complete epitome of them now extant. But we must allow that he writesmore for the amusement of the learned than for the instruction of novices, and that he deals much more in criticism than rudiments.”
The interlocutors are ‘Paradinus, the herald; Torquatus, a knight; Theologus, a deuine; Bartholus, a lawier; Berosus, an antiquary; and Columell, a plowman,’ who converses in the dialect of Somerset. “There is somewhat of a dramatic spirit in this dialogue; the characters are supported by sentiments appropriate to each, particularly the clown, who speaks freely both the language and opinions of the yeomanry at that time; nor are the strong prejudices of the knight and herald described with less force.”
As a copy of this “rare jewell” lies before me, I should certainly be to blame if I did not present my reader with a specimen of its brilliancy. The topic of discourse is the “blasing of armes.”
“Torq.I pray youposeme once again.
“Parad.Goe to then: you shall begin with a coate of easie charge to be discried. Therefore, I pray you begin, and tell your soueraigne, what coat-armour this knight beareth (for I tell you, it is the coate of a knight), that your soueraine might know him by his signes of honour, sith that perchaunce you know not his name.
“Torq.Me thinkes hee beareth Sable, a Musion[290]passaunt gardaunt Or, oppressed with a frett gules, of eight parts, nayles d’argent.
“Columel.Iesa zir: call you this Armes? Now by my vaye, chad thought Armes should not have been of zutche triflingthinges. Why, this is euen the cat in the milke-house window. Full ill will her dayrie thriue, giffe she put zutch a vermine beast in trust to keepe it.
“Torq.I am iust of thy minde: for thou hast reasoned as profoundly as might be upon so bad a deuise.
“Parad.I perceaue (Torq.) as clearkly as you seem to be in armory yet are you far to seeke and must still be taught. This payssaunt’s glosse is euen comparable with your blazon: for bad is the best.
“Torq.I suppose my blazon cannot be amended.