Part 17 (1/2)
The _fusil_ is supposed to be, and is generally depicted, of a greater height and less width than a lozenge, being an altogether narrower figure (Fig. 231). Though this distinction is generally observed, it is not always easy to decide which figure any emblazonment is intended to represent, unless the blazon of the arms in question is known. In many cases the variations of different coats of arms, to suit or to fit the varying shapes of s.h.i.+elds, have resulted in the use of lozenges and fusils indifferently.
Fusils occur in the historic arms of Daubeney, from which family Daubeney of Cote, near Bristol, is descended, being one of the few families who have an undoubted male descent from a companion of William the Conqueror. In the ordinary way five or more lozenges in fess would be fusils, as in the arms of Percy, Duke of Northumberland, who bears in the first quarter: Azure, five fusils conjoined in fess or. The charges in the arms of Montagu, though only three in number, are always termed fusils. But obviously in early times there could have been no distinction between the lozenge and the fusil.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 230.--Lozenge.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 231.--Fusil.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 232.--Mascle.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 233.--Rustre.]
The _mascle_ is a lozenge voided, _i.e._ only the outer framework is left, the inner portion being removed (Fig. 232). Mascles have no particular or special meaning, but are frequently to be met with.
The blazon of the arms of De Quincy in Charles's Roll is: ”De goules poudre a fause losengez dor,” and in another Roll (MS. Brit. Mus. 29,796) the arms are described: ”De gules a set fauses lozenges de or” (Fig. 234). The great Seiher de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, father of Roger, bore quite different arms (Fig. 235). In 1472 Louis de Bruges, Lord of Gruthuyse, was created Earl of Winchester, having no relation to the De Quincy line. The arms of De Bruges, or rather of Gruthuyse, were very different, yet nevertheless, we find upon the Patent Roll (12 Edward IV. pt. 1, _m._ 11) a grant of the following arms: ”Azure, dix mascles d'Or, enorme d'une canton de nostre propre Armes de Angleterre; cest a savoir de Gules a une Lipard pa.s.sant d'Or, armee {148} d'Azure,” to Louis, Earl of Winchester (Fig. 236). The recurrence of the mascles in the arms of the successive Earls of Winchester, whilst each had other family arms, and in the arms of Ferrers, whilst not being the original Ferrers coat, suggests the thought that there may be hidden some reference to a common saintly patronage which all enjoyed, or some territorial honour common to the three of which the knowledge no longer remains with us.
There are some number of coats which are said to have had a field masculy.
Of course this is quite possible, and the difference between a field masculy and a field fretty is that in the latter the separate pieces of which it is composed interlace each other; but when the field is masculy it is all one fretwork surface, the field being visible through the voided apertures. Nevertheless it seems by no means certain that in every case in which the field masculy occurs it may not be found in other, and possibly earlier, examples as fretty. At any rate, very few such coats of arms are even supposed to exist. The arms of De Burgh (Fig. 237) are blazoned in the Grimaldi Roll: ”Masclee de vere and de goules,” but whether the inference is that this blazon is wrong or that lozenge and mascle were identical terms I am not aware.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 234.--Arms of Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winchester (d.
1264): Gules, seven mascles conjoined, three, three and one or. (From his seal.)]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 235.--Arms of Seiher de Quincy, Earl of Winchester (d.
1219): Or, a fess gules, a label of seven points azure. (From his seal.)]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 236.--Arms of Louis de Bruges, Earl of Winchester (d.
1492.)]
The _rustre_ is comparatively rare (Fig. 233). It is a lozenge pierced in the centre with a circular hole. It occurs in the arms of J. D. G.
Dalrymple, Esq., F.S.A. Some few coats of arms are mentioned in Papworth in which the rustre appears; for example the arms of Pery, which are: ”Or, three rustres sable;” and Goodchief, which are: ”Per fess or and sable, three rustres counterchanged;” but so seldom is the figure met with that it may be almost dropped out of consideration. How it ever reached the position of being considered one of the ordinaries has always been to me a profound mystery. {149}
THE FRET
The fret (Fig. 238), which is very frequently found occurring in British armory, is no doubt derived from earlier coats of arms, the whole field of which was covered by an interlacing of alternate bendlets and bendlets sinister, because many of the families who now bear a simple fret are found in earlier representations and in the early rolls of arms bearing coats which were fretty (Fig. 239). Instances of this kind will be found in the arms of Maltravers, Verdon, Tollemache, and other families.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 237.--Arms of Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent (d. 1243).
(From his seal.)]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 238.--The Fret.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 239.--Fretty.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 240.--Arms of John Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel (d.
1435): Quarterly, 1 and 4, gules, a lion rampant or (for Fitz Alan); 2 and 3, sable, fretty or (for Maltravers). (From his seal, _c._ 1432.)]
”Sable fretty or” was the original form of the arms of the ancient and historic family of Maltravers. At a later date the arms of Maltravers are found simply ”sable, a fret or,” but, like the arms of so many other families which we now find blazoned simply as charged with a fret, their original form was undoubtedly ”fretty.” They appear fretty as late as in the year 1421, which is the date at which the Garter plate of Sir William Arundel, K.G. (1395-1400), was set up in St. George's Chapel at Windsor.
His arms as there displayed are in the first and fourth quarters, ”gules, a lion rampant or,” and in the second and third, ”purpure fretty or” for Maltravers. Probably the seal of John Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel (d. 1435), roughly marks the period, and shows the source of the confusion (Fig. 240).
But it should be noted that Sir Richard Arundel, Lord Maltravers, bore at the siege of Rouen, in the year 1418, gules a lion rampant or, quarterly with ”sable a fret or” (for Maltravers). This would seem to indicate {150} that those who treat the fret and fretty as interchangeable have good grounds for so doing. A Sir John Maltravers bore ”sable fretty or” at the siege of Calais, and another Sir John Maltravers, a knight banneret, bore at the first Dunstable tournament ”sable fretty or, a label of three points argent.” As he is there described as Le Fitz, the label was probably a purely temporary mark of difference. In a roll of arms which is believed to belong to the latter part of the reign of Henry III., a Sir William Maltravers is credited with ”sable fretty or, on a quarter argent, three lions pa.s.sant in pale gules.” The palpable origin of the fret or fretty in the case of the arms of Maltravers is simply the canting similarity between a traverse and the name Maltravers. Another case, which starting fretty has ended in a fret, occurs in the arms of the family of Harington. Sir John de Haverington, or Sir John de Harington, is found at the first Dunstable tournament in 1308 bearing ”sable fretty argent,” and this coat of arms variously differenced appears in some number of the other early rolls of arms. The Harington family, as may be seen from the current baronetages, now bear ”sable a fret argent,” but there can be little doubt that in this case the origin of the fretty is to be found in a representation of a herring-net.
The fret is usually depicted _throughout_ when borne singly, and is then composed of a bendlet dexter and a bendlet sinister, interlaced in the centre by a mascle. Occasionally it will be found couped, but it is then, as a rule, only occupying the position of a subsidiary charge. A coat which is _fretty_ is entirely covered by the interlacing bendlets and bendlets sinister, no mascles being introduced.