Part 35 (1/2)

Papworth a.s.signs ”Argent, an aspen leaf proper” to Aspinal, and ”Or, a betony-leaf proper” to Betty. ”Argent, three aspen-leaves” is an unauthorised coat used by Espin, and the same coat with varying tinctures is a.s.signed to Cogan. Killach is stated to bear: ”Azure, three bay-leaves argent,” and to Woodward, of Little Walsingham, Norfolk, was granted in 1806: ”Vert, three mulberry-leaves or.”

_The Maple-Leaf_ has been generally adopted as a Canadian emblem, and consequently figures upon the arms of that Dominion, and in the arms of many families which have or have had Canadian a.s.sociations.

”Vert, three vine-leaves or” is a.s.signed by Papworth to Wortford, and the same authority mentions coats in which woodbine-leaves occur for Browne, Theme, and Gamboa. Rose-leaves occur in the arms of Utermarck, and walnut-leaves figure in the arms of Waller.

A curious leaf--usually called the ”sea-leaf,” which is properly the ”nenuphar-leaf,” is often met with in German heraldry, as are _Linden_ leaves.

Although theoretically leaves, the trefoil, quatrefoil, and cinquefoil {267} are a cla.s.s by themselves, having a recognised heraldic status as exclusively heraldic charges, and the quatrefoil and cinquefoil, in spite of the derivation of their names, are as likely to have been originally flowers as leaves.

_The heraldic Trefoil_ (Fig. 487), though frequently specifically described as ”slipped,” is nevertheless always so depicted, and it is not necessary to so describe it. Of late a tendency has been noticeable in paintings from Ulster's Office to represent the trefoil in a way more nearly approaching the Irish shamrock, from which it has undoubtedly been derived. Instances of the trefoil occur in the arms of Rodd, Dobree, MacDermott, and Gilmour.

The crowned trefoil is one of the national badges of Ireland.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 487.--Trefoil.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 488.--Quatrefoil.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 489.--Cinquefoil.]

A four-leaved ”lucky” shamrock has been introduced into the arms of Sir Robert Hart, Bart.

_The Quatrefoil_ (Fig. 488) is not often met with, but it occurs in the arms of Eyre, King, and Dreyer.

_The Cinquefoil_ (Fig. 489) is of frequent appearance, but, save in exceedingly rare instances, neither the quatrefoil nor the cinquefoil will be met with ”slipped.” The constant occurrence of the cinquefoil in early rolls of arms is out of all proportion to its distinctiveness or artistic beauty, and the frequency with which it is met with in conjunction with the cross crosslet points clearly to the fact that there is some allusion behind, if this could only be fathomed. Many a man might adopt a lion through independent choice, but one would not expect independent choice to lead so many to pitch upon a combination of cross crosslets and cinquefoils. The cross crosslets, I am confident, are a later addition in many cases, for the original arms of D'Arcy, for example, were simply: ”Argent, three cinquefoils gules.” The arms of the town of Leicester are: ”Gules, a cinquefoil ermine,” and this is the coat attributed to the family of the De Beaumonts or De Bellomonts, Earls of Leicester. Simon de Montfort, the great Earl of Leicester, was the son or grandson of Amicia, a coheir of the former Earls, and as such {268} ent.i.tled to quarter the arms of the De Bellomonts. As stated on page 117 (_vide_ Figs. 97 and 98), there are two coats attributed to De Montfort. His only status in this country depended solely upon the De Bellomont inheritance, and, conformably with the custom of the period, we are far more likely to find him using arms of De Bellomont or De Beaumont than of Montfort. From the similarity of the charge to the better-known Beaumont arms, I am inclined to think the lion rampant to be the real De Bellomont coat. The origin of the cinquefoil has yet to be accounted for. The earliest De Bellomont for whom I can find proof of user thereof is Robert ”Fitz-Pernell,” otherwise De Bellomont, who died in 1206, and whose seal (Fig. 490) shows it. Be it noted it is not on a s.h.i.+eld, and though of course this is not proof in any way, it is in accord with my suggestion that it is nothing more than a pimpernel flower adopted as a device or badge to typify his own name and his mother's name, she being Pernelle or Petronilla, the heiress of Grantmesnil. The cinquefoil was not the coat of Grantmesnil but a quaint little conceit, and is not therefore likely to have been used as a coat of arms by the De Bellomonts, though no doubt they used it as a badge and device, as no doubt did Simon de Montfort. Simon de Montfort split England into two parties.

Men were for Montfort or the king, and those that were for De Montfort very probably took and used his badge of a cinquefoil as a party badge.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 490.--From the seal of Robert Fitz-Pernell, Earl of Leicester, d. 1206.]

The cinquefoil in its ordinary heraldic form also occurs in the arms of Umfraville, Bardolph, Hamilton, and D'Arcy, and sprigs of cinquefoil will be found in the arms of Hill, and in the crest of Kersey. The cinquefoil is sometimes found pierced. The five-foiled flower being the blossom of so many plants, what are to all intents and purposes cinquefoils occur in the arms of Fraser, where they are termed ”fraises,” of Primrose, where they are blazoned ”primroses,” and of Lambert, where they are called ”narcissus flowers.”

_The double Quatrefoil_ is cited as the English difference mark for the ninth son, but as these difference marks are but seldom used, and as ninth sons are somewhat of a rarity, it is seldom indeed that this particular mark is seen in use. Personally I have never seen it.

_The Turnip_ makes an early appearance in armory, and occurs in the coat of Dammant [”Sable, a turnip leaved proper, a chief or, gutte-de-poix”]. {269}

The curious crest of Lingen, which is ”Seven leeks root upwards issuing from a ducal coronet all proper,” is worthy of especial mention.

In considering flowers as a charge, a start must naturally be made with the rose, which figures so prominently in the heraldry of England.

_The heraldic Rose_ until a much later date than its first appearance in armory--it occurs, however, at the earliest period--was always represented in what we now term the ”conventional” form, with five displayed petals (Fig. 491). Accustomed as we are to the more ornate form of the cultivated rose of the garden, those who speak of the ”conventional” heraldic rose rather seem to overlook that it is an exact reproduction of the wild rose of the hedgerow, which, morever, has a tendency to show itself ”displayed”

and not in the more profile att.i.tude we are perhaps accustomed to. It should also be observed that the earliest representations of the heraldic rose depict the intervening s.p.a.ces between the petals which are noticeable in the wild rose. Under the Tudor sovereigns, the heraldic rose often shows a double row of petals, a fact which is doubtless accounted for by the then increasing familiarity with the cultivated variety, and also by the attempt to conjoin the rival emblems of the warring factions of York and Lancaster.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 491.--Rose.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 492.--Rose slipped and leaved.]

Though the heraldic rose is seldom, if ever, otherwise depicted, it should be described as ”barbed vert” and ”seeded or” (or ”barbed and seeded proper”) when the centre seeds and the small intervening green leaves (the calyx) between the petals are represented in their natural colours. In the reign of the later Tudor sovereigns the conventionality of earlier heraldic art was slowly beginning to give way to the pure naturalism towards which heraldic art thereafter steadily degenerated, and we find that the rose then begins (both as a Royal badge and elsewhere) to be met with ”slipped and leaved” (Fig. 492). The Royal fleurs-de-lis are turned into natural lilies in the grant of arms to Eton College, and in the grant to William Cope, Cofferer to Henry VII., the roses are slipped [”Argent, on a chevron azure, between three roses gules, slipped and leaved vert, as many fleurs-de-lis or. Crest: out of a fleur-de-lis or, a dragon's head gules”].

A rose when ”slipped” theoretically has only a stalk added, but in practice it will always have at least one leaf added to the slip, and a rose ”slipped and leaved” would {270} have a leaf on either side. A rose ”stalked and leaved” is not so limited, and will usually be found with a slightly longer stalk and several leaves; but these technical refinements of blazon, which are really unnecessary, are not greatly observed or taken into account. The arms of the Burgh of Montrose afford an example of a single rose as the only charge, although other instances will be met with in the arms of Boscawen, Viscount Falmouth [”Ermine, a rose gules, barbed and seeded proper”], and of Nightingale, Bart. [”Per pale ermine and gules, a rose counterchanged”].

Amongst the scores of English arms in which the rose figures, it will be found in the original heraldic form in the case of the arms of Southampton (Plate VII.); and either stalked or slipped in the arms of Brodribb and White-Thomson. A curious instance of the use of the rose will be found in the crest of Bewley, and the ”cultivated” rose was depicted in the emblazonment of the crest of Inverarity, which is a rose-bush proper.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 493.--Thistle.]