CHAPTER III

THE SHIELD AND ITS TREATMENT (_continued_)

Armorial Bearings of Ladies; Use of Lozenges and Roundels as variant forms of Shields; Arms of Men on Lozenges; Combinations of Shields with Lozenges and Roundels of Arms on Seals and in Embroideries.

Before leaving the subject of the shield a few words must be written about the armorial bearings of ladies.

It has always been the practice for the daughters of a house to bear, without difference or alteration, the arms of their father. This practice has been departed from only in quite modern times, by the addition of distinctive labels to the arms borne by our princesses. To the manner in which married ladies have arranged or 'marshalled' their arms reference will be made later, but it is necessary here to call attention to the fact that it has been customary for a long time to place the arms of widows and single ladies upon shields that are lozenge-shaped. A good early example is that from the monument in Westminster abbey church of Frances Brandon duchess of Suffolk (_ob._ 1559), shown in fig. 51.

This singularly inconvenient form of shield, upon which it is often impossible to draw the arms properly, began to be used early in the fourteenth century.

It was not, however, used for or restricted to the arms of ladies, since the evidence of seals shows that it was at first used to contain the armorial bearings of men. There can likewise be little doubt that it and the roundel, which was also charged with arms, were contemporaneously invented by the seal engravers as variants from the ordinary form of shield; and it is interesting to note that the majority of the examples occur on seals which have a background or setting of elaborate tracery.

The roundel seems to have originated in the covering of the entire field of a circular seal with the arms of its owner, such as the leopards of England which are so disposed in a counterseal of Edward of Carnarvon as prince of Wales. Two seals of John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster, engraved probably in 1372, show a similar treatment: the one bearing his arms impaling, and the other his arms impaled with, those of Castile and Leon (pl. VII B). The former commemorates his marriage with Constance of Castile, and the latter the duke's claim in right of his wife to the kingdom of Castile itself.

A large enamelled roundel, _party gules and azure with a gold charbocle_, accompanies the shield and crested helm which, with it, form the stall-plate of Ralph lord Bassett (_c._ 1390) at Windsor.

One of the lesser seals appended to the Barons' Letter, that of Robert FitzPain, is an oval filled with the owner's arms (fig. 52).

One of the earliest examples of arms on a lozenge is on a seal of Thomas Furnival, who died in 1279, and another but little later is furnished by the seal of William de Braose, appended to a deed of either 1282 or 1314 at Magdalen College, Oxford (pl. IX B).

That of William Paynel, appended to the Barons' Letter, also has his arms on a lozenge (pl. IX A).

The first seal of a lady in which lozenges of arms occur is probably that of Joan, daughter of Henry count of Barre and Eleanor daughter of King Edward I, who married, in 1306, John de Warenne earl of Surrey (fig. 53). This has five lozenges arranged in cross: that in the middle has her husband's checkers, those on each side her father's barbels, etc. and those above and below the three leopards of England. The lady's descent from King Edward is further shown by the castles and lions of his consort Eleanor of Castile.

Another interesting example, of a date about 1320, is the seal of Parnel, daughter of H. de Grapenell, and widow (1) of John FitzJohn and (2) of Sir John Bensted (_ob._ 1323). This has in the middle a shield of the arms of Bensted, _gules three gold gemell-bars_, between four lozenges, apparently for Grapenell and FitzJohn (pl. IX C).

Contemporary with Parnel Bensted's seal are two others in which roundels are used instead of lozenges. Both are traceried seals of Elizabeth daughter of Gilbert of Clare earl of Gloucester, and Joan daughter of King Edward I and Queen Eleanor of Castile. She was thrice married: first, about 1306 to John of Burgh, son of Richard earl of Ulster; secondly to Theobald lord Verdon; and thirdly to Roger lord d'Amory, who died in 1322.

One of these seals has in the middle, in a shield, Elizabeth's own arms of Clare impaling Burgh within a black border bedewed with tears. Above and below are roundels of Clare, and on either side other roundels of Verdon and d'Amory. In the interspaces are the castles and lions of Castile and Leon (pl. IX D).

The other seal is similarly arranged, but has in the middle a large shield of d'Amory, between roundels of arms of the lady's other husbands above and below, and of Clare for her father or herself on either side. The interspaces again contain castles and lions (pl. IX E).

Four other early seals of great artistic merit displaying roundels may also be described, especially since they are apparently the work of the same engraver. They are filled with tracery, consisting of a triangle enclosing a circle, which contains a large shield, with cusped circles on its sides containing roundels or devices.

The first is for Mary de Seynt-Pol, who married in 1322 Aymer of Valence earl of Pembroke (fig. 54). The shield bears the dimidiated arms of husband and wife; on a roundel in base are the arms of her mother; and higher up are roundels of England and France, out of compliment to King Edward II and Queen Isabel.

The second is for John de Bohun earl of Hereford, and has a large shield of Bohun with roundels also of Bohun. It was probably engraved in 1322, and before the earl's marriage in 1325 (pl. X A).

The third is for Richard FitzAlan earl of Arundel (1330-1), who succeeded to the vast Warenne estates in 1347. It has in the middle a shield of FitzAlan, and about it three roundels with the checkers of Warenne.

The fourth is for Hugh Courtenay earl of Devon (1334-5-40)or his son Hugh (1340-77). The shield displays the arms of Courtenay and in each of the outer circles is a sexfoil (pl. X B).

To these examples may be added a fifth of about the same date, for Henry Sturmy or Esturmy, lord of the forest of Savernake. This has the Sturmy shield in the middle, between two roundels of the Hussey arms, and a third roundel above with the tenure horn of Savernake Forest (pl. X C).

Other seals that may be quoted in illustration of the indiscriminate use of shields, roundels, and lozenges during the fourteenth century are those of: (1) Juliana, daughter of Thomas Leybourne, and wife of John lord Hastings (_ob._ 1325), with a shield of Hastings impaling Leybourne, encircled by six lozenges of arms indicative of other alliances and descents, derived from the fact of the lady having been married thrice; (2) Elizabeth de Multon, wife of Walter Bermyngham, with the shield of Bermyngham surrounded by six roundels of other arms; (3) Maud, daughter of Bartholomew Badlesmere, and wife in 1336 of John de Vere earl of Oxford (fig. 55), with a shield of Vere between lozenges of Clare, Badlesmere (her father and herself), Clare with label (mother), and FitzPayn (first husband); (4) Maud, daughter of Henry earl of Lancaster, married first to William of Burgh earl of Ulster, and secondly (in 1343-4) to Sir Ralph Ufford (fig. 56), with lozenges of Lancaster (father and herself) above and Chaworth (mother) below, and shields of Burgh and Ufford (husbands); (5) Sybil, daughter of William Montagu earl of Salisbury and Katharine Graunson, with shield of FitzAlan with a label, for her husband Sir Edmund of Arundel, second son of Edmund FitzAlan earl of Arundel, between lozenges of Montagu and Graunson (pl. X E);[2] and (6) Elizabeth, widow of Sir Gilbert Elsefield, with a lozenge of Elsefield between four roundels of other arms (impression 1382-3).

[2] Impression attached to a deed in the British Museum, 1350-1.

Alice, wife of Thomas of Heslerton, has on her seal (impression 1374) a large lozenge of the arms of Heslerton (_gules six silver lions with gold crowns_) within a quatrefoil, outside of which are four small banners of arms with martlets between.

Lastly may be noted a seal of Roger Foljambe, attached to a deed of 1396-7, having a lozenge of his arms (_a bend and six scallop shells_) surrounded by his word or motto.

But seals are not the only authorities for the indiscriminate use of roundels and lozenges as well as shields of arms. In the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington is an enamelled coffer of late thirteenth century work decorated with lozenges of arms of England, Valence, Dreux, Angoulême, Brabant, and Lacy. The famous Syon cope _de opere Anglicano_, also in the Victoria and Albert Museum, has the existing orphrey filled with large armorial roundels and lozenges, and its border is composed of a stole and fanon embroidered throughout with lozenges of arms. (See fig. 57.) Christchurch, Canterbury, in 1315 possessed an albe 'sewn with lozenges with the arms of the king of England and of Leybourne,'[3] and another 'sewn with the arms of Northwode and Ponyngg in squares';[4] also an albe 'sewn with divers arms in lozenges with purple frets with a stole and fanon of the same work,'[5] evidently not unlike those on the Syon cope.

[3] 'consuta de losenges cum armis regis Anglie et de Leyburn.'

[4] 'consuta de armis de Northwode et Ponyngg in quadrangulis.'

[5] 'consuta de diversis armis in lozengis cum frectis purpureis cum stola et manipulo ejusdem operis.'

It may also be noted that the pillows beneath the head of the effigy at Westminster of Aveline countess of Lancaster (_c._ 1275) are both covered with heraldic lozenges: on the upper one with the arms of her husband alternating with the lion of Redvers; on the lower with the vair cross on red of her father, William of Forz earl of Albemarle. The gilt metal bed plate under the effigy of William of Valence earl of Pembroke (_ob._ 1296), likewise at Westminster, is also covered with a lozengy diaper of England and Valence, still bright with the original enamel; the workmanship of this, however, is probably French.

The restriction of the lozenge to the arms of ladies has clearly therefore no medieval precedent, and there is not any reason why the modern custom should not be set aside when for artistic reasons a shield or roundel is preferable.