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I.—Armorials upon English Seals from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2011

C. H. Hunter Blair
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Extract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and illustrate the development of shields of arms and their accessories upon the seals of English men and women from the simple devices of the later twelfth century to the complicated armorials and complete achievements of later times. The great seal of William the Norman, like that of Edward the Confessor, had two sides. On one William was shown seated in majesty as king of the English; on the other, unlike Edward, he appeared fully armed upon horseback as duke of the Normans. This equestrian representation of a knight fully equipped with the arms and armour of his time was the type of seal adopted by the greater barons in the early twelfth century. It was upon the shields borne by these horsemen that armorial charges first appear. Part I of this paper deals with this equestrian type.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 89 , 1943 , pp. 1 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1943

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References

page 1 note 1 The same type of shield embroidered upon the Bayeux tapestry bore various devices (Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde, Bayeux, n.d.). It will be seen that the pennon of three tails upon earl David's spear has a device embroidered upon it (pl. I, a); see Wagner's Heralds and Heraldry, p. 17.

page 2 note 1 The obverse of pl.1, j, representing earl Geoffrey with spear shows a shield concave to his body. The reverse (j) shows the inside of the shield which is longer than usual and ends in a point beneath the horse. It has also the straighter top with rounded corners of its later date.

page 2 note 2 He was son of Gospatric (III) and earl of Lothian, seal is c. 1165; he died 1182.

page 2 note 3 Probably the origin of the checky gold and azure shield of the family of Warenne earls of Surrey (A. R. Wagner, Historic Heraldry of Britain, p. 46).

page 3 note 1 London, 1654, p. 89.

page 3 note 2 Archaeological Journal, ii, 43–8.

page 3 note 3 Since this paper was written an impression of another seal of Strongbow has been found and published by Mr. A. R. Wagner in The Antiquaries Journal, vol. xxi, pp. 128 ff.

page 3 note 4 Catalogue Heralds' Commemorative Exhibition, 1484–1934, p. 69, London, 1936Google Scholar; also Wagner, A. R., Historic Heraldry of Britain, 1939. I am indebted to Mr. Wagner for telling me of this important seal and for allowing me to reproduce his drawing of it here.Google Scholar

page 9 note 1 Woodward, John, Heraldry, British and Foreign, i, 73, ed. 1896.Google Scholar

page 9 note 2 I have to thank Mr. Anthony R. Wagner, Portcullis Pursuivant, for telling me of these seals and also of the painted shield in the Antiquaries roll.

page 10 note 1 Official arms were impaled with their own shields by bishops, kings-of-arms, etc., from the fifteenth century the official shield taking precedence.

page 11 note 1 The earliest example of this is on the tomb of Eleanor of Castile, d. 1290 (Hist. Mon. Conv. London, i, 29 and plate facing).

page 13 note 1 Ed. Edward Bisshe, London, 1654.

page 13 note 2 Ibid.

page 20 note 1 An Englishwoman's seal of equestrian type has not been found by the writer though the seals of some of the Countesses of Flanders were of that type (Sigilla Comitum Flandriae, by Olivar Vedrius).