Encyclopædia of heraldry, or General armory of England, Scotland and Ireland : comprising a registry of all armorial bearings from the earliest to the present time, including the late grants by the College of arms

Front matter

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Ltd.

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HERALDRY,

Contents

CORRECTING SllKET.

HKRAI.DKV.

l)l(m(»NAin OK I KKM.S I SKI) IS IIKKALUKV. ABBRKVIATIONS.

Section I

FOLIOS, dahorntf nnd lennifil, liuvc boen written on tlio risp nnd jjrotrress of flu- Art or Science of Heraldry— fiM ciilutioiis liazarded, premises pompously Htiited, and conclusions wiguciously drawn; yet, beyond a few simple facts, notliintj lias been ascertained re<;rarding the one or the other, and nothing more is worth ascertaining. Heraldry is not of remote origin : the repistr)- of its l.irtli dri^in of may be foiind amongst the archives of the holy wors ; its cradle was rocked by llTKl iry. the soldiers of the cross ; and its maturity attained in those extraonlinary times of reality and romance, of barbarism and civilization,— more Ijarbarou-! than civilized — when fcudalisiii, allying with chivalry, was enabled to reburni-^h its iron crown, and to j)r(iloiig its herculean despotism even to another age — to lull, for it could not altogether smother, the breathings of public opinion, at the outburst of w hicli, the whole feudal fabric, in its greatness and in its grandeur, its nuissiveness and its might, w as predestined, like another Jericho, to crumble into ruins. The feudal lord and his frowning fortress, the mailed knight and his gorgeous tournament, liave both long since ]>assed aw ay ; an<l Henddry alone survives, the only existing relic, jirobably, of either: its vitality may be tniced, though, to attributes peculiarly its own. Ministering largely to the pride of man, without deeply trenching on his purse, pandering to ])om]) without taxing prudence, conlerring honour without imposing danger.

Heraldry, cherished since its initivity. has tlourished in every age. in every country, and under almost every form of government. In Hngland it has been more than fondly fostered : throughout the other countries of Euro[)e, armorial bearings were esteemed as ])art and parcel of the tra|)pings of nobility — here, a coat of Arms has always been the indispensable a|i]ienda'.;e of a gentlenuiii, and In- it inhcritiMl fir accjuired, it is etpudly an object of jiride and display ; if inherited, as the broad seal under w hich time testifies to the antiipiity of our race, and the i)urity of our blood — if acquired, as the golden talisman, the open sesami*, that has burst the iron gates of aristocracy, and admitted us one stcj) at least within the portal. Henddry is, however, no more than an organization of the etnblems and devices which hiul previously existed beyond the nu'mory of man, almost coevally with man himself; for nature had hardly imjiarted her first lesson of self-|)reservation, than instinct had taught the full value and im]iorfance of union — the fable and the moral of the bundle of sticks. Hence bands, tribes, septs, and nations ; and hence those insignia so absolutely necessary, as landmarks by which tribes might hti se]iiinite(I, boundaries fixed, and friends and foes distinguished and descried. " Kvery num of the cliihiren of Israel sholl j>itch by his own standard, with the ensign of their father's house: far off about t\u> tubernadeof the congregation shall they pitch."* Advancing im])erceptibly in the train of civilization, these rude devices assumed a systematic tbrm, and ot length, at the eventful period to which we have reverted, acquired the designation of Heraldry : this, briefly, is the origin o( what is now universally known us the science of Arms.

"The antiquity of gcntilicial Arms in England, (says Guillim,) will prove, I

• Numbers, rlinp. ii.

II ii

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doubt, of far later date than many of our gentry would willingly be thought to have borne them. For if consideration be had, that for some hundred years this nation was under the harass of war, in the storm of foreigners' assaults, and after, troubled with civil wars, there will be little reason to be over confident in matters of pedigrees and Arms much beyond four hundred years.* This is the opinion of the learned Sir Henry Spelman, who adds too, Nescio an edprorsus ant'iquitate. For though we might receive the hereditary use of Arms just after the holy war, (as is also Mr. Camden's opinion, and what Peter Pitheu asserts of the French,) it being in those days accounted most honourable to carry such Arms as had been displayed in the holy land against the professed enemies of Christianity, yet was not the said hereditary use established or made general until the time of King Henry III." Guillim's opinion is strengthened by that of Spelman, who produces an acquittance given by Peter to John de Herbia, dated in the 4th year of Edward I., in which occur the following words : " Rex hyruudorum citra uquam de Trent ex parte Boreale ;" and the Heralds are further particularly mentioned in the Statute of Arms made in the same reign, a clause therein Ordaining, that no King of Heralds, or his subordinates, shall wear any armour, save a sword without a point, and that the Kings of Heralds should have their houcesf desarmes only. High William the Conqueror, fashioning the Court of England upon that of

Constable Normandy, instituted the great offices of Constable and Marshal, which had pre- W^arshal. viously appended to his ducal dignity. | In the Conqueror's time, and under the Plantagenet kings, most of the proceedings in Courts Marshal ( curia milituris ) were entrusted to those high offices ; and when the Constableship was virtually, although not altogether abolished, ternp. Henry VIII. the presidency of the Court of Chivalry was conferred upon the Marshal, and henceforward he was invested with authority to summon the Heralds to aid and assist him in pursuing the suits of which the Court had cognizance. The office of Constable is traced originally to ancient Rome, and in France it very early existed ; powerless, though, or invested with very secondary powers, before the reign of Philip I. at which time the authority of this functionary was enlarged ; and he, subsequently,

• Guillim wrote in 1610. t Tabards.

X Tlie Conqueror hroup;ht into England another of his household officers — perhaps the most singular of the whole — the King-'s Champion, still extant in the famil)- of Dymoke of Scrivelshy, in Lincolnshire. The following version of an old Anglo-Norman ballad, describes with equal perspicuity the pedigree and duties of the Champion : —

The Norman Barons Marmyon,

At Norman Court held high degree ;

Knights and Champions every one. To him who won broad Scrivelsby.

Those Lincoln lands, the Conq'ror gare. That England's glore they might convfey.

To Knight renowned amongst the brave, The Baron bold of Fonteney.

Tlie Royal grant, through sire to son,

Devolved direct in capite ; Until deceased Phil. Mamiyun,

When rose fair Joan of Scrivelsby.

As sometimes viewed, one sparkling star Shines forth more bright and brilliantly

Than all around, above, afar, So shone the Maid of Scrivelsby.

From London City on the Thames, To Berwick Town upon the Tweed,

Came gallants all of courtly names. At feet of Joan their suit to plead.

Yet, maugre all this goodly band. The maiden's smile young Ludlow w6n,

Her heart and hand, her gant and land. The sword and shield of llarmyun.

Out upon Time, the scurvy Knave,

Spoiler of youth, hard hearted churl ; Hurrying to one common grave,

Goodwife and ladie — hind and earl. Out on Time — since the world began.

No Sabbath hath his greyhound limb. In coursing man — devoted man.

To age and death — out, out on him. In Lincoln's chancel, side by side,

Their effigies from marble hewn ; The " anni" written when they died,

Repose Sir Ludlow and Dame Joan. One daughter fair, survived alone,

One son deceased in infancy; De Ludlow and De Marmyuu,

United thus in Margery.

And she was woo'd as maids have been.

And won as maids are .sure to be. When gallant youths in Lincoln green.

Do suit, like Dymock, fervently. Sir John De Dymock claim'd of right,

The Championship through Margery, And 'gainst Sir Baldwin Freville, knight,

Prevail 'd, as Lord of Scrivelsby. And, ever since, when England's kings

Are diadem'd — no matter where, The Champion Dymock boldly flings

His glove, should treason venture there. On gallant steed, in armour bright.

His visor closed and couched his lance, Proclaimeth he the Monarch's right

To England, Ireland, Wales, and France. Then bravely cry, with Dymock bold.

Long may the King triumphant reignl And when fair hands the sceptre hold.

More bravely still — Long live the Queen !

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iii became by degrees so potent and influential, that the Constable was regarded inferior only in authority to the King himself. The first Constable of England, Ralph de Mortimer, received his staff of office from the Conqueror, and the dignity flourished hence to the time of Henry VIII. when, reverting to the Crown, by the attainder of Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, Lord High Constable, in 1521, the office, although not entirely extinguished, was, as a permanent place of trust and grandeur, positively abolished. And so hath it remained now more than three centuries, although high personages have, on the occasion of a Coronation or other great state ceremony, been temporarily constituted Lord High Constable.

The Mareschal of France was likewise early instituted, distinct from the Constable, but subordinate to that officer, both in peace and in war. In Normandy, the Mai-eschal enjoyed great authority and extensive jurisdiction, and had attained the summit of his power just at the time the Conquest of England was undertaken. From the institution of the dignitary here, the Marshal has been always esteemed one of the highest and most powerful functionaries. His commission is from the King alone, and he is created by Letters Patent under the Great Seal. He has borne at different times the titles of Master Marshal, King's Marshal, Marshal of England, and Earl Marshal. Marshal of England was the style used by William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, temp. Henry III. as appears from a charter grant of the Abbey of Tinternes. The first patent in which the title of Earl was given to the Marshal of England, is that of the 9 Richard II. (9th January) granted to Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham, constituting him Earl Marshal of England, to himself and the heirs male of his body. It was also provided for in the Earl's patent, that the plain rod of office hitherto borne, should be changed to a rod of gold, tipped at each end with black enamel, the Royal Arms depicted on the upper, the Earl's own on the lower end. Amongst the Norman Knights highest in the confidence of the Conqueror, were Roger de Montgomery and William Fitz Osborn ; and these gallant soldiers he rewarded with extensive grants of lands, beside nominating them the first Marshals of England.

Montgomery was likewise created Earl of Arundel, Chichestei", and Surrey, and Fitz Osborne, Earl of Hereford ; the former feudal nobleman died in 1094, the latter was slain in battle 1070. The high office cannot be distinctly traced until the reign of King Stephen, by whom it was conferred upon Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, who was regarded as Hereditary Marshal ; and his son Richard succeeded as of right to that and his Lordship's other honours, at his decease in 1148. Richard died some five or six-and-twenty years afterwards, leaving an only daughter and heiress, Isabella de Clare, who married William Marshal, and to him conveyed the Earldom of Pembroke and office of Marshal, which were so confirmed by Richard I. before his coronation. The Marshal family retained their honours only during the lives of the first Earl's five sons, who all succeeded in turn, and all died issueless. The Earldom of Pembroke expired with Anselm, the last of those Earls ; while the Marshalship of England fell between his five sisters and co-heirs. Maud, the eldest of those ladies, was first married to Hugh Bigod, fourth Earl of Norfolk of the Bigod family, and wa§ mother by him of Roger, who inherited the Earldom of Norfolk, and of two other sons, who both died issueless. Her second husband was William, Earl of Warren and Surrey ; and by him she had John, who succeeded to the Earldom of Surrey, and Isabel, the wife of Hugh de Albini, Earl of Arundel. On the decease of Anselm, last Earl of Pembroke, all the Earl's sisters claimed the Marshalship ; but it was finally adjudged to Maud, then Countess of Warren and Norfolk, who appointed her son, the Earl of Norfolk, to execute the duties of the office : the Countess died in 1248, when the Earl became Marslial in right of inheritance. He died, though, issueless in the 54 Henry III. and his nephew, Hugh Bigod, inherited the Earldom of Norfolk and the Marshalship ; but he having likewise no issue, surrendered to the Crown in due form, by written deed, dated 12th April, 1301, all his great possessions in England and Wales, and yielded at the same time to the King, all right to the Earldom of Norfolk and Marshalship of England ; in confirmation thereof he delivered up his rod of oflSce, ivr II E R A L D R Y.

conditioning tliat the same should be restored in the event of his ever having children, and that lie should receive the immediate gift of one thousand pounds, with the like sum annually while he lived. The Earl, however, enjoyed the title and office during his life, by a re-grant from the Crown ; but on his death s. p. in 1297, the surrender being then complete, Robert de Clifford, was appointed Marshal during the King's pleasure, and held the office until the 9 Edward II. ; when it was conferred in perpetuity upon Thomas de Brotherton, fifth son of Edward I. by his second Consort, Queen Margaret, and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten; he was also created Earl of Norfolk : the Prince died, however, issueless, in the 12 Edward III. when the Earldom of Norfolk and Marshalship again reverted to tlie Crown. The high dignity of Marshal was subsequently held by William de Montacute, Earl of Salisbury ; Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick ; Mortimer, Earl of March ; Mortimer, Earl of March and Ulster ; Percy, (Hotspur) Earl of Northumberland ; John Fitz Alan, Lord Maltravers ; and Thomas de Holland, Earl of Kent, half-brother of ' Richard II. ; this prince, was soon, however, displaced, and the King conferred the Marshalship for life upon Thomas de Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham, grandson of Margaret, eldest daughter and co-heir of Thomas de Brotherton aforesaid. His lordship, subsequently marrying the Lady Elizabeth Fitz Alan, daughter of Richard, Earl of Arundel, obtained a further grant of the office as Earl Marshal, to himself and the heirs male of his body; and from the Mowbray family the high office passed to that of Howard, through the intermarriage of Robert, Lord Howard, with Margaret, one of the two daughters of Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk ; Robert's son (of the said marriage) John Lord Howard, was created Duke of Norfolk and Earl Marshal, by King Richard III. in the first year of his Majesty's reign.

In the various fortimes and forfeitures of the Howards, the Marshalship has passed at different times into other hands, but finally reverted to the same family, where it now centres, the highest hereditary dignity under the Crown, and attaches to the Dukedom of Norfolk. Garter King In the reign of Henry V. anno 1417, the office of Garter King of Arms was of Ara.». instituted, for the service of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, and was made Sovereign within the Office of Arms ; in his patent, Garter is styled Principal King of English Arms, and Principal Officer of Arms of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. To him immediately belongs the adjustment of Arms, and of all ensigns of honour, and likewise the power of granting Arms to persons qualified to bear Clarenceiix them. The title of Clarenceux was conferred on a Herald in the train of the Arnui °^ Duke of Clarence, son of Edward III. ; and by Edward IV. when he succeeded to the Dukedom of Clarence, that officer was made a King of Arms. His jurisdiction extends over the south-east and west parts of the kingdom. » Norroy NoRROY, SO styled from his jurisdiction, which extends north of the Trent, is

King of ^]jg niost ancient of the Kings of Arms ; the office is referred to in the records of the times of Edward II. and Edward III. Beside these officers, there are inferior ones denominated Heralds and Purbuivants ; and the whole, incorporated by Coiipge of Charter of Richard III. constitute the College of Arms.

That learned legal luminary, Lord Chief Justice Coke, asserts, that every gentleman must be " armn gerens," and that the best test of gentle blood is the bearing of Arms, which are the most certain proofs and evidences of nobility and gentry ; hence the anxiety for such a distinction, to which we have already reverted, and hence the prominence and pride of its display.

From the old and noble families of the British, Saxon, and Norman lines, who assumed Arms as military ensigns, and then adopted them as honourable distinctions, sprang many of the ancient gentry of England, who, being either descended from or attached to those families, assumed, or were granted, badges resembling or modelled from the insignia of their chiefs ; for, saith Geraldus Cambrencis, " Clientes hos suis quasi armis instructos Armigeros suos forte vocant, et militum feoda cum armis suis, suis armigeris dedisse."

Notwithstanding this voluntary assumption of Arms in early times, and the occasional practice of the greater nobility in granting them to their tenants and dependants, it must not be inferred that all our ancient gentry or lesser nobility

HERALDRY.

V who acquired coat armour so obtained the distinction ; on the contrary, armorial

ensigns, as tesscne gentilitia, were frequently assigned by the Crown to such as

were gentlemen of blood, and hud signalized themselves in tournament or battle.*

Arms were no sooner, however, esteemed as incontrovertible evidence of honour

and blood, than the possession was eagerly sought for by all, who, by their own

industry, the patronage of the feudal lord, or tlirough royal favour, had obtained

landed property, but who had not previously served in a military capacity ; hence

the applications to the Crown for grants of Arms became so constant, that the

King, finding the duty become onerous, empowered Clarenceux and Norroy to

grant ensigns armorial within their respective provinces, under tlie authority of

the Earl Marshal ; yet an indisputable right still vests in the Crown to confer

Arms, Crests, Supporters, and all other insignia, whenever the Sovereign

may deem it advisable to exercise the prerogative. " Although Arms," says an

heraldic writer, " Avere, in their first acceptation, taken up at any gentleman's

pleasure, yet hath that liberty for many ages been deny'd, and they by regal

authority made the rewards and ensigns of merit, or the gracious favors of Princes ;

no one being, by the law of gentility in England, allowed the bearing thereof,

but those that either have them by descent or grant, therefore Henry V.

conditionis fuerit, hujusmodi arma sive tunicas armorum in se sumat, nisi ipse °^ Henry V.

ea possideat aut possidere debeat, et quod ipse anna sive tunicas illas ex cujus

dono obtinet, demonstrationis suae personis ad hoc per nos assignatis seu assig-

nandis manifeste de monstret, exceptis illis que nobiscum apud bellum de Agin-

court arma portabant,'" &c. In total disregard of tiiis royal ordinance, a

multiplicity of abuses, irregularities, and disorders, were found to have crept into

all matters appertaining to descent and Arms, and called aloud for that reformation

which the authority of the Crown could alone effect ; wherefore Commissions were Heralds' Vi-

issued under the Great Seal, to the two Provincial Kings of Arms, authorizing and sitations.

commanding each, by himself or his deputy, to visit the whole of his province as

often as he should deem it necessary ; f to convene before him all those who

bore, or assumed to bear Arms, and were styled esquires and gentlemen ; and to

cause them to produce and show by what autliority and riglit they challenged

and claimed the said use of Arms. In pursuance of this royal commission, the

* "Soon after arms had acquired the reputation of being the avowed and established marks of hononr, gentility, and family distinction, they were considered as inheritances alienable : so that, although no man could legally assume at his own free will and pleasure, or bear the jjarticular coat armour which had been assumed, or by grant from the King appropriated to another family, whilst any of the descendants of the original proprietor existed, yet a doctrine prevailed that the rightful possessor or proprietor being deemed to have, as it were, an absolute freehold in his coat armour, as well as in his lands, had an undoubted right to alienate or transfer the property and inlieritance of both the one and the other; and in consecpience of this doctrine, the proprietors of coat armour did frequently, to the exclusion of their own heirs, by grants, and that with a covenant of warrantry, convey, assign, and transfer, not only such coats armour of other families, as happened to descend to them by right of inheritance as next heir, but tlie original and paternal coat armour of their own family. Of these grants, some are enrolled in the Tower of London, and others are to be met with in printed authors. Thus we learn from Mr. Camden, that in the twenty-second year of King Ed ward III, Robert Morle, who was then Marshal of Ireland, by deed granted to his friend, Robert de Corhy, and his Iieirs for ever, the arms which by inheritance descended to him on the death of Baldwin de Manoires. In the fifteenth Richard II. Thomas Grendale granted the arms which esclieated to him upon the death of .Fohn Beaumeys, to whom he was cousin and next heir, to William Moigne. Again, in the eleventh Henry IV. we find Sir Thomas de Clanvowe granting his own family coat armour to his cousin, William Criketot ; and Sir John Carew, who lived temp. Edward I. is asserted by Anstis to have obtained a conveyance of the arms of Mohun from his lady, Alienor, dan. and co-heir of William de Mohun." — Eilmondson.

That arms were given, too, in early times, by some great earl or proprietor to his followers, we may instance the grant, temp. Henry VI. from Humfrey, Earl of Stafford, to Robert Whitgreave, of Staffordshire, ancestor of the present family of Whitgreave of Moseley Court.

t The Visitations occurred once about every thirty years, when the Kings of Arms were attended throughout their circuits by a register, a draughtsman, and other proper officers and attendants.

vi HERALDRY.

circuits of the Kings of Arms, called Visitations, commenced about the beginning of the sixteenth century, and were continued periodically until the close of the seventeenth. The earliest Visitation in the library of the College of Arms is that of Worcestershire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Staffordshire, by Benoilt, Clarenceux, in the year 1528-29 ; and the latest Commission of Visitation bears date the 13th of May, 1686. This Commission was directed to Sir Henry St. George, Clarenceux, who, in 1687, visited the wards of Billingsgate, Castle Baynard, and Cornhill, and subsequently registered some pedigrees dated so lately as the years 1703 and 1704. The Heralds' Visitations are preserved as books of record ; and the principal hereditary Arms of the kingdom are borne under the authority of those records. The Visitations were ultimately discontinued, by reason of the frequent proliibitions granted by the Court of King's Bench to stay proceedings in the Curia Militaris, or Earl Marshal's Court, and more especially owing to the abolition of the Constableship of England as a permanent office, in consequence of which the Officers of Arms were no longer able to maintain their authority or enforce their commands.

Those who are enabled to deduce descent from an ancestor whose armorial ensigns have been acknowledged in any of the Visitations, are entitled to carry Arms by in- those Arms by right of inheritance. When, however, such a descent cannot be hentance. established, the party must then prove his right as descending from some original Arms by grantee, or memorialize the Earl Marshal that he may become a grantee himself, grant. rpj^g Visitations did not extend to Wales, except upon one occasion, when

Waieii. Lewis Dwn was appointed, a. d. 1581, Deputy Herald for all Wales, by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux, and William Flower, Norroy ; but it does not follow, that the old families of Wales were not at that time in possession of Arms, and as well able as their English neighbours to establish ancient right to the distinction. Their Chroniclers and Bards flourished from the remotest times as genealogists and heralds, and the collections and pedigrees of those patriarchal poets are still regarded as the foundation of Cambrian family history.

Beside the College of Arms we have just described, there is a similar institu- Heraidry in tion at Edinburgh, for Scotland, denominated the Lion Office, at the head of Scotland, which is the Lord Lion, King of Arms. " The practice of Heraldry in Scotland," says one of the ablest writers on the subject beyond the Tweed, " is very ancient, so the higher we trace it we find Arms the more regular and distinct ; and of so great importance to the nation was the regularity and distinction of Arms reckoned by our Kings and Parliaments, that sundry laws relative thereto have been enacted and published, discharging all persons to assume Arms to themselves without due authority, prohibiting those to carry Arms who had right to none, or those who had right, to usurp the Arms of other men. Before the modern practice of subscribing names to writs of moment, which was not used in Scotland till about the year 1540, all such writs and evidents were only signed Avith seals, which contributed much to the regularity of Arms, and therefore it was enacted by sundry statutes that every Freeholder should have his proper Seal of Arms, and should either compear himself at the head court of the shire, or send his Attorney with his said Seal ; and they who wanted such seals even to be emerciat or fined, so that commonly gentlemen sent to the Clerk of the Court their Seals in lead, who kept the same in his office to produce or compare on occasions, and it was reckoned no less crime than forgery to counterfeit another man's seal."

" As these seals grew less useful and necessary, so armorial bearings became less regular, and therefore, anno 1592, cap. 135, the Parliament gave power and permission to the Lion King at Arms and his brethren Heralds, to visit the whole Arms of Noblemen, Barons, and Gentlemen, within Scotland, and to distinguish them with congruous differences, and to matriculate them in their books ; as also to inhibit all such to bear Arms as by the Law of Arms ought not to bear them, under the penalty of confiscating to the King all goods on which such Arms should be found, with an hundred pounds to the Lyon and his brethren, and in case of not payment to be imprisoned during the Lyon's pleasure. And, anno 1672, cap. 2, the said Act of Parliament is renewed and ratified, and the Lyon King of Arms is empowered to distinguish Arms and matriculate the same in his

HERALDRY.

vii

Books or Registers, which Register is ordained to be respected as the true and unrepeatable rule of all Arms- and Bearings in Scotland."

In Ireland the principal Herald is styled Ulster King of Anns, a title substi- Ulster King tuted, it is stated, for that of Ireland King of Arms, by Edward VI. although of Arms, that Prince, in his journal, mentions the Institution in Ireland as a newly-formed one: "There was," says the Monarch, "a King of Arms made for Ireland, whose name was Ulster, and his province was all Ireland. He was fourth King of Arms, and the first Herald in Ireland."

We cannot conclude these observations upon Heraldry, without some allusion to the splendid Tournament — the great and gorgeous spectacle of the Plan- Xoumatagenets and Tudors — so closely interwoven with the science itself, and so romantically chronicled by the bards and historians of those ages. "Tournaments" (we quote Nisbet) " are much more ancient than the Croisades, and have very much improven Armories, sooner or later, not only by giving rise to figures within the shield, but to those without which adorn and trim it in the present perfection and beauty we find Arms, and which we call Atchievements, that is, complete armorial bearings, with all the exterior ornaments." It was the custom of those who attended these military pageants, to be attired in complete warlike habit and equipage, with Arms emblazoned upon their shields, surcoats, and caparisons. The Esquire preceded the Knight, bearing in his right hand his Master's tilting-spear, and in his left the timbre or helmet, surmounted by the crest, adorned with pieces of silk — Mistresses' favours, wreath, or torses, tinctured of the Arms."

During the reigns of the early Kings, many gorgeous Justs or Tournaments occurred ; but they were more frequently celebrated, and with greater pomp, in the chivalrous times of Edward III. One, peculiarly imposing, is recorded to have been held in 1343, which lasted fifteen days, and another in 1.390, temp, Richard II. in which the King himself took a conspicuous part. In the reigns of the succeeding monarchs, tournaments continued to be held with like pomp, and were celebrated until later centuries in Smithfield. The most gorgeous probably on record, is that of the Field of the Cloth of Gold, held in tlie valley between Guisnes and Ardres by the Kings of England and France, Henry VIII. and Francis I. Another tournament, remarkable for having taken place at midnight by torchlight, was held by Queen Elizabeth, within her Majesty's palace of Westminster. In this Just, the Earl of Essex, with twelve Knights gorgeously attired — the Earl and his war-horse in white cloth of silver, his attendants in white satin, was opposed to the Earl of Rutland with a like suite, apparelled in blue. In the time of Elizabeth many exercises of Arms were held by Sir Henry Lee, K.G. Master of the Queen's Armory.