The Dates of Variously-shaped Shields, with Coincident Dates and Examples. Grazebrook George
No. 44). The seal of Gilbert de Gant, who died 1156, presents a shield more triangular than No. 2, and in the centre is a sharp pointed boss [Top. and Gen., i, 317]. The same boss appears in the seal of Ralph son of William, of Dimsdale-on-Tees, 1174–80 (Herald and Genealogist, i, 227); also in a good many contemporaneous seals, and it was evidently meant for use as an offensive weapon. It is noteworthy that on the first seal of Richard I. a spike is shown on the shield; his first coronation was in 1189. On the second seal there is none; his second coronation took place on 17th April, 1194. This may show the date when this fashion was discontinued. In the seal of Sewal de Ethindon, about 1167, the curved shield of Norman form, No. 2, runs down into a long point, somewhat twisted round, so as to show down on the right side of the rider. It does not protect his leg at all; in fact, the arrangement, to our eyes, seems awkward and most embarrassing to the mounted knight (engraved Nicholas Upton, p. 84; see No. 45). While in that of Sayer de Quinci, towards the end of this century, a heater-pear shield No. 6 appears. This is engraved in Spelman's Aspilogia, p. 67.
Plate II.
The men's seals of this date which present their shields for our consideration usually show them on horseback, fully caparisoned; and many interesting details of spurs, swords, and arms are represented, as well as the furniture for their horses. We are able here to show the two seals of Malgerus le Vavasour, 1140–50, showing heater-pear, almost heart-shaped shields. See Collect. Topog. et Genealog., vol. vi, p. 127, where the deed to which these are attached is supposed to date between 1180–6; but Malger's son, William Vavasour, was a judge 1166–84 [Itinerary of Henry II.], and Sir Robert, the grandson, paid a heavy fine—1200 marks and two palfreys—in 9 John, 1207–8, that Maud his daughter [and widow of Theobald Walter] might marry Fulke Fitzwarine: we have thus no difficulty in proving that the date of this seal is circa 1140 to 1150. We also give the beautiful seal of Egidius de Gorram, 1175–80 [Collectanea Topog. et Genealog., vol. v, p. 187.] The unmounted knight is represented in scale armour, kneeling, and holding a sort of heater-pear shield, No. 6, with a pointed boss.
The fields of seals are now quite plain, except sometimes in those of ladies. In the first seal of Roheis de Gant, Countess of Lincoln before 1156, lilies are introduced, to fill up what would otherwise appear too great a bare space. This is engraved in Topog. and Genealogist, vol. i, p. 318.
In counterseals of this century heater shields appear such as are common during the next century. A most curious instance of a pear-shaped curved shield, having a bouche cut into it for the introduction of the spear, occurs in the seal of Theodoric Count of Flanders, 1159, who wears tegulated armour. It is engraved in Oliver Vredius, p. 17 (see No. 46). So far as we know, this useful bouche, as a resting place for the spear, disappeared—to crop up again, as an improvement and novelty, in the middle of the fourteenth century.
The marvellous set of chessmen found in the Isle of Lewis afford us a most interesting series of shields of this century. They are fully illustrated, Archæologia, vol. xxiv. They give us the long Norman pear or kite-shaped No. 3, the Norman convex No. 4, also a flattened convex with rounded corners, and these shields are all long and narrow, just wide enough to cover the body. There are many instances of exactly similar shields. In Harl. MS. 2803, a Bible, written about 1170, Goliath of Gath bears a shield exactly resembling them; and in the most interesting monumental effigy of William, Count of Flanders, son of Robert, Duke of Normandy, who died in 1127, engraved in Oliver Vredius' Seals of the Counts of Flanders, 1639, p. 14. He apparently was a very old man at his death. He bears a shield exactly like the Lewis chessmen in shape, but the face of it is filled up with an elaborate escarboucle, carried out and attached to the rim, which wholly surrounds the shield. Shields with the flattened convex top and rounded corners, but of much shorter proportions, occur in Harl. MS. Y. 6. (engraved Hewitt, vol. i, p. 127), written at the end of the twelfth century, and one clearly shows the curved formation which is indicated in numberless seals and illuminations of this date.
The inscriptions are in Latin and in longobardic characters, but Gothic letters are sometimes alternated, while in others plain Roman capitals still occur. I have noticed one remarkable instance of an inscription of this century, in Norman-French, around the seal of Alanus fil. Adam, temp. Henry II. The deed to which it is attached is printed in Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. v, p. 116.
THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
In the earliest years of this century Norman shields curved round the body still continue; while in seals, which at this date are our principal source of evidence, animals, such as dragons, appear to fill up the field, and especially to support a plain shield in large counterseals; also distinctive badges are introduced, such as cinquefoils, estoiles, mascles, boars' heads, lions, &c.; but sometimes in character they follow greatly the pattern obtaining at the end of the twelfth century. "Heater-pear" No. 6 occurs, and frequently such a shield stands in the centre of a circular seal, merely surrounded by the inscription in longobardic. The heater shield is now rather more pointed than it appears in later examples.
A very curious triangular shield No. 1 also now appears, as in the seal of Johannes fil. Galfridi de Edinton, such a triangular shield on a plain circular field, around which is the inscription, in plain Roman capitals. This is engraved in the Visit. Hunts., 1613, p. 100. Another seal, Nigellus de Amundeville, is entirely three-cornered, a little longer than an equilateral triangle; the shield is of the same contour, and shows three chevrons, while the edging leaves space for the inscription round the three sides. This is also engraved in the Visit. of Huntingdon, 1613, p. 121, published by the Camden Society. This shape of triangular seal seems to have been more common than was supposed. The curious seal of the Treverbin family of Cornwall is engraved, Archæological Journal, vol. x, p. 150; but, as it shows no shield, it stands outside our present subject.
Another curious shield is figured in Nicholas Upton, De Usu Militari, Bisse edition, 1654, p. 37, and of date 1257 (see No. 47). Henry de Fernbureg stands with a square shield in his left hand. It is about two feet long, considerably curved, and appears to be very thick. In his right hand he holds a hammer extending into a sharp spike at the back. Square shields very much like this, but more oblong in shape, and with a round boss projecting from the middle, occur in the very curious illustration of a wager of duel in the Miscel. Rolls, temp. Henry III., and therefore of date 1210–50. Each duellist carries such a shield; they must be over two feet long, and are much curved; while with the other hand he wields an awkward looking hammer, or more properly a pick, as it is pointed at both ends; while, after the manner of ancient pictures, the vanquished (and therefore the guilty one) is seen hanging up in the background. This is engraved in Hewitt's Ancient Armour, vol. i, p. 375, also in Madox's History of the Exchequer, p. 383.
In the very curious instance of the seal of Thomas Furnival, his arms are shown in a lozenge-shaped shield. This is of date 1274–9, and is engraved in Herald and Genealogist, vol. iii, p. 334. Even at this early date such a shape seems to have been usually reserved for ladies. Sir George Mackenzie