The Dates of Variously-shaped Shields, with Coincident Dates and Examples. Grazebrook George
very curious shield of Helie Count de Maine is reproduced in Montfauçon's Monarchie Française. This is a wedge-shaped or triangular shield, but the top has square corners and is peaked (see No. 48). The seal of Turstan Dispensator Regis, about 1210, shows the heater-pear with the upper corners slightly varied. This is engraved in Collect. Top. et Gen., vol. iv, p. 239. The ancient arms of Despencer are said to have been Ermine, a chief Gules; but this seems to represent … six cloves, four and two, and a chief; and to fill up the space three cinquefoils are introduced in the field.
But, as before laid down, the general shapes of shields in this century are the Norman No. 2, often of very long proportions, as shown in William de Longespee, Earl of Sarum, 1226, and the statues at Wells Cathedral, 1230; the heater-pear No. 6, and the plain heater No. 5, rather long and pointed. A Clifford seal given in Nicholas Upton, p. 91, of date 1220, has a heater-pear shield on the seal, and an ordinary heater on the smaller counterseal (see No. 49). We may remark that on the tomb of Queen Eleanor, in Westminster Abbey, appears, on a long-shaped heater shield, the first example of quartering in England which just comes within the limits of the thirteenth century. This represents the two kingdoms of Castile and Leon, but it was undoubtedly the example which afterwards led to regular quarterings of arms by families.
It is noticeable that during the latter half of this century shields begin to be shown in seals, suspended by the guige, which is passed round a tree or other device from which it can hang.
Flowers, leaves, and even architectural details, enarching, &c., now begin to appear, to fill up the field, and the whole tone approaches the style prevailing in the following century.
It may be as well to remark in this place that milled, dotted, or roped lines around seals are no indication of date. They appear in all these varieties as early as William the Conqueror, and extend to the latest times, according to the fancy of the artist.
Inscriptions are in longobardic, with plain Latin capitals often alternated; and in the seal of Henry II. the letter R has a line across the tail, signifying a contraction—HENR for Henrici.
Until the end of this century a cross is used at the beginning of the inscriptions, but about 1275 stars appear, and in the next century trefoils and other devices are frequently introduced instead of crosses.
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