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Some families have borne quartered arms for so many centuries that these could not be sundered now without marring the historic association. Such is the beautiful achievement of the Earls of Eglinton, wherein for nearly seven hundred years the lilies of Montgomerie have blossomed beside the annulets of Eglinton. Another such shield is that of the Earls of Morton, where the paternal heart and stars of Douglas are quartered with the ancient bearings of Douglas of Lochleven. But, as a rule, the inheritor of established armorial bearings should be as jealous of any addition thereto as of any infringement upon them.

of Erskine, suffers no abate- ings of the name-three white ment of honour from being bears' heads on an azure field. quartered with the ancient arms of the much-disputed earldom of Mar. This arrangement marks the Earl of Mar as chief of the house of Erskine. But imagine another case. Suppose some future rightful heir to that almost immemorial title one of the Seven Earldoms of Scotland under her Celtic kings-suppose him to "marry the heiress of some great Hoggenheimer, who requires the bridegroom to quarter with the paternal coat the arms which he, Hoggenheimer, has been granted and transmits to his daughter. Then the full evil of quarterings will be apparent: the ancient shield will be for ever defaced by the intrusion of the Hoggenheimer bearings. In a word, an ancient coat of arms must always suffer by quartering, unless with arms of superior antiquity and dignity to itself: it is always desirable to maintain an undivided shield as long as possible. The idea that a simple coat of arms is less honourable than a multiple one may be disproved by the fact that the premier Marquis of the United Kingdom, Lord Winchester, displays only the singularly plain arms of Paulet, three swords on a sable field; and the premier Viscount, Lord Hereford, the equally simple device of Devereux, a red fess on a white field with three torteaux (red discs) in chief. So in Scotland Lord Forbes, premier baron of that realm by the creation of 1442, uses nothing but the original bear

VOL. CLXXVIII.—NO. MLXXVII.

His

It would contribute much to the beauty and effectiveness of certain shields of arms were the owners to apply for fresh patents reducing the number of quarterings prescribed at a time when heraldry had become sorely corrupted. The Duke of Richmond and Gordon's arms offer a case in point. shield displays no fewer than thirty quarters, the arms of England and France being repeated eight times, those of Scotland, Ireland, d'Aubigny, Gordon, Badenoch, Seton, and Fraser each twice. Assuming that it is desirable to proclaim all these alliances upon a single shield or banner, the quarters should be rearranged so that none might appear more than twice. Even so, in days when heraldry was an operative part of the national military scheme, such complex bearings must

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have led to frequent confusion, so difficult would it have been to establish the identity of any knight riding into the lists or leading his contingent in the King's army.

Let two points be recorded to the credit of Garter and the Herald's College. They struck the arms of France off the shield of the British Sovereign when these had ceased to represent any real power or property, and they have consistently and wisely refused to listen to meddlesome persons who desire to see the modern arms of our Colonies incorporated with those of the three realms, 1

The importance of the coat of arms was enhanced in feudal and semi-feudal times by reason that it usually fixed the colours of a knight's liveries—no mean consideration when the King's army was made up by the personal following of his barons and knights. Medieval history becomes very picturesque reading from the frequent allusions by chroniclers to the dress of soldiers.

Take, as an example, the memorable scene at "lousie Lauder" in 1479, when Archibald Douglas, fifth Earl of Angus, earned that name of "Bell-the-cat" by which he is best remembered. The balefires had been flying from height to height, from tower to tower, along the Border, summoning barons and yeomen to the accustomed task of national defence. Dreamy, intellectual

James III. had ridden from Edinburgh to put himself at the head of the forces, but with him he had brought the detested Thomas Cochrane and his crew"fiddlers and bricklayers," as the haughty Angus called them. Upon this Cochrane, a builder or architect, James had bestowed the earldom of Mar, vacated by the suspicious death of the King's own brother in a dungeon of Craigmillar.

The barons were furious. Even with the English in possession of Berwick and menacing a descent upon the capital, the Scottish lords would not march with the low-born Cochrane. Angus, as Warden, summoned them to meet in the Kirk of Lauder, where Lord Gray bitterly likened them to the assembly of mice who determined that, in the common interest, a bell must be hung round the cat's neck. The difficulty was to find a volunteer for that delicate operation. "I WILL BELL THE CAT!" growled the Warden; and as he spoke there was a loud knocking at the church door. Douglas of Lochleven, looking out, beheld the upstart Earl of Mar, with his following of three hundred, all dressed in the livery of the earldom-white doublets with black bands (derived from the white shield and "sable pale of Mar"). Cochrane himself, says Lindsay of Pitscottie, was gorgeously attired in a riding coat of black velvet, a heavy

1 In a former number of 'Maga' (September 1897) I pointed out how such a proceeding would be equally inconsistent with right heraldic practice and historical fact.

gold chain round his neck "to the awaillour [value] of 500 crowns," and a baldrick of silk and gold across his shoulder. He wore a gold-mounted hunting-horn, too, set with a large beryl. "This Couchrane was so proud in his consait that he contit no lord to be marrow [equal] to him, thairfor he raschit [rushed] rudlie at the kirk dore." He claimed admittance as Earl of Mar to the assembly of his peers. Angus strode down the aisle, and bade his kinsman admit the fellow. The door was then flung to and barred in the faces of his followers. Angus wrenched the gold chain from his victim's neck. "A rope would fit it better!" quoth he. Lochleven tore off the gay horn, saying, "Hunter of mischief he hath been too long!"

"My lords!" cried Cochrane, "is this mows [acting] or earnest?" "Hard earnest," shouted the Warden, "and so you will find it.” Before the summer sun had set, Cochrane and half-a-dozen of his fellows dangled limp and lourd in their gay coats over the parapet of Lauder Bridge.

There may be remarked here the complete change in modern usage of the terms "banner" and "standard." What is now known as the Royal Standard is what used to be a banner of arms the King's arms. In the minds of most people banners are associated with Oddfellows' fêtes and trades' demonstrations, where they fulfil the function of what used to be technically known as standards, bearing devices not strictly heraldic and painted

with

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mottoes "Death to ty ants!" "Peace and Plenty!" "One Man one Vote!" and so on, according to the nature and temper of the occasion. "Standards," says Boutell, 'appear to have been used solely for the purpose of display, and to add to the splendour of military gatherings and royal pageants"; whereas the banner of a sovereign or knight was not meant for mere ostentation, but was of serious purpose. It bore only the recognised arms of its owner, and marked his presence and position in the army or in the field. It served the same purpose in battle as was done until recently by the colours of a regiment under a system of field tactics now obsolete. A trace of the ancient practice survives in our Highland regiments, where the piper attached to each company displays on the banner of his pipes the arms of his captain.

The standard became fashionable in the reign of Edward III., but did not displace the banner. It seems at first to have been a voluntary emblem of knighthood, and consisted of a long, narrow flag, tapering either to a point or a swallow - tail, usually having the cross of the national saint next the hoist, with heraldic and other devices, badges, and mottoes on the fly. In Henry VIII.'s reign the length of the standard was fixed in proportion to the owner's degree, eight to nine yards being prescribed for the Sovereign, graduated through various ranks, down to four yards for a simple knight.

Four such standards have

the crescent and fetterlock—

been figured and described by the late Earl of Southeskin and sundry other devices; the 'Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland' (1901-2, pp. 246-280):

(1) The standard of Keith, Earl Marischal, carried at Flodden by Black John Skirving of Plewland, brought back to Edinburgh after the great day of Scotland's dolour, and now preserved in the Advocate's Library. It bears only the Keith crest, a hart's head, repeated thrice, with the legend VERITAS VINCIT-a vaunt which it was not the destiny of the gallant Keith to fulfil on that fatal 9th September 1513. The standard is the subject of plate xlvi in the catalogue of the Heraldic Exhibition held at Edinburgh in 1892.

(2) The Huntly standard, taken in the same battle by Sir William Molyneux from the Earl of Huntly, and displayed, until the middle of last century, in the parish church of Sefton. Grievous to relate, it has since disappeared, but a water-colour drawing of it remains at Croxteth, showing a scarlet flag, charged with a variety of emblems and heraldic figures, and with the legend Clame tot! which Lord Southesk interpreted "Summon

all!"

(3) The Percy standard, figured in Woodward and Boutell's Treatise on Heraldry' (ii. 649, fig. 100) as having the red cross of St George at the hoist; the azure lion of Louvaine on the fly, with the Percy badge

at

while the Percy motto-Esperance en Dieu-is repeated four times. I have not been able to trace this standard to its present resting-place. It is not Alnwick or Syon: is it at Petworth, whither so many Percy pictures and relics have drifted, including the spurs of Harry Hotspur?

This Percy standard is an ensign of melancholy, having been displayed by Henry Percy "the unthrifty," 6th Earl of Northumberland (1527-1537), most forlorn of all figures in his long, illustrious line. While passing his minority in the household of Cardinal Wolsey, he lost his heart to lovely Anne Boleyn, and came near losing his head in consequence. For the King already had unclean eyes upon this matchless beauty, and the Cardinal received instructions to warn the young lord of what had been marked as royal prey.

cast

Percy stoutly refused to give up his suit. "I have gone soe farre," said he, "before soe many worthy wittnesses, that I knowe not how to discharge meselfe and my conscience.

"Well, then," quoth my Lord Cardinall, "I will send for your father out of the north, and he and wee shall take such order; and in the meane season I chardge thee that thou resort no more into her company as thou wilt abye the King's indignation."1

Percy's father, "the Mag

1 From Sir Roger Twisden's MS., published in Nott's 'Life of Wyatt,' p. 442,

note.

nificent Earl," hastened from the north; the lovers were separated, and the young lord was wedded forthwith to Lady Mary Talbot, daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury. Among all the dismal records of this shameful reign, there occurs no more ghastly outrage upon humanity than this action of the Ogre King. Percy never got over it: his married life was one continual wrangle with a jealous woman. At last, in one of their quarrels, he bade her hold her peace, for she was no wife of his, in that "having been betrothed to to Anne Boleyn, any subsequent marriage was illegal." The Countess was but too well pleased to hear of anything that might rid her of a husband she hated: she laid the matter before her father, Shrewsbury, and Northumberland (he had succeeded to the earldom in 1527) was summoned before the Council to explain matters. Now Henry VIII. had not waited until the slow process of ecclesiastical law should rid him of poor Katherine of Aragon: the divorce was not completed until May 1533, whereas in November or January preceding he had secretly married Anne Boleyn, wherefore Northumberland stood in jeopardy of the penalty for high treason. He had no nerve for the fruitless sacrifice moreover, Anne had not remained faithful to him; he saved his head by denying his mistress upon the Holy Sacrament. Three years later he was specially named by the King as one of twenty

seven peers to try Queen Anne upon а disgraceful charge. Her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, was President of the Court, and flinched not from carrying the bloody farce to its prearranged conclusion. But Northumberland could not sit it out. When Anne rose to defend herself, he quailed before her proud glance, hastily left the Court, "compelled by sudden illness," as the Venetian ambassador charitably states, and so escaped the awful ordeal of condemning to the scaffold the only woman he ever loved. He lingered out a few miserable years: racked by disease, robbed of all his property by a dishonourable trick of the King's, and deserted by his wife, he died in June 1537, aged only five and thirty. Richard Layton, describing his deathbed to Secretary Cromwell, wrote "this iij wekes he hade no money but by borowyng, as his servauntes declarede to me."

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Nevertheless, even this illstarred earl had his brief hour of splendour and display. As Warden of the East and Middle Marches, he managed to consign to a violent death quite a respectable number of his fellow-creatures. Thus, at his first Wardenry Court held at Alnwick in January 1528, he was able to report to the Cardinal that he had beheaded nine and hanged five men for march-treason. A little later, he wrote that "all the Scots of Tyvidale that came to my hands, I put them to death saving three," and asked instructions as to these last.

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