Monday, February 27, 2023

Back on Track!


So having covered some of the difficulties in identifying some coats of arms in King's College Chapel, Cambridge, we're going to look at one or two more where more information about the armiger - the person to whom a coat of arms belongs - was: (1) easier to find; (2) more complete; or (3) both!


Now, admittedly, we've seen this coat of arms before, on the façade of the Cambridge train station. (See the post of September 22, 2022, at http://blog.appletonstudios.com/2022/09/well-now-how-do-i-go-about-organizing.html)

These are, of course, the arms of Francis George Godolphin D'Arcy D'Arcy-Osborne, 7th Duke of Leeds, and High Steward of the Borough of Cambridge 1836-1850. (Alas, Cambridge is one of at least sixteen boroughs which no longer fills the post of High Steward. High Steward is an honorary title bestowed by the council or charter trustees of certain towns and cities in England. Originally a judicial office with considerable local powers, by the 17th century it had declined to a largely ceremonial role.)

The arms are blazoned: Quarterly: 1 and 4, Quarterly ermine and azure a cross or (Osborne); 2 and 3, Gules a double-headed eagle displayed between in chief two fleurs-de-lis argent (Godolphin).

So there you go! A coat of arms, the identification of the person to whom those arms belonged, and sufficient biographical information to ascertain why those arms appear in the windows of King's College Chapel, Cambridge.

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