The Heraldic Glass in the Chapter House of York Minster: Part 6 of 7 (the South Window)

Moving right along ("footloose and fancy free"*), we come now to the south window in the Chapter House in York Minster.

Again, we start out in the top center rose window with the arms of England, Gules three lions passant guardant in pale or. Immediately below England we have the arms of Charleton, Baron Charleton of Powys, Or a lion rampant gules. A Guide to the Heraldry in York Minster says that this shield is Percy ancient Or a lion rampant azure, which this clearly is not. Browne, in A Description of the Representations and Arms on the Glass in the Windows of York Minster, also identifies this coat as John Cherlton, Lord Powis, Lord Chamberlain to Edward II.

In the large rose window on the left, we again have the arms of  England, and and immediately below England, the arms of Balliol, Gules an orle argent.

In the large rose window on the right, we see yet another shield of the arms of England, and below it the arms of William de Greystoke, Gules three lozenges argent.

In the small rose window on the left, we have the arms of Percy (ancient), Azure five fusils conjoined in fess or, for either Henry de Percy, 1st Baron Percy of Alnwick (1273-1314) or his father, Henry de Percy, 7th Baron of Topcliffe (d. 1272).

In the small rose window on the right, we have a disagreement between our experts regarding this coat of arms, which I would blazon as Per fess or and sable a cross argent. (You can click on the image above to see the full-size photograph to see for yourself.) Weir, in  A Guide to the Heraldry in York Minster, says that these are the arms of William Vesci. Browne, in A Description of the Representations and Arms on the Glass in the Windows of York Minster, says these arms these arms are “unknown, probably the field has been altered.”

Doing my own research, since we don't seem to have an agreement here, I find that most of the Vesci arms in the Dictionary of British Armorials are Or a cross sable. The only “per fess … a cross” in the DOBA is that of Svyluer (typo for Sylvuer perhaps?), Per fess argent flory sable and argent overall a cross sable, and the arms in this window are clearly not that.

Should we split the difference between our two experts and say that these are the arms of Willliam Vesci (per Weir), but that the field has probably been altered (per Browne)? I'm not entirely satisfied by doing that, but without another candidate for the arms as they appear in the south window, I don't know what else we can do.

* For those of you who don't recognize it right away, this is from one of the songs in The Muppet Movie (the first one). It's a sad fact of my life that if I ever hear, see, or even think the words "moving right along," what follows immediately in my head, if I don't end up singing it aloud, is "footloose and fancy free."

The Heraldic Glass in the Chapter House of York Minster: Part 5 of 7 (the Southeast Window)

Next up on our look at the seven windows in the Chapter House of York Minster, we come to the southeast window:

In the rose window at the center top, we have the arms of England, Gules three lions passant guardant in pale or. Immediately below England, we have again the arms of Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, Gules three lions passant guardant in pale or a label of five tags azure each tag charged with three fleurs-de-lis or.

Below that, in the rose window on the left, we have once again the arms of England, immediately beneath which we see the arms of Peter de Montfort, Gules a lion rampant queue-forchy argent.

In the rose windwo on the right, we see another shield of the arms of England. Immediately beneath that shield, we have the arms of John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, England within a bordure azure semy-de-lis or.

Browne, in his A Description of the Representations and Arms on the Glass in the Windows of York Minster, says this shield is that of Philippa of Hainault, King Edward III's Queen: England within a bordure azure semy-de-lys or. But Philippa of Hainault's arms as consort are generally given as Quarterly: 1 and 4, England (Quarterly England and France ancient); 2 and 3, Hainault (Quarterly: 1 and 4, Or a lion rampant sable; 2 and 3, Or a lion rampant gules. So I pretty much have to go along with the identification of these arms by Weir in his A Guide to the Heraldry in York Minster as those of John of Eltham.*

In the two smaller rose windows below, on the left we have the arms of Robert de Ros (d. 1285), Gules three water bougets argent, and on the right the arms of William de Ros (d. 1316), also Gules three water bougets argent.

* These "battling identifications" from two different experts helps to demonstrate the need for the heraldic researcher to double-check every identification found and not simply accept the statement of an expert. Because, as I have found on several different occasions, the experts, and even such a luminary as Sir Anthony Wagner, quondam Garter King of Arms, as I found by doing my own research on one occasion, may be incorrect in something they say about an heraldic matter.

The Heraldic Glass in the Chapter House of York Minster: Part 4 of 7 (the East Window)

Continuing our clockwise circumlocution of the Chapter House in York Minster, we come to the East Window.

In the rose window at the top, we see the arms of England, Gules three lions passant guardant in pale or, and immediately below, the arms of Roger Bigod, Earl Marshal of England, Per pale or and vert a lion rampant gules.

Below those arms, in the rose window on the left we have the arms England repeated, just above those of Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, Gules a fess between six crosses crosslet or.

And in the rose window on the right, we see the arms of Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, England (Gules three lions passant guardant in pale or) with a label of three tags azure each tag charged with three fleurs-de-lis or. And immediately below Edmund's arms, we find the arms identified by both Weir in A Guide to the Heraldry of York Minster and Browne in A Description of the Representations and Arms on the Glass in the Windows of York Minster as those of Ralph de Bulmer. However, the Bulmer arms are Gules billety a lion rampant or, but the arms shown in the window are simply Gules a lion rampant or, and thus lacking the strewn billets on the field. (You can click on the image above to go to the full-size photograph to check for yourself.)

So, we have to ask: did the stained glass painter make an error by accidentally leaving out the golden billets on the field, or are these actually meant to be the arms of FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel, whose arms, Gules a lion rampant or, appear elsewhere in the Minster?

Far be it from me to say that I know more than the two knowledgeable sources cited above, but really, I'm not seeing the billets of Bulmer in the window. (You can click on the image above to go to the full-size photograph to check for yourself.) And so if it's not a mistake of the stained glass window painter, then I have to think that these are not the arms of Bulmer, but rather those of the Earl of Arundel.

Finally, here in the East Window of the Chapter House, the two small rose windows do not contain coats of arms, unlike the other windows here. The small rose window on the left contains a face or bust, and I cannot make out what is supposed to be in the small rose window on the right. But in neither case is it a coat of arms.

The Heraldic Glass in the Chapter House of York Minster: Part 3 of 7 (the Northeast Window)

Continuing along to the next (the northeast) window in the Chapter House, we find these coats of arms:

Following the same general pattern for the arrangement of coats of arms that is followed in all of the windows, here in the rose window at the top, we see the arms of England, Gules three lions passant guardant in pale or, here, too, placed on aground of blue, the shield flanked by two golden fleurs-de-lis. Immediately below England, we have the arms of Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, Gules three lions passant guardant in pale or a label of five tags azure each tag charged with three fleurs-de-lis.

Below those two coats of arms, in the large rose window on the left, we have repeated the arms of England, also on a ground of France. Immediately below that coat of arms, we find another copy of the arms of Warenne, Checky or and azure.

In the large rose window on the right, we see yet another copy of the arms of England on a ground of France. Immediately below that coat, we see the arms of William de Ros, Gules three water bougets argent. The ground for his arms are blue, with a gold garb of wheat on each side.

Further below, in the small rose window on the left, we see the arms of Clare, Or three chevrons gules, which we have seen elsewhere in the Minster.

And in the small rose window on the right, we find the arms of Ralph Neville, Lord of Raby, Gules a saltire argent.

It's International Heraldry Day!

Greetings on International Heraldry Day! International Heraldry Day is the one day each year the entire heraldic community celebrates worldwide the wonderful science, art, and tradition that is heraldry, no matter the origin, group, or tradition from whence your heraldry originates!

(The image above by by Danilo Carlos Martins, 2023)

The goal of the original organizers of International Heraldry Day is that eventually all heraldry enthusiasts will acknowledge the event in the years to come. The celebration was started in 2013 by the International Association of Amateur Heralds (IAAH).

Why was June 10 selected? Because on that day in the year 1128, Geoffrey Plantagenet was knighted by his future father-in-law, Henry I Beauclerc, in Rouen. Suspended on the neck of the young knight was shield of blue decorated six golden lions. That shield was later borne by Geoffrey's grandson, William Longspee, and is generally recognized as the fully formed coat of arms.

So come and celebrate with heralds from around the globe, and with me, the wonderful, colorful world of heraldry on this special day!

"It’s like lions and unicorns and sinisters and rampants and shit and we’re like all over the slogans in Elvish and that yeah!"

The Heraldic Glass in the Chapter House of York Minster: Part 2 of 7 (the North Window)

Continuing our circular perambulation around the Chapter House in York Minster, we come to the heraldry in the North window.

Again, you can click on the image below to go to a larger, more detailed photograph.

In the rose window at the top, we have the arms of England (on a ground of azure, with two fleurs-de-lis or), and immediately below it, the arms of Gilbert de Clare, senior, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford (d. 1295), or Gilbert de Clare, junior, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford (d. 1314), Or three chevrons gules.

In the large rose window on the left, we have the arms of Robert de Clifford or Thomas Clifford, Checky or and azure a fess gules. Immediately below that are the arms (again) of Gilbert de Clare, senior, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford (d. 1295), or Gilbert de Clare, junior, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford (d. 1314), Or three chevrons gules.

In the large rose window on the right, we have the arms of England (without the background of France), Gules three lions passant guardant in pale or. And immediately below England, we see the arms of Warenne, Checky or and azure. Browne, in his book A Description of the Representations and Arms on the Glass in the Windows of York Minster says these should be the arms of John de Dreux, Checky or and azure a canton ermine, but there is clearly no canton of any tincture there.

In the small rose window on the left we have once again the arms of Warrenne, Checky or and azure.

In the small rose window on the right, Weir's A Guide to the Heraldry in York Minster says this shield is Warrenne, but I am not at all sure that it is even a coat of arms at all! Browne does not note it, stating that in this window there are “only seven shields.”

It's always interesting, even if not at all fun, to try to mediate between two different knowledgeable authors to come to a conclusion about something that I am looking at with my own eyes. And in this instance, I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with Browne, and say that this last is not a coat of arms, and that there are only seven coats in this window.

What do you think?

The Heraldic Glass in the Chapter House of York Minster: Part 1 of 7 (the Northwest Window)

Beginning with this post, we are going to visit each of these seven windows in the Chapter House in the order I photographed them, turning to the one immediately to the left of the entrance (that is, on the northwest wall) first and then moving about the circular Chapter House in a clockwise direction, photographing the windows on the north, northeast, east, southeast, south, and southwest, the entrance being in the western wall.

All of the windows in the Chapter House follow the same pattern: three small rose windows at the top, each containing two coats of arms, one placed immediately above the other, and below them a trefoil-shaped window between to smaller rosette windows, with each of the latter containing a single coat of arms.

And, as I found out while researching the Chapter House windows, you can't always trust your sources at face value. While Weir's A Guide to the Heraldry in York Minster (published in 1986) on p. 75 gives identifications of the arms in these windows, they are not always correct in comparison with the identifications in the (harder to read, admittedly) book by John Browne, A Description of the Representations and Arms on the Glass in the Windows of York Minster, published in 1859. Where the two differ, I tend to go with Browne, who often speaks of some of the symbols flanking some of the shields, lending support to his identifications.

As Browne tells us in his book, “Interspersed with the arms of England, placed in the heads of the windows of the Chapter House, are the arms of the principal commanders of the English army either against the invading Scots, or at the Battle of Crecy with the King [Edward III] in 1346.”

And so, on to the heraldic glass in the first window!  (Feel free to click on the image below to see the full-size photograph in better detail.)

The two shields at the top of the window are the arms of the See of York, Gules two keys in saltire wards to chief argent in chief a royal crown or, immediately beneath which are the arms of John de Greystoke (d.s.p. 1306) or William de Greystoke (father of John), Gules three lozenges argent.

In the larger rose window on the left, we have what should be the arms of Gilbert de Clare, Or three chevrons gules, but which is glazed as Chevronny gules and azure. Immediately below is the arms of Percy (ancient), which should be Azure a fess fusilly or, but which is glazed as Azure a fess fusilly gules. It was Henry, 1st Baron Percy of Alnwick, who changed his arms from Percy ancient to Percy modern, Or a lion rampant azure.) In both of these windows, the glaziers seem to have substituted blue for gold (that is, azure for or).

In the large rose window on the right, we have the arms of Balliol, Gules an orle argent (here glazed as Azure an orle argent). Immdiately beneath The Balliol shield we have what Weir tentatively identifies as Latimer (who bear Gules a cross patonce argent) , but which  Browne says should be the arms of William Vesci, who also bears Gules a cross patonce argent. In either case they are glazed here as Azure a cross [not really patonce, but not pomelly, either] argent, which is incorrect for either Latimer or Vesci.

In the smaller rose window on the lower left, we see the arms which Weir identifies as FitzAlen of Bedale,, but which Browne identifies as FitzAlan of Clun. In either case, these arms, glazed as Gules three bars or should properly be Barry of eight or and gules.

And in the smaller rose window on the lower right, we have the arms of John de Greystoke (d.s.p. 1306) or his father, William de Greystoke, Gules three lozenges argent.

And that's the firrst of the seven windows in the Chapter House in York Minster. Next time, we'll look at the heraldry in the north window!