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.)
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment