The Arms of a Very Popular Saint at York Minster

We've now come to the last of our pictures of heraldry in York Minster, and I'm going to end our journey here with a couple of depictions of a saint who seems to be very popular here, given how many times we have seen his attributed coat of arms in the cathedral: Saint Peter.

Those arms are blazoned: Gules two keys in saltire wards to chief or.

First, we find these arms in yet another stained glass window:

This window dates way back; in the lower right panel there are three dates (presumably those of its installation and when it has been repaired/replaced): circa 1310, 1789, and 1950!

And in the lower left panel of the window, we find the attributed arms of St. Peter:

And in another part of the cathedral, we find, within one photograph, two depictions of these same arms:

The shield at the base of the ironwork decoration is easy to see here, but if you look closely (and you can click on the image above to go to the full-size photograph), there is another shield on the ceiling behind the ironwork, above and a little to the right of the shield in front, bearing these same arms. (Because of the bright light illuminating the ceiling, the red of the shield looks a little washed out here. The camera I use can only compensate so much, you see.)

And here's a close-up of the arms of St. Peter on the ironwork:

And so, with these examples of the attributed arms of St. Peter, we end our travels both in the City of York and in York Minster. I hope that you have enjoyed seeing all of these examples of the heraldry to be found there!

More Arms to Identify With Some Difficulty

In the last of this series of three windows in York Minster, some of whose coats of arms have been somewhat difficult to conclusively identify, well, we continue with the same problems.

Depending entirely upon your own confidence in identifying heraldry (and I have learned over the years not to be overconfident of my own), there are either six or seven coats of arms here.

Near the top of these windows, placed in roundels, we have in the left and right lights the arms of St. Paul, Gules two swords in saltire points downwards proper.

In the center roundel, John Toy in his A Guide and Index to the Windows of York Minster, says “?shield with green field". For myself, I do not see a shield there. I see a green field with what may be a human figure or even a farmer in white with what may be some wheat in gold to the left of his feet, but I don't see a shield or coat of arms there. Please feel free to click on the image above to go to the full-size photograph, and the zoom in on the central roundel here. If you see anything different from me, please let me know in the comments below.

In the row of three shields in the center of each of the three lights, going from left to right:

Toy says this first shield is Ingram, which should be Azure a chevron between three lions passant or (as we have seen elsewhere in the Minster), instead of the argent field here. The whole arms are difficult to make out because of what appears to be the breakage of the glass at some time with new leading to repair it. However, it is possible to make out the charges on the shield (even if the color of the field is incorrect), and though it is difficult to make out a helmet above the shield, the mantling (gules turned argent) is pretty clear, as is the Ingram crest of A cock or.

For the center shield, Toy says Ingram impaling Greville, which ought to be: Azure a chevron between three lions passant or, impaling Sable on a cross engrailed or five roundels sable. Here, too, there are errors: the azure field of Ingram is white here, as it is in the shield on the left; and the Greville arms are shown only as a dark (dirty?) gold. Here, too, I suspect that the window was damaged at some time, and this is how it got repaired.

And for the shield on the right, Toy says Greville, which should be Sable on a cross engrailed or five roundels sable, but here the roundels are painted as annulets.

And finally, at the bottom center of the window, we have the arms of St. Peter, Gules two keys in saltire wards to chief the one or and the other argent, being supported by an angel. Looking closely at the shield, I wonder if this shield was originally the arms of the See of York, as it appears the bishop's mitre above the keys may have been removed the way it was in that other window that we saw just a few days ago. If you click on the image above and zoom in, you can see for yourself where it looks like something shaped like a mitre may have been removed and replaced with plain red glass.

Next time, we may finish up our visit to York Minster.

More Arms Identified, and More Arms Not Identified

Our next window in York Minster has four coats of arms, some of which give us the same kinds of issues of identification as some of those in the previous window did.

There are three shields across the upper part of the three lights, and another at the bottom of the central light.

To review the three in the upper part of the windows:

For the arms on the left, John Toy in A Guide and Index to the Windows of York Minster says that this coat is that of the Prince of Wales, without specifying which one which one. Nonetheless, the shield does appear to be Gules three lions passant guardant in pale or overall a label of three tags argent (although the white label is significantly darker than the white portions in the rest of the window. Has it become badly discolored, or is it meant to be some other color?).

Of the arms in the central light, Vert a cross gules, I could only find the attributed arms of Galicia. Toy says that this is the arms of Greenfield. However, in Burke's General Armory, Greenfield is blazoned as Vert on a cross argent five torteaux. The Dictionary of British Arms has no entries for Vert a cross gules.

The third shield is definitely that of Archbishop Walter Giffard (Archbishop of York 1266-1279), Gules three lions passant in pale argent.

And now the shield at the bottom of the window:

I would blazon these arms as: Azure on a chevron cotised between three lions rampant argent three escallops sable. Toy says that the arms here, without identifying any name associated with them, are Argent a lion rampant on a chief gules three escallops or, which is clearly a different coat of arms from what appears in the window now. I believe these arms are too recent for them to appear in any of my armorials or ordinaries.

So there you have it! A three-light window with four coats of arms, one definitely identifiable, one with a "maybe" identification suspect only because of the white portions may be badly discolored, and two with no firm identification at all.

But that is often "life in the heraldic fast lane", I suppose.

More Armorial Windows in York Minster

I will admit it; there are a lot of armorial stained glass windows in York Minster.

But we are now fast approaching the end of our journey in the Minster, and I'll have to find you something else heraldic to look at before very long.

But until then ...

This window, identified in John Toy's A Guide and Index to the Windows of York Minster as s31, and by Browne in A Description of the Representations and Arms on the Glass in the Windows of York Minster as the third window in the south aisle of the Nave, give us a few problems in accurately identifying the heraldry contained herein.

Beginning at the top of the window, in the center light we have:

Toy identifies this shield as that of Edmund of Woodstock, that is to say, England with a bordure argent. Browne says it is Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester.

Moving down to the center of the windows vertically, in the left and right lights we see:

On the left, Browne does not identify this coat of arms. Toy says this is the coat of FitzAlan of Bedale, Barry gules and argent a bordure azure. 

Of the arms on the right, Browne identifies it as Toy says this shield is that of John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, England with a bordure of France. (At this scale, the stained glass of the bordure is simply alternating panes of azure and or, rather than azure with fleurs-de-lis or. I expect that most visitors to the Minster wouldn't even notice the difference.) However, and adding to the confusion, Browne identifies this coat as the Earl of Huntingdon, which would make the family name here Holland. (The second and third Holland Earls of Huntingdon of the fourth creation bore England with a bordure of France.) But Holland, with a different shield, also appears lower in the window. Frankly, one of the Holland Earls seems more likely than an Earl of Cornwall, but who am I to say?

And down at the base of the window, we come to:

On the left, Browne once again does not identify this shield, which I would blazon as Azure three chevronels braced argent a chief checky argent and azure. Toy says this is the arms of FitzHugh, but FitzHugh, which we have seen elsewhere in the Minster, is Azure three chevronels braced a chief or. So I have been unable to confirm Toy's identification of this shield.

On the right, however, we have the arms of Holland, Azure semy-de-lis a lion rampant argent.

So you can see that some of the armorial identifications here are a bit muddled, to say the least.

Three Windows, Six Coats of Arms

Continuing (but coming near to the end of) our perambulation around York Minster, we come to a set of three windows which contain two coats of arms each.

You will probably recognize each of these arms, as we have seen them elsewhere in the cathedral.

In the first window we see the arms of FitzAlan, Barry of eight or and gules (the one black bar has apparently replaced a red one); and Latimer, Gules a cross patonce or.

In the next window we see the arms of Ros or de Ros, Gules three water bougets argent; and de Clare, Or three chevrons gules.

And in the third window, the arms of Warenne or de Warenne, Checky or and azure; and Percy ancient, Azure a fess of five fusils or.

On a genealogical note, it was Henry, 1st Baron Percy of Alnwick, who changed his arms from Percy ancient (as appear in this window) to Percy modern (which we have also see elsewhere in the Minster), Or a lion rampant azure. John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey, was Henry, 1st Baron Percy of Alnwick’s maternal grandfather. So now you know the family connection between these two coats of arms!