Monday, September 9, 2024

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.

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