I Know Nothing About Heraldry, But ...

How many times I have seen a thread on-line, for example, in Reddit/heraldry, that begins with a statement along the lines of: "I don't know anything about heraldry, but I have made this design on a shield." And they attach a drawing whose only relationship to actual heraldry is that there is, in fact, an identifiable shield of some kind in it.

For example, an actual post header from July 2025: "WIP but I know absolutely nothing about heraldry", followed by "Literally just my doodles in class but I really like thus design aesthetically." The attached design was a round-bottom shield, quartered but with the fess line a little abased, with two plain quarters and completely different types and numbers of charges in the other two, with an oddly-designed coronet the full width of the shield atop it, and a snake-wrapped sword overlying everything to chief and to base,

Another example: "Next iteration of personal CoA/Achievement." My blazon would be: Azure on a chevron enhanced vert fimbriated between two starlings and [a concoction] argent three peach blossoms proper/pink. The "concoction" is composed of several elements: crossed knitting needles, four pen nibs, four diyas (small Indian oil lamps), and a chakra.

Everything in the design, of course, is full of deep and personal meaning for the designer. But is it identifiable as heraldry? Are the elements identifiable, as heraldry or anything else?

And then there's this one: "I made this [coat of arms for the Kingdom of America] for an Alternate History story I thought this would be the best place to post it. It's certainly not the best but I worked hard on it."

The arms consist of a blue shield charged with a brown eagle proper charged on the breast with the coat of arms of Washington, all within a mantle azure lined ermine, surmounted by the coronet of an English Earl, and with the arms or seals of the thirteen original colonies encircling the whole.

Someone did ask:

Q: If these are the arms of a kingdom, why does it have the coronet of a British earl rather than a king's crown on top?

A: I don’t know much about heraldry. I just used what I thought looked cool I will continue researching, and I'll make something better.

"I don't know much about heraldry" indeed.

I generally do not get involved in responding to such posts. It's not good for my equanimity. Or my gall bladder.

And as someone once noted some years ago: "It is actually very easy to come up with ugly designs if one just takes a pen and paper and starts drawing, with no prior knowledge of heraldry."

I have sometimes made the analogy of someone who has seen (not studied, but seen) a few examples of  art and has decided they want to paint something in the style of, say, Art Deco, and then produce something that could have been painted by one of the Pre-Raphaelites. Or has created something that they say is in the style of a Mughal painting.

This, to me, these examples of "heraldry" is pretty much the same thing.

I know, I sound a bit critical here. And another reason that I try not to respond to such posts is because I don't want to discourage someone from their new but not entirely formed interest in the field of heraldry. But, really, please, go out and look at some coats of arms. They're easy enough to find on the internet. And just by looking at them, you will start to learn a little about how coats of arms are designed. Because it's not just "I really like thus design aesthetically" or "I just used what I thought looked cool."

Like any other artistic style, there are some rules, often unwritten, about what makes a work Art Nouveau or Impressionistic or even Pointillist. Heraldry, for all of its variation by time and place, is the same way.

So please, do just a little looking around before you begin designing even fantasy arms for something. It will be worth it to you.

Plus, it will mean that I can reduce my dosage of Pepto-Bismol.

A Piece of U.S. Navy Heraldry

Well, there I was, at the annual Aviation Discovery Fest hosted by the Commemorative Air Force at a nearby local airport. And because I have had an interest in and love for old military aircraft, especially planes from World War II, and having some "free" time, I spent a pleasant afternoon seeing what was on display and taking photographs. I was also reveling a bit in just being able to be near some of these aircraft, as well as being reminded just how big (F4U Corsair) or comparatively small (B-24 Liberator long-range bomber) these planes seem now.

Anyway, there I was, reveling and looking and taking photographs, and I spotted a bit of heraldry on a display off to one side.

It wasn't an aircraft, but it had a coat of arms on it, and so I had to snap a picture of it to share with you.

It's a pretty standard Willys Jeep of WWII vintage, but unusually painted blue. The lettering just below the windscreen explains: "Tribute to: NAVY BLUE ANGELS".

For those of you who don't already know, the Blue Angels are the U.S. Navy's Flight Demonstration Squadron, a precision aerobatic team. (The U.S. Air Force also has a flight demonstration team, the Thunderbirds. I was lucky enough some years ago to have seen both the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels flying at an airshow, and got a nice photo of both teams' planes lined up in a row. This was back when both were flying the F-4 Phantom jet. So it was kind of cool -- sorry, but I'm kind of a plane nerd, in addition to heraldry -- to see all these Phantoms lined up in a row with the two different paint schemes, one white, the other blue, used by the two teams.)

Anyway, if you look closely at the Jeep, you'll notice a shield on the left rear fender.

This is the U.S. Navy Blue Angels insignia, designed in 1949 by Lt. Commander Raleigh "Dusty" Rhodes, featuring the team's diamond formation aircraft silhouette flying through clouds on a per bend blue and gold shield. The charges in the lower portion of the shield include a "nose-on" view of an aircraft carrier above a Navy pilot's wings, surrounded by the words "Naval Air Training Command" between two stars. The scroll beneath the shield simply says: "Blue Angels".

The overall design of the shield has remained the same since 1949, but the specific aircraft depicted in the clouds are updated to reflect the current aircraft used by the team. Zooming in (and you can click on the image above to do that yourself), the planes here do not appear to be the F/A-18 Hornets that the team currently flies; they may be the A-4 Skyhawks that were being flown around 1985.

It turned out to be a pleasant afternoon seeing a bunch of old airplanes, but it also turned out to have a bit of heraldry in it as well. And how nice is that?

And Now, For a Little Japanese History and Heraldry

Let me just say this right up front: I probably spend more time watching various shows on NHK, the Japanese English-speaking channel, than I do just about any other channel. (Although PBS probably runs a reasonably close second.) I like shows about Japanese art, history, scenic travel, and so on, and over the years I have learned a lot about the country.

So much, in fact, that my late wife and I decided that we could never visit Japan. Not because we didn't want to, but because we couldn't afford to ship all of the stuff we would buy there back home. You know, the pottery, the metalwork, the art, the fabrics and the yarns (for her), the paper, and so on and so forth. 

With all that as background, I was recently watching a show entitled Samurai Castles, and it covered, in part, Nagoya Castle and its history.

The Castle was built in the early 1600s on the site of an earlier castle. The port of Nagoya was important at that time, because it lay on the main route between Edo (now Tokyo) and Kyoto, the old capital of Japan, and it was a way for the new shogun to help consolidate his newly-acquired power following his victory at the Battle of Sekigehara in 1600.

And as I was watching that episode of Samurai Castles, it was obvious to me that the new castle there had been built by the new shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu. Now this was in part because I had been listening to the narrator, but more than that, because the castle is covered, Covered!, I say, in the Tokugawa kamon.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, mon, also called monshō, mondokoro, and kamon, are Japanese emblems used to decorate and identify an individual, a family, or (more recently) an institution, municipality or business entity.

While mon is an encompassing term that may refer to any such device, kamon and mondokoro refer specifically to emblems that are used to identify a family.

Let me show you what I mean with these screenshots of the program.

In each of these photos, on the eaves at various places, and on the circular ends of the roof tiles, you can clearly see the three hollyhock leaves of the Tokugawa kamon. All of which serve to designate just whose castle this is.

Naturally, though, Ieyasu didn't build this castle himself. Following the Battle of Sekigehara in 1600, he reorganized roughly 200 daimyo and their territories into han, which were assessed by rice production.

Now, daimyo were powerful magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally subordinate to the emperor and the kuge (an aristocratic class). In the term, dai means 'large', and myō stands for myōden, meaning 'private land'. (So, not terribly unlike the counts and their counties in Europe. Just sayin'.)

So in 1609, when the new shogun decided to rebuild Nagoya Castle, he levied the daimyo in central and southern Japan to supply the money, materials, and labor to do so. (As a plus, at least from his point of view, this would keep the daimyo sufficiently occupied and sufficiently poor that they couldn't set up an effective opposition to his rule. This tactic worked so well here and elsewhere that Japan had a nationwide peace for the next 250 years.)

Anyway, all that is basically an introduction to this next graphic, which shows the kamon of the daimyo from central and southern Japan who were drafted into helping to rebuild Nagoya Castle:

And there you have it! A brief introduction and explication with examples of Japanese "heraldry" as found in the history and in the structure of Nagoya Castle in central Japan.

Who knew you could find out so much about Japanese heraldry in a single 50-minute show while sitting in your own living room?

Heraldry of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick

"The Duchy of Grand Fenwick?" I hear you ask.

Well, yes, but ...

The fictional Duchy of Grand Fenwick was stated to be the smallest independent country in Europe, in the novel The Mouse That Roared by Leonard Wibberly.

In 1959, the novel was made into a movie of the same name, starring Peter Sellers (in three different roles), Jean Seberg, William Hartnell, and David Kossoff.

The plot of both the book and the movie is: An impoverished very small nation declares a war on the United States of America hoping to lose and then get financial support, but things don't go according to plan.

In the book, the arms of the Duchy are said to be a red double-headed eagle displayed, with two small scrolls held one in each beak, one with the word Aye (or here in the movie, Yea) and the other with the word Nay.

Unwilling, apparently, to leave it at something so relatively simple, the movie includes a much grander, far more complicated, coat of arms, complete with quartered arms on the breast of the eagle, complete with inescutcheon, along with other shields placed on the eagle's wings, as well as three crowns à la Russia. All, I have to assume, on the theory that a duchy with "grand" in its name should have an equally "grand" coat of arms.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the arms of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick, as appeared in various scenes in the 1959 movie, The Mouse That Roared:

There was also another coat of arms that appeared in the movie on the side of a building in the Grand Duchy. It was very crudely painted, and, frankly, looks a little too much like something from a bucket shop to be real arms.

Nonetheless, there it was, and so I include it here for your perusal:

It is a quartered coat. I cannot make out what the charge in the first quarter is supposed to be. It looks vaguely like a seated human figure facing dexter, but that is only a guess. The second and third quarters appear to be Argent a lion passant gules, and the fourth quarter is an argent bend on a field of indeterminate color.

The shield is surmounted by a gentleman's helm which is so drawn as to be impossible for anyone to have actually worn (i.e., no one could get their head through that neck!), flanked by what looks like palm branches trying to be mantling. Above the helm is something golden, but impossible to make out what it is supposed to be.

Be that as it may, this is what the 1956 filmmakers used for heraldry in the fictional Duchy of Grand Fenwick.

Another Old Movie, Some More Old Heraldry

So there I was, watching the 1936 movie Rembrandt, about the life of Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn and starring Charles Laughton, Gertrude Lawrence, and Elsa Lanchester, produced and directed by Alexander Korda.

And by golly, wouldn't you know it? There were a couple of scenes with heraldry in them!

The first was this great flag with the arms of Amsterdam:

You can click on the image above to see the full-size picture, which shows the arms surmounted by a crown and the lion supporters more clearly.

The arms of Amsterdam are remarkably identifiable. Here's a depiction I saw, and photographed, in Maastricht:

There was a later, interior scene which also had some coats of arms. Alas, the combination of old black-and-white movie, watched on a television screen, and photographed with my phone's camera, left them just a little too blurry to adequately identify.

If you click on the image above to go to the full-size version and then zoom in, it's possible to get an inkling of what some of the charges on the shields might be, as well as the crowns that ensign each shield.

But, alas, not quite sharp enough for me to be able to see if these are real Dutch arms, or something just created for Hollywood. And this was back in the days before "on-location" shooting.

Still, I have seen windows like this, with many clear glass panes containing a single coat of arms more or less central to the window in a number of places in the Low Countries, so it's certainly evocative of the Netherlands of the time. Here's a modern example, found in Antwerp, Belgium:

It is nice to see Hollywood, even back in the day, getting at least some of the heraldry right!

They Were So Close!

But "close" is not really quite good enough.

I was recently watching the movie A Farewell to Arms (the 1957 version with Rock Hudson and Jennifer Jones, rather than the 1932 version with Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes).

Both movies are loosely based on Ernest Hemingway's novel of the same name. The basic plot is: An English nurse and an American ambulance driver on the Italian front during World War 1 fall in love, but the horrors surrounding them challenge their romance to the limit.

But it was one scene in the movie that had me thinking, "Oh, they came so close!"

Oscar Holmoka as Dr. Emerich and Rock Hudson as Lt. Frederick Henry are in a little cafe in Switzerland shortly after the death of Jennifer Jones' character, Catherine Barkley. And in the panel behind them are two "coats of arms".

I put "coats of arms" in quotes, because I can find no real-life heraldry that matches either of the two shields here. Yes, the lower left portion of the left-hand shield is certainly reminiscent of Switzerland.* But the rest? A blue chief on a red field? Two black stars on red? What may be a stylized thistle? Not like any arms that I have been able to find. And trust me, I went through the Switzerland section of the Heraldry of the World website pretty thoroughly, as well as looking at a bunch of northern Italian arms.

So, they came close. I mean, the two shields kind of look a bit like heraldry. But they're not. And what a shame that is.

* There's an old joke that goes: Question: "What do you like about Switzerland?" Answer: "Well, their flag is a big plus."

More Heraldry Discovered While Sitting on My Sofa

So there was I was, minding my own business, just watching one of the shows on NHK (the English-language Japanese network) as I am wont to do. My late wife Jo got me hooked, and I have continued to watch various shows of interest offered by the network.

I do this partly because, as she and I both agreed several years ago, we could never truly be able to afford to visit Japan ourselves. Oh, we could afford the airfare and hotels and food and all that! What we couldn't afford was to ship all the masses really cool stuff (ceramics, metalware, household goods and appliances, electronics, clothing, fabrics (e.g., silks), etc., etc., etc.) we would certainly end up buying there. And the cost of that would be prohibitive. So if we ever actually went to Japan, we'd basically have to end up living there.

So, anyway, as I said, we had a number of shows that we'd watch which would show us some of the really cool stuff we could buy if we were to actually visit Japan, and we would periodically turn to each other and say, "Nope. We can't go there," or "Nope, we can't visit that city (or that street, or that shop)."

But I continue to tease myself by watching these shows, which not only show me stuff I would buy in an instant if I were there, but which also teach me about the people and culture there, which is a nice bonus.

Anyway, I was sitting there, as I said, minding my own business and watching "Train Cruise" (about various train trips available should you ever visit the country) when I noticed painted on the side of a train car a coat of arms. So I grabbed a quick picture of it.

It's not easy to make out -- I'd recommend clicking on the picture above to go to the full-size image for a better view -- but it's basically a red shield with a white mountain couped slightly bendwise sinister and what may be a white rail line also running slightly bendwise sinister below the mountain.

The company which runs this particular train is Oigawa Railways, which has, of course, their own website (https://daitetsu.jp/eng?doing_wp_cron=1756923405.6365149021148681640625) and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/oigawa.railway).

On their Facebook page, in a post dated August 13, 2025, they include the sentence: "There are several types of coats of arms, so please try to find the differences and complete them." So apparently the shield on the side of the railway car above is not the only version they use.

As a side note, they also have some specialized tourist trains that look like this:

Yes, that's Thomas the Tank Engine on the right, with two of his friends, Hiro and James. Yes, they converted some old steam engines and decorated them up like this. How cool is that?!

Anyway, all this is to say, once again, that "you can find heraldry everywhere!", even just sitting on your couch watching a Japanese television show. Who knew?

Another "Heraldry-Like" Logo in the Wild

I keep saying that "You can find heraldry everywhere!" And it's true, as I have demonstrated many times in this blog.

Well, I ran across (fortunately, not into) just the other day, on my way to a doctor's appointment.

Now, I know it's not really "heraldry" as we usually define it, but it is at least "heraldry-adjacent", consisting as it does of a fancy letter placed within a shield shape.

As you can easily see, it is not only something akin to heraldry, but also that I could hardly have missed seeing it if I had tried to! I mean, given that it was right in front of me!

Fortunately, the red light was long enough at this location that I was able to get out my phone and get a good photograph of it before the light turned green and I had to pay attention to my driving instead.

So I urge you to keep your eyes open as you go about your daily business, because if you do, you too will occasionally find yourself near (or as in this case, right behind!) a coat of arms or a heraldry-like logo.

And I say this as someone who lives in a country and a state where heraldry really isn't that big a thing. But even residing as I do in a place that might be considered an heraldic wasteland, there are still shields to be seen, and if the opportunity is right, photographed!

I've Said It Before, and I'll Say It Again

What have I said before? And what will I say again?

Simply, that you can find heraldry everywhere!

And this statement can be true, even if you never leave your house! Witness the following scenario:

I regularly watch new episodes of House Hunters International on HGTV. I like seeing places, some of which I've been to and most of which are new to me, and I get to learn a little bit about the local culture in without leaving the pleasant surroundings of my own living room.

So I was watching a recent episode of House Hunters International, where a couple was looking for a home/business in Poggio Bustone, Italy, a historic town in Italy's Lazio region, located northeast of Rome in the province of Rieti.

And as I sat there watching, just minding my own business and learning something about this little commune, the camera panned across a building there to show me this:

I had a hunch that this is the arms of Poggio Bustone, but I thought that I would confirm that before saying it out loud. (Or in typeface, like here on this blog!)

So I went out to one of my favorite websites for such things, Heraldry of the World, and found this image:

Which not only confirmed that the arms I saw on the show are the arms of the commune, but also shows the colors, so we can fashion a blazon.

For this blazon, I am going to assume, that since the area is a big olive growing region, that the crossed clubs in the center of the shield are for knocking olives out of the olive trees in the area.

So here is my attempt at a blazon (in English): Gules two wooden clubs [or cudgels] in saltire or between in pale a mullet of six points and a mount of six hills issuant from base argent and in fess the letters P and B sable.

Anyway, running across this coat of arms just helped to prove my point once again, that You Can Find Heraldry Everywhere! Even sitting in your own living room doing nothing heraldry-related!

Heraldry in the News!

And for this particular "Heraldry in the News!" item, there is a family connection for me.

The U.S. Department of Defense* published news article by David Vergun on August 23, 2025, entitled: "[Secretary of Defense Pete] Hegseth Announces Establishment of Mexican Border Defense Medal."

The article notes that the Mexican Border Defense Medal (MBDM) is established to recognize service members deployed to the U.S. international border with Mexico for Defense Department support to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

There's a lot more to the announcement than that, but you can see all the details, as well as images of the MBDM, in the link to the article at: https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4283789/hegseth-announces-establishment-of-mexican-border-defense-medal/

But now to the heraldic part: According to Institute of Heraldry, the MBDM is identical to the Mexican Border Service Medal, struck in 1918, for service in 1916 and 1917 in the Mexican state of Chihuahua and on the U.S. side in the vicinity of the New Mexico and Texas borders with Mexico.

"The medals are bronze. On the front is a sheathed Roman sword hanging on a tablet, along with an inscription that reads "For Service on the Mexican Border."

"The sword symbolizes war or military strength and is sheathed to indicate service in the United States rather than in actual combat.

"On the reverse side is the Coat of Arms of the United States above a scroll and surrounded by a wreath ending at the center with cross rifles in dexter, crossed sabers in sinister and crossed cannons in base.

"The wreath represents achievement. The rifles, sabers and cannons represent the infantry, cavalry and artillery.

"The ribbon's field of green is symbolic of freedom, while the golden yellow color alludes to virtue. These colors represent civic virtue by serving the government in the pursuit of freedom."

So, the heraldry part of this post is the achievement of arms of the United States, complete with crest and eagle supporter, placed prominently on the reverse of the MBSM.

But now for the personal connection: My grandfather, George L. Appleton, was awarded the Mexican Border Service Medal for the time he was stationed in McAllen, Texas, from June 16 through December 2, 1916, with the Hospital Corps, 7th Infantry, New York State National Guard. (He also received the New York State Service Medal for his time in the New York State National Guard, January 16, 1916 through May 15, 1917.) I even have some original photographs of him from his time in McAllen.

Here are pictures of the obverse and reverse of his MBSM. If you click on the link to the article, above, you will see that the “new” medal and the old one is identical (well, except for the wear and aging over the last 107 years!).

I must say, I think the quality of the casting of this medal is very high; just look at all the fine detail on something that is only just over an inch and a eighth (28 mm) in diameter!

So this time, not only was it nice to find another bit of "Heraldry in the News!", but also to be able to note a family connection to the object of that news.

* I understand that the President and Secretary have recently decided to change the name to the "Department of War". 

No Rabbit Hole Here!

After all the talk about going down rabbit holes in researching coats of arms, and their twists and turns and dead ends, today's post took no effort at all, really, beyond hitting the shutter button on the camera.

There were a couple of reasons for this. First, the coat of arms is -- or at least, should be -- instantly recognizable to most.

The other is that a different panel in the same stained glass window had a portrait and identified the armiger by name.

As you can easily see, Victoria Regina, Queen Victoria.

With, unsurprisingly, her coat of arms, which are still the arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland today.

Quarterly: 1 and 4, Gules three lions passant guardant in pale or; 2, Or a lion rampant within a double tressure flory-counterflory gules; 3, Azure a harp or stringed argent.

Though, of course, the arms of the monarch for use in Scotland place the Scottish lion and double tressure in the first and fourth quarters and the lions of England in the second quarter.

But as I said in the title of this post, "No rabbit hole here!" Just a simple, straight-forward, and easy identification of the arms.

Ah, How Tangled It Can Be, When We At First a Blazon Seek

No, really!

I'd photographed this armorial stained glass window in Westminster Abbey while back, and am finally getting around to trying to identify it.

Turns out, it's somewhat more complicated than it appeared at first blush. I mean, simple arms should require a minimum of research, right? Field and a single charge. So simple to blazon: Gules a cross patty vair. Thus, quick and easy. No sweat. Right?

Well, not always.

Papworth's Ordinary of British Armorials tells us that these arms belong to Le Cont de Almarle/de Albemarle. Now this is not the current creation of von Keppel, Earl of Albemarle, in 1697, whose arms are: Gules three escallops argent.

As Burke's Peerage and Baronetage inform us: The names Aubemarle, Aumale, and Aurmarle, as well as the more familiar and modern Albemarle, are of the same origin. Aumale is a Norman town after which a county, or area under a count, was named. The first person known to have held a countly title associated with Aumale is in fact a woman, William I the Conqueror’s sister Adelaide or Adelize.

Okay, interesting, but not especially helpful.

Fortunately, I have a copy of Ralph Brooke's A Catalogue and succession of the Kings, Princes, Dukes, Marquesses, Earles, and Viscounts of this Realme of England, since the Norman Conquest, to this present yeere 1622.

And in that fine and ancient volume, pages 58 through 62, we find eight different coats of arms associated with no less than eleven various "Earles of Albemarle". None of whom are William the Conqueror's sister.

No, Brooke's "catalogue" of the Earles of Albemarle begin with Stephen, son of Endo; and Stephen's son, William le Gros. Both of whom bore the arms seen in this window, Gules a cross patty vair.

The succeeding Earls of Albemarle are given as:

William Magnauile, Quarterly or and gules;

William de Fortibus, Argent a chief gules;

Baldwn de Betun, Bendy of six argent and gules a chief or;

William de Fortibus, Argent a chief gules;

William de Fortibus, Argent a chief gules;

Thomas of Woodstock, Quarterly France and England, a bordure argent;

Edward Plantagenet, Quarterly France and England, a label of three points per pale gules and argent charged with six castles or and six lions rampant gules;

Thomas, second son of King Henry IV, Quarterly France and England, a label of three points ermine charged with three cantons gules; and finally,

Richard Beauchamp, Gules a fess between six crosses crosslet or.

My goodness, what a lot of history is tied up in this little "catalogue and succession" of the Earls of Albemarle. (Many of whom also held higher ranking titles.)

I had no idea when I started out to identify this simple coat of arms that it would take me into such a lot of English history!

Finally! A (Slightly) More Productive Heraldic Rabbit Hole

More productive, certainly, but not without its own frustrations.

Anyway, this time we're discussing this armorial memorial in Westminster Abbey:

This is the memorial to Francis [François-Auguste] Ligonier, who was born in 1693 at Castres, France and came to England in 1710. Francis was a younger brother of Field Marshal John [Jean-Louis], Earl Ligonier. More information about the brothers can be found on-line at: https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/john-and-francis-ligonier and at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Ligonier

The inscription reads:

Sacred to FRANCIS LIGONIER Esq[uire] Colonel of Dragoons, a native of France, descended from a very ancient and very Hon[oura]ble. family there; but a zealous Protestant and subject of England, sacrificing himself in its defence, against a POPISH PRETENDER at the BATTLE OF FALKIRK, in the year 1745. A distemper could not confine him to his bed when duty called him into the field, where he chose to meet death, rather than in the arms of his friends. But the disease proved more victorious than the enemy. He expired soon after the battle where under all the agonies of sickness and pain, he exerted a spirit of vigour and heroism. To the memory of such a brave and beloved brother, this monument is placed by Sir JOHN LIGONIER, Knight of the Bath, General of Horse in the British Army, with just grief, and brotherly affection.

You can find out more about the Battle of Falkirk Muir (and some of the politics that led to it), so-named to differentiate it from the Battle of Falkirk that took place in 1298 in the time of King Edward I of England, on Wikipedia, at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Falkirk_Muir. The battle was a narrow victory for the Jacobites (who supported the “Popish Pretender” of the inscription), but it had little impact on the overall campaign.

But of course it is the coat of arms atop the memorial which attracted me here.

Burke's General Armory gives us a blazon that matches the arms here: Ligonier (France). Gules a lion rampant on a chief argent a crescent between two mullets azure. (No crest is mentioned in this entry, but the memorial shows a demi-lion rampant issuant from a mural coronet maintaining in its dexter forepaw a palm branch, which matches with the other Ligonier entries which do mention a crest.)

But Burke's General Armory also cites: Ligonier (Earl Ligonier, Ireland). Gules a lion rampant or on a chief argent a mullet between two crescents azure. Crest: Out of a mural coronet or a demi-lion rampant erminois holding in the dexter paw a palm branch vert.

Yet Burke's Dormant and Extinct Peerages gives the arms for Earl Ligonier with the lion rampant as argent and the charges on the chief a crescent between two mullets azure. Which, of course, matches the arms carved on the memorial here.

Thus demonstrating that sometimes not even the irreproachable Burke's can keep all of this stuff straight. And if they can't, how in the world am I supposed to, I ask you.

So, yes, a more productive rabbit hole. But also one that leaves us with some question as to the different citations in the various Burke's publications as to what the tincture of the lion and the arrangement of the charges on the chief is actually supposed to be. Is the lion gold, or silver? Are the charges on the chief supposed to be a crescent between two mullets, or a mullet between two crescents?

And if the presumed authority on such things is inconsistent (oh, say it isn't so!), how are we to select which colors and metals are the correct ones?

Based on the memorial itself, I can only assume that the blazon of the arms and crest here should be: Gules a lion rampant on a chief argent a crescent between two mullets azure, and Out of a mural coronet or a demi-lion rampant erminois holding in the dexter paw a palm branch vert.

Yet Another Heraldic Rabbit Hole.

Alas, this particular heraldic rabbit hole turned out to be mostly empty. Because I could find very little about the men it memorializes, and next to nothing about the coat of arms carved onto it.

Still, it's more about the journey than it is the destination, isn't it?

Here is the memorial to Lt. Gen. Henry Withers, with an additional inscription to his close friend, Col. Henry Disney.

The Lieutenant General has his own page on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Withers 

However, he does not appear in my digital copy of the Dictionary of National Biography (including Supplements 1 and 2), or much of anywhere else that I could find. And for that matter, neither does Col. Disney.

We are told that his background and origins are unknown, although the funeral monument here states he was descended from a military family and gives his age as 78, which means he was born about 1651. He never married; his will divided his estate between his sister Elizabeth and his close friend, Colonel Henry Disney, with whom he shared a house in Greenwich and who arranged his burial here in Westminster Abbey.* His memorial contains lines reportedly written by the poet Alexander Pope, who was a friend of both men.

Here WITHERS, rest! thou bravest, gentlest mind, thy country's friend, but more of human kind. Oh born to arms! Oh worth in youth approv'd! Oh soft humanity, in age belov'd! For thee the hardy vet'ran drops a tear, And the gay courtier feels his sigh sincere. WITHERS adieu! yet not with thee remove, Thy martial spirit, or thy social love. Amidst corruption, luxury, and rage, Still leave some ancient virtues to our age; Nor let us say (those English glories gone) The last true Briton lies beneath this stone.

Beneath in its own panel is the added inscription for Disney:

Near this place lyes the remains of Collonell HENRY DESNEY who surviving his freind [sic] and companion Lieutenant Generall WITHERS but 2 years and 10 days is at his desire buryed in the same grave with him. Obit 21 die Novembris 1731

At the base of the monument is this coat of arms (unhatched, and thus we can only guess, probably incorrectly, at what the color are supposed to be):

My best blazon would be: Quarterly; 1 and 4, ? three lions passant guardant in pale ?; 2 and 3, ? three escallops ?.

I have no idea where these arms come from. They do not appear in either Burke's General Armory or Papworth's Ordinary of British Armorials.

Burke gives a similar coat to the first and fourth quarters for "Disney (Lincolnshire). Argent three lions passant in pale gules." However, the lions here are also guardant, so there may or may not be a relationship to Col. Disney.

* Sure, let’s go ahead and pretend that Withers and Disney were merely good friends and companions. You know, like Achilles and Patroclus in the Iliad, or more recently in American history, J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson. But don't get me wrong; I do not intend this as a slur on either man. It simply is what it is.

Oh, Look! Another Heraldic Rabbit Hole for Me to Go Down

It's always interesting to me, to discover at least some of the history of a person who has been remembered with an heraldic memorial.

But I often find myself spending a lot of time trying to learn more about them -- going down a veritable rabbit hole, if you will -- and sometimes not finding out very much more than what is inscribed on the memorial plaque.

And sometimes, because the plaque is at least partly indecipherable, even less.

Take the case of an armorial memorial in Westminster Abbey to Miss Mary Peters. Her monument, erected by her mother, states that she died 15 Sep. 1688, aged twenty-two. So she was born in or about 1666. (And what was familiar to me about that year? The Great Fire of London raged from September 2-6, 1666.)

The inscription is, however, somewhat worn and some of the words are difficult to make out. Here's the best that I can do, even after closely studying the two photographs that I took as well as another marginally more readable one on the website of the Abbey.

Near this place lyes interred ye body of Mis Mary Peters Whoes most Affectionate Deportment to her RELATIONS HIGHLY MERITED and was most entirely beloved By Them.

And in Memory of her Pa__e_s O____ This Was Erected by her Mother. Shee departed this Life the 15th of September 1688. Aged 22 yeares.

The memorial plaque is surmounted at the top with a coat of arms, and supported at the base by a cherub's head.

Per Burke's General Armory, these are the arms of Peters (London). Gules on a bend or between two escallops argent a Cornish chough proper between two cinquefoils azure.

Yes, I know that the cinquefoils here are not the classic cinquefoil, but neither are they the classic rose, but rather something of a hybrid between the two. This is something not uncommonly found in older heraldry, and indeed, in the earliest days of the art, the two charges seem to have been interchangeable.

Annoyingly, though, for all the time I spent in researching this monument and its coat of arms, I have been unable to find out anything else about the young Mary Peters, who her parents were, or how this coat of arms came to be carved onto her memorial.

Next time, maybe I'll go down some other rabbit hole, with perhaps (I hope, anyway!) more informative results.

Still Finding Heraldry Everywhere! - Part 2

Continuing our look at the stained glass windows of the Apostles in Wesley Hall of Spring Valley United Methodist Church in northern Dallas, now we come to:

Saint Bartholomew: A book and a curved or flaying knife, symbolizing his martyrdom (flaying alive).

Next is Saint Thomas: A builder's square and a spear, representing his role as a builder and his martyrdom by spear.

Then we have Saint James the Lesser: A fuller's club or, as here, a saw, representing his martyrdom. According to tradition, St. James was stoned and sawn by his attackers.

James is followed by Saint Matthew: A moneybag or purse, representing his past as a tax collector. St. Matthew is also sometimes depicted with a hatchet or halberd, and sometimes an angel.

Then we have Saint Simon the Zealot: A book and a fish. St. Simon, companions with St. Jude, was a fisherman by trade, but also known as a great fisher of men.

And finally we come to Saint Jude (Thaddaeus): A ship, symbolizing his missionary journeys.

So there you have it! The Twelve Apostles, as portrayed by their symbols or emblems, each placed on a stylized shield shape. Not really heraldry, but still, at least "heraldry-adjacent". 

And a totally unexpected find, something that I was clearly not looking for when I attended the monthly meeting of the Quilters' Guild of Dallas!

Proof once more of something I have said many times here in the past: "You can find heraldry everywhere!"

Still Finding Heraldry Everywhere! - Part 1

I had the opportunity earlier this month to attend the monthly meeting of the Quilters' Guild of Dallas at their new "home", Spring Valley United Methodist Church in northern Dallas, Texas.

I'm not a quilter myself, but my late wife was, and I was hoping to find new homes from some quilts that she had "rescued" from various garage sales and antique malls. She just couldn't stand the thought of quilts that someone had put their heart, soul, and time into creating being sold away from the creator's family, so she "adopted" them. She's gone now, and while I'm keeping three of her rescued quilts, I needed to try to find new homes for the others, and the Quilters' Guild seemed, and was, a likely place to do that.

Anyway, the meeting was in the multipurpose room of the church, Wesley Hall, which has a row of stained glass windows down each side of the room. With shields on them.

There are fourteen of these windows in the hall, but two of them (the ones on the left in the above photo) are plain; one is Gules and the next one is Or. Ah, but the others!

I suspected from the start that the shields in these windows represented the Twelve Apostles from the New Testament of the Bible. And, sure enough, in less than ten minutes research after getting home and looking at the pictures I took, I learned that that hunch was indeed correct!

So today, we're going to look at the first six windows, beginning on this side of the room. 

Saint Paul: A sword, symbolizing his martyrdom (beheading). Also often (as here) depicted with a book or scroll, representing his writings in the New Testament. St. Paul has been here substituted for St. Matthias, whose symbols were an open book surmounted by an axe. The axe refers to his martyrdom. St. Matthias was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot.

Next, we have Saint Peter: Two crossed keys, representing his role as the keeper of the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven and his authority. Sometimes (as here) depicted with an upside-down cross, signifying his martyrdom. The keys refer to the keys of Heaven, and the inverted cross refers to Peter’s crucifixion.

The next window is Saint James the Greater, with his scallop shells, often associated with pilgrimage, particularly by sea. St. James was the first to go on a missionary journey.

The next window is Saint John. His symbol is a chalice with a snake, referencing a story of a poisoned cup he was offered. (He is sometimes shown as an eagle, symbolizing his gospel's focus on the divinity of Christ.)

Saint John is followed by Saint Philip: Two baskets of loaves of bread and a cross, referencing the miracle of the loaves and fishes.

And finally, rounding out the first six Apostles symbolized in these windows, we have Saint Andrew: An X-shaped cross (also known in heraldry as a saltire), on which he was crucified.

Next time, we'll look at the windows and emblems of the remaining six Apostles.

Marshalled Arms

It's always interesting to see marshalled arms -- where two coats of arms are placed side-by-side on a single shield -- and to then determine whose arms and why they are placed together.

Often, of course, indeed, probably the vast majority of cases, it is the arms of a husband and wife which are so combined. Sometimes, even, over the course of several generations, like this example from the Turberville family of Dorset, England.

But periodically, and not infrequently, we find marshalled arms that are a combination of an office which carries armorial status (e.g., an ecclesiastical office of high rank, an officer of arms, certain civic or corporate entities, etc.) with the personal arms of the incumbent.

And today, we' re going to look at one of those.

This is a stained glass window in Westminster Abbey containing the impaled arms blazoned: Azure a cross patonce between five martlets or, on a chief or a pale quarterly France and England between two roses gules barbed and seeded proper; impaling Argent on a bend azure three stag’s heads cabossed or (Stanley).

The arms on the dexter (left as you look at it) side of the shield are those of, naturally enough, Westminster Abbey.

The arms on the sinister (right) side are those of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815-1881), known as Dean Stanley, who held the position of Dean of Westminster from 1864 to 1881.

He was, we are told, a significant figure in the Abbey's history, known for his leadership as a Broad Churchman and author of works on Church History and Westminster Abbey. During his tenure, the Abbey saw a period of reform and expanded its national role. He oversaw the expansion of the Abbey's national role, gave a major impulse to the practice of inviting distinguished preachers to the Abbey pulpit, and worked to preserve and repair its many monuments. He is buried in the Abbey with his wife, Lady Augusta Stanley.

So, a significant figure in the history of the Abbey, and a really nice display of marshalled arms!