heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
Dallaway says the martlet was the ensign of the
Camden reports
"that Geoffry de Bouillon, at one draught
"shooting against David's lower m
"Jerusalem, broched three feetless
"birds, called allerions, upon his
"arrow, and thereupon assumed in
" '
a shield or, three allerions argent
" '
upon a bend gules, which the
"house of Loraine, descended from
" his race, continue to this day."
Shakespeare mentions
"The temple-haunting
martlet,"
and probably
alludes to swallows,
which, trusting so much to their
wings, were depicted without legs, as
an allegory of a restless, migratory
disposition, and referring to those
who left their own country to seek
honour or sojourn in another land.
By the family of Arundel, of
Tre-rice, in Cornwall, "sable six
"swallows argent, three, two, and
" one," appear to have been adopted from the furthest era of armorial
ensigns. Guillaume le Briton notices them
in the 3rd book of the Philipeis :
"Vidit hirundelam velocior alite quae dat
Hoc agnomen ei, fert cujus in jegide signum."
In the famous Bayeux tapestry, temp.
William I., there are many crude and rudimentary
indications of Heraldry. The Con-
small banner charged
queror appears with a
with a plain cross ;
and on the shields of the
soldiers, as well as of Harold, there are devices
representing dragons and crosses,
bosses.
as well as
Perhaps one of the oldest devices, viz.,
six lioncels rampant, is one which is displayed four times in the Minster
in stone and once in glass,
and which has been the object of many surmises.
I venture to think that I have rightly identified it with the arms
of Geoffrey Martel, who married Maude, daughter of Henry I., and was
the founder of the great family of Plantagenet ; for these arms are