heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

INTRODUCTION. 7 1
The attendant armour-bearers and esquires, being dressed in fantastic
habits, guarded their masters' escutcheons, and reported the name and
quality of the challenger, whose defiance was signified by the act of touching
the shield with the point of a spear. Others* have attributed them
of arms, which
entirely to seal engravers, who on cutting, on seals, shields
were in a triangular form, and placed on a circle, finding a vacant space at
each side and at the top, thought
it an ornament to fill them up with
olive-branches, garbs, trees, fretwork, lions, unicorns, or some other animals,
according to fancy. These surmises are probably both true the former
being the development of the latter indeed, we can trace its gradual
:
growth in the royal seals, as given in Sandford's Genealogical History. On
the seal of Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, his shield is represented as held up
by a strap passing through the beak of an eagle. On the seal of Thomas,
Duke of Lancaster, the eldest son of Crouchback, the shield is hung by a
strap to a hook ; but on each side is a small dragon, the same as on the
crest of his helmet. On the great seal of Edward III., eight lions are
represented on each side of the King,
and two under his feet. On the
great seal of Richard II., shields bearing the arms of England are represented
on either side of him, hanging on trees, with a greyhound beneath
them, while a lion sejeant supports the effigy of the King on either side.
In his reign, Dallaway says, the ample field of heraldic invention was
expanded, crests and cognizances were multiplied, and supporters generally
introduced. Richard effeminate and luxurious indulged himself in the
fopperies of dress, and armorial devices were no longer confined to warriors
completely armed, but embossed and embroidered on the habits, mantles,
and surcoats of those who attended his sumptuous Court and
;
we can well
imagine that, not content with bearing his
cognizances, they were actually
arrayed so as to personify the figures or animals which he had already
associated with his arms. The fashion would soon spread, and the shield
be deemed incomplete without them. Indeed, the stone shields in York
Minster furnish illustrations of this. In the Nave, built 1291-1345, i.e.
during the reigns of Edward I., II. and III., the shields are represented
as hanging from hooks. In the Choir, built 1373-1400, i.e. during the
reign of Richard II., they hang from the necks of figures, i.e. supporters.
But there seems to have been no written precedent for the ordering,
bearing, or limiting of supporters. Custom and practice have reduced the
use of bearing supporters to " the major nobility," and no one of inferior
degree is entitled to assume them without a special grant from the Heralds'
College, which is rarely given but there are certain families whose ancestors
;
have used supporters from very ancient times, and who therefore continue
to do so, viz. :
* Edmonson's Heraldry.