heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

INTRODUCTION. 73
each side of the arch seems to be standing on a dragon. On the
panels under the recumbent figure beneath, the Archbishop's arms are
emblazoned on four shields. No. i, the pale alone, for Savage,
i.e. the individual
; 2, the pale impaled with the saltire cross of Rochester,
i.e. his first
bishopric ; 3, impaled with the keys in saltire and crown, for the diocese of
York ; 4, impaled with the pall, for the province of York. And this furnishes
a subject alike of historical and heraldic interest, for the coat is not the
family coat of Savage, which as I have already shewn is
argent six lioncels
sable; it is the coat of Danvers, or De Anvers, after Edward II. written
Daniell.*
It would appear that John Savage, the great-great-grandfather of the
Archbishop, who died in 1386, married Margaret, daughter and heiress of
Sir Thomas Danvers, of Bradley and Clifton in Cheshire. She was married
three times. First to John Radcliffe ;
secondly, to John Savage ; and, after
his death, to Piers Legh, of Maxfield, younger son of Robert Legh, of
Adlington. By her second husband she had one son, John Savage, and
by her last husband a son, Piers Legh. She survived them all ; but when
she died, in 1427, she specially directed in her will that her son, John
Savage, should bear her coat-of-arms, which she inherited from her father.
And this was according to the custom of those days ; for not only
did the nobility claim the privilege of granting arms to their esquires,
which were afterwards confirmed by the Earl Marshal, but arms appear
likewise to have been conceded by one knight to another and
; they might
be assigned by a female, who was an heir general, to her own husband,
or the husband of her daughter, who inherited her lands, and therefore
certainly to her son, who even without that stipulation would have been
entitled to quarter
for what she did,
them. And I think that we can understand the reason
for her husband, John Savage, was simply a member of
that family, then located at Sarcliffe in Derbyshire. But her father,
Sir Thomas Danvers, was a distinguished warrior. He was one of the
flower of Cheshire chivalry who were engaged under their Earl, the Black
Prince, when only sixteen years of age, at the battle of Crescy.
Stowe, in his terse account of this bloody battle, which lasted two
days, says that at the commencement " the French King caused his banner,
" called
'
auriflaime,' to be set up, after which time it was not lawfull, under
"paine of death, to take any man to save his life. This banner, that it
" might differ from his standert, had in it Lilies of gold very broad. On
" the other side, King Edward commanded his banner to be erected of
" the Dragon, which signified fiercenesse and cruelty to be turned against
"the Lillies."
So that no quarter was given on either side. The principal division
of the English army, some 10,800, was entrusted to the young Prince, who
* Ormerod's History of Cheshire.