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FITZALAN AND POYNTZ. 313
Minster. Amongst the seals attached to the Barons' letter to Pope
Boniface (see page 293), is the seal of Brian Fitzalan, but the charges
thereon are evidently a device, for no shield appears. On a square
were engraved two birds, a rabbit, a stag, and a pig or boar, with the
legend Tot capita tot sentencic.
In the north aisle of the nave there is a window, next to the
bellfounders' window, which has a similar device. For in the borders of
the window (unlike the others which are composed of armorial bearings,
probably the ensigns of the donors), only a strange medley of monkeys,
and men, and dogs, and other animals and birds appear.*
I venture to attribute this window to the gift of Brian Fitzalan, and
thus to account for these fanciful representations. In the Caerlaverock
roll it is stated : " The handsome Brian Fitzalan, full of courtesy and
" honour, I saw with his well-adorned banner of barry of gold and red,
"which was the subject of dispute between him and Hugh Poyntz, who
"bore the same, neither more nor less, at which many and many
" marvelled." This was, indeed, something more than an infraction of
courtly etiquette, for arms were not assumed at pleasure, but granted by
the Heralds College, under the authority of the Crown, and, as we have
noticed in the Scrope and Grosvenor contest, very tenaciously held and
defended.
Hugh Poyntz (or Pons or Poinz or Pointz) was son and heir of
Nicholas Poyntz, of Cory Malet, Somerset.f His lineage was second to
none, either as regards antiquity of origin and nobility of descent, or as
regards the illustrious deeds with which his ancestors had been associated.
William, Count of Eu, had, by his wife Esseline, four sons, two of
whom accompanied the Conqueror to England William, who was Count
of Soissons ; and Pons, or Pontz. There is absolutely no trustworthy
record of the leader of the Norman army, and there are at least ten
different lists all professing to be the roll of Battle Abbey, and each
differing from the other.
Robert Wace, an Augustinian monk of Bayeux (born noo), frankly
acknowledges his inability to give all the names of the barons present. But
John Brompton, abbot of Jorvaux, i6th Henry VI., in his rhyming chronicle
gives a list (on what authority he does not say) of 240 names, amongst
which he mentions Merle and Mowbray, Pounchardon and Pomeray,
Gornay and Courtenay, Longevil and Longespay, Hainstlaing and Turnay,
Payns and Pontelarge, Husee and Husay. It has been suggested that the
"a" in Payns is a clerical error of the copyist, to which the Brompton MS. in
the British Museum seems to give confirmation. However, Pons had five
* See coloured illustration,
t Sir John Maclean's History of the Family of Poyntz ; Atkyn's History of Gloucestershire.