heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

4 6 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
And finally, to
the traitor was awarded the indignity of carrying his
shield upside down and this was
; imposed on " Sir Armery of Pavie, a
"Lombard born, an unworthy captain of Calais, and traitor to King
" Edward III. in selling the same to Sir Geffrey Charney for 20,000 crowns.""
And so, doubtless, you
will remember how the Herald, when he
announces the entry of Lord Marmion, recounts his triumph
luckless Ralph de Wilton, and says
:
"
We saw Lord Marmion pierce his shield,
And saw his saddle bare ;
We saw the victor win the crest
He wears with worthy pride :
And on the gibbet-tree, reversed,
His foeman's 'scutcheon
tied."
Canto 2, st. xi.
'*
over the
In Meyrick's Ancient Armour (vol. iii., glossary), under "arma rever-
" sata," is the following " The chronicle of Bertrand du Guescelin has
:
" Oy, dist 1'escuier, regarded la douleur,
Les armes de Bertrand, ou tant de vigeur,
Ont penduS laidement, ainsi come trahiteur,
Et traisnee aussi au long d'un quarrefort,
Et les ont enversee, et monstrant par frenour
Que Bertrand de Glaiequin a cuer de boisoeur."
Thomas Walsingham says : " Inter probra vero quae duci intulerat,
" arma ejus in foro sunt publice reversata."
So you see that the Court dealt with moral and social, rather than
criminal offences ;
and admitting that the Court itself may be out of date,
we cannot deny the wisdom of it, or, alas ! the need of some substitute
for it, now.
But in due course of time, as is the case with everything in this
world, the primitive spirit of Heraldry waned, because distorted, perverted,
abused, exaggerated. Perhaps the very effort to secure its permanence,
by the establishment of a College, hastened its dissolution ; for large fees
accompanied all
heraldic proceedings, and these attract unworthy persons,
not only dishonest, but those who try by puffing to increase their gains.
And so the unhappy ambition of the Heralds in the Middle Ages to exalt
their science in the eyes of the commonalty, and a less excusable desire
of those who had inherited ancient armorial
to pander to the vanity
devices, caused them to found the most preposterous stories on the simplest
" charges," to adopt the wildest legends, and the most unsupported assertions
and ludicrous applications as to the arms on the shields or the badges on
the standards, so that Heraldry, pure and simple, scarcely survived to the
accession of the Tudors.
* Guillim's Htraldry.