heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
Originally these were " dimidiated," as it was called, i.e. each shield was
cut exactly in half. Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, son of Richard, the brother
of Henry III., married Margaret, daughter of Richard de Clare, and on his
seal, given in Sandford's Genealogical History, carried the arms of the Earls
of Cornwall, argent a lion rampant gules crowned or, within a bordure sable
bezante, dimidiated with the arms of Clare, or three chevronels gules. In
the same book we find the arms of Eleanor de Bohun, wife of Thomas,
Duke of Gloucester, youngest son of Edward III., impaled with those of
her husband (p. 125), by
which the arms on both
sides of the shield, though
reduced in size, are kept
entire. This has been
invariably the subsequent
practice, though on the
seal of Mary, Queen of
Scots, her marriage with
the Dauphin of France is
dimidiated with the entire
shield of Scotland.
Of crests there is not one illustration in the Minster. Dallaway tells
us that such an appendage was unknown to the Normans, who, on the
authority of Montfaucon, denoted the rank of the individual by the number
of bars of which the beauvoir or visor of the helmet consisted. The ancient
Norman casque was composed of an iron frame-work, covered with leather,
and quite flat at the top. Such we find on the seal of Richard, Earl of
Cornwall, brother of Henry III., 1209-1271. The seal of his son Edmund,
Earl of Cornwall, shews the helmet conical ;
whereas the seal of Thomas,
son of Edward Crouchback, Earl of Lancaster, 1245-1296, shews a crest
a dragon, which Dallaway says
is " the first instance." Crests were originally
used in jousts, when the shield was not borne, or by the chief commanders
in battle, and conceded by royal grant, confined to very few persons. In
process of time the assumption of them has become universal. They are
not held to be absolutely hereditable, but may be assumed. As women did
not wear helmets, they were not deemed entitled to crests ;
and indeed, in
the fourth year of Queen Elizabeth, at a Chapter of Heralds held at
Broiderers' Hall in London, it was expressly decreed that they should
not assume them.
The origin of supporters has been attributed by some* to the practice
of tournaments, when the adventurers did not use their shields, which
were generally suspended upon the barriers
of
and pavilions within the lists.
*
Dallaway's Heraldic Enquiries.