A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF THE SUB-ORDINARIES. 1 75
FRASER of Phoppachy, azure, three cinquefoils argent, within a borclurc com-
poned of the second and first; crest, a. phoenix, proper; with the motto, N'jn cxtinguar.
Lyon Register.
CHARLES Duke of RICHMOND, natural son to King Charles II. had the arms of
Great Britain within a bordure gobonated, argent and gules, the first charged with
roses or the last.
Thece is another form of a bordure, which Sir George Mackenzie gives in the
bearing of KILGOUR, viz. argent, a dragon with wings displayed withiu a bordure
inwardly circular sable,, charged with three crescents of the first.
Or THE ORLE.
THE orle is an inner bordure, which does not touch the extremities of the
shield, the field being seen within, and round it on both sides. Menestrier says,
orle est une bordure, qui ne louche pas les borus de fecit. Mr Gibbon Latins it, Limbus
a latere scuti disjunctus : And Sylvester Sancta, speaking of orles, says, Hi enim
sunt instar zontr, aut cinguli, ita ordinati, ut non tang ant fines postremos parmula tesserarite
: And to distinguish them from bordures, which lie calls limbos vel mar-
gines continentes. He Latins orles, limbos vel margines intercisos
dejunctosque.
The breadth of the orle is not determined by heralds, being a diminutive of
the bordure, proportionable to the extension of the field, and the figures within
and without which it. accompanied By some it is taken for an inescutcheon void-
ed ; and it is said by heralds to have been used in the arms of those who have given
protection and defence to their king and country ;
for as the bordure defends the
figures that are within, so also doth the orle ; and may be thought, upon that account,
to have been carried by some ancient families with us, who were very active
in defending the Borders of our kingdom against the English ; as the Dun-
bar's Earls of March, the Landels and the Rutherfords, of whom immediately ;
the double tressure, being of the nature of an orle, is said by some to be the badge
of the mutual assistance and defence between France and Scotland against their
enemies.
The Spaniards use the orle more frequently in their arms than other nations do ;
upon the account (says Sylvester Petra Sancta) of a noble maternal descent, as in
his book Tesserae Gentilitite, cap. 69. pag. 603 : the double tressure is carried with
us, upon the account of royal descent, by several families. Sir James Balfour, in
his Blazons, gives us the paternal arms of John Baliol, pretended King of Scotland,
which he blazons or, an escutcheon gules, voided of the field, which is the
same with the orle : It is true, it has the form of an escutcheon, but always voided
of the field, or some other tincture and still after ; the form of an escutcheon,
though the field or shield which contains it be either oval, triangular, round, or square.
Mr Gibbon, in his Introductio ad Latinam Blazoniam, gives us the arms of John Ba-
liol, of other tinctures, being one of the magnates of Henry III. gules, an orle
argent : which, says he, yet stands in the body of Westminster Abbey Church,
on the north side, and which are also the arms of Baliol's College, he being the
founder thereof. This ancient surname and noble family came from Normandy,
being writ Balluel, Baliol : And now, as some will, Baillie and were lords of
;
great possessions in that country. Guy de Baliol came over to England with the
Conqueror's son, William Rufus, and was possessed of the barony of Bywell, in
Northumberland; for which lands his son did homage to King
David I. of Scot-
land. He was succeeded by his son Eustace, and he again by Hugh de Baliol ;
whose eldest son John, married Dornagilla, daughter of Allan Lord of Galloway,
and of Margaret, the eldest daughter of David Earl of Huntingdon in whose
;
right he had many possessions in Scotland ; so that he was subject to three different
sovereigns, the King of Scotland, the King of England, and the King of
France, in whose dominions his lands lay. His son John Baliol, by the assistance
of Edward 1. was declared King of Scotland ; but afterwards dethroned, and fled
to Normandy 1287. His son Edward, by the assistance of Edward 111. of England,
got possession of the kingdom of Scotland, but was soon expelled, and in
him the direct line of this family ended. There were several collateral branches