COMMON OR MISCELLANEOUS CHARGES
After the "proper charges" which we have just been considering, we come to those termed "common or miscellaneous."
(How truly miscellaneous these are we have already shown in our first chapter.) Guillim arranges these charges in the following order:
Celestial Bodies.—Angels, sun, moon, stars, etc.
Metals and Minerals.—Under this latter title rank precious stones and useful stones—such as jewels and millstones, grindstones, etc., also rocks.
Plants and other Vegetatives.
Living Creatures.—These latter he divides into two classes—viz., "Those which are unreasonable, as all manner of beasts" and "Man, which is reasonable."
To begin with the heavenly bodies.
Angels, as also human beings, are very rare charges, though Guillim quotes the arms of one Maellock Kwrm, of Wales, where three robed kneeling angels are charged upon a chevron, and also the coat of arms of Sir John Adye in the seventeenth century, where three cherubim heads occur on the field. Both angels and men, however, are often used in heraldry as supporters. Charles VI. added two angels as supporters to the arms of France, and two winged angels occur as such in the arms of the Earl of Oxford.
Supporters, you must understand, are those figures which are represented standing on either side of a shield of arms, as if they were supporting it. No one may bear these figures except by special grant, the grant being restricted to Peers, Knights of the Garter, Thistle, and St. Patrick, Knights Grand Cross, and Knights Grand Commanders of other orders.
Charges of the sun, moon, and other heavenly bodies are comparatively rare. One St. Cleere rather aptly bears the "sun in splendour," which is represented as a human face, surrounded by rays. Sir W. Thompson's shield is charged with the sun and three stars. The sun eclipsed occurs occasionally in armorial bearings; it is then represented thus: Or, the sun sable.
The moon occurs very often in early coats of arms, either full, when she is blazoned "the moon in her complement," or in crescent. The Defous bear a very comical crescent, representing a human profile. Of these arms, the old herald says severely: "A weak eye and a weaker judgment have found the face of a man in the moon, wherein we have gotten that fashion of representing the moon with a face."
The moon is certainly not in favour with Guillim, for, after declaring that she was the symbol of inconstancy, he quotes the following fable from Pliny to her discredit:
"Once on a time the moon sent for a tailor to make her a gown, but he could never fit her; it was always either too big or too little, not through any fault of his own, but because her inconstancy made it impossible to fit the humours of one so fickle and unstable."
The sixth Bishop of Ely had very curious arms, for he bore both sun and moon on his shield, the sun "in his splendour" and the moon "in her complement."
Stars occur repeatedly as heraldic charges. John Huitson of Cleasby bore a sixteen-pointed star; Sir Francis Drake charged his shield with the two polar stars; whilst Richard I. bore a star issuing from the horns of a crescent. The Cartwrights bear a comet; whilst the rainbow is charged on the Ponts' shield, and is also borne as a crest by the Pontifex, Wigan, and Thurston families. The Carnegies use a thunderbolt as their crest.
We now come to the elements—fire, water, earth, and air, which all occur as charges, but not often, in armorial bearings.
Fire, in the form of flames, is perhaps the most frequent charge. The Baikie family bear flames, whilst we have seen the picture of a church window in Gloucestershire, where a coat of arms is represented with a chevron between three flames of fire. The original bearer of these arms distinguished himself, we were told, by restoring the church after it had been burnt down. Fire often occurs in combination with other charges, such as a phœnix, which always rises out of flames, the salamander,1 and the fiery sword.
1: The salamander was the device of Francis I. of France, and on the occasion of the Field of the Cloth of Gold the French guard bore the salamander embroidered on their uniforms.
Queen Elizabeth chose a phœnix amidst flames as one of her heraldic charges. Macleod, Lord of the Isles of Skye and Lewis, bears "a mountain inflamed"—literally, a volcano—on his shield, thus combining the two elements, earth and fire.
"Etna is like this," says Guillim; "or else this is like Etna."
Water, as we know, is usually represented by roundlets, but the earth may figure in a variety of ways when introduced into heraldry.
In the arms of one King of Spain it took the shape of fifteen islets, whilst one Sir Edward Tydesley charged his field with three mole-hills.
Jewels pure and simple occur very rarely as charges. A single "escarbuncle" was borne by the Empress Maud, daughter of Henry I., as also by the Blounts of Gloucester. Oddly enough, however, mill-stones were held to be very honourable charges, because, as they must always be used in pairs, they symbolized the mutual dependence of one fellow-creature on the other. They were therefore considered the most precious of all other stones.
The family of Milverton bear three mill-stones.
Plants, having been created before animals, are considered next.
Trees, either whole or represented by stocks or branches, are very favourite charges, and often reflect the bearer's name.
Thus, one Wood bears a single oak, the Pines, a pineapple tree, the Pyrtons, a pear-tree. Parts of a tree are often introduced into arms. For example, the Blackstocks bear three stocks, or trunks, of trees, whilst another family of the same name charge their shield with "three starved branches, sa." The Archer-Houblons most appropriately bear three hop-poles erect with hop-vines. (Houblon is the French for hop.) Three broom slips are assigned to the Broom family; the Berrys bear one barberry branch; Sir W. Waller, three walnut leaves. Amongst fruit charges, we may mention the three golden pears borne by the Stukeleys, the three red cherries which occur in the arms of the Southbys of Abingdon, and the three clusters of grapes which were bestowed on Sir Edward de Marolez by Edward I. One John Palmer bears three acorns, and three ashen-keys occur in the arms of Robert Ashford of Co. Down.
A full-grown oak-tree, covered with acorns and growing out of the ground, was given for armorial bearings by Charles II. to his faithful attendant, Colonel Carlos, as a reminder of the perils that they shared together at the lonely farmhouse at Boscobel, where the king took refuge after the Battle of Worcester. Here, as you probably all know, Charles hid himself for twenty-four hours in a leafy oak-tree, whilst Cromwell's soldiers searched the premises to find him, even passing under the very branches of the oak. Carlos, meanwhile, in the garb of a wood-cutter, kept breathless watch close by. On the Carlos coat of arms a fesse gu., charged with three imperial golden crowns, traverses the oak.
In blazoning trees and all that pertains to them, the following terms are used: Growing trees are blazoned as "issuant from a mount vert"; a full-grown tree, as "accrued"; when in leaf, as "in foliage"; when bearing fruit, as "fructed," or seeds, as "seeded." If leafless, trees are blazoned "blasted"; when the roots are represented, as "eradicated"; stocks or stumps of trees are "couped." If branches or leaves are represented singly, they are "slipped." Holly branches, for some odd reason, are invariably blazoned either as "sheaves" or as "holly branches of three leaves."
Some of our homely vegetables are found in heraldry. One Squire Hardbean bears most properly three bean-cods or pods; a "turnip leaved" is borne by the Damant family, and is supposed to symbolize "a good wholesome, and solid disposition," whilst the Lingens use seven leeks, root upwards, issuing from a ducal coronet, for a crest. Herbs also occur as charges. The family of Balme bears a sprig of balm, whilst rue still figures in the Ducal arms of Saxony. This commemorates the bestowal of the Dukedom on Bernard of Ascania by the Emperor Barbarossa, who, on that occasion, took the chaplet of rue from his own head and flung it across Bernard's shield.
Amongst flower charges, our national badge, the rose, is prime favourite, and occurs very often in heraldry. The Beverleys bear a single rose, so does Lord Falmouth. The Nightingale family also use the rose as a single charge, in poetical allusion to the Oriental legend of the nightingale's overpowering love for the "darling rose." The Roses of Lynne bear three roses, as also the families of Flower, Cary, and Maurice. Sometimes the rose of England is drawn from nature, but it far oftener takes the form of the heraldic or Tudor rose. Funnily enough, however, when a stem and leaves are added to the conventional flower, these are drawn naturally.
There are special terms for blazoning roses. Thus, when, as in No. 7 of Fig. 36, it is represented with five small projecting sepals of the calyx, and seeded, it must be blazoned "a rose barbed and seeded"; when it has a stalk and one leaf it is "slipped," but with a leaf on either side of the stalk, it is "stalked and leaved." A rose surrounded with rays is blazoned "a rose in sun" (rose en soleil). Heraldic roses are by no means always red, for the Rocheforts bear azure roses, the Smallshaws a single rose vert, whilst the Berendons have three roses sable.
The thistle, being also our national badge, has a special importance in our eyes, but next to the "chiefest among flowers, the rose, the heralds ranked the fleur-de-lys," because it was the charge of a regal escutcheon, originally borne by the French kings. Numerous legends explain the introduction of the lily into armorial bearings, but we can only add here that although the fleur-de-lys is generally used in heraldry, the natural flower is occasionally represented—as in the well-known arms of Eton College; three natural lilies, silver, are charged upon a sable field, one conventional fleur-de-lys being also represented. Amongst other flower charges, three very pretty coats of arms are borne respectively by the families of Jorney, Hall, and Chorley. The first have three gilliflowers, the second, three columbines, and the last, three bluebottles (cornflowers).
Three pansies were given by Louis XV. to his physician, Dr. Quesnay, as a charge in a coat of arms, which he drew with his own royal hand; and to come to modern times, Mexico has adopted the cactus as the arms of the Republic, in allusion to the legend connected with the founding of the city in 1325, when it is said that the sight of a royal eagle perched upon a huge cactus on a rocky crevice, with a serpent in its talons, guided the Mexicans to the choice of a site for the foundations of their city.
One last word as to cereals.
The Bigland family bear two huge wheat-ears, which, having both stalk and leaves, are blazoned "couped and bladed." As in the case of trees, when represented growing, wheat-ears are described as "issuant out of a mount, bladed and eared." Three ears of Guinea wheat, "bearded like barley," are borne by Dr. Grandorge (Dr. Big-barley); three "rie stalks slipped and bladed" occur in the arms of the Rye family; whilst "five garbes" (sheaves) were granted to Ralph Merrifield by James I.
Wheat-sheaves (garbes) are very favourite charges. Lord Cloncurry bears three garbes in chief; Sir Montague Cholmeley bears a garbe in the base of his shield, as does also the Marquis of Cholmondeley.
Garbes and wheat-ears were also much used as crests.
The Shakerleys have a sheaf of corn for their crest, on the left of which is a little rabbit, erect, and resting her forefeet on the garbe; Sir Edward Denny's crest is a hand holding five wheat-ears; whilst Sir George Crofton has seven ears of corn as his crest.
Though quite out of order amongst cereals, we may mention what is, I believe, a rather rare example of the representation of the fern in heraldry, Sir Edward Buckley's crest—a bull's head out of a fern brake.