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.......Curiosity Corner ....... |
The Questions Many of the queries e-mailed into us ask for meanings. What does
a wyvern signify? Why was a man given a gryphon? (A wyvern signifies
nothing in particular, nor, in the sense of it being awarded,
does a gryphon.) Others, of course, ask what these bizarre beasts
are, and how and why they were invented. So it was eventually
suggested that there should be a regular column to describe some
of the stranger charges. This is the first, the MARTLET ~ a bird with no feet and sometimes
no beak either. It is perhaps most readily recognised by those
readers familar with the arms (awarded to him a couple of centuries
after his death) of Edward the Confessor, arms that appear in
religious buildings such as Westminster Abbey and in the ancient
church of Felbrigg in Norfolk (and in many other places that pretend
to some association with the Saint). What the martlet was originally is a matter for dispute. Some
claim it was the martin, for in some mediaeval documents it is
written as "martenette". Others that it was a dove, for some early
arms show it as a fatter bird than that depicted above, and with
much shorter tail feathers. And yet others insist that it was
a swift or swallow, birds never seen on the ground and thus assumed
to have no feet. The Pegasus Armorie artists seem to favour the
swallow. In England the martlet tends to keep its beak, and the Scottish
author of A System of Heraldry (published in 1722), Alexander Nisbet, stated that in England
they kept their legs also, although these were very short.. The
heralds of continental Europe claimed that the beaks and legs
were lost in the Holy Land, fighting the Saracens, and presumably
they may have been adopted by ancient warriors to signify their
surviving a crusade. Where the crusades are not used to explain
the loss of beak and feet, French heralds have said they represent disarmed enemies. The Confessor's arms in the church at Felbrigg appear on the banner
of Richard II as portrayed on the brass of Sir Simon de Felbrigge,
Knight of the Garter, his standard bearer, together with the following
explanation ~ Of old tyme there was a kinge in Englande named Edwarde, who is
a saynte and canonised and honoured through all this realme. In
his tyme he subdued the Danes, and discomforted them by batayle
on the sea thre times. And this Saint Edwarde, Kinge of Englande
Lorde of Ireland and of Acquitaine, the Irish men loved and dredded
him much more, than any other Kynge of Englande that had been
before. And therefore our soverayne Lorde Kyng Richard this yere
past, when he was in Irelande, in all his armories and devices,
he left the bering of the armes of England, as the lybardes and
four delyces quarterly, and bare the armes of this Saint Edwarde,
that is a Crosse potence golde and goules with four white martenettes
in the felde; whereof it was sayd, the Irishmen were well pleased,
and the soner they enclyned to him. The "lybardes and four delyces" refer to the leopards and fleurs
de lys in the royal arms of that time. The fleurs de lys represent
the English claim to France. The leopards are what today are blazoned
as lions passant guardant.. The description refers to "four white martenettes", whereas five
are featured, and they were generally reported to be gold. The Confessor's arms acquired notoriety when Sir Henry Howard,
eldest son of the Duke of Norfolk, was decapitated in the week
before Henry VIII died. His crime, for which his father also was
sentenced to death (but escaped when the king died first), was
that he bore the cross potonce and five martlets as a quarter
on his arms. It seems bizarre today that a man should die for
bearing the arms alleged to be of a king who had no arms. Martlets as charges are seldom seen alone, and might be said usually
to appear in flocks, as here on the arms of the Beauchamp Lords
of St Amand. The red shield and the gold fess belong to the basic
Beauchamp blason, and the martlets may have been taken from the
family from whom the lordship came through an heiress. The original
St Amand family bore or fretty and a chief sable, with various charges on the chief of which martlets appear on
the arms of at least two members. It is interesting to note that
the first known of the line, Amaury de St Amand, died on crusade. Where a martlet appears alone, it is usually very small and is
borne as a difference signifying a fourth son. 1. "Les merlettes sont des Oyseaux denuez de bec et pieds, representent
les ennemis desarmez et mis hors de combat." 2. Mediaeval attitudes to such strange tales as these, of birds
being wounded while fighting on crusade, may be difficult to understand
today. Perhaps the following quotation from St Augustine will
help ~ The important aim for us, in respect of the eagle that is said
to have broken the end of his beak against a stone because it
was too long, is to consider the significance of the fact, and
not to discuss its truth.
The Gryphon
The Baronage Contents page January-March 1999
© 1999 The Baronage Press and Pegasus Associates Ltd
310199