[ANSTHRLD] possible lesson for little mundanes

Timothy A. McDaniel tmcd at jump.net
Sat Aug 18 20:19:42 PDT 2001


Bridgid / "PoetLover" <poetlover at spdway.net> wrote:
> EX: what does the embattling mean (usually the firstborn and heir to
> the title...correct?)

You're confusing "embattled" with "a label".

To be more precise in terminology, a label *of three or five points*
was *often* the sign of the firstborn *legitimate* *son* (hence heir
apparent -- "a living man has no heir"; an "heir apparent" is someone
who cannot be blocked from eventually inheriting expect by their own
death).

A label of three points azure charged with three bezants can be seen
at
    http://www.geocities.co.jp/Milano/8947/359a.gif
Parker's text at
    http://www04.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/ta2/saitou/ie401/Jpglossl.htm#Label
notes "King EDWARD I. before his accession differenced his arms with
a label azure, sometimes of five points, and sometimes(even on the
same seal) of three points."

Embattling is a treatment of ordinaries and lines of division.
Parker's discussion can be read at
    http://www04.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/ta2/saitou/ie401/Jpglosse.htm#Embattled
and a fess embattled can be seen as
    http://www.geocities.co.jp/Hollywood/5004/223a.gif

> or Why would this baron have a lion on his shield but that baron has
> a weasel?

In general, it's hard to say.  I don't think anyone ever wrote
explanations like "I petitioned Garter to grant me two bars because I
loved the two taverns in the town".  We have to infer it from
patterns.

In most cases, simply because their fathers had the respective
designs, and their fathers had it because *their* fathers had it ...

If they were getting their own coats: it might be because of a pun on
the last name.  The Ferrers probably had horseshoes because people who
shoed horses were called "farriers".  The Lucy family had lucy fish on
their arms.  The Talbots had talbots, a breed of dog.

There could be influence from their lords -- you might show loyalty by
making your arms look like your lord's.  The dukes of Brittany
eventually bore the arms "Ermine", and the fur ermine was more common
in Brittany than elsewhere.  Portugal had a bordure gules charged with
castles Or, and Iberian armory tends to have more charged bordures
than elsewhere.

On the other hand, there were regional styles.  Hungary has quite a
lot of arms whose blazons start "Azure, a trimount vert ...".  More
likely, I suspect Portugal was effect rather than cause: Portugal used
a charged bordure because Iberia did it, not Iberia using it because
Portugal did -- after all, most of Iberia wasn't in Portugal.

Sometimes in Italy, adherents of the Emperor would even put the
imperial arms on a chief: "[their own design], and on a chief Or an
eagle displayed sable"; adherents of France might put on a chief of
France, "... and on a chief azure in fess three fleurs-de-lys Or".

There is no evidence that most armigers in the Middle Ages did what a
fair number of people in modern times do -- "this symbolizes that".
For example, a fair number of people in early times bore geometric
armory.  If you can find any symbolism for a pattern of blue and gold
horizontal stripes (barry azure and Or), I suspect you're looking too
hard.

> To be ended with the littles in attendance designing their own
> devices.

Peeve/rant: "littles" were Victorian underwear.  There is a little support
in the OED for "the little" in period meaning small people generally,
either physically (children) or metaphorically (the poor, peasants).
"Littles" is a bit of SCA "speykynge foorrsoothlie" with little or no
support from period, like "autocrat", "dragon" (as a mode of
transportation), "farspeaker" (ecch!), "feastocrat" (ECCH!),
"exchequer", ...  The period English word for a child was "child".
    The treasurer took the beer cans to the car.
is a perfectly reasonable medieval English sentence (modulo
spelling).  It's just that cans and car(iage)s looked different.

Please, please, please don't do the thing of "divide the shield into
four sections, and in each section draw something that symbolizes
you".  I would show them a lot of period-style shields, some geometric
and some with simple things (an eagle, a lion, a griffin, an escallop,
a saint), and just encourage them to use heraldic colors and designs
that they like.

Daniel de Lincolia
--
Tim McDaniel is tmcd at jump.net; if that fail,
    tmcd at us.ibm.com is my work account.
"To join the Clueless Club, send a followup to this message quoting everything
up to and including this sig!" -- Jukka.Korpela at hut.fi (Jukka Korpela)



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