A DISPLAY OF HERALDRY MANIFESTING A more easie access to the Knowledge thereof than hath been hitherto published by any through the benefit of Method Whereunto it is now reduced by the Study and Industry OF JOHN GUILLIM Late Pursuivant at ARMS The Fifth Edition much enlarged with great variety of BEARINGS To which is added a TREATISE of HONOUR Military and Civil According to the Laws and Customs of ENGLAND collected out of the most Authentick Authors both Ancient and Modern by Capt. IOHN LOGAN ILLUSTRATEED With variety of SCVLPTVRES sutable to the several Subjects to which is added a Catalogue of the Atchievements of the NOBILITY of England with divers of the GENTRY for Examples of BEARINGS LONDON Printed by S. Roycroft for R. Blome and are sold by Francis Tyton Henry Brome Thomas Basset Richard Chiswell Iohn Wright and Thomas Sawbridge MDCLXXIX TO The most August CHARLES THE SECOND King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Dread Sovereign HERE is a Firmament of Stars that shine not without your Benign Beam you are the Sun of our Hemisphere that sets a splendour on the Nobility For as they are Jewels and Ornaments to your Crown so they derive their lustre and value from thence From your Breast as from a Fountain the young Plants of Honour are cherisht and nurst up Your vertuous Atchievements are their Warrant and Example and your Bounty the Guerdon of their Merit And as all the Roman Emperours after Julius Caesar were desirous to be called Imperatores Caesares from him so shall all succeeding Princes in this our Albion in emulation of your Vertues be ambitious to bear your Name to Eternity Deign then Great Sir a gracious Reflex upon and Acceptation of this Display of Heraldry which though in it self is excellent yet thus illustrated by your Name will admit of no Comparison but render to the Publisher a share of Honour in that he is permitted into your Presence Being In all humility Your Majesties most submissive and obedient Subject and Servant RICHARD BLOME TO THE RIGHT NOBLE Henry Duke of Norfolk EARL-MARSHAL of ENGLAND Earl of Arundel Surrey Norfolk and Norwich Lord Howard Moubray Segrave Brews of Gower Fitz-Allen Clun Oswalstree Maltravers Graystock and Howard of Castle-Rising c. AND TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ROBERT Earl of ALISBVRY and ELGIN VISCOUNT Bruce of Ampthill Baron Bruce of Whorlton Skelton and Kinloss Hereditary High-Steward of the Honour of Ampthill Lord Lieutenant of the County of Bedford and High-Steward of Leicester and one of the Lords of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Councel his Graces Substitute for the Officiating the said Office of Earl-Marshal Most Honoured Lords THIS Treatise next to his Sacred Majesty Honours Grand General must necessarily be dependant on your Lordships Honours Earl-Marshal to whose Protection and Patronage it is also most humbly Dedicated by My Lords Your Graces and Honours most Submissive Servant Richard Blome To the most Concerned the NOBILITY AND GENTRY My Lords and Gentlemen THis inestimable Piece of Heraldry that had past the Press four times with much approbation had the unhappy Fate in the last to have a Blot in its Escocheon viz. the Insertion of Oliver's Creatures which as no Merit could enter them in such a Regiment but Vsurpation so we have in this Impression exploded them and inserted the Persons Titles and Dignities of such as his Majesty since his blessed Restauration conferred Honour upon that so the Corn may be intire of one Sheaf and the Grapes of one Vine To this Impression is added A Treatise of Honour Military and Civil which I do own to have received from Captain David Logan of Idbury in Oxfordshire whose Manuscript is not exactly observed by omitting the Quotations in his Papers as being unwilling to swell the Volume unto too large a bulk and the rather being confident he asserts nothing without the Authority of good Authors putting my Confidence in his Care who is tender enough of his Honour and Loyalty Vertues inherent in his Blood and Name witness the Scotisâ— Histories although unfortunate therein three or four Ages ago Nor may this Treatise be without some Errors committed by the Press and that occasioned by his great distance in the Countrey which if any shall be corrected in the next Impression begging the Readers pardon for the present R. B. Mr. Guillim's PREFACE TO THE READER HOW difficult a thing it is to produce form out of things shapeless and deformed and to prescribe limits to things confused there is none but may easily perceive if he shall take but a sleight view of the Chaos-like contemperation of things not only diverse but repugnant in Nature hitherto concorporated in the generous Profession of Heraldry as the forms of the pure Caelestial Bodies mix'd with gross Terrestrials Earthly Animals with Watery Savage Beasts with Tame Whole-footed Beasts with Divided Reptiles with things Gressible Fowls of Prey with Home-bred these again with River-Fowls Airy Insecta with Earthly also things Natural with Artificial Arts Liberal with Mechanical Military with Rustical and Rustick with Civil Which confused mixture hath not a little discouraged many persons otherwise well affected to the study of Armory and impaired the estimation of the Profession For redress whereof my self though unablest of many have done my best in this my Display of Heraldry to dissolve this deformed Lump distributing and digesting each particular thereof into his peculiar Rank wherein albeit the issue of my Enterprise be not answerable to the height of my desires yet do I assure my self my labour herein will not be altogether fruitless forasmuch as hereby I have broken the Ice and made way to some after-comers of greater Gifts and riper Judgment that they may give a fairer body to this my delineated rough draught or shadow of a new-framâ—d method For if men of greatest skill have failed to give absolute form to their works notwithstanding their best endeavours with little reason may such perfection be expected from me whose Talent is so small as that I am forced to build wholly upon other mens Foundations and therefore may be thought to have undertaken an idle task in writing of things formerly handled and published by persons of more sufficiency and greater judgment Notwithstanding who knoweth not that as every man hath his proper conceit and invention so hath he his several drift and purpose so as divers men writing of one self Argument do handle the same diversty which being so what letteth that every of us writing in a diverse kind may not without offence to other use our uttermost endeavours to give unto this erst unshapely and disproportionable profession of Heraldry a true Symmetria and proportionable correspondence of each part to other Inasmuch if I be not deceived both they and my self do all aim at one mark which is so to adorn and beautifie this Science as that it being purged from her wonted deformities may become more plausible to many and be
Accidents should have such power in them For Aristotle Physicorum 1. saith Accidentia possunt miraculose non alias mutare subjectum Accidents change not their Subject but by Miracle Addition doubtless and Subtraction are of greater force than Transmutation or Location yet is there no such power in them as that they can alter the essence of any thing Quia augmentum vel diminutio saith Chassanaeus circa accidentia contractuum non reponunt contractum in diverso esse neque per ea intelligitur ab eo in substantialibus recessus the adding or diminishing of Accidents makes not the thing lose the nature of his being This Coat with the Arms of Vlster is born by Sir Iohn Molineux of Teversal in Nottinghamshire Baronetâ— and with the Arms of Vlster with a due difference is born by Darcy Molineux of Mansfield in the said County Esq Nephew to the said Sir Iohn Leigh in Blazoning of this form of Cross maketh no mention at all of the piercing thereof perhaps because it resembleth the Ink of a Mill which is evermore pierced This is termed Quarter pierced quasi Quadrate pierced for that the piercing is square as a Trencher The Augmentation born on the Bend was granted unto the Right Noble Thomas Duke of Norfolk and to his Descendants by King Henry the Eighth for his signal Service as General of the Army which gave that remarkable overthrow at Floding to King Iames the Fourth of Scotland which said Duke was by King Henry the Seventh created Knight of the Garter and made Lord High Treasurer of England So much of the Cross with the Accidents thereof Now of that other Ordinary that is framed also of a fourfold Line that is to say a Saltire A Saltire is an Ordinary consisting of a fourfold Line whereof two are drawn from the Dexter chief towards the Sinister base corners and the other from the Sinister chief towards the Dexter base points and do meet about the midst by couples in acute Angles I know the Learned Geometer will find many more Lines here than I do mention but as I said of Lines in the Cross this our description greeth best with Heralds and our purpose Azure a Saltier Argent is the Coat-Armour of Sir William York of Burton-Pedwardin in Lincolnshire Knight Sable a Saltier Argent is born by the name of Ducket of Steeple-Morden in Cambridgeshire In old time saith Leigh this was made of the height of a man and was driven full of Pins the use whereof was to scale the Walls therewith to which end the Pins served commodiously In those days saith he the Walls of a Town were but low as appeareth by the Walls of Rome which Rhemus easily leaped over and the Walls of Winchester which were overlooked by Colebrand the Chieftain of the Danes who was slain by Guy Earl of Warwick who was Champion for King Athelstane Argent a Saltier engrailed Sable by the Name of Middleton This with the Arms of Vlster is the Coat-Armour of Sir George Middleton of Leighton near Warton in Lancashire Baronet CHAP. VIII HAving hitherto shewed at large the several forms of making of such Charges as we call honourable Ordinaries Order requireth that I should now shew their diverse manner of Bearing according to our prefixed Distribution These are born Simple Compound Those are said to be born Simple when only Ordinaries do appear in the Field These Ordinaries comprehend One sort Divers sorts Ordinaries are said to be of one sort when only one kind of them is born in the Field without mixture of any other Whose bearing is Single Manifold By single Bearing I understand some one Ordinary born alone in the Escocheon such are these precedent Examples before handled By manifold bearing of Ordinaries I mean the bearing of divers Ordinaries of the same kind whether the same be born of themselves alone or else conjunctly with some of their Subdivisions Which form of bearing is twofold viz. One upon another One besides another What is meant by the bearing of Ordinaries of one kind one upon another may be easily conceived by these four Escocheons next following Proceed we now to Examples of Ordinaries of the same kind born one besides another such are these next following and their like The Field is Argent two Bends Gules This Coat-Armour I find in an ancient Manuscript of Collection of Englishmens Arms in Metal and Colours with the Blazon in French of the time of our Henry the Sixth as it is apparent by the Character of the Letter over which Coat-Armour is there written the Bearers name viz. Monsieur Iohn Haget from whom Mr. Bartholomew Haget late Consul of Aleppo deriveth his descent This Book at this present remaineth in the custody of a worthy Friend of mine a curious Collector and careful Preserver of such ancient Monuments Gules two Bends the upper Or and the lower Argent was born by Milo Fitz-water who by King Henry the First was made Earl of Hereford and Constable of England and Lord of the Forest of Dean in right of his Wife Daughter and Heir of Bernard Newmarch Lord of Brecknock This Coat is now quartered by Sir Ralph Verney of Middle Claydon in Buckinghamshire Mr. Boswell in his Works of Armory observeth That the Bearer of such Bends as these or of the like Coat-Armour may be thought to have done some great enterprise upon the Seas worthy of perpetual commendation As for Ordinaries of other sorts born likewise one besides another of the same kind behold these next Examples Now from Ordinaries of the same kind born one upon another with their extracted Subdivisions proceed we to Ordinaries of divers kinds and their Diminutives abstracted from them eftsoons found likewise born both one upon another and one besides another Such are these next following and their like Now for Ordinaries of divers kinds born one besides another you shall have these Examples ensuing Robert Lisle who was a Baron in the times of King Edward the Second and Edward the Third bore the same Coat-Armour And divers ancient and eminent Nobles of this Kingdom do rightfully quarter these Arms being descended from the Heirs generally of the Family of Lisle Or a Fess between two Chevrons Gules was the Coat of Anselme Lord Fitz-water in the time of the Conquest of whom did descend Walter Fitz-water who had a Daughter and Heir that married to Robert Radcliff Father of Robert Radcliff Lord Fitz-water of whom descended Robert Radcliff Earl of Sussex and Viscount Fitz-water of which Family of Sir Francis Radcliff of Dilston in Northumberland Baronet now living 1675. The End of the Second Section Naturalia sunt specula eorum quae non videntur THis Third Section beginneth to treat of such Charges of Coat-Armours as are called Common Charges whereof some be Natural and meerly formal such are Angels and Spirits and others are both Formal and Material as the Sun Moon Stars as also such Natures as are Sublunary whether they be living after a sort as all
that the generous sort of Lions have For these respects the degenerate brood of Lions are called in Latin Imbelles Leones that is Heartless and Cowardly Lions whereas the true Lion is termed in Latin Generosus Leo quia generosum est quod à natura sua non degeneravit That is generous which degenerateth not from his kind by which reason a man of Noble Descent and Ignoble Conditions is not truly generous because he degenerateth from the Vertues of his Ancestors Lions Bears Wolves and other beasts of ravening kind when they are born in Arms feeding you must tearm them in blazon Raping and tell whereon To all beasts of prey Nature hath assigned teeth and talons of crooked shape and therewithal of great sharpness to the end they may strongly seize upon and detain their prey and speedily rend and divide the same And therefore in blazoning of beasts of this kind you must not omit to mention their teeth and tallons which are their only Armour for by them they are distinguished from those tame and harmless beasts that have their teeth knocked out and their nails pared so near to the quick as that they can neither bite nor scratch with much harm Those teeth and tallons are for the most part in Coat-Armours made of a different colour from the bodies of the beasts and therefore in blazoning of beasts of this kind when you speak of their teeth or tallons you shall say they are thus or thus Armed So likewise if you please to speak of their tongues you shall say they are thus or thus Langued To bear a Lion or whatsoever Animal in a diverse colour from his kindly or natural colour as to bear a blue green red purple Lion Bear c. or whatsoever other colour different from that which is natural unto him is not a bearing reproachful though disagreeing to his Nature if we consider of the occasion of their primary constitution for that the custome of such bearing seemeth to have proceeded from eminent persons who habiting themselves either for their sports of Hunting or for Military Services as best fitted their phantasies would withal sute their Armours and Habiliments with colours answerable to their habits with the shapes and portraitures of forged and counterfeit Animals Or else perhaps by occasion of some civil tumults as that between the Guelphi and the Gibelini in Italy they perhaps of each faction bearing Lions Bears and Wolves or other Animals to avoid confusion and to the end the one of them should not be entrapped by the other of the contrary faction when they were intermixed one with another and that their valorous actions might be more particularly discerned from the other they distinguished themselves by different and unlike coloured Garments that so each Governour and Leader might know those that were of his own faction The like may we observe to have been of late years used among ourselves when private factions have sprung amongst us one sort was known from others of the contrary faction by a Carnation Ribond worn about or in his Hat or by a Crimson Feather or other thing the contrary faction wearing like thing but in a different colour or fashion The Lion saith Vpton passing thorow stony places doth contract his Tallons within his flesh and so walketh on his feet as if he had no Tallons at all keeping them exceeding choicely lest he should dull and blunt their sharpness and so become less able to attach and rend his prey And this property seemeth not to be peculiar to a Lion but common to all beasts of rapine as Pliny ascribeth the same property to Leopards Panthers and such other as well as to the Lion Not only Lions but also all other beasts of ravenous kind according to Bekenhawb do bring forth their young in some part defective as Lions do produce their Whelps dead Dogs bring them forth blind Bears deformed and shapeless c. For Nature would not that they should attain perfection in the womb in regard of the safety of their Dam lest in their production they should spoil and rent her womb by their teeth and tallons Other more particular Rules there are concerning the divers kinds and peculiar actions of beasts of Rapine which shall follow in their more convenient places In the mean time let us proceed to Examples that may give life and approbation to those premised Rules Praecepta enim quantumvis bona concinna mortua sunt nisi ipse auditor variis exemplis ea percipiat Good and fit Precepts are but dead unless Examples give them life Of which Opinion was Leo the Tenth when he said Plus valent exempla quà m praecepta Et melius docemur vitâ quam verbo Examples are more forcible than Precepts And our lives teach more than our words Sol a Lion passant Guardant Mars was born by Brutus Son of Silvius Posthumus who coming out of Italy with the remnant of the Trojans found out this Island of Great Britain and reigned four and twenty years Or two Lions passant guardant Gules is the Coat of the Right Honourable Sir William Ducy of Tortworth in Glocestershire Knight of the Bath and Baronet now Viscount Down in Ireland Gules two Lions passant guardant Argent by the Name of L'Estrange a Family of good antiquity of which is Sir Nicholas L'Estrange of Hunstanton in Norfolk Baronet and Roger L'Estrange of St. Giles's in the Fields in Middlesex Esquire Gules two Lions passant guardant Or was the Coat-Armour of William Duke of Normandy base Son of Robert Duke of Normandy who in Anno 1066. having slain King Harold in Battel seized the Kingdom and reigned almost One and twenty years since which time his Heirs have happily enjoyed his Crown and Dignity King Henry the Second being Duke of Aquitain and Guion in the right of his Grandmother and Duke of Normandy in right of his Mother joyned the Arms of Guion which was a Lion passant guardant unto that of Normandy and England which was Gules three Lions passant guardant Or. Now that Lions and Lioncels are born in Arms the first with interposition of some of the Ordinaries the other charged upon Ordinaries the following Examples will make it manifest and in blazoning of such Coat-Armours care must be taken to observe and remember what concerning this point of their difference I have even now delivered Ruby a Lion rampant Pearl This is the Paternal Coat-Armour of the Right Honourable Louis Duras Baron Duras of Holmby one of the Captains of his Majesties Horse Guards and Privy Purse to his Royal Highness Iames Duke of York brother to the Duke and Marshal Duras as also to the Marshal de Lorge in France and Nephew to the late Marshal de Turein in the said Kingdom one of whose Ancestors viz. Galliard Lord Duras was in the Reign of K. Edward the Fourth Knight of the Garter being one of the last of Gascoign that held for the Crown of England where he came and continued in great Employments
contrariwise the Inversion of his tail is a note of wrath and fury especially if he do beat the back therewith and doth roar withal Of this property of the Lion Catullus maketh mention in these words Age caede terga cauda tua verbera pateant Face cuncta mugienti fremitu loca retonent The gate of a Lion when he is passant is an apparent note of his jurisdiction and regal authority and sovereignty wherewith the extension of his tail doth fitly quadrate and agree inasmuch as when he hunteth after his prey he roareth vehemently whereat the Beasts being astonished do make a stand whilst he with his tail maketh a circle about them in the sand which circle they dare not transgress which done out of them he makeh choice of his prey at his pleasure Thus ending with the Wolf I will perclose this Tract of Beasts of fierce Nature comprehending all others of this kind as Ounces Lynxes Hyenaes Panthers c. under these before handled Forasmuch as the greatest part of the general Rules as also of the sundry forms of bearing attributed unto Lions and Wolves may be aptly applied to all or the greatest part of other Beasts of like Nature CHAP. XVI HAVING given Examples of ravenous and fierce kind that by main force do prosecute and obtain their prey I will now proceed to the handling of Beasts less fell and harmful of which number some are wild and savage other are domestical and sociable as Dogs of all sorts of which I will first intreat because the Dog whether it be for pleasure and game in field or for thrift and guard at home deserveth a very high estimation and of all Dogs those of chase are most in use in Armory whereof some prosecute their prey speedily others more leisurably Of the first sort is the Greyhound as in Example Note that it appeareth in an old Manuscript treating of Blazon that a Greyhound cannot properly be termed rampant for it is contrary to his kind to appear so fierce as the Author there writeth in his said Book now remaining in the custody of that worthy Knight Sir William Seger Garter principal King of Arms whose great study and travel in this Heraldical Art hath by his own Works already published been sufficiently manifest Argent three Greyhounds current pale-ways Sable collared Or by the Name of More or De la More and with the Arms of Vlster is the Coat-Armour of Sir Edward More of More-hall and Bank-hall in Lancashire Baronet lineally descended from the ancient Family of the Mores of the said places whose Ancestors have there continued for above twenty Generations as appears as well by divers ancient Deeds now in the custody of the said Sir Edward as by the Hatchments and Inscriptions engraven on the walls of the said Houses This Coat is also born by Sir Iohn More of the City of London Knight and Alderman lineally descended from the Family of the Mores aforesaid Sable three Greyhounds current in pale Argent collared Or is the Coat-Armour of the ancient Family of the Machels of Crakenthorp in Westmoreland and is now born by Lancelot Machel Esq Lieutenant of Horse to the Counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland a great Loyalist and an expert Souldier This Name was writ Mauchael or Mauchel from the Conquest to the Reign of King Henry the Eighth at which time those two valiant Warriers Guy Mauchel of Crakenthorp Esq and Hugh his Brother engaged themselves in that Expedition against the French in which the English were victorious and took the almost impregnable City of Turnay from whence they both returned and were successively Lords of Crakenthorp aforesaid This Guy though in many dangers yet died in his Bed about the 27th of Henry the Eighth but shewed an Heroick and Marshal Spirit in bequeathing his Arms and Armour to his Sons in the very first place as that which was most dear unto him And Hugh Machel for his Valour was by King Henry the Eighth deputed with Sir Thomas Wharton Warden of the west Marshes of England by a Warrant under the said King's Sign Manual Dated the 28th of Iune in the 29th year of his Reign To these must be added all fourfooted Beasts that are provident in acquiring their food as the Hedghog and such other It resteth that I should now give Example of the last sort of Beasts among them of savage kind before spoken of which are those of timorous and fearful Nature Such are these that follow and their like And hitherto we have handled such Terrestrial Animals only as are called Vivipara because they do bring forth living Creatures whereas the other Terrestrials do bring forth eggs and are therefore named Ovipara of which sort we will speak in the next place CHAP. XVII THIS other sort of four-footed Egg-bearing Animals as I may so term them notwithstanding that in many things they have no small resemblance with man as well touching the faculties of the vegetable soul as also the parts of the body yet are they far more unlike us than those that bring forth a living Creature And albeit that these Egg-breeding four-footed Animals do consist of the same bodily parts that the Vivipara or Animal-producing do and of the four humours that are answerable in quality to the four Elements and have all parts as well internal as external senses and many other things wherein they do communicate with the Vivipara yet are there many other things wherein they differ not only from these but also even amongst themselves one from another of them For neither do we find in these that quickness of wit that we observe in others neither like parts of strength of body that the other have Like as man especially in his soul approacheth near unto God in likeness so in like manner do other Animals resemble man wherein they do participate with man in likeness after some sort but in divers degrees forasmuch as some of them have more and some less likeness with us than others have There is not saith Beda amongst the Vniversal Works of Nature any one thing so little or of so base esteem wherein a man cannot find some Divine thing worthy of admiration No less saith Farnesius may we admire the force of a silly Flea than the hugeness and strength of an Elephant Not without reason doth the Husbandman prognosticate the approach of some great shower of Rain by the croaking of Frogs more frequent than usually whereupon he saith that they do cry for rain For this Observation is grounded upon a Physical Reason Omne enim simile gaudet suo simili suae naturae utili ac convenienti every like is delighted with his like and with that which is commodious and agreeable to his Nature Since then that Frogs are exceedingly delighted with water as with that which best agreeth with their Nature therefore when they do apprehend a foresense of Rain they do rejoice and do testifie their joy by singing after their manner Animals of base