A Publication of Armorial Gold Heraldry Services

HERALDRY RAMBLINGS

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The fascia, or fesse—a band drawn horizontally across the field, and assumed to cover a third part of it, although in practice, and by reason of the additional figures, which usually occupy the chief and base, it is limited to about a fifth. Like all these great dividing objects, it is derived from military art, and reminds us of the cradle of heraldry, the cities and fortified buildings of Palestine, and the wooden defences and palisadings which were attacked and surmounted in the Crusades. For the word fascia is used by Vitruvius to denote the cornice or architrave of a building, which had always this simple horizontal direction.

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HERALDIC SEALS

Seals having been in use before the introduction and adoption of Heraldry in England, Seals enable us to compare the devices that preceded true Heraldry with the earliest that are truly heraldic: and thus they show that, in many instances, regular coats-of-arms derived their hereditary bearings from similar devices that had been adopted in the same families before the heraldic era. For example: the Seal of John Mundegumri, about A.D. II75, bears a single fleur-de-lys, not placed upon a shield; and, accordingly, here is seen the origin of the three golden feurs-de-lys, borne afterwards upon a blue shield by the descendants of this John, the Montgomeries.

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DID YOU KNOW

Heraldry, as its name implies, was in its origin a purely military art, and, according to Spener, Menestrier, and other writers, originated in its modern form from the tournaments instituted (or, at least, brought into perfect organization) by the Emperor Henry the Fowler (c. 950) for the purpose of keeping up the military spirit among the knightly families of that early day during intervals of peace, and promoting courage and dexterity by means of such martial exercises. More critical inquiries into the origin of these assemblies carry them back a century earlier, when a great gathering of knights and their retainers for military games was held at Worms (in Germany on the Rhine river).

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NEW YEAR CONTEST

First 5 to provide us with the correct blazon (in English please-shield only) will receive their choice of anything from the website.

To enter, email the office. Winners will be posted in the next issue of the Gauntlet.

Good Luck to all...

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