The Gauntlet - March 2009

A Publication of Armorial Gold Heraldry Services

HERALDRY RAMBLINGS

1ST KING OF JERUSALEM?

IMAGE COMING SOON

The Kingdom of Jerusalem had its origins in the First Crusade, when Godfrey of Bouillon (shown above) took the title Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri (Protector of the Holy Sepulcher) in 1099 and was crowned as ruler of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The following year, his brother Baldwin I was the first to use the title king and the first to be crowned king in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem itself. The actual title of the early kings of Jerusalem was Rex Latinitas Ierosolimitanus, or other variations meaning king of the Latins of Jerusalem. They did not pretend to rule over the native Christian, Muslim, or Jewish populations.

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EAGLE ARMED

When an eagle or other bird is blazoned armed, it does not include the beak, but the claws, only. To include the beak and tongue, it is blazoned, beaked, and langued. It is tempting to include the beak as it is to most, a weapon....in fact, we have seen it depicted (as such) in some old drawings.

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HERALDIC PANTHER

The heraldic Panther is often depicted spitting fire from its mouth and ears (and sometimes from its nostrils. It is said that a Panther symbolizes that a beautiful woman, though fierce and intense, is very tender and loving to her brood, and will defend them with the hazard of her life and soul. The flames represent the sweet odour emitted by the panther. King Henry VI used the panther for his badge, to indicate that "a King should have so many excellent and several virtues as there are diversities of spots A new Heraldic Panther coming in April.

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THE GAELS, THE MC, AND THE MAC....

To many folk unfamiliar with Ireland, the word "Gaelic" denotes a language once widely spoken in the Highlands of Scotland and still extant there. In Ireland, when speaking English, we call the Gaelic language, Irish, though in Irish the word is, in the modern spelling, Gaeilge. As an adjective, however, "Gaelic" is used to denote the race which has inhabited Ireland since prehistoric times. Scottish Gaelic is basically the same as the Irish language, of which it is an off-shoot. The fact that the Gaels of Scotland are the descendants of Gaelic settlers from Ireland seems not to be generally known. Scotland got its name from the word "Scotus" being the Latin for Irishman, as exemplified in the name of the famous ninth century Irish philosopher, Johannes Scotus Eriugena.

The practice of differentiating between Mac and Mc (not to mention the now almost obsolete M') is fortunately dying out. There is no difference. Mc is simply an abbreviation of Mac. It is a fallacy that Mc is Irish and Mac, Scottish.

Next month, a discussion on O', Fitz, Mul and the like....

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STAFF NOTES

Next month, we offer some unusual templates, a paschal lamb with banderole, and some terrific new swords. Our own Ryan Kelly is moving down-under...we'll miss him, and wish him luck!

THE WORLDS LARGEST PROVIDER OF HERALDRY ART

We are leaving this help tip up, as more and more of you are upgrading

your Corel Draw software to X3 or X4

Corel Draw has changed some default settings in X3 and X4 that can render your vector images black, do the same for your F9 preview and in the case of X4 display your image excessively dark.

Fixes:

Top Command Bar/View Select “enhanced” and not “enhanced with overprints”;
Top Command Bar/Tools/Color Management Color Mode for Effects-should be set at RGB (not CMYK);
Top Command Bar/Tools Select “Save Settings as default” ;
When importing AG graphics into X4, make sure you first group your image before using the F9 full screen preview (X3 imports the graphic already grouped).

Adobe Illustrator Fix for CDR files using HSB color model

Some Art was created using the HSB color model (white). Illustrator CS and greater does not recognize the HSB color model, and shows those parts as black when opened. We have converted most Art to the RGB color model, but you may find the odd image that we missed.

FIX

ungroup the image and select the black, and using your mouse click on White in your color palette. If you can't figure it out, email the office naming the image file, and we'll do it for you. Note: the glitch applies to CDR files and not WMF files.