62 Sir Paon De Ruet and Chaucer 



Paon de Ruet as Gules, three Catherine wheels or; but this 

 seems a mere inference from the arms borne by Katharine of 

 Lancaster (who perhaps substituted the Catherine-wheel, with 

 spikes or teeth projecting from the rim, for the ordinary form, 

 in allusion to her own name-') and by Thomas Chaucer.-^ The 

 same arms are assigned to Roet and Chaucer by Glover's 

 Ordinary, and to Roet and Swinford by Edmondson. 



The backward reference to Paon de Ruet from Thomas Chaucer 

 depends upon the assumptions that the latter was the son of 

 Philippa Chaucer, and that she was the sister of Katharine Swyn- 

 ford. The arguments in favor of these assumptions have been 

 summarized by Wylie (4. 313-4), with citation of the authorities, 

 and may be briefly recapitulated here : 



1. The pedigree referred to above (p. 60) gives as Chaucer's 

 wife Altera^^ filiarum et cohcuredum Gnienni Annorum Rex, and, 

 as their son, Thomas Chaucer.^*^ 



2. The Ruet arms on Thomas Chaucer's tomb. But this is 

 no testimony to the descent from Paon de Ruet, unless we have 

 independent evidence that they were borne by the latter. Such 

 evidence, as we have seen, is only constructive in this case, but 

 nevertheless valuable. 



3. A letter,^^ probably of 1420, from Henry Beaufort (see 

 pp. 48-52) to Henry V, his half-nephew, in which he refers to 

 'my Cousin Chaucer,' which every one interprets as meaning 

 Thomas. 



4. The seal used by Thomas Chaucer at one period of his life 

 is the same as that of the poet. Per pale argent and gules, a bend 

 counterchanged. This would imply that he was Chaucer's son, 

 but would have no bearing on his descent from Ruet.^^ 



" So on her tomb in the choir of Lincoln Cathedral {Exc. Hist., p. 155, 

 note 2). She gave to the cathedral a varietj^ of vestments figured with 

 silver wheels (Wjdie 3. 259). 



"* On his tomb at Ewelme. So Nicolas, p. 45 ; Diet. Nat. Biog. 10. 158. 



^° Not elder, as assumed by Nicolas (Aldine Chaucer, p. 49). 



'"Born, according to Speght (Hammond, p. 25), about 1364 or 1365. 



" Printed by Kirk, p. 334. 



'^ Cf . Nicholas, p. 45; Hammond, pp. 19-20; Archccologia 34. 42; Kirk, 

 PP- 333-4 (Wylie says the legend is Thomai, not Ghofrai: Athcnccum, Oct. 

 5, 1901). Chaucer's tomb, on which his arms were to be found, is gen- 



