668 



HERALDRY 



real or fabulous; but men in armour are not 

 unfrequent, as also naked men or savages, often 

 carrying clubs, and wreathed about the head and 

 middle. On early seals a single supporter occasion- 

 ally occurs, and there are instances of the escutcheon 

 being placed on the breast of an eagle displayed. 

 The dexter and sinister supporters are often, and 

 almost always in continental heraldry, alike. In 

 British heraldry, however, the two supporters are 

 in many cases different ; and where the bearer 

 represents two families, a supporter is sometimes 

 adopted from the achievement of each. The 

 rules restricting the right to supporters are 

 different in different countries. In England their 

 use is confined to the royal family, peers, knights 

 of the Garter, and knights Grand Cross of the 

 Bath ( with the last the right does not transmit to 

 descendants), the heads of a very few families out 

 of the peerage, who derive their right from an old 

 patent or early usage, and the chief mercantile 

 companies of London. In Scotland the right 

 extends to the chiefs of important clans, and the 

 representatives of minor barons who had full 

 baronial rights prior to 1587, the date of the act 

 which (inally excluded the minor barons from 

 parliament. Baronets of Nova Scotia have as such 

 no right to supporters, though many of them bear 

 them in respect of their baronial qualifications. It 

 is considered to be in the power of the Scottish 

 King-of-arms to confer them ex gratia, a right 

 which lias been sparingly exercised, except for 

 the period between 1790 and 1820. 



Any collar and badge of an order to which the 

 bearer may have a right forms properly a part of 

 his achievement, the collar surrounding his shield, 

 and the badge being suspended from it. The badge 

 of Nova Scotia is suspended by an orange-tawny 

 ribbon from the shield of baronets of Scotland ; and 

 other baronets have the arms of Ulster in a canton 

 or an inescutcheon ( see BARONET ). Certain officers 

 of state accompany their shields with marks of their 

 rank. The Duke of Norfolk as Earl Marshal places 

 saltirewise, behind his shield two truncheons, 

 tipped above with the arms of England and below 

 with his own arms. The Lord Justice-general of 

 Scotland in like manner places two swords saltire- 

 wise behind his shield. 



The full achievement of the sovereign of the 

 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is 

 shown in fig. XII. Its full blazon is : Quarterly, 



Fig. XII. Royal Arms of the United Kingdom. 



first and fourth gules, three lions passant garclant 

 in pale, or, for England ; second, or, a lion rampant 

 within a double tressure rlory-counterflory gules, 



for Scotland ; third, azure, a harp or, stringed argent, 

 for Ireland ; all surrounded by the Garter. Crest. 

 Upon the royal helmet, the imperial crown proper, 

 thereon a lion statant gardant or, imperially 

 crowned proper. Supporters. Dexter, a lion ram- 

 pant gardant or, crowned as the crest. Sinister, a. 

 unicorn argent, armed, crined, and unguled proper, 

 gorged with a coronet composed of crosses patee 

 and fleurs-de-lis, a chain affixed thereto passing 

 between the fore-legs, and reflexed over the back, 

 also or. Motto. ' Dieu et mon Droit,' in the com- 

 v partnient below the shield, with the Union rose, 

 shamrock, and thistle engrafted on the same stem. 



This article may appropriately conclude with a 

 short account of the various ways in which the 

 royal arms of England, Great Britain, and the 

 United Kingdom have been borne. The Great 

 Seal of Richard Coeur-de-Lion, made after his 

 return from the third crusade, had the three lions 

 passant gardant (or leopards) in pale, as they have 

 ever since been depicted. In 1340 Edward III., in 

 virtue of the supposed right of his mother, assumed 

 the title of king of France, and quartered the arms 

 of France (azure, sem of fleurs.-de-lis or) with 

 those of England, giving the precedence to the 

 former. Richard II. sometimes bore the reputed 

 arms of Edward the Confessor (azure, a cross flory 

 between five martlets or) impaled with his quar- 

 tered coat, giving the former the precedence. In 

 conformity with the practice in France, the fleurs- 

 de-lis were in the later part of the reign of Henry 

 IV. reduced to three in number. No further 

 change took place in the royal escutcheon until the 

 time of James I., except that Mary, on her second 

 Great Seal, made after her marriage with Philip 

 II., impaled the arms of Spain and England. 



James VI. of Scotland, on succeeding to the 

 throne of England as James I. , quartered the arms 

 borne by preceding sovereigns with those of Scot- 

 land and Ireland, the first and fourth quarters 

 being counterquartered France and England, the 

 second quarter being the lion rampant of Scot- 

 land ; the third, the harp of Ireland. The royal 

 arms were borne similarly by all the sovereigns of 

 the House of Stuart until the reign of Anne, 

 except that William III. bore en surtout the coafc 

 of Nassau : azure, seme of billets, a lion rampant 

 or. In the reign of Anne the legislative union 

 with Scotland brought about a further change ; 

 England impaled with Scotland was placed in the 

 first and fourth quarter, France in the second, and 

 Ireland in the third. The accession of George I. 

 displaced England and Scotland from the fourth 

 quarter, to make way for the arms of Hanover 

 (see ante Quartering). In 1801 George III. laid 

 aside the titular assumption of king of France, 

 and abandoned the French fleurs-de-lis. The arms 

 of England were now made to occupy the first 

 and fourth quarter, Scotland the second, and 

 Ireland the third, while the arms of Hanover 

 were placed en surtout. These last were finally 

 abandoned on the severance of Hanover at the 

 accession of Queen Victoria, when the royal 

 escutcheon assumed its present arrangement. 



The lion passant (or statant) gardant as the 

 crest of England first appears on the Great Seal of 

 Edward III. The supporters borne in former times 

 by the kings of England varied much, particularly 

 during the early period when these appendages of 

 the shield were invested with more of a decorative 

 than an armorial character, and perhaps often left 

 to the fancy of the engraver. When the arms of 

 any of the English sovereigns from Richard II. to 

 Edward IV. are represented with supporters, the 

 animals chosen are almost indifferently lions, 

 antelopes, or white harts, and occasionally their 

 place is supplied by angels. Edward IV. 's shield 

 is sometimes supported on one side by a black bull. 



