34 THE GENTLE ART OF BLAZON 



he would change his hose. He used in succession a 

 white lion and a black bull with golden horns and hoofs 

 two lions proper and again, a lion and a white hart. 

 Richard in. chose two white boars; while Henry vii. 

 struck out quite a new line, introducing a scarlet 

 dragon, which he coupled, somewhat unequally one 

 should say, with a white greyhound. Henry vni. 

 exchanged the greyhound for a golden lion, and 

 Edward vi. placed an imperial crown on the lion's head. 

 Queen Mary replaced the lion with an eagle, but Queen 

 Elizabeth restored the lion as dexter supporter. 

 Finally King James vi. and i. brought with him one 

 of the chained unicorns which had long supported the 

 shield of the King of Scots, and it has continued 

 unchanged ever since, occupying the sinister side when 

 the arms are displayed in England and Ireland, but in 

 Scotland it holds the dexter place. 



Another very common misconception of matters 

 heraldic is to suppose that a shield of arms is honour- 

 able in proportion to the number of quarterings 

 marshalled thereon. Herein is confusion between a 

 shield or banner of arms and a genealogical flag, 

 each proper in its place, but intended for totally 

 different purposes. On a genealogical flag are mar- 

 shalled the arms of those families whose blood runs 

 legitimately in the veins of an individual. To entitle 

 him to marshal sixteen quarters, formerly considered 

 indispensable to qualify a man of gentle birth, he must 

 be able to trace his lineage, paternal and maternal, 

 through four complete generations of armorial families. 

 Then his genealogical flag becomes a historic docu- 



