HERALDRY. 
Some writers, however, have afflgned the merit of this 
heraldic invention to a milder race of ancient- Germans ; 
who, even before they emerged from the dark obfcurity 
of their woods, were famed for gallantry, and for man¬ 
ners Angularly governed by the point of honour, and 
animated by the virtues of the amiable fex. See the ar¬ 
ticle Germany, vol. viii. p. 464, 467,468. To excel 
in war was the ruling paflion of the ancient Germans; 
and hence their invention of many infignia connected 
with aims, which were never beftowed but with great 
formality upon the wearer. “ Thefe, (faysDr. Stuart,) 
were the friends of. his manhood, when he rejoiced in 
his ftrength; and they attended him in his age, when 
he wept over his weaknefs. Of thefe the molt memo¬ 
rable was the Jhield ; and it was the employment of his 
leifur-e to make it confpicuous. He was feduious to 
diverfify it with c/tofen colours ; and, what is worthy of 
particular remark, the ornaments he fieftowed were in 
time to produce thwart of blazonry, and the occupation 
of the herald. Thefe chofen colours were to be wrought 
into reprefentations of a£ls of heroifm. Coats of arms, 
pourtrayed upon the fiiield, were to diftinguifli from 
each other warriors who were cafed completely from 
head to foot, with their vifors down; and hence was at 
length reduced to regulation and fyftem, what had 
begun without rule or art. 
“ On the foundation of th <£fagum, or thort veil of the 
Gaulic- and the German warrior, which covered his 
arms, flioulders, and bread, coats of arms arofe. La 
cotte d’armes a efte le vetement le plus ordinaire des 
anctens Gaulois : il eftoit appelle par eux fagum , d’oii 
nous avons emprunte le mot de faye, on de fayon.'— 
Dijfert. fur I'HiJloirede St. Louis, p. 127 .—* Tegumen omni¬ 
bus fagum,' fays Tacitus, c. 17. According to this in- 
ftruciive hillorian of the ancient Germanic manners, the 
fagum was adorned with fpots, and with bits of fur. 
‘ Eligunt feras, and detradla velamina fpargunt maculis, 
pellibufque belluarum.’ c. 17. And we know from He- 
rodian, that it was fometimes ornamentepl with iilver. 
Lib. 4. In thefe curious fragments of hiftory, it is irn- 
poflible not to fee the colours, the furs, and the metals, 
which are the materials of the art of blazonry. 
The old Germans ruffled on to battle with a loud 
noife, applying their fliields to their mouths, that their 
voices might rife by repercuflion into a fuller and more 
fonorous fwell; and it merits obfervatioij, that from 
this ufage grew the cryd’annes of the middle ages. Thefe 
cries were fuppofed to incite to valour. Montjoie St. 
Denis," was a famous cry of the Franks. “ Deus adjuva,” 
“ Deus vult were cries during the crufades. Every 
banneret, or every knight who had a banner, had a cry 
peculiar to himfelf and the troops under him. Barons 
had alfo their cries. “ Dieu et les Dames," was the cry 
of the knight-errant. While fiefs and the feudal militia 
continued, thefe cries prevailed in Europe. They were 
loft on the introduction of an improved military difei- 
pline, and of ftanding armies. It is td thefe cries that 
we are to look for the mottos attached to enfigns armo¬ 
rial.”—See Stuart’s View of Society, 4to. p. 50, and 
285-287. 
It might here be remarked,—what muft force itfelf 
with peculiar energy upon every mind,—that although 
the devices and fymbols which occupied a place upon 
ftandards and fhields, feals and fignets, .in the early ages 
of the world, had none of the aforementioned rules to 
direct their pofitions, or to render them hereditary, 
(fuppofirrg it poftible to prove that they were not fo,) 
yet it will be obvious to every reader of the preceding 
extracts from Dr. Stuart, that thofe emblems or devices 
which had been fo long adopted without order or fyftem, 
and which fo many writers have adduced as reliques of 
an antique heraldry, unqueftionably laid the foundation 
of that more legitimate fpecies alfumed by the Goths 
and Germans.' 
It has been imagined, and with much fhow of reafon, 
Vol. IX. No. 595. 
409 
that Clovis, king of the Franks, of the Merovingiart 
race, who overturned the empire of the Vifigoths, anno 
507, and compelled them, on quitting Gaul, to feek an 
afylum in Spain, and who reduced under his controul 
other Germanic tribes, having taken a number of their 
pennons, ftandards, and painted fliields, carried them 
with him into France, and thus laid a foundation for 
heraldry in that country. Knighthood, and the feudal 
tenures, which had been already invented by «fte Goths 
and German chiefs, w-ere alfo carried into France, and 
cheriftied by the Merovingian princes ; for, according 
to Dr. Stuart, (p. 218,) the ufage of fiefs is found 
upon the Gaulic annals in the age of Childebert, the 
Ion and' fitcceffor of Clovis in-part of his dominions, 
anno 511. From this period we may begin to date the 
progrefs of heraldry, as affirming a more fcientific form, 
by the combination and arrangement of tinftures and 
metals, of animals in various attitudes, of fabled mon-. 
fters, and other fubjetfts of heraldic mythology, which 
the prolific fancy of that inventive people might hap¬ 
pen to fuggeft as allegorical bearings on different occa^ 
lions. But, perfectly fatisfied with the whimfical in¬ 
ventions ot their predeceffors, modern heralds are not 
inclined to coin any new ones. 
From the Merovingian, the fanciful tafte for deline¬ 
ations of dragons and monfters, and gaudy fliields, palled 
to their fucceflors the Carlovingian kings; and under 
the aufpices of the greateft prince of this celebrated 
race, the illuftrious Charlemagne, the vogue for per- 
fonal coats of arms and hereditary armorial diftindtions 
was confiderably increafed by the fplendour of his viCto- 
ries, and his union of the Germanic tribes under one 
head. But it was during the reign of Hugh Capet, the 
firft king of the third dynafty of French monarctrs, and 
towards the clofe of the tenth century, that heraldry 
received its moft ttriking advancement, from the im¬ 
provement ot blazonry, which was now brought to 
greater perfection by the ingenuity of the French, to 
whom the merit of the invention exclufively belongs ; 
and this accounts for our heraldic terms being expreffed 
in the French language. 
Iii England, the more grotefqtie bearings of the Ger¬ 
man chiets, as copied by our Saxon invaders, had been 
generally adopted ; and when the Heptarchy was efta- 
blilhed, each principal had its own peculiar device, 
which was borne upon its banners; and it appears that 
whenever any of thefe provincial kings became fove- 
reigns ot the ifland, they-retained the gentilitial or pro¬ 
vincial bearing as perfonal. This feems to apply chiefly 
to that period of our hiftory prior to the year 959, when 
king Edgar added to the crofs floretle, (which we may 
prelume was his provincial enfign,) four martlets ; and 
which, in 1042, were by Edward the Confeflbr increafed 
to five. The crofs and thefe martlets were then the arms 
ot England; and, though never ufed by the Norman kings, 
were nevertheless thought too facred, and too much the 
property of the crown, to be worn by a fubjeCt : as 
appears from the trials of Thomas third duke of Norfolk, 
and of his fon Henry earl of Surrey, who were convicted 
of high treafon on very flight grounds; one of which 
was, that they had borne on their fliields the arms 
of king Edward the Confeflbr, and thereby mani- 
fefted their intention of afpiring to the throne of Eng¬ 
land. 
At the period of the Norman conqueft, the improved 
heraldry of France appears to have been firft brought 
into England by the Conqueror and his victorious fol¬ 
lowers ; who, having attended the martial exercifes of 
tilts and tournaments thert prevalent at the court of 
France, not only introduced the elegant fathioh of fci¬ 
entific blazonry, but a tafte likewife for joufts and pa¬ 
geant Ihows. The -arms of the Conqueror were the 
arms of Normandy, and confided of two lions, which 
had been borne by the great Rollo, when he wrefted 
this dukedom from Charles the Simple, and were 
5 M adopted 
