SLHS: Heraldry

Coats Of Arms

Meaningful Symbols

For multitudes of reasons people have sought to identify themselves with quickly recognised symbols: the Egyptians had the Ankh, the Romans A Pair Of Olive Branches, Wales the Dragon and even in modern times we see symbols everywhere. Here (right) is England’s symbol: the Rose as first used by the Tudors.

Coats Of Arms

During battles, and even counting the dead afterwards, a quick system of recognition is needed. An army can also use them intimidatingly to demoralise inexperienced front line troops. Obviously a coat is a covering and a coat of arms is a covering used when bearing arms or weapons.

The Study Of Heraldry

A herald is someone who proclaims something. Our town’s local newspaper is the Stratford Herald whose motto is: “I wish no other herald, no other speaker of my living actions” which is taken from Line 76 of Henry VIII Act 4, Scene 2

Many symbols were jealously guarded -particularly those of the royal families and so the granting of the use of these symbols was often controlled but not exclusively. It can take some decyphering as to what these symbols mean and so the study of this heraldry has developed. We will now look at our local symbols.

See bottom of the page for terms and further information.

● These items have aspects that uniquely contribute to national or world history.

Warwickshire Coat Of Arms

The symbols on our county’s coat of arms convey the following meanings:

1. It is thought that the Ragged Staff is a young ash tree by which an early Earl of Warwick, Morvidus, is fabled to have used to kill a giant.
   

2. The word ‘bear’ in Latin is urse. Certainly one of the Norman officials under William The Conquerer was  Urse d'Abetot. He was an ancestor of the Beauchamp family who eventually became Earls of Warwick.
   

3. The three Cross Crosslets are again attributed to the Earls Of Beauchamp.
   

4. Apart from a Crown often depicting victory, or allegiance to royalty, a brick crown in this form (five pinnacles seen here but not all depictions adhere strictly to this) is a symbol of the capital of somewhere and in this case Warwick is the county town of Warwickshire. Here it is placed in the ‘mural’ position (above the main shield) to emphasize it has ultimate authority over its subjects.
   

The heraldic terms of arms are:

Gules a Bear erect Argent muzzled of the first collared and chained Or supporting a ragged Staff of the second the chain reflexed over the back and

en­circling the Staff on a Chief of the third three Cross-crosslets of the first; The Shield ensigned with a Mural Crown Gold.

Stratford-on-Avon Town

Our town’s Coat Of Arms is actually incredibly simple: The blue inverted ‘V’ represents the River Avon. The three lions are those of Richard The Lionheart* who was King at the time of Stratford gaining its charter in 1196. The lion, being the King Of The Jungle, thus signified his bravery.

The heraldic terms of arms are:

Or a Chevron Azure between three Leopard's Faces

The Normans were obviously from Normandy in France. “Or” means gold in French and probably refers to the wealth to be gained from harvesting the rich fields of wheat, barley and oats. The processing of these made millers very rich and powerful. Yellow flowering oil-seed rape was not farmed in those days.

Map showing the vast area of Stratford District Council’s influence as a planning authority

Map: GeoPunk

Stratford-on-Avon Borough

Since 1984 the Coat Of Arms for the borough, now the District, disconnects from royalty and merely makes the “strait” connection going over the waves of the river. Then the swans are added who are carrying snippets of oak and wheat that are locally grown and were transported by boat to Cox’s Mill or Lucy’s Mill respectively. It is unknown if this is coincidental being so similar in layout to the second Clopton coat of arms (below).

The heraldic terms of arms are:

Gules a Bend per bend wavy Argent and Azure charged with a Bendlet wavy counter changed between two Swans

naiant Argent that in chief holding in its beak a Sprig of Oak and that in base an Ear of Wheat both Gold.

Shakespeare

In 1596 John Shakespeare took out protection for a new Coat of Arms for his son’s now growing family. It’s a clever ideogram because it implies that what is written with the pen is more pointed than the spear that it’s attached to. The family name was obviously associated with shaking spears. There’s quite a story to this. For part two of some extremely well researched details look here:  The Heraldry Society

The heraldic terms of arms are:

Or; on a bend sable a spear of the first with steeled argent*

*with a tip of silver

Word: 46 And Word: -46 in Psalm 46 When 4+6 Was Aged 46

The King James Bible is renowned for its "majesty of style" and is considered one of the most important books in the English language shaping much of this language used around the world. Eventually Shakespeare’s own works may be added to this accolade. However there’s one rather amazing quirk of this translation first planned at The Hampton Court Conference of 1604..

The task of looking at all available manuscripts and weighing the then current translations to make a new book which the king was about to pay for was seconded to teams of scholars. Those teams would bring in learned men to carry out the work under strict supervision. As was customary at the time those who had performed their allotted work signed it as a true representation.

1. Our Bard was brought in. He was asked to work on Psalm 46. At that time he just happened to be aged 46 but whether this is a coincidence or not nobody can tell.
   

2. Spelling of English at that time was not the formality that is now and his signature is found several times written 'Shakspeare' which just happens to split into four and six letters - thus '46'.
   

3. Then, and you’re not going to believe this, one notices that the 46th word from the beginning of the Psalm 46 is "shake".  And uncannily the 46th word from the end is "spear" or "speare" in the original spelling.
   

Is it now time for a period to let your conjecture muse how these coincidences came about or was it ‘drama’ ? Of course don’t just take our word for it; do check it out for yourself.   Or, perchance, is this a psample of us being knaves ? *

*Guess how many words are in this last paragraph ? Sorree !

- The Coats Of Arms In Our Locality

Clopton

The de Clopton name has several variant spellings coming from Clappotan where ‘clopp’ or ‘cloppa’ means a rock or hill and ‘tun’, ‘tan’ or ‘ton’ means a settlement. They are listed in The Doomsday Book as feudatories of the Honor Of Clare. The family hugely extended Kentwell Hall, Long Melford, Suffolk with records kept in their Holy Trinity Church. See SLHS page: Clopton Family

The heraldic terms of arms are:

- Not found yet -

Family motto:

“Dorenavant oublier no doy”   = “It must not be forgotten from henceforth”

If you want to research later family Coats Of Arms look up Poley Clopton who was Proctor-Censor Philosophicus and Superior Bursar at Queens College Cambridge and bequeathed his estate to Bury St Edmunds Abbey. His Coat Of Arms is different (see right).

Lucy

No less remarkable are the widespread Norman barons of the Lucé family of Domfront who again came to Essex in 1074 after William The Conqueror and spread over all southern England. The name means ‘born with the daylight’. Of the many, many prominent Luci’s it was Thomas de Lucy who built Charlecote house and eventually the mill on the River Avon there. It was after a family split that the huge mill bearing their name was built in Stratford. A luce is a pike hence their use on their Coat Of Arms. There is a vast amount of further information available, see SLHS page: Lucy Family

The heraldic terms of arms are:

Three lucies hauriant argent on a crimson ground.

There are many other Lucy coats of arms, see Lucey Family Heraldry

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*Often in heraldry lions and other felines are found to be interchangeable. In fact is was thought that, like a mule, leopards were a hybrid animal: the result of the union between a lion and a mythical cat called a pard. This latter word in Greek is ‘pardos’ meaning spotted -hence spotted lion. Occasionally one might come across a fictitious leopard with a mane ! See also: Wiki: Pard