I shall therefore proceed to offer a few remarks upon the objects described in this curious deed.
Perhaps the most valuable passage in it is one which will be most interesting to the herald. I allude to the evidence it affords of the practice of quartering arms in England some time before the date of the earliest instance of it extant, and also previously to the date generally received, on the authority of Camden[1]. Among the objects which the abbot received from John de Tosseburi, was a courte-pointe[2] (quintepoint) quartered (quartelé[3]) with the arms of England and Hereford. It is well known that the earliest example of a quartered shield in England occurs on the third[4] great seal of Edward the Third; hence, it has been inferred that the fashion began in his reign. Here we have clear evidence of its existence in 1322, five years before that monarch's accession. This fact may serve, in some measure, to remove the doubts which have been hitherto entertained respecting the genuineness of the quartered shield on the curious sepulchral effigy in Winchester cathedral, commonly called the effigy of William de Foix.
An interesting circumstance in connexion with military costume, presents itself in this document; it is the mention of those singular appendages to the shoulders, appropriately termed ailettes or alerons. They came into fashion early in the reign of Edward I., although they are not to be seen on any English royal seal before the reign of Edward III., but they appear on the seal of that sovereign as duke of Aquitaine, in the lifetime of his father. The first mention of ailettes which has been noticed in any document occurs in the roll of articles purchased for the tournament of Windsor, A.D. 1278, by which we learn that they were formed of leather, lined or covered with cloth called carda, and attached to the shoulders by laces of silk[5]. A pair of ailettes, garnished and fretted with pearls, occur in the inventory of the effects of Piers Gaveston taken in 1313[6]. They were much in fashion both in France and Flanders, as shewn by personal seals, sepulchral memorials, and illuminated manuscripts. The little "prente," with silver leaves and a frontal of cloth of say, destined for the decoration of the basinet, was pro-
- ↑ Remaines, ed. 1629, p. 159.
- ↑ Culcitra-puncta: a quilt.
- ↑ Ecartelé.
- ↑ It is engraved in Sandford. See also Professor Willis's paper on the Great Seals of England, especially those of Edward III., in the fifth number of the Archæological Journal.
- ↑ Archæol., vol. xvii. p. 302.
- ↑ Fœdera, vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 204.
