Armigerous Norfolk Knights in the County Roll of Arms c. 1395: Society of Antiquaries, MS 664
 
 
               In his History and Heraldry: 1254 to 1310, Noel Denholm-Young attempts to construct a view of the English armigers, or that part of society that bore coats of arms, during the reign of Edward I.[1]  Denholm-Young’s use of surviving medieval rolls of arms as historical texts in piecing together a portrait of this armigerous society, however, is not without difficulty.  ‘As historical documents the rolls vary much in value, since some include only living persons, while others span two or more generations and include mythical persons to glorify the patron by association.  For it must be assumed that the heralds...produced their beautifully painted rolls because they were paid to gratify the tastes of their patrons.’[2]  Rolls of arms are compilations of coats of arms, either painted or blazoned,[3] and list arms according to themes and fall into five general classes or types, namely illustrative,[4] institutional,[5] occasional,[6] regional[7] and general.[8]  Despite such reservations, Denholm-Young is confident that ‘in a more general way the rolls reveal sociological trends not easily observable in narrative sources.’[9]  He concludes that the rolls of arms from the reign of Edward I paint a portrait of a particularly martial group[10] and argues that although by the beginning of the fourteenth century not all knights served in military capacities,[11] ‘it is probable that in this period the use of armorial bearings was confined to the ‘strenuous’ knights, i.e. those who had or hoped to see military action.’[12]  This conclusion seems to apply on the local as well as on the national level in the County Roll, MS 664, a regional roll of arms now in the Society of Antiquaries dating from the beginning of the fifteenth century.  Looking at the armigerous Norfolk knights one can see that a majority are indeed characterized by military service.
               The County Roll is a lost regional painted roll of arms composed during the reign of Richard II, but actually painted sometime in the early fifteenth century.[13]  It has been estimated by Anthony Wagner that the original book contained 175 pages and included four arms per page, although twenty shields were left unpainted and simply tricked[14] and a further 176 shields were simply left blank.  The 504 fully painted arms list many prominent lords and knights grouped according to their home counties.[15]  The only complete surviving copy of the County Roll of Arms is the Hatton-Dugdale facsimile held by the Antiquaries.[16]  It was painted between 1638 and 1640 with the help of William Dugdale, subsequently Garter King of Arms, for Sir Christopher Hatton.[17]  There are five other partial copies of this roll of arms, although for the most part they contain the entries of only a few counties each.[18]  The Hatton-Dugdale copy also includes several examples of civic, ecclesiastical and imaginary heraldry,[19] but compiling a list of all those knights included in the original fifteenth century roll is complicated by the lack of other complete copies against which the duplicate could be checked.
               Although 176 shields are left blank in the Hatton-Dugdale copy, they are nevertheless labelled with the names of individuals, some of whom undoubtedly bore coats of arms.  Thus in the Norfolk section of the County Roll,[20] Richard II’s standard bearer Sir Simon Felbrigg is named, but his corresponding coat of arms has not been painted.  In such instances, this exclusion cannot be attributed to a lack of a coat of arms, but the absence of other complete copies of the County Roll makes it difficult to determine whether such exclusions were due to the fifteenth century author or the  seventeenth century copyist.  Another challenge to the identification process is that some painted arms labelled in the roll as belonging to a certain individual sometimes exhibit slight artistic differences from the arms given for that particular family in other heraldic texts.  For example, the arms Argent three mallets Sable are given in the Hatton-Dugdale facsimile and are listed as belonging to one Sir Edmund Raynham, but most reference works give the Raynham arms as Sable three mullets Argent.[21]  In this case, it can be asked whether or not the mallets painted in the shield should have actually been painted as mullets, or stars.[22]  Alternatively, perhaps the attribution of the arms to Raynham is incorrect and the shield refers to another Norfolk individual, maybe a member of the Martel family who are known to have carried the arms Gules three mallets Argent in the fifteenth century.[23]  It may just be that Sir Edmund Raynham used a coat of arms as given in the County Roll, but in any case the frequent reversal of tinctures in the arms as they appear in the roll with what is given in other reliable works, as seen in the case of the Raynham arms, raises further complications.  The painting of some of the arms in different colours from how they are usually known (according to the family name given them in the roll) might be attributable to mistakes made by either the fifteenth century author or the seventeenth century copyist.  There is still a chance that the error is in the name given rather than the colours, and that these shields are actually meant to indicate entirely different people.  The practice of indicating cadet status through the alteration of tinctures or charges on the shield, however, is a probably source of many such discrepancies.[24]
               Determining which of the sixty-four entries[25] in the Norfolk section of the County Roll belong to armigerous knights from that county is not as straightforward a process as might be imagined, for while civic, ecclesiastic and noble arms can easily be identified, the esquires and knights are not for the most part distinguished from one another in the manuscript.  Furthermore, several individuals included in the seventeenth century copy may be excluded from study because their shields were not painted in the roll of arms.  Although every shield is labelled with a name, twenty-three of them are left unpainted despite the fact that many of these individuals are known to be armigerous.  In the absence of other surviving complete copies of the County Roll it cannot be assumed that these individuals’ arms were painted in the original fifteenth century roll, but were omitted by the seventeenth century copyist.  The knights among these twenty-three entries are excluded from this study on the grounds that their shields were also probably unpainted in the original fifteenth century roll of arms.  Since Norfolk knights whose arms appear in the County Roll form the subject of this study, the arms of peers, esquires and individuals from other counties are also excluded.  Five painted shields have been eliminated from the remaining forty-one entries since they are the arms of peers.  Lords Bardolph (d. 1407),[26] Morley (d. 1416),[27] Scales (d. 1401),[28] Fitz-Water (d. 1406)[29] and Willoughby (d. 1409)[30] are painted at the very beginning of the Norfolk section of the County Roll, preceded only by the arms of the city of Norwich.  The arms of Richard Waldegrave and Robert Ufford have been excluded as they are both Suffolk residents and their arms are duplicated in the Norfolk and Suffolk sections of the roll presumably because these men had interests in the affairs of the county.  The arms of Adam Clifton, Argent four bends Gules,[31] have also been discarded since another representative of this knightly family, Sir John Clifton,[32] is also included elsewhere in the roll.[33]  Likewise the arms painted for Roger Bygod[34] and John Caston[35] do not strictly fall into the category of potential knights in the list because entries for their knightly kinsmen Walter Bygot and another John Caston occur earlier in the roll.  Another four entries are known to be those of esquires: Dawbney,[36] William Kerdeston (d. 1361),[37] and John Huntingfield (d. 1375-76).[38]  This leaves John Fastolf, whose entry in the roll[39] has been attributed not to Sir John Fastolf (d. 1459) the younger but to his father John Fastolf, esquire, because the shield as painted in the County Roll belongs to the latter.[40]
               This leaves twenty-six painted coats of arms of which sixteen can reasonably be attributed to known Norfolk knights: Sir Robert Berney (d. 1415),[41] Sir John Ingoldisthorpe (d. 1420),[42] Sir Edmund Noon (d. 1413),[43] Sir Ralph Shelton (d. 1414),[44] Sir John Strange (d. 1417),[45] Sir Edmund Thrope (d. 1418),[46] Sir Miles Stapleton,[47] Sir Hugh (d. 1396) or Sir Edmund Hastings,[48] Sir John Howard (d. 1405 or 1409),[49] Sir John Clifton,[50] Sir Thomas Erpingham (d. 1428),[51] Sir John Shardelow,[52] Sir William Wychingham (d. 1381),[53] Sir Robert Salle (d. 1381),[54] Sir Robert Mortimer (d. b. 1387),[55] and Sir John Caston (d. b. 1374).[56]  This leaves ten coats of arms, several of which might indeed belong to knights rather than esquires.  In certain cases the labels given in the County Roll seem to refer to knights who were dead long before the turn of the fifteenth century.  For instance, the arms Azure three eagles’ heads erased Or are given in the Hatton-Dugdale facsimile as belonging to Sir Robert Salle.[57]  A Sir Robert Salle from Norfolk is described by Froissart as ‘one of the biggest knights in all England’[58] and according to the Norfolk antiquarian Walter Rye ‘was reminded by the rioters in Litester’s Rebellion that he was no gentleman born, but s. to a villein...he was killed near Magdalen Chapel, after fighting most valiantly against the rebels, having killed a dozen of them in Litester’s rebellion in 1381.’[59]  Assuming that the County Roll was indeed made at the beginning of the fifteenth century,[60] then that is at least two decades after Salle’s death.  This may be attributed to the fact that medieval rolls of arms were, in the words of Denholm-Young, ‘made to be used, and they were copied in whole or in part, with or without additions and interpolations at later dates...while others span two or more generations,’[61] and indeed Anthony Wagner has identified some arms in the roll as the addition of later hands.[62]  
               Similarly, William Kerdeston of Claxton Castle,[63] Sir William Wychingham, Judge of the Common Pleas in 1364,[64] Sir Robert Mortimer, member of parliament for Norfolk in 1363-66 and 1372,[65] and Sir John Caston[66] all are individuals who although probably already dead at the time when the roll of arms was painted, were nevertheless well known and thought worthy of inclusion.  Thus the County Roll cannot be said to represent the armigerous members of Norfolk society at an exact point in time, but rather gives a group portrait of at least two generations spanning more than two decades.  Of the sixteen knightly shields there can be little doubt that they in fact represent the individuals labelled in the manuscript, for even those blazons which do not correspond exactly with the ones given in other rolls and reference works tend to differ only very slightly.  The arms of Berney,[67] Shelton,[68] Thorpe,[69] Stapleton,[70] Hastings,[71] Howard,[72] Mortimer,[73] Erpingham[74] and Clifton[75] are all painted in the Hatton-Dugdale facsimile exactly as they are given in secondary sources and other reference works.  Along with the arms of Salle discussed above, the shields representing Sir Edmund Noon, Argent a cross engrailed Vert,[76] Sir John Ingoldisthorpe, Gules a saltire possibly Argent,[77] Sir John Shardelow, Argent a chevron in dexter chief a mullet Azure,[78] and Sir William Wychingham, Argent on a chief Sable three crosses pattée Argent[79] as given in the County Roll, display minor variations in tincture and charge which could possibly be attributed either to artistic error or to marks of cadency.  In the case of Sir John Caston, the fact that two different coats both labelled with this name are included in the County Roll[80] seems at first to be confusing.  One of these two coats, however, is listed in Burke’s General Armoury as belonging to the Caston family, and it looks as if this shield in the County Roll is certainly that of Sir John Caston.[81]  Only one of the sixteen painted coats belonging to known Norfolk knights in the County Roll, that labelled as belonging to Sir John Strange,[82] cannot be found in other reference works and so this attribution cannot be checked.
               The number of armigerous Norfolk knights in the County Roll with a military background is noticeably high, and this supports Denholm-Young’s view that armigerous knights were a particularly martial group.  Whereas Sir William Wychingham served as a judge, at least nine of the other knights represented served on military campaigns, including the distinguished soldier Sir Thomas Erpingham.[83]  Sir Robert Salle, aside from helping to suppress Litester’s rebellion, also served under the Black Prince in 1363 and subsequently earned an annual pension of ten marks.[84]  Tracing the military exploits of the John Howard listed in the Hatton-Dugdale facsimile is complicated by the fact that both Sir John Howard the elder and Sir John the younger were alive at the turn of the fifteenth century.  In any case both men saw action and Sir John the elder was for a time admiral of the Northward Fleet and was present at a siege of Calais, while his son defended the coast of Essex against the French in 1405 and eventually died in Jerusalem in 1437.[85]  Sir Robert Berney, whose father John was steward of the Black Prince’s Norfolk estates, served under John of Gaunt in the Scottish campaign of 1385 and subsequently in Spain in support of the latter’s claim to the throne of Castile.  Berney later benefited from his connections with the Lancastrian affinity and following the accession of Henry IV was, in 1400, appointed by Sir Thomas Erpingham as constable of Dover castle and warden of the Cinque Ports.  In 1415 Berney again took up arms, this time under Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, and accompanied Henry V on his invasion of France; he died overseas later that year.[86]  Sir John Ingoldisthorpe saw action under Richard, earl of Arundel and admiral of England, in a naval expedition in 1387[87] along with Sir Edmund Noon.   Noon’s military career is more extensive than that of Ingoldisthorpe, however, for he first served under the Black Prince in Gascony before 1371 and had already received his knighthood by 1386.  As an esquire of the body to Richard II, Noon was frequently employed on various commissions and accompanied the king on his expeditions to Ireland in 1394-5 and 1399.[88]  Noon managed nevertheless to win the favour of Henry IV, and by 1402 he was appointed deputy to the lieutenant of Ireland, Prince Thomas of Lancaster, for defence of the counties of Carlow and Kildare.  Sir Ralph Shelton also pursued a martial career and followed in the footsteps of his father who was present at both Crécy and Poitiers.  After seeing naval action before 1373 with Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford, Shelton accompanied John of Gaunt at the siege of St. Malo in 1378 and in Spain in 1386.  Later, Shelton served with Bishop Despenser of Norwich in Flanders in 1383 and saw action on Richard II’s Scottish campaign of 1385.[89]  
               Sir Edmund Thorpe’s father was, like Shelton’s father, also present at Crécy and Sir Edmund himself saw naval action with Sir Thomas Percy, admiral of the northern fleet and Richard II’s household vice-chamberlain.[90]  After serving as mayor of Bordeaux under Henry IV from 1400-1402, Thorpe served as a lieutenant under Thomas Beaufort, earl of Dorset in Henry V’s 1415 invasion of France and was present at the fall of Harfleur.  Two years later Thorpe returned to Normandy leading nine men-at-arms and thirty-three archers, and after seeing action at Alençon died during the siege of Louviers in 1418.[91]  Military service was also something of a family profession for Sir John Strange who served in the 1360’s under Sir Richard Walkfare, his future father-in-law, and saw action in Guienne with the Black Prince.[92]  Strange also served under John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, during the 1385 Scottish invasion and again the following year in Castile, like so many other Norfolk knights in the County Roll.  Strange also seems to have to defended the East Anglian coast from what he claimed to have been enemy vessels.  In 1386 he had to defend himself before the King’s Council against a Genoese merchant, John Gisorf, due to his seizure of the latter’s ship under the false assumption that it was a hostile Flemish vessel.[93]  Sir John Caston likewise tried to use force for his own benefit in his dispute with the Bishop of Norwich in 1355, when he threatened to lead a band of armed men to claim a fee at the installation of the new bishop.  According to Blomefield, after Caston made this threat ‘the King wrote to Guy de St Clere, Sheriff of Norfolk, and John Mayn his Serjeant at Arms, to make Proclamation that none should dare to appear armed at that Solemnity.’[94]     
               Sir Thomas Erpingham’s career was also a military one.  Indeed the length of his service and his impressive record of achievements outmatched all the other knights in the County Roll, having served in France, Scotland, Prussia and elsewhere.  His considerable service to John of Gaunt and to his heir Henry Bolingbroke, on the field, in exile and in establishing the House of Lancaster on the English throne, highlights the Lancastrian leaning of many of those knights in the roll.  Erpingham’s many financial and marital connections within East Anglian society in general, and with the families of the knights in the County Roll in particular, certainly played a role in drawing these knights within the Lancastrian affinity.  The sheer length of Erpingham’s career as a soldier, which spans almost fifty years, makes any summary of his military achievements difficult.  Beginning with his incursion into Aquitaine in the company of his father and the Black Prince in 1368 and ending with his achievements at Agincourt in 1415, his career was intimately linked with the fortunes of the house of Lancaster.  After becoming a retainer of John of Gaunt in 1380, Erpingham may be found serving the duke on the Scottish campaign of 1385, at the relief of Brest from the besieging forces of the duke of Brittany in 1385-6, and in Spain in 1386.[95]  In 1390 Erpingham entered the service of Gaunt’s son Henry Bolingbroke, earl of Derby, and accompanied the future Henry IV on crusade to Prussia the following year and thereafter through Europe on Henry’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  Erpingham also accompanied Bolingbroke during his subsequent exile, and upon his return was appointed by his grateful master to the important military posts of constable of Dover Castle and warden of the Cinque Ports.[96]  Thus it was that Erpingham, soon to be elevated to the Garter, set out on another Scottish campaign in 1400 and, of course, enjoys the reputation of having commanded the English archers at Agincourt fifteen years later.  
               Erpingham’s career was in part determined by the duke of Lancaster’s attempts to recruit members of East Anglian society into his circle of influence, and that many of the knights above were Lancastrians is another trend observable in the Hatton-Dugdale facsimile.  Erpingham’s many links to knights in the County Roll certainly suggest he was providing a channel for Lancastrian influence.  The existence of Duchy of Lancaster estates in East Anglia certainly provided a focus for Lancastrian interests and activities.  Sir Robert Berney, in addition, possessed the manor of Gunton on land bordering Sir Thomas’s home manor of Erpingham and also came into the Lancastrian orbit.[97]  Ingoldisthorpe had similar dealings with Erpingham, the former having served as a feoffee-to-use to the latter, and indeed Ingoldisthorpe’s effigy shows him wearing the Lancastrian collar of ‘SS.’[98]  Shelton was also within Erpingham’s circle of friends and witnessed a deed relating to Erpingham’s settlement of his lands and properties before journeying into exile with Bolingbroke,[99] while Strange served as a trustee of these very same estates.  Strange also entrusted Erpingham with his own estates and was assisted in the purchase of Berney’s Inn in Norfolk following the latter’s triumphal return.[100]  Sir Edmund Thorpe was also a companion of Erpingham and was a distant relative through marriage.  Thorpe’s wife Joan was the widow of Roger, 4th Lord Scales, who was himself the uncle of Sir John Howard of Wiggenhall, another knight in the County Roll.  Sir John’s son, in turn, had once been married to Joan Walton, Erpingham’s wife.  Indeed, Thorpe served Erpingham’s wife as a feoffee of her estates.[101]  In these many marital and financial connections, Erpingham’s influence drew many of these armigerous knights into the Lancastrian affinity.
               The careers of these Norfolk knights support Denholm-Young’s position that armigerous knights were military men, while the Lancastrian slant of a good many of those listed above suggests the criteria which the compiler of the roll used for inclusion.  Out of sixteen known armigerous Norfolk knights in the roll, ten had military careers, while only Wychingham served in a legal capacity as a judge.[102]  It would, however, be too simplistic to represent these men as either solely martial or legal in character.  Indeed, many of these knights had an active political life, and seven are known to have represented Norfolk in the House of Commons during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries.  Six of these seven MP’s[103] also had military careers.[104]  This is not to say that all Norfolk knights at this time were martial men, since the County Roll is not a complete record of all of the knights in the county.  Furthermore, its completion in the early years of the reign of Henry IV is significant given that many of the Norfolk knights included had Lancastrian ties.  Denholm-Young claims that ‘the rolls reveal sociological trends not easily observable in narrative sources,’[105] and the County Roll presents a group characterized by their Lancastrian dealings as much as by their military experience.  Indeed, while Denholm-Young concludes from rolls of arms that knights who bore coats of arms in Edward I’s England were for the most part ‘those who had seen, or hoped to see military action,’[106] the County Roll portrays the armigerous knights of early fifteenth century Norfolk as a similarly martial group.
 
County Roll of Arms, Society of Antiquaries MS #664

Vol. iv, ff. 1-22 Norfolk Arms


Knights
 
S’ Robt de Berney
Per pale Gules and Azure a cross engrailed Ermine

S’ Joh Inglesthorp
Gules a saltire ? Argent

S’ Edm Noon
Argent a Cross engrailed Vert

S’ Raf de Shelton
Azure a cross Or

S’ John Strannge
Gules 3 bougets Argent

S’ Edm de Thorpe
Azure 3 crescents Argent

S’ Miles de Stapelto
Argent a lion rampant Sable

le S’ Hastynge
Or a maunch Gules

S’ John Howarde
Gules a bend between six crosslets fitchy Argent

S’ Joh Clyfton
Bendy of 8 Gules and Argent

S’ Robt Mortymer
Or seme-de-lys Sable

S’ Ths Erpynghm
Vert an escutcheon within an orle of martlets Argent

S’ John de Shardeloro
Argent a chevron in dexter chief a mullet Azure

S’ John de Caston
Argent a chevron between 3 eagles displayed Gules

S’ Robt de Salle
Azure three eagles’ heads erased Or

S’ Will Wychinghm
Argent on a chief Sable 3 crosses pattée Argent

Miscellaneous Gentry
 
S’ John de Mautseby
Azure a cross Or

S’ Willm de Calthorp
Chequy Or and ? a fess Ermine

S’ Wat Bygot
Per pale Vert and Or a lion rampant Gules

S’ Edm de Raynhm
Argent 3 mallets Sable

S’ Robt de Tee
Argent a chevron between 3 crosslets fitchy Sable

S’ Rich Dagworth
Argent on a chevron Gules 3 bezants

S’ Barth Botercolwrth
Ermine a saltire engrailed Gules

S’ Wat de Herteshull
Sable 3 mullets Or

S’ John Perpount
Barry of 8 Argent and Gules

S’ Ths de Brews
Azure a lion rampant Or
 
Peers

S’ Bardolf
Azure three cinquefoils Or

S’ de Morley
Argent a lion rampant Sable crowned Or

S’ de Scales
Gules six escallops 3 2 1 Argent

le S’ fitzwater
Or a fess between 2 chevrons Gules

le S’ de Wyluby
Gules a cross Moline Argent

Suffolk Arms

S’ Ric Waldegrave
Per pale Argent and Gules

S’ Robt Ufforde
Sable a cross engrailed Or a bendlet Argent

Esquires

 S’ John Ffastolf
Quarterly Or and Azure on a bend Gules three escallops Argent

Dawbney
Gules a fess of 5 fusils Ermine

S’ Willm de Kerdeston
Argent a saltire engrailed Gules within a border engrailed Sable

S’ John de Huntyngfeld
Argent on a fess Gules 3 bezants
 
Civic Arms

Arma Norwici
Gules a castle Argent with a lion passant guardant in chief Or
 
Repeated Arms

S’ Rog Bygod
Per pale Vert and Or a cross Moline ? Gules

S’ Adm de Clyfton
Argent 4 bends Gules

S’ John de Caston
Gules 10 plates 4 3 2 1
 
Unpainted Entries
 
S’ Steph de Hales                                      S’ John Harlynge                              S’ Thos Gerbrugge

S’ Simō felbrgg                                         S’ Raf Lovell                                      S’ Joh Whyte

S’ John Curson                                         S’ Henr Rachford                              S’ John Gurneye

S’ John Lowney                                        S’ John Ilketsale                                S’ John Hassyk

S’ Willm Bardulf                                      S’ Rog Caly                                        S’ Rog Elwent

S’ John de Ffelmynghm                           S’ John de Norwych                          S’ John Whythe

S’ John Strannge                                      S’ Ths Gowrney                                 S’ Hug de Bukdenhm

Willm Rees                                                S’ Barth Baconthorp

 
Bibliography

‘County Roll of Arms’, Society of Antiquaries., MS. 664, vol. iv, fols. 1-22, Roll 16.  

Blomefield, Francis.  An essay towards a topographical history of the county of
               Norfolk.  (Fersfield: n. pub., 1739.)

Burke, Bernard, ed  The general armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales;
  comprising a registry of armorial bearings from the earliest to the present time.  1884.  (London, 1961.)

Cokayne, George Edward, ed  Complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland,
   Great Britain and the United Kingdom.  Vols. 1-14.  (London, 1910-1998.)

Curry, Anne, Ed.  Agincourt, 1415: Henry V, Sir Thomas Erpingham and the triumph
               of the English archers.  (Stroud, 2000.)

Denholm-Young, Noel.  History and Heraldry: 1254-1310, A Study of the Historical
               Value of the Rolls of Arms.  (Oxford, 1965.)

Roskell, J. S., Linda Clark and Carole Rawcliffe, eds  History of Parliament.  The
               House of Commons:1386-1421.  Vols.  2-4.  (Stroud, 1992.)

Rye, Walter.  A List of Coat Armour used in Norfolk before the date of the first
               Herald’s Visitation of 1563.  (Norwich, 1917.)

---.  Norfolk Families.  Vols. 1-2.  (Norwich, 1913.)  

Wagner, Anthony Richard.  A Catalogue of English Medieval Rolls of Arms.  
               (Oxford, 1950.)

Willetts, Pamela J.  Catalogue of manuscripts in the Society of Antiquaries of
               London.  (Woodbridge, 2000.)

Woodcock, Thomas and John Martin Robinson.  The Oxford Guide to Heraldry.  
               (Oxford, 1988.)
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] N. Denholm-Young, History and Heraldry: 1254 to 1310, A Study of the Historical Value of the Rolls of Arms (Oxford, 1965), p. 7.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Described in technical language.

[4] Listing the arms of individuals who appear in a chronicle or other narrative.

[5] Containing the arms of the members of an organization.

[6] Recording the arms of the participants in a certain campaign, siege or other martial event.

[7] Listing the arms used in a particular locale.

[8] A miscellaneous collection of arms.

[9] Denholm-Young, History and Heraldry, p. 14.

[10] Coats of arms were not always used for martial purposes, for although the use of arms spread in the twelfth century due to the necessity for identification on the battlefield and in the tournaments, arms were being used by prelates, the gentry and burghers by the mid-thirteenth century.

[11] Denholm-Young, History and Heraldry, p. 147.

[12] Ibid., pp. 1-2.

[13] Anthony Richard Wagner, Catalogue of English Medieval Rolls of Arms (Oxford, 1950), p. 68.

[14] Drawn monochromatically with colours indicated by notation.

[15] Cheshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Kent, and Sussex.

[16] MS. 664, vol. iv, fols. 1-22, Roll 16.

[17] Pamela J. Willetts, Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Society of Antiquaries of London (Woodbridge, 2000), p. 284.

[18] Wagner, Catalogue of English Medieval Rolls of Arms, p. 69.

[19] Brutus Viridescutum Rex Anglie, for example.

[20] Fols. 14 v - 16 v.

[21] Walter Rye, A List of Coat Armour used in Norfolk before the date of the first Herald’s Visitation of 1563 (Norwich, 1917), p. 43.

[22] The similarity in terminology makes it tempting to attribute this to clerical error.

[23] Ibid., p. 36.

[24] Thomas Woodcock, The Oxford Guide to Heraldry (Oxford, 1988), p. 66.

[25] Sixteen on every page.

[26] G. E. Cokayne, Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom (12 vols. 1910-1952, London, 1910), i, p. 417.

[27] Ibid., ix, p. 216.  

[28] Ibid., xi, p. 503.

[29] Or Fitzwalter. Ibid., v, p. 480.

[30] Ibid., xii, p. 660.

[31] County Roll, f. 15v.

[32] Walter Rye, Norfolk Familes (2 vols., Norwich, 1913), i, p. 106.

[33] While his arms are painted Bendy of eight Gules and Argent the design is so similar to Adam Clifton’s arms that kinship is almost certain.

[34] County Roll, f. 15r.

[35] Ibid., f. 16r.

[36] His name in the roll is not preceded by the usual Sire.

[37] Rye, Norfolk Families, i, p. 433.

[38] Ibid., p. 387.

[39] Quarterly Or and Azure on a bend Gules three escallops Argent.

[40] “The great Sir John himself bore crosslets instead of escallops.”  Rye, Norfolk Families, i, p. 190.

[41] History of Parliament.  The House of Commons 1386-1421 ed. J. S. Roskell L S Clark C Rawcliffe (4 vols., Stroud, 1992), ii, pp. 208-210.

[42] Ibid., iii, pp. 475-476.

[43] Ibid., pp. 841-843.

[44] Ibid., iv, pp. 355-357.

[45] Ibid., pp. 500-502.

[46] Ibid., pp. 598-600.

[47] Ibid., p. 59.

[48] The County Roll merely lists Hastings.  Rye, Norfolk Families, i, p. 320.

[49] Either the elder or the younger.  Ibid., p. 377.

[50] Ibid., p. 106.

[51] Ibid., p. 185.

[52] Ibid., ii, p. 785.

[53] Ibid., p. 1006.

[54] Ibid., pp. 771-772.

[55] Francis Blomefield, An Essay Towards a Topographical History of Norfolk (21 vols., Fersfield, 1739), xiii, p. 346.

[56] Ibid., xx, pp. 566-567.

[57] Alternatively Sable three eagles’ head erased Ermine.  Rye, List of Coat of Armour, p. 45.

[58] Rye, Norfolk Families, ii, pp. 771-772.

[59] Ibid.

[60] Wagner, Catalogue of English Medieval Rolls of Arms, p.68.

[61] Denholm-Young, History and Heraldry, p. 14.

[62] Wagner, Catalogue of English Medieval Rolls of Arms, p. 68.

[63] Died 1361.  Rye, Norfolk Families, i, p. 433.

[64] Died 1381, although his grandson of the same name might be the one referred to in the County Roll.  Ibid., ii, p. 1006.

[65] Died 1387.  Ibid., i, p. 573.

[66] Died before 1374.  Blomefield, History of Norfolk, xx, pp. 566-567.

[67] Bernard Burke, The general armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; comprising a registry of armorial bearings from the earliest to the present time (London, 1961), p. 75.

[68] Ibid., p. 920.

[69] Ibid., p. 1012.

[70] Ibid., pp. 964-965.

[71] Ibid., p. 465.

[72] Ibid., p. 511.

[73] Ibid., p. 709.

[74] Ibid., p. 328.

[75] Rye, List of Coat of Armour, p. 16.

[76] Or a cross engrailed Vert.  Burke, General Armoury, p. 736.

[77] Gules a saltire engrailed Or.  Rye, List of Coat of Armour, n.p.

[78] Argent a chevron Gules between three crosses crosslet fitchee Azure.  Burke, General Armoury, p. 916.

[79] Sir Geoffrey Wychingham, Lord Mayor of London in 1346, bore Ermine on a chief Sable three crosses pattée Or.  Rye, List Coat of Armour, p. 55

[80] Argent a chevron between three eagles displayed Gules and Gules ten plates, 4, 3, 2, 1.

[81] Gules a chevron between three eagles displayed Argent.  Burke, General Armoury, p. 176.

[82] Gules three water-bougets Argent.

[83] Anne Curry, Agincourt, 1415: Henry V, Sir Thomas Erpingham and the triumph of the English Archers (Stroud, 2000).

[84] Rye, Norfolk Families, ii, pp. 771-2.

[85] Ibid., vol. 1, p. 377.

[86] House of Commons, ii, pp. 209-210.

[87] Ibid., iii, p. 475.

[88] Ibid., p. 842.

[89] Ibid., iv, p. 356.

[90] Ibid., p. 599.

[91] Ibid., p. 600.

[92] Ibid., p. 500.

[93] The cargo was eventually awarded to Strange despite the fact that Genoa was then a neutral state.  Ibid., p. 501.

[94] Blomefield, History of Norfolk, xx, pp. 566-567.

[95] Anne Curry, Agincourt, 1415, pp. 60-61.

[96] Ibid., p. 62.

[97] Roskell, House of Commons, ii, pp. 208-209.

[98] Ibid., iii, p. 476.

[99] Ibid., iv, p. 356.

[100] Ibid., pp. 501-502.

[101] Ibid., p. 599.

[102] Rye, Norfolk Families, ii, p. 1006.

[103] Berney, Ingoldisthorpe, Noon, Shelton, Strange and Thorpe.

[104] Sir Robert Mortimer was also MP for Norfolk in 1363-66 and 1372.  Rye, Norfolk Families, i, p. 573.

[105] Denholm-Young, History and Heraldry, p. 14.

[106] Ibid., p. 147.