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‘As historical documents the rolls vary much in value, since some include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.)
[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.
[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.
