A Directory of Arms

 

A Directory of Arms!

When I started collecting Wars of the Roses figures to play Nevermind the Billhooks, I decided I would

1) explore local lords and make sure they were represented in my armies

2) free hand all my standards

As it happens, in order to do 1, I have had to do 2, as few of these local lords are represented in the printed flag market!

I have done quite well with exploring local lords, see previous blog entries, and with my good friend Alex, have visited their homes and final resting places. We discovered one, de Barre, within walking distance of my house and strolling around what remains of his house, a moat, gave me a real sense of history and the passage of time and how we are but fleeting blots on an ever-changing landscape etcetc

Moreover, it gave me the idea of crafting a campaign in the area where I live during the 1469-71 era, such a campaign might include the battles of Nibley Green 1470 and Tewkesbury 1471 or may be purely hypothetical. To this end I have located an on-line map from 1610 showing the area to be mostly forest and unlikely to have changed much since 1471and I bought a reconstructed city map of Bristol dated 1480

Meanwhile, as my collection grows, I thought it might be an idea to create a Directory of Arms containing pics of all my standards with maybe a short bio of each lord and a description of their probable livery

Sir William “Waste All” Berkely The Second Baron Berkely

  Berkely inherited a massive estate. It was said that he could walk from Sharpness to Windsor and “never commit trespass.” A thoroughly unpleasant man who ambushed his neighbour Viscount L’Isle, Thomas Talbot, at Nibley Green, described as more of an assassination than a battle Berkely outnumbered his opponent by a thousand men to maybe three hundred.

 At Bosworth, he supported both sides, typically hedging his bets by providing men for one side and money for the other. On the ascension of Henry Tudor to the throne, Berkely gave up tracts of land to his king in exchange for titles. He lost so much of the ancestral lands through poor management, gambling and in exchange for titles that one of his descendants nicknamed him “Waste All!”

Berkely -Arms Gules a chevron between 10 crosses formy Argent

Badge- a unicorn statant gules, armed and crined Or

 I created this company guidon based on his badge

 Livery is recorded as white and red- after Bosworth, he adopted green and yellow when he became Earl of Nottingham

The City of Bristol

  Always an important port, the ship and castle has been Bristol’s arms since at least the Thirteenth century. This fine fellow wears the gules and or livery of the city. Each major city raised a contingent for its defence in times of war and a body of men from the City of Bristow fought at Tewkesbury. Bristol was a vital source of guns for Margret of Anjou prior to Tewkesbury. The city’s loyalty changed several times throughout the conflict.

Sir John de Barre of Barrs Court

  This is the heraldic banner of my most local lord! The son of a brigand knight de Barre was initially considered a supporter of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, from whom he also received an annual payment of £ 20. From 1459 Sir John turned to the House of Lancaster and fought for Henry VI at the Battle of Northampton in 1460. After Edward IV's coronation in 1461, orders were issued to arrest Sir John, but this did not succeed.

In the following years Sir John Barre must have come to terms with the ruling House of York and received pardon, since he fought for Edward IV in 1471 at the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury in the later course of the Wars of the Roses.

Arms Gules 3 bars compony Argent and Sable a lable Or

  de Barres battle standard as described by Coveney

   Arms  Sable 2 shin bones Argent in saltire dexter uppermost

  Interestingly this was later adopted by a descendant -Sir Isaac Newton

  You can read more about our quest to find the livery colours of de Barre in this blog post https://wilgut.blogspot.com/2021/09/normal-0-false-false-false-en-gb-x-none.html

Sir Walter Devereux, first Baron Ferrers of Chartley (c. 1432–1485), landowner and soldier, was of Herefordshire stock his father was a retainer of Richard, duke of York, and he himself became Edward IV's councillor.

 A doughty warrior and staunch Yorkist, Devereux was at every major battle from Ludford Bridge to Bosworth where he was killed

A Deveraux company guidon bearing the device of a “French wives hood”. Deveraux, like many other Lords several badges including a horseshoe and ermine fusils

Edward Plantagenet Earl of March

  Edwards Sun in Splendor on a battle standard of Blue and Murrey. Edward is said to have taken the Sun in Splendor as his badge after the battle of Mortimers Cross. It’s one of many badges associated with Edward and not the only one bearing a sun.

Most lords would have at least two standards, a Heraldic banner bearing the Lords Arms, and a Battle standard, usually displaying his badge and his livery colours.  Warwick is supposed to have had eighteen or more!

A guidon or pennant bearing Edwards Livery and his Rose en Soliel, a badge associated with him from childhood as the “White Rose of Rouen”- long before Roses were linked with this conflict or either of the two warring houses. Edward also used the Mortimer falcon in a fetterlock and the white lion as badges

When Edward became king he assumed the Royal Arms, a very familiar standard that we now recognise as the Royal Arms of England as first used by Henry V. 

Edward Prince of Wales

 Edward’s badge is here displayed on a red field with his motto “I serve” in German. I took this design from the street banners of Tewkesbury and I confess that I know nothing of its history or veracity. But I like it!

Sir Henry Holland 3^rd Duke of Exeter

   Arms  Gules three lions passant Or a bordure Azure charged with fleur-de-lys Or

A nasty piece of work, even for his time, was Sir Henry, nasty and incompetent like a pantomime villain. He seemed to conspire to always be on the losing side of every battle he was in and was twice stripped naked and left for dead. He died in a mysterious and somewhat comic way, falling or getting thrown off a ship that he had taken passage on that was also carrying his arch enemy Edward IV.

Exeter had several badges, a corn stalk, a hart couchant argent crowned about the neck and chained and a fiery cresset- a beacon as shown with his livery colours of argent and “bloody

Willliam Lord Hastings

  Hastings Heraldic standard is a bit boring, Argent a maunch sable

  This is a somewhat fanciful creation for his battle standard showing his badge, the manticore, a horned, human-faced, scorpion-tailed lion-like creature on a field of his livery colours Murrey and Blue.

  I chose a strong contrast here, between a Burgundy mixed with dark red and a light grey washed and glazed with pale blue ink.

Henry VI

   The Royal Arms of Henry VI differ from those of Edward IV in that the dexter side of the banner carries the French fleur-de-lys alone, to emphasise that despite a life full of failures , Henry was the first king of France and England.

Sir john Kemys Lord of Siston

 Arms: vert, on a chevron argent, 3 pheons sable, Kemys

  Kemys is another local Lord, Lord of Siston, who gained the manor through marriage to Margaret Dennis. Siston was once part of the Berkely estate and a fief of Berkely castle.

The manor was inherited by his son Roger who “went insane and shortly thereafter died”  the manor then returned to the Dennis family

Crest - On a mount vert a unicorn azure sejant, armed ,crined and unguled Or

 I used the Kemys family crest as a badge to create this guidon. Local lords like Kemys and de Barre are unlikely to have issued livery for their men. More about Kemys here 

 

https://wilgut.blogspot.com/2021/09/local-wars-of-roses-part-2.html

Sir John Langstrother

  Sir John was the Prior of the Order of the Bretheren of the Hospital of St John in Jerusalem.  He was a Lancastrian who supported Warwick’s uprising and the Readeption and was executed after Tewkesbury

 His banner shows his Arms Argent a chevron Gules between 3 escallops Sable beneath the cross of his order chief Gules a cross Argent

Viscount L’Isle Sir Thomas Talbot

  Tricked into a battle where he was greatly outnumbered by the wily treacherous Baron Berkely, Talbot, aged 19,was shot through the throat and hacked to death in the “last private war” in England , the “battle” (read slaughter) of Nibley Green 1470.  The best thing that can be said of this battle is that it was the inspiration behind the creation of Nevermind the Billhooks!

  Arms quarterly 1 and 4 Gules a lion rampant a bordure engrailed Or 2 and 3 Gules a lion passant guardant Argent crowned Or

   Sir Phillip Mede

  Mayor of Bristol three times, merchant who owned many ships.Mede intrigued with baron Berkely and raised in a single night a contingent of fighting men to support Berkeley at the battle of Nibley Green. Mede married his daughter to Berkelys younger brother who was immediately disowned by his older sibling for “marrying a commoner”

  Arms Gules a chevron Ermine three trefoils Argent

   The Crest of Edward the Confessor one of the Nine Worthies

The symbols of the “Nine Worthies” were used by the Lancastrians to show the world that Henry VI was “King by Gods Decree” unlike the Hoys of York that had no “such blessing, appointment or approval” from God

  I used it because it is rather striking and a bit cool

Sir Edmund Beaufort 4^th Duke of Somerset

   There is strong argument for interpreting the Wars of the Roses as a fight for dominance between two wealthy families, that of the Beauforts and the Nevilles.

  Edmund was reportedly a good general with a fine command of strategy and was Margret of Anjou’s chief advisor in the 1471 campaign. It was Somerset’s masterly use of the fake deploy at Sodbury that slowed Edward’s advance and so nearly bought the Lancastrian host the time it needed to meet up with it’s Welsh allies.

  He was known to have a hot temper and reputedly killed Wenlock at Tewkesbury for not supporting his charge against the Yorkist left flank

The Portcullis was a Beaufort badge and is here used as a Battle standard on a field of his livery colours Argent and Azure

The Beauforts were a wealthy family  and so I have given him a company of archer and a company of Bills all in livery. This is the Battle Standard of his archers, a Yale, in fact the Beaufort Yale a mythical, magical dancing goat!

John the Lord Wenlock

Wenlock, "the prince of turncoats", who changed sides repeatedly during the conflict and it was said of him that even when he was not actually changing sides, he was engaged in "fence sitting par excellence."  He was destined for a career in the church and he was an astute politician. He died at Tewkesbury.

Wenlock had superb company guidon bearing a white dragon which I shall attempt as a project in the near future