by Roger Powell
Among the first dozen examples of coats of arms of illegitimate issue of Kings of England, the bendlet sinister is only used once among the first dozen with a total of four times amongst the first twenty five bastards. Indeed, any system of brisures appropriate to bastards was not to be found before the fifteenth century and most writers on the subject had not recognised the importance of studying them among medieval rolls of arms.
While the Baron de la Roche, Mathieu de Bourbon, called ‘le Grand Bâtard de Bourbon’ bore Azure, semy de lis Or a bend(let) (or a baton - the shortened bendlet) Gules, Louis de Haeze, the illegitimate son of Count Louis de Male, Count of Flanders, bore in the Armorial de Gelre (around 1380) Argent, a canton Or charged with a lion Sable. A somewhat more complex coat of arms were born by the bâtard Antoine de Bourbon died in 1504.
The chief herald (or king of arms) of the Duke of Burgundy, John de Fever imposed the baton sinister on the arms of the father of every illegitimate child. It is likely that the word sinister of blazonry cast a pejorative imputation upon the reputation of the individual who bore such arms particularly when the baton sinister became more common in use towards the end of the seventeenth century particularly among royal bastards. Not infrequently such batons were charged with other insignia to assist in the differencing.
A Uterine bastard was frequently distinguished by the paternal arms of the mother bearing a canton of the arms of the putative father. Apart from the canton in which the arms representing the maternal origins might also appear, a chief has been used in this context and more frequently a bordure. The most famous of the bordures was that employed by the illegitimate children of John of Gaunt by his mistress Catherine Swinford. He married her in 1397 whereupon by an Act of Parliament the children were made legitimate as the Beauforts, the royal arms appearing within a bordure of the livery colours of the house of Lancaster. Wavy borders were introduced by the English Kings of Arms by the end of the eighteenth century as a brisure of bastardy.
The illegitimate children of the royal house of France and its heraldry have been studied in detail by Hervé Pinoteau, Héraldique Capetienne, (1954).
A female bastard in whose name arms have been registered, granted or matriculated becomes an heiress, in that the bastardised coat can become quartered by her descendants. Often, in Scotland, on account of hand-fast marriages, a bastard is treated more favourably in Scottish heraldic law. On proof of paternity, he may matriculate exactly as any lawful cadet. However, the Lord Lyon King of Arms would impose a difference upon matriculation, usually of a bordure compony, although occasionally with a baton or riband sinister, but these show that the cadet is not of the legal line of succession. He would not be reckoned as ‘filius nullius’ as in England, necessitating him to apply for a new grant of arms, but he would be treated as one of his father’s clan having hereditary rights to armorial ensigns. With evidence of paternity he could take quarterings, a standard and enjoy nobiliary status. A bordure compony counter-compony is not necessarily a mark of illegitimacy, which is as well for the relationship with many police forces.
In 1702 Alexander Nisbit published An Essay on Additional Figures and Marks of Cadency. Shewing the Ancient and Modern Practice of differencing Descendents in This and other Nations ... He concentrated on the Scottish systems referring extensively to advice obtained from William Camden as appears in Dugdale’s Ancient Usage of Arms (1682). Much has been written in the great books of nobility, the best being Nicholas Upton’s De Studio Militari (Bysshe’s edition, 1634) and the essay of John Johan Baptista Christyn who was Chancellor of Brabant. Christyn had given serious attention to the methods of distinguishing one individual of a house from another, including the bastards who came into military and public prominence.
A fascinating example that appears for Sir John de Clarence, Per chevron two lions in chief and a fleur de lys in base, representing the royal family and Sir John’s descent from Thomas, Duke of Clarence, the second son of Henry IV who bore France and England quarterly and a label ermine charged with a canton Gules. Nisbet expands upon his ideas and shares more of his acquired knowledge in The System of Heraldry (1722). He suggests that Sir John de Clarence was the first of the bastards in England to carry arms resembling those of his father. This is not so if we can accept that Henry I bore a lion before his son who appears on the Le Mans enamel (See Family History 1976). Nisbet goes on to draw attention to Robert, the illegitimate son of William the Lion, who married the heiress of Lundin of that Ilk taking her name and arms but much later taking on the arms of Scotland within a bordure gobonated Argent and Azure. It was, of course, not uncommon in the Middle Ages for a husband to take on the name and arms of the wife along with her title, or, rather, the title of her late father or husband.
Charles, the illegitimate son of Henry, Duke of Somerset bore a baston or bendlet sinister over the legitimated Beaufort coat.
The shortened baton appears in the arms of Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle the natural son of Edward IV (see page 18) and in that of Henry Fitroy, Earl of Nottingham and Duke of Richmond and Somerset, the natural son of King Henry VIII. That is the baton couped sinister. Question, did Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the fourth son of Henry IV bear arms of France and England quarterly within a bordure compony Argent and Sable as Gayre says? His daughter Antigone bore them with a baston sinister Azure.
Arms can also be used to prompt questions rather than resolve them. For in the case of Thomas Dunckerley, the chief evidence that has been advanced in support of his mother’s deathbed claim that Thomas was an illegitimate son of the Prince of Wales, later King George II, were the arms that he used. These were the Royal Arms, debruised by a baton sinister argent, which is often used as an indication of illegitimacy. His seal bore a motto Fato Non Merito (By Fate Not Desert) and beneath it was his name Thos. Dunckerley Fitz George (the appendage Fitz, often being used to denote illegitimacy. However, no reference to these arms or to any Royal Licence could be found in the records of the College of Arms. There is no doubt, however, that Dunkerley was a close friend of the Duke of Clarence and other sons of King George III and that he used his seal openly in their presence. But without this seal, it is doubtful whether his claim would have been even considered atall and his position therefore remains an enigma.
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