(The earlier thread that I started on harness pendants might be of help with the background: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/medieval-heraldic-horse-pendants.367589/#post-4901490.) Just won this on UK ebay, from a detectorist who found it somewhere in Lincolnshire. It’s unusual, especially for detector finds, in having substantial traces of both of the original heraldic tinctures (colors). I only have a couple of others like that. The blazon is Gules (red), a saltire (St. Andrew’s cross) and a chief (the blank top third) or (gold). Like all of these, it’s ‘latten,’ a medieval (and Shakespearian) bronze alloy, colored with enamel and gilt. Humpherey-Smith lists this coat of arms, with these precise tinctures, for only one name: Richard Bruce. He cites two entries (a third, to all available appearances, erroneous --looked at the roll online; different tinctures) from various late-13th century rolls of arms: St. George’s Roll, c. 1285, and (under ‘Bruce;’ no given name) the Charles Roll, also dated c. 1285. Regarding the chronology you get from the heralds’ rolls, Baker notes, as of 2015, that “[t]he peak period for the larger, shield-shaped pendants seems to have been around 1280 to 1350” (p.6; cf. 22 for further nuance on what can and can’t be known). In other words, the pendant corresponds fairly neatly to the early side of extant, contemporaneous ms. records of this coat of arms. These are still commonly dated as late as the 15th century; Baker’s relative narrowing of the chronological range is particularly welcome. Another fun thing is that the tinctures of Richard Bruce’s coat are neatly opposite those of his dad, the Robert Bruce who was the grandfather of his better-known namesake, making Richard (wish you could stop me in time) rrrRoberrrt the FrrrrEaking BrrrrRuce Richard’s nephew. For harness pendants, this is kind of a ‘holy grail.’ When you can get beyond merely having both tinctures, and triangulating between chronology (even with a measure of confidence) and anything you know of the findspot (...where are we now, the third level?); and actually get this close to a likely individual, however justly arcane, it gets to be a good day. ...Right, because, in Charles Cawley's magisterial genealogical website, Medieval Lands, there's only one Richard Bruce anywhere within chronological or generational /genealogical shouting distance. https://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/SCOTLAND.htm#RobertBrusdied1295 This Richard, an uncle of The Robert, died in 1287, unmarried. --Bad news for the family; good news for nailing down who this is. From this juncture, the Medieval English Genealogy website (http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/sources/public.shtml) provides a link to his Inquisition Post Mortem from the same year. https://archive.org/details/cu31924011387804/page/n429/mode/2up This confirms that Richard’s father, whom he predeceased, had granted him estates in Bedfordshire, Middlesex, and Essex. Suggesting how easy it might be to find an ostensibly Scottish harness pendant as far south as Lincolnshire. By the later 13th century, when the Scottish succession crisis was beginning to pick up some steam, most of the aristocratic families in Scotland were largely of Anglo-Norman origin, with estates on both sides of the border. In the previous century, kings and eventual heirs of Scotland were often earls of Huntingdon. This same weekend, I landed this, my second example of the type. ...Fine, you get both, the later one first. ...This issue is as Nasty scarce as it is ...well, nasty on more relaxed, esthetic levels. You’ll see. Comté de Provence /Condado de Provença. Raymond-Bérenger / Ramón Berenguer V, 1209-1245. AR denier /diner, with variants. Issued c. 1243-1245 (Duplessy). Obv. Aragonese /Provençal coat of arms: [Or,] three pales [/horizontal lines gules]. (The rounded shield is characteristic of Occitania /Languedoc and Iberia.) R: BE. CO.MES. Rev. Long cross, three pellets at each terminal. (From 1 o’clock, punctuated by the ends of the cross: ) P [/] VI [/] N [/] CI [/] E. Crusafont Monedas Españolas Vol. IV, #176; Duplessy, Monnaies Féodales, Tome II, 1615. Also Boudeau 810 and Poey d’Avant, 3935 and Plate 88: 3. ...Oddly, neither Crusafont nor Duplessy include the “E” following the “B” on the obverse, but both include plates where it’s readily apparent. The lower example is a variant, lacking the pellet in the upper right angle of the cross. The dealer, Aureo i Calico, cites two other references by Crusafont for this. In MEC v. 6 (The Iberian Peninsula), the discussion of heraldry notes that “[t]he arms of Provence, like those of Catalonia [on dineros of Ramón’s brother, Jaume I], appeared on the obverse of some dineros that are generally attributed to Count Ramon Berenguer V [...] but which probably pre-date his reign” (p.552). But the “R. BE” in the legend strikes me as pretty unambiguous. Raymond was a cadet of the Aragonese royal family, but this early in the evolution of heraldry, his arms kept the original tinctures of Aragon, rather than ‘differencing’ for cadency, as Richard Bruce did later in the century. Similarly, the number of pales in the coat hadn’t been standardized. From one medium to the next, it seems to have largely been reducible to the amount of room on the available canvas. The obverse of a seal of Raymond manages to fit a couple more onto his shield. (From Wiki Commons.) Legend: +COMITIS / PROVI / NCIE. The heraldic theme provides a fun tie-in between the harness pendant and the diners. This harness stud, another detector find from the UK, echoes the Provençal arms, replete with one surviving tincture. (Posted previously here: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/follow-the-coin-theme-game-ancient-edition-post-‘em-if-you-got-‘em.300099/page-393#post-5465127.) Ashley notes that OKAY, FINE, RIGHT, EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWS IS (A) UNI-(EXPLETIVE)-LATERALLY "STRUCK-THRU," AND (B) EQUALLY RESISTANT TO FIXING. 2ND TIME. UM, WHAT THE F-CK IS GOING ON? "quare pendants [including studs] “quare pendants [including studs] perhaps date to the early rather than late thirteenth century" (18, passim). Raymond Raymond had four daughters, two of whom, Margaret and Eleanor, married Louis IX of France and Henry III of England, in 1234 and 1236, respectively. Here’s an illustration of the marriage, from the earler ms. of Matthew Paris’s contemporaneous Chronica Majora, with the caption, “Rex henric’ [“III” above] / Alienora” above. (From Wiki Commons.) As noted in the previous post, it’s an easy guess that, following the marriage, Eleanor’s entourage would have been all over England. References --just for the harness pendants. Ashley, Stephen. Medieval Armorial Horse Furniture in Norfolk. East Anglian Archaeology Report No. 101, 2002. Dereham, Norfolk. Baker, John. “The Earliest Armorial Harness Pendants.” The Coat of Arms 3rd ser. 11 (2015), no. 229, pp. 1-24. Cawley, Charles. Medieval Lands. (A genealogical website, aspiring to the consistent citation of extant primary sources.) Here’s the home page. http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/index.htm Humphrey-Smith, Anglo-Norman Armory Two. Canterbury: Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies, 1984. Medieval English Genealogy. (Website.) This is the page with links to public records, including Inquisitions Post Mortem. www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/sources/public.shtml
That is very cool. Do you know why Richard Bruce's coat of arms reversed the colours of that of his father? I don't know about English/Scottish heraldry, but it would be against the rules of German heraldry.
Sorry to sound trite, @Tejas, but that's a very good question! As early as the 13th century, heraldry was still actively evolving. Not only were there regional differences; within a given context, the rules weren't necessarily perfectly conconsistent. In England, later on, a whole series of specific 'marks of cadency' were adopted, for instance, for #2 son, #3, and so forth. I'm guessing that in England and Scotland, the simple reversal of tinctures was the opening move in the development. ...And thanks for changing the subject from the computer wars!!!
