Dissertation on the armorial Ensigns of the County of Middlesex, and of the Abbey and City of Westminster, by Sir John Hawkins.
IT has lately been agitated, as a question involving in it some circumstances respecting the history and antiquities of this kingdom, whether there are any armorial ensigns, or heraldical device, appropriated to the county of Middlesex: A question of somewhat the more importance, as the determination thereof will either justify or condemn the assumption of three sabres or falchions, for so I must at present term them, as the impress, or cognizance of that county, and the consequent displaying them on the colours of the western regiment of the military corps, maintained by the same.
And here it is first to be observed, that, in the great west window of Westminster Abbey, there are five compartments, the first whereof, viz. that on the south side contains the device above-mentioned, under a regal crown, or rather a circle with points. This, though by some mistaken for the arms of King Alfred, it may be presumed refers to Sebert, king of the East Saxons, for this reason, that he was the founder of the church and convent; and that in the time of the heptarchy the same was the armorial ensign of the kingdom of the East Saxons, as may be seen, together with the arms of the other kingdoms, in Speed's Chronicle, and also in Heylin's Help to English History, edit. 1773, page 7, with the addition of the terms of blazonry.
It may perhaps be thought, that the three sabres were the family arms of Sebert; and the family of Seber, who now bear them, attempt to justify their claim by this supposition: but the fact is otherwise, it being pretty evident, that till of very late times the arms borne by our princes were not their own, if they had any, but those of the kingdom for the time being: even the cross and martlets, which are reputed to be Edward the Confessor's arms, were not peculiar to him or his family. Egbert, the first monarch of England, took the cross as the arms of the kingdom; Alfred added thereto four martlets, and Edward the Confessor made them five, by the addition of one at the base point; and as to the arms in question, it seems that they were borne by Erkenwyne, the first of the East Saxon kings, and his successors.
[Page 2] The arms of France and England in a quarterly bearing, the device of Edward III. who imitated therein the quartering of the arms of Castile and Leon, was also the bearing of his successors, as kings of England, and were Semée F [...]eur de Lys; that is to say, the field sown or powdered with fleurs de lys *, until Charles VI. of France reduced them to three, when our Henry V. did the like: Camden's Remains, 293. and so they continued.
It is now time to enquire after the true appellation of those warlike weapons that compose the East Saxon device; and upon consulting the authors undermentioned, I find that that curved weapon, which I have called a sabre or falchion, was anciently termed a Sach, and there can be little doubt, but that from the constant use of it in battle the Saxons at large derived their name.
The following are the sentiments of sundry learned etymologists on the subject:
Camden, among other opinions touching the denomination, mentions that of its derivation from the word Saxa, which he says gave occasion to the following rhyme of Engelhusius.
Bishop Gibson, the editor of Camden, seems to prefer this etymology to the others adduced by his author; and especially to reject that opinion of Michael Neander, that the Saxons came from the Sacae or Sassones of Asia, in opposition whereto he cites a passage from Bishop Stillingfleet's Origines Brit. p. 305, 306, in these words:
[Page 3] "However, this original of the Saxons from the Sacae of Asia may be thought too far fetched, unless there were some fair historical account how the Saxons came to be propagated by those Sacae; and no such account being given, it may seem to be little more than a possibility. Nor may that other original from the short swords, called Sachs, seem altogether vain, when it is considered that the Quirites had their name from Quiris, a short spear; and the Scythians from Scytten, to shoot with a bow. Tacitus also, speaking of some of the northern Germans, saith, that the common badges they wear are round shields and short swords; and the arms of Saxony to this day, as Pontanus observes, are two short swords across."
Junius, in his Etymologicon Anglicanum, Voce Sachs, is more express to the purpose, making it to signify Cultrum, a knife; Pugio, a dagger, or poniard; and Gladius, a sword: More particularly he asserts, that the SAKS was a kind of sword, the blade and hilt whereof were nearly of equal length, that it had only one sharp edge, and was not unlike a knife for cutting meat; and adds, that in his time the Danes used the word Sass for a pair of shears. He denies, that the nation of the Saxons derived its name from the Latin, Saxum, as being a hardy, stony race, as he says has been asserted by some upon the authority of Isidore, Lib. IX. Orig. c. 2. On the contrary, he maintains, that it came from those knives which the Germans call Sachs. It farther appears from this author, in loc. cit. that the word Sachs has sometimes been rendered by the Latin appellative Sica, a short sword or poniard, and he conjectures that the French Scie, a saw, may be derived therefrom.
Sir Henry Spelman, in his Glossary, Voce Saxones, cites two lines from Roswitha de Gest. Odonum, which seem to favor the derivation of Saxones from Saxum. Nevertheless, he concurs with Junius; and to add weight to his conjecture, in the next article, viz. Saxo, renders the term by Brevis Gladius, and gives from Gothofredus Viterbiensis the following verses:
[Page 4] Verstegan, though a writer of somewhat less authority than any of those above cited, is nevertheless worth consulting on the subject; and the rather, as he elucidates it by the relation of sundry curious particulars, which he sums up in a positive assertion, that the Saxons had their name from this crooked, or scythe-like kind of sword, adding, that he was confirmed in this his opinion by a conversation he once had with Justus Lipsi [...]s on the subject, who concurred with him therein. Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, p. 23.
In modern heraldical language, it seems, that the weapon above described is termed a Seax. Vide Blount's Glossographia, in Vocibus Saxons et Seax. Phillips's Dict. in Articulo. Verstegan, p. 21. et seq 142. Farther, Heylin thus blazons the arms of the East Saxons, Gules. three seaxes Argent, pommels, Or; adding, that this was a weapon of the Saxons which they wore under their coats, when they slew the Britons on Salisbury Plain. Help to English History, page 11. *
[Page 5] It seems that this kind of weapon was in use also with the Spartans, for Plutarch relates, that one of that nation being jested with for wearing a sword so short, readily answered, that it was sufficiently long to reach the heart of an enemy.
It must be confessed that the foregoing testimonies of the Etymologists, do in strictness prove no more than that the device of the three Seaxes was a proper and apposite designation of the Saxon people in general, as pointing to a particular circumstance in their martial oeconomy; and, seeing that each of the other six kingdoms that made up the heptarchy, had as good a claim to this bearing as the latter, it may be a matter of wonder that the propriety of it did not recommend it to those who had the first election.
To this it may be answered, that the question now under discussion is not, to whom the device now spoken of most properly belonged, but who were the people that first adopted it. This is an enquiry touching a fact, which besides that it is above ascertained, may thus be accounted for. The kingdom of Kent was the first founded, and the principal of the Heptarchy, and for the cognizance thereof, Hengist, who led the Saxons into Britain, displayed on his banner a white horse, in Saxon, Hengst, in allusion to his name, and which is even now the bearing of the house of Saxony. Ella, the first king of the South Saxons, had taken six martlets, Cuthred of the West Saxons, a griffin. The East Saxon kingdom was next in the order of erection; and for that Erkenwyne made choice of the device of three Seaxes * than which as being a generical, etymological symbol, including in the very name thereof that of the nation which assumed it, a more apposite one could hardly have been suggested.
[Page 6] It is presumed, that the authorities here cited are abundantly sufficient to prove, that the three Seaxes blazoned in the colours above described, were the proper armorial device of the kingdom of the East Saxons; and when it is considered, that the same consisted of the counties of Essex and Middlesex, and part of Hertfordshire, and that Westminster, situated in Middlesex, was the seat of its kings, one of whom was the founder of the abbey there; and farther, that this county, from the dissolution of the heptarchy down to this time, has been the principal residence of the English monarchs, and the fountain both of justice and legislature; when these circumstances, I say, are considered, the propriety of assuming, as the martial designation of the county of Middlesex, the device of that territory of which it made so great and respectable a part, will hardly admit of a question.
Of the A [...]ms of the A [...]bey and City of Westminster.
THE arms of Edward the Confessor are in general appropriated to the abbey of Westminster, and are thus blazoned, Azure, a Cross fleuré, or as some term it, pat [...]nce, between five Mart [...]ets Or. Carved over the north entrance into the abbey they have the appearance of No. X. in the annexed Plate. Upon which it may be observed, that they are precisely the same with those of Sebert, king of the East Saxons, in Norden's Speculum Britanniae, page 32. Nevertheless the arms of the abbey, as they appear on the tomb of Abbot Flaccet, or Fascet, in the chapel of St. Erasmus, and also among the arms of the mitred abbies in Bishop Tanner's Notitia Monastica are, Azure, a crosier or pastoral staff and a mitre in chief, and so are they represented in the plate of Westminster Abbey in Newcourt's Repertorium, and in a rude manner in Leland's Collectanea, vol. I. page 100. Vide No. XI.
The college arms on the wall over the great table in the college hall, and those in a shield near it, containing the college arms party per pale, with the arms of the dean, bishop Wilcocks, and also in another like the latter in the great west window of the church, are the cross and martlets, and [Page 7] above them, or in chief, those of France and England quarterly between two roses, gules, agreeing with the description thereof by Sir George Buck, who, in his Treatise of the Foundations of all the Colleges, &c. in and about London, printed at the end of Stow's Chronicle, chap. 5. says, That the ancient arms of the abbey of Westminster were, partie per fesse endente Or and Azure, a crosier erect and a miter in chief; but that the new arms of the college are partly the arms of Edward the Confessor, and partly those of England in a chief Or, between two red roses. Vide No. XII.
The roses, as they are red, clearly allude to that badge or cognizance of the house of Lancaster, which with another, viz the Portcullis, is to be seen on the gates, and almost in every corner both within and without, of the chapel of Henry VII. Fuller asserts, that the addition of the chief above given, was an augmentation of the ancient conventual seal, plainly relating to the enlargement of the church by the erection of Henry the Seventh's chapel, Church Hist. Book VI. Page 322, and accordingly they are represented on the rods of the vergers, the covers of the common prayer and musical service-books; and such at this time are the arms of the college as they appear at the seet of Saint Peter on the reverse of the common seal of the Dean and Chapter affixed to their leases and other corporate instruments.
The arms of the city of Westminster differ from those of the college, and are variously represented. In the great west window of the Abbey, in the extreme compartment toward the north, and also in a window on the south side of the Broadway chapel, Westminster, they appear as in No. XIII.
But in the compartment over the seat of the chairman in the Guildhall, Westminster, the arms of Edward the Confessor take the place in the chief of the arms of England, the roses occupying the extremities, as is seen in No. XIV.
The Portcullis seems to have been a favourite device of Henry VII. as importing his descent from the house of Lancaster *; the original assumption whereof is thus to be accounted for: John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, had a concubine named Catherine Swinford; and being entitled by descent to the castle of Beaufort in the province of Anjou, and residing there at certain times, Catherine, within the walls of it, was delivered of a son named John, who together with others of his children by her was legitimated by a statute of 20th Richard II. 1396, and surnamed [Page 8] named d [...] Beaufort, soon after which the said John was created earl of Somerset. In reference to the place and circumstances of their birth, these children assumed for their badge or cognizance a Portcullis, a frequent symbol with the heralds, of a castle or fortress, and the same is at this day the crest of the duke of Beaufort †, who claims a descent from the above John de Beaufort. See Sir Richard Baker's Chron. 136, and Collins's Peerage, in Somerset duke of Beaufort.
Henry VII. as appears by his pedigree in Rapin, was descended from the above son of John of Gaunt; wherefore and because that son had [...]osen the Portcullis for his device, and his immediate descendants had adopted it, it seems that the augmentation of the arms would have been more explicit and correspondent with his own intention, had the chief contained a Portcullis between the Roses as it does in the shield over the monument of bishop Wilcocks, in which the arms of the Bishop as Dean are impaled with his own paternal arms ‡, but whether with any sufficient warrant we are to seek.
As touching the arms in the great west window it is to be noted, that there are five compartments, containing as follows, viz. I. Arms of king Sebert, the founder of the abbey. II. Arms of England and France, temp. Elizabeth, the foundress of the college. III. Arms of Great-Britain and France, temp. George II. in whose reign the towers were built. IV. The c [...]l [...]e [...]e arms impaled with those of bishop Wilcocks, who, being dean of Westminster, was very active in procuring grants of public money for the repair of the fabric, and the erection of the towers, as may be collected from the inscription and the bass relief on his monument. V. The arms of the city of Westminster.