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THE OLD - Old Wirral.com

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HATCHxMENTS AND HERALDIC PANELS<br />

the decoration of the helmet and painted<br />

thereupon."<br />

The precise significance of the crest<br />

appears open to question, many asserting<br />

that no one below the rank of a knight was<br />

entitled to wear one, this statement being<br />

based on the theory that the crest was not<br />

worn in battle, but only in tournament.<br />

The lesser gentry, being obliged to fight<br />

in war, bore arms of necessity, but made<br />

no pretension to the use of the crest, and<br />

this mode appears to have been maintained<br />

up to the xvth century. Thereafter the<br />

granting of crests to ancient arms became<br />

ia frequent practice.<br />

There are eight main classes into which<br />

all Coats-of-Arms may be divided. They<br />

are as follows :—<br />

1.—Arms of Dominion or Sovereignty,<br />

which are borne by Emperors,<br />

Kings, and sovereign states.<br />

2.—Arms of Pretension are those of<br />

territories to which a Sovereign or<br />

Lord makes claim, although they<br />

may be possessed by others.<br />

Thus the Kings of England quartered<br />

the Arms of France with their own from<br />

the time when Edward III laid claim to<br />

the crown of France until the year 1801.<br />

211

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