A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF THE SUB-ORDINARIES. 2 1 7
per, one fesse-ways, looking to the sinister, and two to the dexter chief and
think points ; Mackenzie's Heraldry, as fig. 26.
OF ROUND FIGURES, BESANTS AND TORTEAUXES.
ROUND figures, when of metal, are called besants ; when of colour, torteauxes ,
yet they have specific names with the English, of which immediately ; and then I
shall treat of bowls and annulets as armorial figures.
Besants represent, in armories, pieces of gold or silver, and have their name
from the city Byzantium, now called Constantinople, where such pieces were coin-
ed. Lewis Lejeune, as the French historians tell, in his return from the Holy Land,
brought home a quantity of besants of gold, and made an offeratory of them ;
and, ever since, the Kings of France, in the solemnities of their coronations, make
an ofFeratory of pieces of gold, which they call besantines* The Kings of England
have been in use to do the same, as Camden, in his Remains, tells us, that Edward
HI. caused coin a piece of gold, called besantine, to the value of L. 15 ; for such
an use, says he, there were two pieces of gold used at the coronation of the Kings
of England ; which had on the one side a resemblance of the Blessed Trinity,
with these words, In bonorem Sanctte Trinitatis, and, on the other side, the picture
of the Virgin Mary, with the words, In honorem Sancta Marias Virginis. And
these pieces were used by the Kings of England, in the offeratories at their coro-
nations, till the accession of King James to the English throne, who likewise
caused two besants to be made for himself and his Queen. That for himself had,
on the one side, the picture of a king kneeling before an altar, with four crowns
upon it, representing his four kingdoms, with the circumscription, %uid tribuam
Domino pro omnibus, qua tribuit mihi "
and on the other side of the besant was a
;
lamb lying by the side of a lion, with these words, Cor contritum y bumiliatum non
despiciet Deus. The besant for the Queen had on the one side a crown, protected
by a cherubim, and over that an eye, with the word Deus, in a cloud, with the
circumscription, Teg it ala summus ; and on the other side was pourtrayed a Queen
kneeling before an altar, with these words, Pits preecibus, fervente fide, bumili ob-
sequio ; but having digressed, I return to the besants as armorial figures.
Besants, when they are armorial figures in armories, they have no impression or
figure as coins, but plain ; Menestrier says, " Besans sont monnoyes d'or, ou
" d'argent, sans marque, qui du nom de la ville Byzance ont en le nom de
"
besans."
The Italian, Sylvester Petra Sancta, calls them nunanos Byzantii,
liber sancti albani,
talenta. Chifiletius and Uredus, nummos byzanteos
aureos sen argenteos*
They were generally assumed, as armorial figures, by those who had been in the
expeditions to the Holy Land ; and by others since, upon the account they had
possessed honourable and beneficial offices, as Treasurers, Comptrollers, Collectors
of Public Taxes and Revenues. And carried by others, as a sign of power and
liberty of coinage, as Sylvester Petra Sancta likewise observes, in his chapter of
Besants, " Sunt qui pertinere arbitrantur ad aerarii supremos praesides, seu regios
"
quasstores, aut ad summos dynastas, qui monetam propriam cudendi jus ac po-
"
testatem habuerunt."
The name of MERCER, or, on a fesse between three cross patees gules, as many
besants of the first. Font's Manuscript.
By these figures it seems the first assumer of them had been in the Holy Land ;
one of this name that has been entrusted with a naval force by our Kings, as by
the Histories of England and Scotland, and particularly that of Howe's, p. 281,
who tells us, that in the year 1378, John Mercer, with many ships, set upon the
English fleet at Scarborough, defeat and brought them to Scotland, &-c.
The principal family of this name is MERCER of Aldie, in the shire of Perth,
who carries or, on a fesse between three cross patees in chief gules, and a star in
base azure, three besants of the first, supported by two savages with steel caps on
their heads, holding battons downward, before their legs, and standing on a compartment,
with these words, Crux Christi nostra corona which ; supporters are to be
seen, of old, finely cut in the house of Aldie ; and, for crest, the head and neck ol