A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

OF FOUR-FOOTED BEASTS. 267
cites Laurcntius Beyerlink, Franciscus Mennenius, and others, whom I forbear to
cite for brevity's sake.
I do not mean here that arms are as old as Fergus I. of Scotland, nor for many
hundred years after ; but that nations, principalities, and other colonies of
men, under a head and leader, had ensigns, banners, and badges, under which
they fought, and were distinguished in time of war ; and these togni/.aiices
were long in use before hereditary armorial bearings of subjects. Of whose :
and distinction from imperial ensigns I have treated here, and on my Essay on the
Ancient and Modern Use of Armories.
We have a testimony from the History of Florence for the antiquity of the Lion,
the Scots ensign, carried by William, the brother of King Achaius, on the head of
4000 Scots, in the wars of Charles the Great of France, in Italy ; where the people,
in honour of the Scots and their ensign, appointed public games, in which a lion
was crowned with many honours and ceremonies for the Scots valour in their
relirf, as the custom was in those times; and Arnoldus Uvion, an ancient writer,
in his Additiujiibus ad Lignum Vita;, speaks of the two conditions of the ensign of
Scotland, first, That it was a red lion in a gold field, and secondly, that lion was
surrounded with a double tressure flowered and counter-flowered with flower-de-
luces gules, after the union with France. His words "
are, leonem rubeum in
"
aurea planitie, primum fuisse Regum Scotorum stemma.. Leonem vero cum liliis
"
positis stetnma secundum."
The lion has been also very anciently carried by the Lords and Counts of Flanders.
Where Olivarius Uredus, De Sigillis Comitum Flandria, page 96, speaking of
the lion as borne by the ancients on their ensign, says, it was hieroglyphicum indomitcc
virtutis ; and very anciently borne on the ensigns of the princes of the Low
Countries of Germany, whether called Franks or Frisians. His words are, " In
" Germania inferior! theotisca lingua utentes, a Morinis ad Euburnos usque, qui
" Francii seu Frisii sunt appcllati, ab omni antiquitate, leonem in insignibus ha-
" buisse." And that the Franks, before they took their peregrination to France,
carried a lion, and, when settled there, had the same. Which Lazius also witnesseth,
who says, that Cadomirus, King of France, son of Clovis, having defeated
several kings, placed a crown on the head of his lion, which he bore for his
ensign. And as for other figures which the French have used afterwards, I shall
speak to, them at the title of the Flower-de-luce.
Though the old princes and counts in the Low Countries of Germany, which are
now extinct, carried the lion, the same is still the ensign of these countries, and
carried by the ancientest families there. Which made Menestrier observe, that the
most part of the nobility and gentry there carry lions, in imitation of, and affection
to the old counts and princes of Flanders.
Such imitation and affections are not only to be found there, but almost every
where, for subjects to imitate as near as they can, those figures of their sovereigns ;
and the more their own are like to them they are thought the more honourable ;
and, I doubt not, but many ancient families with us have assumed the lion rampant
in imitation of the sovereigns' one.
The old Earls of Dunbar carried a lion rampant. The first of the family I met
with was COSPATRICK, son of Cospatrick, Earl of Northumberland, who got from
Malcolm Canmore the lands of Dunbar, and several others in Lothian and the Mcrse.
His son and successor was Cospatricius Comes, without any local appellation, who
carried gules, a lion rampant ardent, within a bordure of the first, charged with
roses* of the second. He, in the reign of King David I. grants
a donation of the
churches of Home, Lamden, Greenlaw, the lands of Fogo, and the lands called
Bothcallshiells, to the Abbacy of Kelso ; as by the churtulary of that Abbacy.
He is said to have died 1166, and was succeeded by his son or grandson Walleviis.
or Waldevus Earl of Dunbar, who confirms his father's and grandiatlictVs charters
to the abbacy of Kelso. His younger brother Patrick, \\a?> designed Do-
ni':,ius de Greenhiw, and Fil;:is C^sputricii Comitis,
in his charter of the Church of
Greenlaw to the Monks of Kelso. Of this Patrick of Greenlaw were iir-ivnded
William, his son, and John, his grandson, both designed Dwr.ni dc Home and G;
/rtiy in their charters.