A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

37o OF FLOWERS AND LEAVES.
Andrew, or the Thistle; of which more particularly in another place, and shall
only here mention it as an armorial figure.
The thi.tfle, as a part of the royal achievement of Scotland, has been in use to
be granted by our kings, as an additament of honour to their well-deserving subjects
: As to Keith Earl of Kintore, Leslie Earl of Leven, Sir Hugh Herries of
Cousland, and Sir George Ogilvie of Barras, of whom before, in their armorial
bearings.
The roses of England were first publicly assumed as devices by the sons of
Edward III. ; John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster used the red rose for the badge
of his family, and his brother Edward, who was created Duke of York, anno 1385,
took a white rose for his device, which the fautors and followers of them and their
heirs did afterwards bear for distinction, in that bloody war between the two Houses
of York and Lancaster : Which two families being happily united by Henry VII.
the male-heir of the House of Lancaster, in marrying Princess Elizabeth, the
eldest daughter and heiress of Edward IV. of the House of York, in anno 1486,
the two roses were united in one, which became the royal badge of England. The
eldest daughter of that union and marriage was Margaret, queen to King James IV.
and their great-grandchild, King James VI. in right of his great-grandmother,
succeeded by right, and peaceably, to the Kingdom of England, and was crowned
in the year 1603, uniting the two kingdoms of Scotland and England in his person, for
which he caused place on some of his coins, the epigraph, Henricus Rosas, Regna
Jacobus; and afterwards, when a treaty of a nearer union was on foot between the
two kingdoms, he placed on other coins, half a thistle, and half a rose, joined in
one, with the motto, Fecit eos in gentem unam. His son, King Charles I. when he
was crowned in the abbey church of Holyroodhouse, the iSth day of June 1633,
caused place on his coronation-pieces a great thistle, with many stalks and heads,
arising from one root, or stem, with the epigraph Hinc nostrcc crevere rosa, to signify,
that his right and title to the roses of England grew from the old Scots
thistle. King James I. of Great Britain was the first who adorned the compartment
of his achievement, whereon the supporters stand, with a thistle vert, flowered
gules, issuing out of the right side, and out of the left a rose gules, stalked and
leaved vert, the badges of the two kingdoms; that of England being altogether
red, to show that the right of Lancaster was better than that of York, in the person
of King Henry VII. But to proceed to roses as armorial figures.
Roses, when they are represented in arms with stalks and leaves in blazon, they
are said to be stalked and leaved of such a tincture ; and the French say, tigees and
feuillees. When the heart of the rose is of a different tincture from the body, we
say seeded ; as also of other flowers, the French bouttonnee, and the Latins, Rosas
gemmatas, as Imhoflf in his blazons of the families of the empire ;
as of that of the
family of EGGENBERG, " Parmula argentea, quinque rosas rubeas foliolis viridibus
" ornatas, atque auro gemmatas, & in quincuncem dispositas, continens ;" thus
by the 1
French, d argent, a cinque roses de gueules feuillees de sinople,
ttf bouttonnecs
d'or, misees en sautoir, i. e. argent, five roses gules, barbed vert, and seeded or, in
saltier, 2, i and 2.
The custom of the Pope's blessing of roses and other flowers, which they were in
use to send to their favourites, has occasioned the bearing of such in arms, as these
in the bearing of GRENOBLE, which Menestrier tells us are of that sort.
Again, many carry roses as relative to their names, as the house of ROSENSPAR,
in Denmark, charged their cheveron with three roses ; and the house of BOUR-
SAULT DE VIANTES in France, (as Menestrier) argent, three rose-buds gules, leaved
because in their country buds of roses are called boursaults.
sinople ;
The town of MONTROSE, a burgh-royal, as relative to the name, carries roses ;
thus in the Lyon Register of arms, argent, a rose gules, with helmet, mantling,
and wreath, suitable thereto ; crest, an hand issuing from a cloud, and reaching
down a garland of roses, proper ; supporters, two mermaids arising from the sea,
proper : motto, Mare ditat, Rosa dccorat ; which are upon the face of the town
seal and ; upon the reverse of it, gules, St Peter on his proper cross, with the keys
hanging at his girdle or.
DAVID LINDSAY Earl of CRAWFORD, being the first that was honoured with the
title and dignity of Duke of MOKTROSE for life, from that place, in the reign of