where none previously existed is not an augmentation, though one is
naturally inclined to include such grants in the category. Such an
example is met with in the shield granted to Colonel Carlos by King
Charles to commemorate their mutual adventures in the oak tree (" Or,
issuing from a mount in base vert, an oak tree proper, over all on a
fess gules, three Imperial crowns also proper") (Plate II.).
There are many gorgeous legends relating to augmentations and
arms which are said to have been granted by William the Conqueror
as rewards after the Battle of Hastings. Personally I do not believe
in a single one. There was a certain augmentation borne by the Dodge
family, which, if it be correct, dates from the thirty-fourth year of
Edward I., but whether this be authentic it is impossible to say. Most
589
590 A COMPLETE GUIDE TO HERALDRY
people consider the alleged deed of grant a forgery, and if this be so,
the arms only exist by right of subsequent record and the question
of augmentation rests upon tradition. The curious charge of the
woman's breast distilling drops of milk to typify the nourishment afforded
to the king's army is at any rate most interesting (Plate VI.). The
earliest undoubted one in this country that I am aware of dates from
the reign of Edward III. Sir John de Pelham shared in the glory of
the Battle of Poictiers, and in the capture of the French King John.
To commemorate this he was granted two round buckles with thongs.
The Pelham family arms were " Azure, three pelicans argent," and, as
will be seen, these family arms were quartered with the buckles and
thongs on a field gules as an augmentation. The quarterly coat forms
a part of the arms both of Lord Chichester and of Lord Yarborough
at the present day, and " the Pelham buckle " has been the badge of
the Pelham family for centuries.
Piers Legh fought with the Black Prince and took the Count de
Tanquervil prisoner at the Battle of Crecy, " and did valiantly rere
and advance the said princes Banner att the bataile of Cressy to the
noe little encouragement of the English army," but it was not until the
reign of Queen Elizabeth that the augmentation to commemorate this
was granted.
The Battle of Flodden was won by the Earl of Surrey, afterwards
the Duke of Norfolk, and amongst the many rewards which the King
showered upon his successful Marshal was the augmentation to his
arms of " a demi-lion pierced in the mouth with an arrow, depicted
on the colours for the arms of the Kingdom of Scotland, which the
said James, late King of Scots, bore." According to the Act of Parlia-
ment under which it was granted this augmentation would seem now
to belong exclusively to Lord Mowbray and Stourton and Hon. Mary
Petre, but it is borne apparently with official sanction, or more likely
perhaps by official inadvertence, by the Duke of Norfolk and the rest
of the Howard family.
The Battle of Agincourt is referred to by Shakespeare, who puts
these words into King Henry's mouth on the eve of that great battle
(Act iv. sc. 3) :
"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother ; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition."
There is actual foundation in fact for these lines. For in a writ
couched in very stringent and severe terms issued by the same king
in after years decreeing penalties for the improper assumption and use
of false arms, specific exception is made in favour of those " who bore
AUGMENTATIONS OF HONOUR 591
arms with us at the Battle of Agincourt." Evidently this formed a
very extensive kind of augmentation.
The reign of Queen Elizabeth furnishes an interesting example
of the gift of a complete coat in the case of Sir Francis Drake, who
had been using the arms of another family of the same name. The
representative of that family complained to the Queen that Sir Francis,
whom he styled an upstart, should take such liberties with his arms ;
whereupon the Queen said she would give Sir Francis arms which
should outrival those of his namesake. At least, such is the legend,
and though the arms themselves were granted by Clarenceux King of
Arms, and I have not yet found any Royal Warrant indicating that
the grant was made by specific Royal command, it is possible the story
is correct. The arms are : " Sable, a fess wavy between two stars
argent. Crest : a ship under reef, drawn round a terrestrial globe
with a cable by a hand issuing from clouds all proper " (Plate VI.).
The stars upon the shield are the two pole stars, and the wavy band
between them typifies Drake's voyage round the world, as does also
the peculiar crest in which the Divine hand is shown guiding his ship
around the globe.
At the Battle of Naseby Dr. Edward Lake fought bravely for the
King, and in the service of his Majesty received no less than sixteen
wounds. At the end of the battle, when his left arm was useless, he
put the bridle of his horse between his teeth and still fought on. The
quartering of augmentation given to him was : " Gules, a dexter arm
embowed in armour holding in the hand a sword erect all proper,
thereto affixed a banner argent charged with a cross between sixteen
escutcheons of the field, on the cross a lion of England." The sixteen
shields upon the banner typify his sixteen wounds.
After the Commonwealth was established in England, Charles II.
made a desperate effort to regain his crown, an effort which culminated
in his disastrous defeat at the Battle of Worcester. The King escaped
through the gate of the city solely through the heroic efforts of Colonel
Newman, and this is kept in remembrance by the inescutcheon of
augmentation, viz. : ' i Gules, a portcullis imperially crowned or."
Every one has heard how the King was accompanied in his wanderings
by Colonel Carlos, who hid with him in the oak tree at Boscobel.
Afterwards the king accompanied Mistress Jane Lane on horseback
as her servant to the coast, whence he fled to the Continent. The
reward of Colonel Carlos was the gift of the entire coat of arms
already referred to. The Lanes, though not until after some years had
passed and the King had come back to his own again, were granted
two remarkable additions to their family arms. First of all " the canton
of England " (that is, the arms of England upon a canton) was added
592 A COMPLETE GUIDE TO HERALDRY
to their shield. They are the only family to whom such an honour
has been given, and a most curious result has happened. When the
use of armorial bearings was taxed by Act of Parliament the Royal
Arms were specially exempted, and on account of this canton the Lane
family claimed and obtained exemption from the tax. A few years
later a crest was granted to them, namely, a strawberry-roan horse,
" couped at the flanks," holding in its feet the Royal crown (Plate
II.). It was upon a horse of this colour that the King and Mistress
Lane had escaped and thereby saved the crown. Mr. Francis Wolfe,
of Madeley, who also was a party to the escape, received the grant of
an inescutcheon gules charged with a lion of England. Another family
which bears an augmentation to commemorate King Charles' escape
is Whitgreave.
The reign of Queen Anne produced in the Duke of Marlborough
one of the finest generals the world has ever seen ; and in the Battle
of Blenheim one of its greatest victories. The augmentation which
commemorates this is a shield bearing the cross of St. George and in
the centre a smaller shield w r ith the golden lilies of France.
In the year 1797 the Battle of Camperdown was fought, when
Admiral Duncan defeated the Dutch Fleet and was created Lord
Camperdown. To his family arms were added a naval crown and a
representation of the gold medal given by George III. to Lord Cam-
perdown to commemorate his victory.
The arms of Nelson are most interesting, inasmuch as one version
of the arms carries two separate and distinct augmentations. It is
not, however, the coat as it was granted to and borne by the great
Admiral himself. After the Battle of the Nile he received the aug-
mentation on the chief, a landscape showing the palm-tree, the dis-
abled ship, and the battery in ruins. The one crest was the plume
of triumph given to the Admiral by the Sultan Selim III., and his
second crest, which, however, is not a crest of augmentation, was
the stern of the Spanish ship San Josef. After his death at the
Battle of Trafalgar his brother was created Earl Nelson, and a second
augmentation, namely, a fess wavy sable with the word " Trafalgar "
upon it in gold letters, was added to the arms. This, however, has
since been, discontinued, except by Lord Bridport, who quarters it,
whilst the Nelson family has reverted to the arms as they were borne
by the great Admiral.
After the death of Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, Lord Colling-
wood took command, and though naval experts think that the action
of Collingwood greatly minimised the number of prizes which would
have resulted from the victory, Lord Collingwood received for an
augmentation a chief wavy gules, thereon the lion of England, navally
AUGMENTATIONS OF HONOUR 593
crowned, with the word " Trafalgar " above the lion. He also received
an additional crest, namely, the stern of his ship, the Royal Sovereign,
between a wreath of oak on the one side and a wreath of laurel on the
other.
The heroic story of the famous fight between the Shannon and the
Chesapeake has been often told. Captain Broke sent in a challenge to
the Chesapeake to come out and fight him, and, though a banquet was
prepared by the Mayor of Boston for that evening "to meet the
English officers/' Captain Broke defeated the Chesapeake in an engage-
ment which only lasted a very short time. He was granted an ad-
ditional crest, namely, an arm holding a trident and issuing from
a naval crown, together with the motto, " Saevumque tridentem
servamus."
General Ross fought and won the Battle of Bladensburg, and took
the city of Washington, dying a few days afterwards. The story is that
the family were offered their choice of a baronetcy or an augmentation,
and they chose the latter. The augmentation (Plate II.), which
was specially granted with permission for it to be placed upon the
monument to the memory of General Ross, consists of the arm holding
the flag of the United States with a broken flag-staff which will be seen
both on the shield itself, and as an additional crest. The shield also
shows the gold cross for previous services at Corunna and in the
Peninsula. The family were also given the surname of " Ross-of-
Bladensburg."
The capture of Curacoa by Admiral Sir Charles Brisbane, K.C.B.,
is commemorated by the representation of his ship passing between
the two Dutch forts ; and by the additional crest of an arm in a naval
officer's uniform grasping a cutlass. Admiral Sir Robert Otway, for
his distinguished services, was granted : " On a chief azure an anchor
between two branches of oak or, and on the dexter side a demi-Neptune
and on the sinister a mermaid proper," to add to his shield. Admiral
Sir George Pocock, who captured Havannah, was given for an aug-
mentation : " On a chief wavy azure a sea-horse " (to typify his naval
career), between two Eastern crowns (to typify his services in the East
Indies), with the word " Havanna," the scene of his greatest victory.
Sir Edward Pellew, who was created Viscount Exmouth for bom-
barding and destroying the fort and arsenal of Algiers, was given upon
a chief a representation of that fort, with an English man-of-war in
front of it, to add to his arms. It is interesting to note that one
of his supporters, though not a part of his augmentation, represents
a Christian slave, in memory of those in captivity at Algiers when he
captured the city.
There were several augmentations won at the Battle of Waterloo,
2 P
< <P'
OF THE
ilMIVCUCITV
594 A COMPLETE GUIDE TO HERALDRY
and the Waterloo medal figures upon many coats of arms of Waterloo
officers. Colonel Alexander Clark-Kennedy, with his own hand,
captured the French Eagle of the io5th French Regiment. For this
he bears a representation of it and a sword crossed upon a chief over
his arms, and his crest of augmentation is a demi-dragoon holding the
same flag. Of the multitude of honours which were showered upon
the Duke of Wellington, not the least was his augmentation. This was
a smaller shield to be superimposed upon his own, and charged with
those crosses of St. George, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick, which we term
" the Union Jack." Sir Edward Kerrison, who distinguished himself
so greatly in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, was granted a sword with
a wreath of laurel and representations of his medals for Orthes and
Waterloo, and, for an additional crest, an arm in armour holding a
banner inscribed " Peninsula."
Sir Thomas Munro, who will be long remembered as the Governor
of Madras, was rewarded for his capture of Badamy by a representation
of that hill-fort in India. The augmentation of Lord Keane is very
similar, being a representation of the Fortress of Ghuznee in Afghanistan,
which he captured. Other instances of a similar character are to be
found in the arms of Cockburn-Campbell and Hamilton-Grace.
The arms of Lord Gough are most remarkable, inasmuch as they
show no less than two distinct and different augmentations both earned
by the same man. In 1816, for his services in the Peninsula, he re-
ceived a representation of the Spanish Order of Charles III., and on a
chief the representation of the Fortress of Tarifa, with the crest of the
arm holding the colours of his own regiment, the 8yth, and a French
eagle reversed and depressed. After his victories in the East, par-
ticularly at Goojerat, and for the subjugation and annexation of the
Punjab, he was granted, in 1843, an additional quartering to add to
his shield. This has the Lion of England holding up the Union Jack
below the words " China " and " India." The third crest, which was
then granted to him, shows a similar lion holding the Union Jack and
a Chinese flag.
Sir George Pollock, " of the Khyber Pass," Bart., earned everlasting
fame for himself in the first Afghan War, by forcing the Khyber Pass
and by the capture of Cabul. For this he was given an Eastern
crown and the word " Khyber " on a chief as well as three cannon
upon a canton, and at the same time he was granted an additional
crest a lion holding an Afghan banner with the staff thereof broken.
With him it seemed as if the practice of granting augmentations for
military services had ceased. Lord Roberts has none, neither has Lord
Wolseley. But recently the old practice was reverted to in favour of
Lord Kitchener. His family arms were : " Azure, a chevron cottised
AUGMENTATIONS OF HONOUR 595
between three bustards," and in the centre chief point a bezant ; with
a stag's head for a crest ; but for smashing the Khalifa " he has been
given the Union Jack and the Egyptian flag with the staves encircled
by a coronet bearing the word " Khartoum/' all on a pile superimposed
over his family arms. He also received a second crest of an elephant's
head holding a sword in its trunk issuing from a mural crown. At
the conclusion of the South African War a second augmentation was
granted to him, this taking the form of a chief.
Two other very interesting instances of augmentation of arms are
worthy of mention.
Sir Ralph Abercromby, after a distinguished career, fought and
won the Battle of Aboukir Bay, only to die a few days later on
board H.M.S. Foudroyant of his wounds received in the battle. But
long before he had fought and conquered the French at Valenciennes,
and in 1795 had been made a Knight of the Bath. The arms which
are upon his Stall plate in Westminster Abbey include his augmentation,
which is an arm in armour encircled by a wreath of laurel supporting
the French Standard.
Sir William Hoste gained the celebrated victory over the French
fleet off the Island of Lissa in 1811, and the augmentation which was
granted was a representation of his gold medal hanging from a naval
crown, and an additional crest, an arm holding a flag inscribed with
the word " Cattaro," the scene of another of his victories.
Peace has its victories no less than war, but there is generally
very much less fuss made about them. Consequently, the augmenta-
tions to commemorate entirely pacific actions are considerably fewer
in number. The Speke augmentation has been elsewhere referred to,
and reference may be made to the Ross augmentation to commemorate
the Arctic exploits of Sir John Ross.
It is a very common idea that arms were formerly to be obtained
by conquest in battle. Like many other heraldic ideas, there is a
certain amount of truth in the idea, from which very erroneous generali-
sations have been made. The old legend as to the acquisition of the
plume of ostrich feathers by the Black Prince no doubt largely accounts
for the idea. That legend, as has been already shown, lacks foundation.
Territorial or sovereign arms doubtless would be subject to conquest,
but I do not believe that because in battle or in a tournament a entrance
one person defeated another, he therefore became entitled to assume,
of his own motion, the arms of the man he had vanquished. The
proposition is too absurd. But there is no doubt that in some number
of historic cases his Sovereign has subsequently conferred upon the
victor an augmentation which has closely approximated to the arms
of his victim. Such cases occur in the arms of the Clerkes, Barts.,
596 A COMPLETE GUIDE TO HERALDRY
of Hitcham, Bucks, who bear : " On a sinister canton azure, a demi-
ram salient of the first, and in chief two fleurs-de-lis or, debruised by
a baton," to commemorate the action of Sir John Clerke of Weston,
who captured Louis D'Orleans, Duke of Longueville, at Borny, near
Terouenne, 5 Henry VII. The augmentation conferred upon the Duke
of Norfolk at the battle of Flodden has been already referred to, but
the family of Lloyd of Stockton, co. Salop, carry a remarkable augmen-
tation, inasmuch as they are permitted to bear the arms of Sir John
Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, to commemorate his
recapture by their ancestor after Lord Cobham's
escape from the Tower.
Augmentations which have no other basis than
mere favour of kings, or consanguinity to the
Royal Family, are not uncommon. Richard II.,
who himself adopted the arms of St. Edward the
Confessor, bestowed the right to bear them also
upon Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk (Fig.
67^). No difference was added to them in his
FIG. 773. Arms of Robert i i xi i 1.1 .ti-
de Vere, Duke of case, which is the more remarkable as they were
Ireland and Earl of borne by the Duke impaled with the arms of
Oxford : Quarterly, i and _ , , T ,. T _. e , .,
4 (of augmentation), England. In 1397 tne King conferred the same
azure, three crowns or, arms upon J o h n rfe Holland, Duke of Exeter,
within a bordure argent ; *
2 and 3, quarterly gules differenced by a label argent, and upon Thomas
and or, in the first de Holland, Duke of Surrey, within a bordure
quarter a mullet argent. ; > /'
ermine. Richard II. seems to have been inclined
to the granting of augmentations, for in 1386, when he created the
Earl of Oxford (Robert de Vere) Duke of Ireland, he granted him as an
augmentation the arms of Ireland (" Azure, three crowns or ") within a
bordure argent (Fig. 773). The Manners family, who were of Royal
descent, but who, not being descended from an heiress, had no right to
quarter the Royal Arms, received the grant of a chief " quarterly azure
and gules, in the first and fourth quarters two fleurs-de-lis, and in the
second and third a lion passant guardant or." This precedent might
well be followed at the present day in the case of the daughters of
the Duke and Duchess of Fife. It was adopted in the case of Queen
Victoria Eugenie of Spain. The Waller family, of Groombridge, co.
Kent, one of whom, Richard Waller, captured Charles, Duke of
Orleans, at the battle of Agincourt, received as an augmentation the
right to suspend from the crest ('* On a mount a walnut-tree proper ")
an escutcheon of the arms of that Prince, viz. : " Azure, three fleurs-
de-lis or, a label of three points argent." Lord Polwarth bears one
of the few augmentations granted by William III., viz. : " An inescut-
cheon azure charged with an orange ensigned with an Imperial crown
AUGMENTATIONS OF HONOUR 597
all proper/' whilst the titular King James III. and VIII. granted to
John Graeme, Earl of Alford, a coat of augmentation, viz. : " The
Royal Arms of Scotland on the field and cross of St. Andrew counter-
changed," the date of the grant being 2oth January 1734. Sir John
Keith, Earl of Kintore, Knight Marischal of Scotland, saved the regalia
of Scotland from falling into the hands of Cromwell, and in return
the Keith arms (now quartered by Lord Kintore) were augmented
with " an inescutcheon gules, a sword in bend sinister surmounted
by a sceptre in bend dexter, in chief an Imperial crown, the whole
within an orle of eight thistles."
The well-known augmentation of the Seymour family : " Or, on a
pile gules, between six fleurs-de-lis azure," is borne to commemorate the
marriage of Jane Seymour to Henry VIII., who granted augmentations
to all his wives except Catharine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves. The
Seymour family is, however, the only
one in which the use of the augmen-
tation has been continued. The same
practice was followed by granting the
arms of England to the Consort of
the Princess Caroline and to the late
Prince Consort. See page 499.
The frequent grant of the Royal
tressure in Scotland, probably usually
as an augmentation, has been already
referred to. King Charles I. granted FlG - 77ft Device from the chief of the
,, ,-, . r 11 Prussian Sword Nobility."
to the Earl of Kinnoull as a quartering
of augmentation : " Azure, a unicorn salient argent, armed, maned, and
unguled or, within a bordure of the last charged with thistles of Scot-
land and roses gules of England dimidiated." The well-known augmen-
tation of the Medicis family, viz. : " A roundle azure, charged with three
fleurs-de-lis or," was granted by Louis XII. to Pietro de Medicis. The
Prussian Officers, ennobled on the i8th of January 1896, the twenty-
fifth anniversary of the foundation of the new German Empire, bear
as a device a chief purpure, and thereupon the Prussian sceptre and a
sword in saltire interlaced by two oak-branches vert (Fig. 774). The
late Right Hon. Sir Thomas Thornton, G.C.B., received a Royal
Licence to accept the Portuguese title of Conde de Cassilhas and an
augmentation. This was an inescutcheon (ensigned by his coronet as a
Conde) " or, thereon an arm embowed vested azure, the cuff gold, the
hand supporting a flagstaff therefrom flowing the Royal Standard of
Portugal." The same device issuing from his coronet was also granted
to him as a crest of augmentation. Sir Woodbine Parish, K.C.H., by
legislative act of the Argentine Republic received in 1839 a grant of
598 A COMPLETE GUIDE TO HERALDRY
the arms of that country, which was subsequently incorporated in the
arms granted to him and registered in the Heralds' College in this
country. He had been Consul-General and Charge d'Affaires at
Buenos Ayres, 18231832 ; he was appointed in 1824 Plenipotentiary,
and concluded the first treaty by which the Argentine Republic was
formally recognised. Reference has been already made (page 420) to
the frequent grant of supporters as augmentations, and perhaps
mention should also be made of the inescutcheons for the Dukedom of
Aubigny, borne by the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, and for the
Duchy of Chatelherault, borne by the Duke of Abercorn. Possibly
these should more properly be ranked as territorial arms and not as
augmentations. A similar coat is the inescutcheon borne by the Earl
of Mar and Kellie for his Earldom of Kellie. This, however, is stated
by Woodward to be an augmentation granted by James VI. to Sir
Thomas Erskine, one of several granted by that King to commemorate
the frustration of the Gowrie Plot in 1600.
The Marquess of Westminster, for some utterly inexplicable reason,
was granted as an augmentation the right to bear the arms of the city
of Westminster in the first quarter of his arms. Those who have
rendered very great personal service to the Crown have been some-
times so favoured. The Halford and Gull (see page 250) aug-
mentations commemorate medical services to the Royal Family, and
augmentations have been conferred upon Sir Frederick Treves and
Sir Francis Laking in connection with His Majesty's illness at the time