But still further reasons have to be considered. The ancient form of drawing charters was gradually disappearing, which after declaring the transaction, ended with the all-important seal, put on in the presence of such responsible witnesses as could be got together, and who were afterwards always to be found to come forward and vouch for the transaction. Writing also now, early in the sixteenth century, was becoming much more common, and the sense of the nation showed that a deed signed and sealed by the parties was much more satisfactory than any number of witnesses, the limit of whose testimony was bounded by that of their lives. I am only putting into few words what is ably pointed out by Williams in his work on Real Property, ed. 1882, p. 153, and by Blackstone in his Commentaries, ed. 1823, book ii, p. 305. But the curious thing is that this change seems to have gradually taken place without any enactment directing it. The Statute of Frauds and Perjuries, 29 Charles II. (1677-8, cap. 5), is the first instance where it is expressly declared by act of Parliament that all devises of lands or tenements must be in writing and signed by the party and three or four credible witnesses. Such had already been occasionally the practice for at least two hundred years, for I find a deed of gift of Thomas Hoo to the Abbot of the Monastery of Battle is thus established "Sigillum meum, una cum subscriptione propria manu et signo manuali apposito"; the date is 21st September, 1480 [Thorpe's Battle Abbey Deeds, 1835, p. 124]. Occasional instances occur of the old system of sealing only before a number of witnesses, but after say 1520 the almost universal method of executing deeds was by sign manual and seal, and two or three attesting witnesses.
The earliest instance I have noticed of executing a deed by sign manual is as above, in 1480. The latest which I have met with, in which the ancient form of execution had been followed, is a charter printed in the Salop Archæological Society's vol. x, p. 222:—"Thomas Scriven, armig., grants a yearly payment of 8/ sterling out of his meadow at Coleham, juta sive prope Ville Salop, hiis testibus &c. &c., dat. Salop 25th Sept., 10 Henry VIII., 1518"; but probably yet later instances may be found.
The further reason, lying at the root of the whole matter, was the wonderful expansion of trade, wealth, and intelligence which broke upon England at this time,—the English renaissance, as it is called, and which culminated in the brilliant company of poets and authors of Elizabeth's reign. Following upon the breaking-up of the old nobility, and the resumption of peace at home, wealth was rapidly accumulated by many self-made men, and by many younger sons of old families, who entered into trade. These purchased lands and became the county gentry. So expansive was this spirit of trade, that ancient towns like York, Chester, Lancaster, Coventry, and Lincoln, where long-established guilds restricted trading to the burghers alone, fell off in population and importance, while new districts without such restrictions, such as Manchester and Birmingham, as rapidly increased. In an act, 33 Henry VIII., c. 15 [1541], it is stated that the people of Manchester were then "well set to work in making of cloths, as well of linen as of woollen, whereby the inhabitants of the said town have gotten and come into riches and wealthy livings: and by reason of great occupying, good order, strict and true dealing of the inhabitants of the said town, many strangers, as well of Ireland as of other places, had resorted thither."
Plate V.
Over all this boiling-up of busy-ness sat Henry VII. and Henry VIII., as almost irresponsible sovereigns, and out of it grew the Commons of England! The population meantime increased with wonderful strides. In 1377 the population of England and Wales did not exceed 2,500,000. By the military musters, taken 1574-5, there were 1,172,674 of able men for service, which it is estimated would give a total population of about 4,700,000. This astonishing revolution of trade and learning is so remarkable that I must quote a portion of what old Harrison says on the changes he had noticed within fifty years. His most curious Description of Britain was printed with Hollingshed's Chronicle in 1586, but was probably written some ten years earlier: an exacter date I have not yet been able to fix. "There are old men yet dwelling in the village where I remaine which have noted three things to be marvellouslie altered in England within their sound remembrance: and other three things too, too much increased. One is the multitude of chimnies latelie erected, whereas in their young daies there were not abouve two or three, if so many, in most uplandish townes of the realme [the religious houses and manor places of their lords alwaies excepted, and peradventure some great personages], but eche one made his fire against a reredosse in the haull where he lived and dressed his meat; secondly, the bedding [now feathers and comfort, &c., then straw or wood only, &c.]; thirdly, the exchange of vessells as of treene platters into pewter, and wooden spoones into silver or tin. So common were all sorts of treene stuff in old time, that a man should hardlie find four pieces of pewter [of which one was peradventure a salt] in a good farmer's house, &c., &c., &c. Whereas, in my time, altho' peradventure £4 of old rent be improved to £40, £50 or £100, yet will the farmer, as another palm or date tree, think his gaines verie small toward the end of his term if he have not six or seven years' rent lieng by him, therewith to purchase a new lease, besides a faire garnish of pewter on his cupbord, with so much more in od vessell going about the house, three or four feather bedds, so many coverlids and carpets of tapistrie, a silver salt, a bowle for wine [if not an whole neast], and a dozzen of spoones to furnish up the sute."
But, alas, there is another side to all this national prosperity. From this time, also, agriculturists—required in fewer numbers under the new styles of cultivation (which aimed at grazing and the production of wool)—crowded into the towns in hope of work, and large portions of the population began to sink into the lowest depths of poverty.
In our researches as to the shapes of shields we have now, therefore, lost that rich body of evidence supplied by the seals on charters, which extended to nearly the end of the fifteenth century, and the MS. pictures of knights and tournaments. The evidences now available consist of pedigrees, the smaller heraldic seals attached to documents and deeds, heraldic visitations and grants of arms, printed books on heraldry, which begin 1496, stained glass, the stone carvings on buildings, tombs, and ledger stones, and, from the end of the seventeenth century or a little earlier, book-plates. Coins, too, now prove of some value to us, showing what were prevailing types of shields.
But inasmuch as there were no shields actually in use, the shapes prevailing now became entirely a matter of fashion and taste. Randle Holme prints sixty-five varieties of shields, and remarks (p. 10 in his Academy of Armoury, Chester, 1688):—"But [as to the former shield] so to this, a question may be made, whether such an one was used by him, or only the invention of the cutter? If so, then the shapes and forms of shields, targets, and bucklers would be as many as carvers, stone cutters, engravers, and painters please." Gerard Legh gets the credit of having greatly multiplied, in his Accedens of Armoury, 1562, the fanciful shapes of shields; and later writers on heraldry seem to have followed him. [Herald and Genealogist, vol. i, p. 191.] But an examination of the Wappenbüch, published in Germany in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and similar heraldic drawings of Italian coats, have opened out to me a vastly wider field for variety than old Randle Holme ever supposed. I have before me a copy of Virgil Solis, which was published at Nurnberg in 1555. This contains hundreds of coats, in shields of an endless variety of shapes and great boldness of design; and when we come to critically compare these shields with one another, we discover that their outlines depend upon the charges! These were first laid down with grotesque boldness, and the outline of the shield to bear them was then drawn around them, to the artist's fancy of what best suited the bearings and would most reduce the amount of empty field. This is, after all, only reversing the ancient method, where a lion was distorted to suit a pointed heater; and it is suggested that a pale, for a similar reason, might sometimes be pointed into a pile. With this revelation from Virgil Solis, we can detect that the same method of designing prevails elsewhere. We must therefore multiply Randle Holme's carvers, stone cutters, engravers, and painters by the possible variety of their fancies, and then multiply the quotient by the number of all the heraldic bearings—plus all the positions and forms they may be made to assume—if we wish to arrive at the variety of shields possible during the period we are now about to consider.