[CHAPTER XIII]
TUDOR AND LATER HERALDRY
Decorative Heraldry of the Reign of Henry VIII; The Decadent Change in the Quality of Heraldry; Examples of Elaborated Arms; Survival of Tradition in Heraldic Art; Elizabethan Heraldry; Heraldry in the Seventeenth Century and under the Commonwealth; Post-Restoration Heraldry.
In the foregoing chapters practically nothing has been said or any illustration given of heraldry later than the reign of Henry VIII, chiefly because little that is artistic can be found afterwards. There are however certain points about both Elizabethan and Stewart heraldry that are worthy of notice, especially when the old traditions have been followed.
In the second quarter of the sixteenth century decorative heraldry may be said to have reached its climax, and such examples as can be seen at Hengrave Hall, Hampton Court, Athelhampton House, Cowdray House, St. George's chapel in Windsor Castle, King's College chapel at Cambridge, and Henry VII's Lady chapel at Westminster, or in the beautiful panel of Henry VIII's arms at New Hall in Essex (fig. [189]), are quite the finest of their kind. Then comes a falling off, and though sporadic cases in continuation of tradition may be found, with the advent of the Renaissance English heraldry underwent a complete change.
Fig. 189. Carved panel with the crowned arms, supporters, and badges of King Henry VIII at New Hall in Essex.
One of the most notable differences between the older and the later heraldry is in the quality of the heraldry itself.
In the days when men devised arms for themselves these were characterized by a simplicity that held its own all through the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and well down into the fifteenth century. But following upon a privilege that had hitherto been exercised by the King as a mark of special honour, and in some rare cases even by nobles, the heralds then began to assign arms to such of the newly-rich who came to the front after the Wars of the Roses and were willing to pay for them. Henceforth the artistic aspect of heraldry entered upon a continuous decadent course.