Fig. 43. Arms of St. Edward, from the tomb of Edmund duke of York (ob. 1402) at King's Langley.
These arms of St. Edward were used for a time duly 'differenced' in conjunction with his own quarterly arms by Henry of Lancaster, afterwards King Henry IV, and are impaled with those of his wife, Mary de Bohun, on his seal (1399) as duke of Hereford. Artistically the lop-sided effect so produced is quite unhappy.
Many fifteenth century shields show forth, by the simple quartering of a man's arms with those of his wife or his mother, his succession or summons as a lord of parliament, or his inheritance of great estates.
But this simplicity was gradually destroyed when the added quartering was itself quartered, as in the arms of Richard Nevill earl of Salisbury (see pls. [XVII] A and [XXII] B), or the quarterings were all different, as in the case of Humphrey Stafford duke of Buckingham. When but a year old he succeeded his father as earl of Stafford, and on his mother's death he became earl of Buckingham, Hereford, Northampton, Essex, and Perche! These dignities are duly displayed in the quarterings of his arms on his seal, as follows: 1. The quartered arms of his mother, for the earldom of Buckingham. 2. Bohun of Hereford. 3. Bohun of Northampton. 4. Stafford (fig. [44]).
Fig. 44. Seal of Humphrey Stafford earl of Buckingham, Hereford, Stafford, Northampton, and Perche, as captain of Calais and lieutenant of the Marches, 1442.
When Henry duke of Buckingham succeeded in 1460 to all the dignities of duke Humphrey his grandfather, he wisely elected, by the advice of the kings-of-arms, to drop the above quarterings, and to use only the arms of his great-grandmother, who as sister and heir of Humphrey duke of Gloucester and earl of Buckingham bore France and England quarterly within a border silver.
About 1433 Margaret, daughter of Richard Beauchamp earl of Warwick, was married to John Talbot earl of Shrewsbury, and she thereupon had a beautiful seal engraved, with two large shields or arms hung side by side by their straps from a ragged staff, the badge of her father's house (pl. [XXVII] B). This charming composition is, however, quite spoilt through the complicated treatment of the shields. One of these bears the arms of husband and wife conjoined, the other those of the lady's father. The earl of Warwick's shield is a quartered one of Beauchamp and Newburgh, with a small superimposed scutcheon. The earl of Shrewsbury's arms also consisted of four quarters, to which his wife added her four (omitting the scutcheon), and thus made a patchwork of eight.