Fig. 53. Seal of Joan de Barre, wife of John de Warenne earl of Surrey, 1306.
Another interesting example, of a date about 1320, is the seal of Parnel, daughter of H. de Grapenell, and widow (1) of John FitzJohn and (2) of Sir John Bensted (ob. 1323). This has in the middle a shield of the arms of Bensted, gules three gold gemell-bars, between four lozenges, apparently for Grapenell and FitzJohn (pl. [IX] C).
Contemporary with Parnel Bensted's seal are two others in which roundels are used instead of lozenges. Both are traceried seals of Elizabeth daughter of Gilbert of Clare earl of Gloucester, and Joan daughter of King Edward I and Queen Eleanor of Castile. She was thrice married: first, about 1306 to John of Burgh, son of Richard earl of Ulster; secondly to Theobald lord Verdon; and thirdly to Roger lord d'Amory, who died in 1322.
One of these seals has in the middle, in a shield, Elizabeth's own arms of Clare impaling Burgh within a black border bedewed with tears. Above and below are roundels of Clare, and on either side other roundels of Verdon and d'Amory. In the interspaces are the castles and lions of Castile and Leon (pl. [IX] D).
The other seal is similarly arranged, but has in the middle a large shield of d'Amory, between roundels of arms of the lady's other husbands above and below, and of Clare for her father or herself on either side. The interspaces again contain castles and lions (pl. [IX] E).
Four other early seals of great artistic merit displaying roundels may also be described, especially since they are apparently the work of the same engraver. They are filled with tracery, consisting of a triangle enclosing a circle, which contains a large shield, with cusped circles on its sides containing roundels or devices.
The first is for Mary de Seynt-Pol, who married in 1322 Aymer of Valence earl of Pembroke (fig. [54]). The shield bears the dimidiated arms of husband and wife; on a roundel in base are the arms of her mother; and higher up are roundels of England and France, out of compliment to King Edward II and Queen Isabel.