Alice, wife of Thomas of Heslerton, has on her seal (impression 1374) a large lozenge of the arms of Heslerton (gules six silver lions with gold crowns) within a quatrefoil, outside of which are four small banners of arms with martlets between.
Lastly may be noted a seal of Roger Foljambe, attached to a deed of 1396-7, having a lozenge of his arms (a bend and six scallop shells) surrounded by his word or motto.
But seals are not the only authorities for the indiscriminate use of roundels and lozenges as well as shields of arms. In the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington is an enamelled coffer of late thirteenth century work decorated with lozenges of arms of England, Valence, Dreux, Angoulême, Brabant, and Lacy. The famous Syon cope de opere Anglicano, also in the Victoria and Albert Museum, has the existing orphrey filled with large armorial roundels and lozenges, and its border is composed of a stole and fanon embroidered throughout with lozenges of arms. (See fig. [57].) Christchurch, Canterbury, in 1315 possessed an albe 'sewn with lozenges with the arms of the king of England and of Leybourne,'[3] and another 'sewn with the arms of Northwode and Ponyngg in squares';[4] also an albe 'sewn with divers arms in lozenges with purple frets with a stole and fanon of the same work,'[5] evidently not unlike those on the Syon cope.
Fig. 57. The Syon Cope, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
It may also be noted that the pillows beneath the head of the effigy at Westminster of Aveline countess of Lancaster (c. 1275) are both covered with heraldic lozenges: on the upper one with the arms of her husband alternating with the lion of Redvers; on the lower with the vair cross on red of her father, William of Forz earl of Albemarle. The gilt metal bed plate under the effigy of William of Valence earl of Pembroke (ob. 1296), likewise at Westminster, is also covered with a lozengy diaper of England and Valence, still bright with the original enamel; the workmanship of this, however, is probably French.
The restriction of the lozenge to the arms of ladies has clearly therefore no medieval precedent, and there is not any reason why the modern custom should not be set aside when for artistic reasons a shield or roundel is preferable.
[2] Impression attached to a deed in the British Museum, 1350-1.