Cape.
Heraldic Queries.—Will some correspondent versed in heraldry answer me the following questions?
1. What is the origin and meaning of women of all ranks, except the sovereign, being now debarred from bearing their arms in shields, and having to bear them in lozenges? Formerly, all ladies of rank bore shields upon their seals, e.g. the seal of Margaret, Countess of Norfolk, who deceased A.D. 1399; and of Margaret, Countess of Richmond, and mother of Henry VIII., who deceased A.D. 1509. These shields are figured in the Glossary of Heraldry, pp. 285, 286.
2. Is it, heraldically speaking, wrong to inscribe the motto upon a circle (not a garter) or ribbon round the shield? So says the Glossary, p. 227. If wrong, on what principle?
3. Was it ever the custom in this country, as on the Continent to this day, for ecclesiastics to bear their arms in a circular or oval panel?—the martial form of the shield being considered inconsistent with their spiritual character. If so, when did the custom commence, and where may instances be seen either on monuments or in illustrated works?
Ceyrep.
John's Spoils from Peterborough and Crowland.—Clement Spelman, in his Preface to the reader, with which he introduces his father's treatise De non temerandis Ecclesiis, says (edit. Oxford, 1841, p.45.):
"I cannot omit the sacrilege and punishment of King John, who in the seventeenth year of his reign, among other churches, rifled the abbeys of Peterborough and Croyland, and after attempts to carry his sacrilegious wealth from Lynn to Lincoln; but, passing the Washes, the earth in the midst of the waters opens her mouth (as for Korah and his company), and at once swallows up both carts, carriage, and horses, all his treasure, all his regalities, all his church spoil, and all the church spoilers; not one escapes to bring the king word," &c.
Is the precise spot known where this catastrophe occurred, or have any relics been since recovered to give evidence of the fact?
J. Sansom.