FLORINS AND THE ROYAL ARMS.
(Vol. viii., p. 621.)
The placing of the royal arms in four separate shields in the form of a cross first occurred upon the medals struck upon the nativity of King Charles II., anno 1630; and adopted upon the reverse of the coins for the first time in 1662, upon the issue of what was then termed the improved milled coin, where the arms are so placed, having the star of the Garter in the centre; the crowns intersecting the legend, and two crowns interlaced in each quarter. The shields, as here marshalled, are each surmounted by a crown; having in the top and bottom shield France and England quarterly, Ireland on the dexter side (which is the second place), and on the sinister Scotland.[[2]] But on the milled money which followed, France and England being borne separately, that of France, which had been constantly borne in the first quarter singly until James I., and afterwards in the first place quarterly with England, is placed in the bottom shield or fourth quarter. Mr. Leake, in his Historical Account of English Money[[3]], after remarking that this irregular bearing first appeared upon the nativity medals of Charles II. in 1630, where the shields are placed in this manner, adds, that this was no doubt originally owing to the ignorance of the graver, who knew no other way to place the arms circularly than following each other, like the titles, unless (as I have heard, says he) that the arms of each kingdom might fall under the respective title in the legend; and this witty conceit has ever since prevailed upon the coin, except in some of King William and Queen Mary's money, where the arms are rightly marshalled in one shield. That this was owing to the ignorance of the workman, and not with any design to alter the disposition of the arms, is evident from the arms upon the great seal, where France is borne quarterly with England, in the first and fourth quarters, as it was likewise used upon all other occasions, until the alteration occasioned by the union with Scotland in 1707.
In reference to the arrangement consequent upon the union with Scotland, he observes that, how proper soever the impaling the arms of the two kingdoms was in other respects, it appeared with great impropriety upon the money. The four escocheons in cross had hitherto been marshalled in their circular order from the left, whereby the dexter escocheon was the fourth; according to which order the united arms, being quartered first and fourth, would have fallen together; therefore they were placed at the top and bottom,
which indeed was right: but then France by the same rule was then in the third place, and Ireland in the second; unless to reconcile it we make a rule contrary to all rule, to take sinister first and dexter second.
In the coinage of King George I., the representation of the armorial bearings in four separate shields, as upon the milled money of King Charles II., was continued. In the uppermost escocheon, England impaling Scotland; the dexter the arms of his Majesty's electoral dominions; sinister France; and in the bottom one Ireland, all crowned with the imperial crown of Great Britain. The marshalling of the four escocheon's in this manner might and ought to have been objected to by the heralds (has it been brought under their cognizance?), because it appears by many instances, as well as upon coins and medals of the emperors and several princes of the entire, that arms marshalled in this circular form are blazoned, not in the circular order, but from the dexter and sinister alternately; and thus the emperor at that time bore eleven escocheons round the imperial eagle. In like manner, upon the money of Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick, we see the crest with a circle of eleven escocheons in the same order. The same order is observed in marshalling the escocheons of the seven provinces of Holland and there is a coin of the Emperor Ferdinand, another of Gulick, and a third of Erick, Bishop of Osnaburgh, with four escocheons in cross, and four sceptres exactly resembling the English coins. That it was not altered therefore at that time, the mistake being so evident, can be attributed only to the length of time the error had prevailed; so hard is it to correct an error in the first instance whereby the arms of his Majesty's German dominions, which occupy the fourth quarter in the royal arms, do in fact upon the money occupy the second place; a mistake however so apparent, as well by the bearing upon other occasions as by the areas of Ireland, which before occupied the same escocheon, that nothing was meant thereby to the dishonour of the other arms; but that being now established, it is the English method of so marshalling arms in cross or circle, or rather that they have no certain method.
Until the union with Scotland, the dexter was the fourth escocheon; from that time the bottom one was fourth; now the dexter was again the fourth. Such is the force of precedent in perpetuating error, that the practice has prevailed even to the present time and it may be inferred, that fancy and effect are studied by the engraver before propriety. No valid reason can be advanced for placing the arms in separate shields after their declared union under one imperial crown.
J.
Footnote 2:[(return)]