Heraldry all around us

Keep an eye out for heraldry on public buildings - bridges are quite good as are old banks.

Here are two pictures of the coat of arms of the Cordiners of Edinburgh which you can see off the Grassmarket in Edinburgh. Cordiners (from the Spanish city of Cordoba which produced the finest leather in the middle-ages) are an ancient craft or Guild of up-market shoe-makers:

Pennons

Unlike the STANDARD and the GUIDON, which the Lord Lyon awards only to Clan Chiefs as a rule, anyone with a coat of arms can apply to have a PENNON which is a sort of miniature version of the other two, being about 1.2 metres wide.

Here are two pennons recently granted by the Lyon - you can have either a rounded end or a tapered end.

Painted by Maggie Spalding

Painted by Clare McCrory

A Tournament in "modern" times ....

Passing today through the planned village of Eaglesham, south of Glasgow, I caught sight of the arms of the Earl of Eglinton on the old Cross Keys Inn. Here is a snap, together with a picture of Archibald, 13th Earl of Eglinton, in full romantic fig for the famous tournament of 1839, an attempt let by the Earl of Eglinton at his castle in Ayrshire to recapture the spirit of mediaeval chivalry.

You can read all about it, and how the first attempt was rained off (sound familiar?) here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eglinton_Tournament_of_1839

New Flag for the Swiss Guard

The Swiss Guard is the Pontifical Swiss Guard of the Holy See stationed at the Vatican in Rome.  The dress uniform is of blue, red, orange and yellow with a distinctly Renaissance appearance, often, probably mistakenly, thought to have been designed by Michelangelo. Their flag carries the arms of the current pope, Pope Francis Bergoglio, the founding pope, Pope Julius II Della Rovere, whose canting "rovere"/oak tree can be seen, and at the centre, the current commandant's arms. The new commander, Christoph Graf, will be sworn in on the 6th May, the anniversary of the Sack of Rome, when the flag will be used for the first time.

Get knitting!

The Heraldry Society of Scotland had a great talk last week on the Coats of Arms of Speakers of the House of Commons by Robert Harrison, who works in the House of Lords. Robert is not ashamed to show off his own coat of arms, as you can see:

Detectives wanted!

Yet again, there has been a theft, on Monday night, from the Thistle Chapel. The thief stole the stall-plate of Alexander Hugh Bruce, 6th Lord Balfour of Burleigh KT GCMG GCVO PC DL JP (1849 – 1921). Here is a picture of it so let us all keep an eye out on Ebay and in local cruio shops.

School heraldry: St Ninian's High School, Eastwood

One of Scotland's top state schools, St Ninian's celebrated its 30th birthday in 2014. Significantly, on its foundation, the Headmaster immediately applied to the Lyon Court for a grant of arms and they are rather splendid: 

"Azure a Celtic cross cantoned between in dexter chief a dove volant descendant and in sinister chief a book expanded Argent binding and fore-edges Gules in dexter base a crozier head contournée and in sinister base a crozier head Argent."