Several Proclamations and a Funeral

Gregor Macaulay

Following longstanding precedents, the accession of King Charles III as Sovereign of the United Kingdom was proclaimed by Garter King of Arms at St James’s Palace and by Clarenceux King of Arms at the Royal Exchange in London, and by the Lord Lyon King of Arms at the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh.  Norroy and Ulster King of Arms read the proclamation at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland and Wales Herald Extraordinary read it at Cardiff Castle in Wales. 

Officers of arms were conspicuous in their tabards at the memorial service for the Queen in St Giles’ Cathedral, when the coffin arrived at Westminster Hall for the lying in state, at the funeral in Westminster Abbey, and in the solemn procession to Windsor.  At the committal service in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, the late Queen’s styles and titles were read by Garter, who was accompanied by the Lord Lyon.

The accession proclamation for the new King as Sovereign of Canada was read by the Chief Herald of Canada at Rideau Hall, the Governor-General’s official residence in Ottawa, while that for the King as Sovereign of Australia was read by the Governor-General of Australia at the Parliament House in Canberra.  Proclamations were also read in the provincial and state capitals of Canada and Australia.

The accession proclamation ceremony for the new King of New Zealand held on the steps of Parliament in Wellington on 11 September was dignified and impressive.  However, it was constitutionally confused and confusing in that a central element of the ceremony, the reading of the proclamation (English version), was undertaken by an English officer of arms (New Zealand Herald); the Māori version of the proclamation was read by Parliamentary Kaumātua Kura Moeahu.  New Zealand Herald also proclaimed the Queen’s (and King’s) New Zealand styles and titles at a state memorial service at St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral, Wellington, on 26 September.

Despite his title, New Zealand Herald is an English herald, as is clearly demonstrated by the insignia he wears – a neck badge of the English version of the arms of the United Kingdom and a collar of esses incorporating two representations of the plant badge of the United Kingdom; he has worn a tabard of the arms of the United Kingdom, but only in England.  He represents the English College of Arms in New Zealand, having been appointed by the English Duke of Norfolk, hereditary Earl Marshal of England. 

All five previous accession proclamations in New Zealand were also read from the steps of Parliament.  That in 1901 (for Edward VII) was read by the Acting Premier, the Hon. J.G. Ward, in the presence of the Governor, the Earl of Ranfurly.  In 1910, Ward (by then the Rt Hon. Sir Joseph Ward KCMG, Prime Minister) read the proclamation for George V; the Governor, Lord Plunket, was absent on account of ill health. The two proclamations of 1936, for Edward VIII and George VI, were read by the Governor-General, Viscount Galway, and the proclamation of Elizabeth II in 1952 was read by the Governor-General, Lord Freyberg.

As New Zealand has no officers of arms of its own, it would have been more appropriate for the precedents of 1936 and 1952 to have been followed and for this year’s accession proclamation to have been read by the Governor-General.  It is a great pity that another country’s official should take part in New Zealand’s ceremonies of state, and that the fundamental distinction between the Sovereign of the United Kingdom and the Sovereign of New Zealand should apparently not be understood at the heart of government.

New Zealand Herald reading the accession proclamation on 11 September 2022;

note his badge of the arms of the United Kingdom and the collar of esses.

Photograph from the Governor-General’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=633261074823818&set=pcb.633278404822085)

Roger Barnes’s hatchment for the Queen was both used on the order of service and displayed (above the video screen at left in the photograph above) at a memorial service for the Queen in Auckland’s Anglican cathedral on 26 November.

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Gonfalons of the Magi

Roger Barnes

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem … there came wise men from the east …. Saying … we have seen his star in the east …. [And] they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

St Matthew, chapter 2, verses 1, 2 and 11.

The specific number of wise men is not mentioned, but people have, for many centuries, inferred that there were three because of the number of gifts presented.  The three men have also been called “Magi” and “Kings”, and named Casper (or Gaspar or Jaspar), Balthasar, and Melchior.

Lew Wallace (Ben-Hur, 1880) has Gaspar from Athens, Melchior from India, and Balthasar from Egypt. The three met perhaps 60 or 70 km east of Jerusalem. They dined in Balthasar’s tent, and I can easily envision the three gonfalons (flags which hang from a cross-bar) fluttering in the desert’s evening breeze. These three designs are attributed to the kings in a 15th-century armorial in the St. Gallen Abbey library, in Switzerland.

Blazons of the gonfalons:

      Caspar: Azure, a visaged moon in its plenitude Argent, and conjoined to a

                   decrescent Or.

      Balthasar: Gules, a visaged sun in its splendour Or.

      Melchior: Or, three six-pointed stars, two and one, Gules.

The three travelled westwards to Jerusalem, where their description of the star as “in the east” means as it would have been seen from that city at the time when they first met. The star was above, or to the west of, where they met.

Casper has sometimes been described as King of Thrace (south-eastern Europe), Balthasar as King of Saba (Sheba), and Melchior as King of Arabia. This coin, of the late 15th or early 16th century, shows the arms of the city of Cologne. The inscription, from the upper left, has the names of the “Three Kings of Cologne”: IASPAR  MELCHIO’  BALTHAS’. Between each name is a mark rather like ƷIƸ

References:

St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 1084, p. 16. http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/fr/csg/1084/16/0/Sequence-729

The New Zealand Armorist 141, Summer 2016-2017, pp. 10-13.

Memorial Hatchment of the Late Queen Elizabeth

It has long been a tradition to commemorate the recently deceased with a hatchment. Usually, hatchments were painted timber panels which were made to be displayed at funerals, and depicted (on a black background) the coat of arms of the deceased person. Today, they more often appear as a coloured illustration in a newspaper or magazine, or printed on card to be displayed at the funeral or memorial service.

This design consists of the late Queen’s shield of arms (as Queen of New Zealand) which is the shield of this realm with the addition of a crowned “E” on a blue roundel within a garland of roses and leaves. Above the shield is the Royal Crown. Surrounding the shield is the Sovereign’s collar of the New Zealand Order of Merit, accompanied by the original motto used with the arms of New Zealand, but in both English and Maori.

This design (by the under-signed) is free of copyright.

Roger Barnes.

The Bath Stall Plate of Sir Joseph Banks

Joseph Banks (1743-1820) was created a baronet in 1781 and a Knight Companion of the Bath (KB) in 1795 and was appointed to the Privy Council in 1797.  The Order of the Bath (founded 1725) was originally a single-class order (like the Orders of the Garter and Thistle) but was restructured as a three-class order in 1815, when the existing Knights were redesignated as Knights Grand Cross (GCB) in either the Military or Civil Division (Banks was in the Civil Division).  The design for Banks’s stall plate as a KB appears below, together with a photograph of the actual plate in Westminster Abbey.

Illustration of design from National Library of Australia (https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136000777/view) The Bath stall plate of Sir Joseph Banks, Westminster Abbey © Dean and Chapter of Westminster

The blazon of the full achievement is as follows.

Arms           Sable, a cross Or between four fleurs de lis Argent (the shield is surrounded by the circlet of the Order of the Bath)

Crest           On the stump of a tree couped Proper, a stork close Argent, beaked Or.

Supporters  (granted to Banks as a KB) On the dexter side a reaper standing on a ploughshare, holding in his dexter hand a sickle, in his sinister hand ears of wheat; on the sinister side, a shepherd with his pipe slung across, holding in his dexter hand a crook, all Proper, his dog at his feet couchant.

Motto          Nullius in verba (‘at the dictation of no-one’ or ‘on the word of no-one’ or ‘take nobody’s word for it’ – also the motto of the Royal Society of which Banks was elected a Fellow (FRS) in 1766 and President (PRS) in 1778)

A Medieval Horse Pendant

Roger Barnes

Horse pendants were attached to the harness usually in front of the horse’s neck and forehead. The pendants were usually shield-shaped, and of a copper alloy, such as bronze or brass, with gold, silver and enamel to colour the designs which were often heraldic. The armorial bearings or badge might have been of the rider or of the lord or king to whom he or she owed allegiance.

The pendant illustrated here, found in Norfolk in 2002, shows the arms of a married woman, and is of an unusual quatrefoil shape rather than the more militaristic shield shape. It is probably within the usual range of 4 to 6 cm high, including the suspension loop. It has been made in low relief so that the raised parts could be shining brass (representing gold) or gilded, and the other parts could be enamelled in colour, although no colour remains on this pendant. The arms are dimidiated, i.e. with two half designs joined, which practice died out in the early days of heraldry in favour of impalement which has the complete design on each side of the palar line. To the dexter is a cross engrailed, probably for Ufford (Sable, a cross engrailed Or). The Ufford family of East Anglia was prominent politically and on the battle-field in the 12th to 14th centuries. Robert Ufford was the first Earl of Suffolk, and one of the earliest Knights of the Order of the Garter. He took part in the Hundred Years War and was involved in many diplomatic and military missions. The surname is derived from the manor and town of that name, near Woodbridge in Suffolk.

The sinister half is either chevronny or bendy of six, of a metal and of a colour. This half has not been identified, but might be for the St Philibert family (Bendy of six Argent and Azure), or Grimsby (Chevronny of six Argent and Sable). The confusion here between chevronny and bendy illustrates the ambiguity that could arise with the practice of dimidiation. 

References:

John W. Papworth, Ordinary of British Armorials, London, 1874, pp.291 & 554.

https://www.bada.org/object/ufford-medieval-english-horse-harness-pendant-13th14th-century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ufford,_1st_Earl_of_Suffolk

A Bookplate of Christ Church, Oxford

Roger Barnes

This is a bookplate used in the books which Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery (1674-1731) bequeathed to the Library of Christ Church, a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The inscription “Ædes Christi in Academiâ Oxoniensi” means The Temple of Christ in the University of Oxford.

To the left are the arms of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (c.1473-1530) who founded the college (then called Cardinal College) in the 1520s. In 1546, Henry VIII refounded the college as Christ Church, which continues to use Wolsey’s arms as its own: Sable, on a cross engrailed Argent, a lion passant Gules between four leopards’ faces Azure; on a chief Or, a rose Gules, barbed and seeded Proper, between two Cornish choughs Sable, beaked and legged Gules. Above the arms is a red clerical hat (without tassels).

The arms on the right are those of Boyle: (Per bend embattled Argent and Gules) encircled by the circlet and motto of the Order of the Thistle of which the Earl was a Knight. The motto can be translated as: No one touches me with impunity. Above is an earl’s coronet.

In 1713, clockmaker George Graham, under the patronage of the Earl, created a mechanical model of the solar system, and it was given the name “orrery” in honour of the Earl.

Christchurch in New Zealand derives its name from this Oxford college.

References:

Owen Massey, The Orrery books in Christ Church Library, Early Printed Books Project, Oxford University Library Services, 2007. https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Orrery%20Books%20in%20Christ%20Church%20Library.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Boyle,_4th_Earl_of_Orrery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Church,_Oxford

The Arms of Anthony van Diemen

Roger Barnes

Both Australia and New Zealand have places which were named by Abel Tasman after Anthony van Diemen and Maria his wife. This is not surprising as van Diemen was the Governor-General of the Netherlands East Indies, and sponsor and patron of Abel Tasman’s voyage, which departed from Batavia (now Jakarta) in August 1642, to Australia and New Zealand.

Maps which were made during or immediately subsequent to Tasman’s voyage show the island which is now known as Tasmania as “Anthony van Diemens Landt” (below left). Just off the east coast is “Marias Eÿlandt”, now Maria Island. Later maps show several features on the Gulf of Carpentaria which have been named after Anthony and Maria. In New Zealand, a headland at the north-western extremity of the North Island is labelled as “Cabo Marija van Diemens”, and is today Cape Maria van Diemen (below right).

Anthony van Diemen was born in Culemborg in the Netherlands in 1593, the son of Meeus or Bartholomeus Anthonisz van Diemen and Christina Hoevenaar. Anthony signed up as a soldier under an alias, and arrived in the Netherlands East Indies in 1618 or 1619. He quickly attracted the attention of Governor-General Jan Coen, who appointed him a clerk in his office. In January 1630, Anthony married Maria van Aelst, in Batavia. Her father was Aelst Janszoon de Bruyn and her mother Aeltjen Aerts van Zijlsdochter. Anthony van Diemen was appointed Governor-General of the Netherlands East Indies, his appointment taking effect on 1 January 1636. He died on 19 April 1645.

Van Diemen’s arms, crest, and supporters are given in Rietstap’s Armorial Général. The entry can be translated as:

          Diemen (van) – Culembourg. Gules, two bars embattled and counter-embattled Argent. Crest: a horse’s leg Proper, the hoof upward, between a pair of wings Gules, each wing charged with a bar from the shield. Supporters: two lions (A. van D., governor-general of the Netherlands Indies 1636-45.) [The crenellations of the bars are off-set from those on the other sides of the bars.]

A manuscript “Armorial of the Bishopric of Liège and of officials of and associated with the Low Countries”, dated c.1740-c.1753, illustrates the shield of Anthony van Diemen. At the top of the relevant page (below left) is the inscription: Alle de Heeren Gouverneur Generaals van Neerlands oost indien Zedert de Jaren 1610 tot heden. [All the Lords Governors General of the Netherlands East Indies since the year 1610 to the present.]  Below the shield at the left of the middle row (below right) is: d’Edele Heer Anthonÿ van Diemen; v[an] Cuÿlenb^g. Daar toe in patria aangestelt 1635, op Batavia voorgesteld 1 Januarÿ 1636; ob[it] den 19, enbegraven 22 april 1645. [The Noble Lord Anthony van Diemen; of Culemborg. Appointed thereto in the homeland 1635, introduced [installed?] in Batavia 1 January 1636; died the 19, buried 22 April 1645.]

A portrait of van Diemen (anonymous, 1750/1800, below left), has, at the lower edge, his arms with helmet, mantling and crest, but with white wings, and no sign of the horse’s leg, the bars on the wings, or the lion supporters. Other than the crenellations, the bars on the shield seem to be non-existent.

References:

J. B. Rietstap, Armorial Général, G. B. van Goor Zonen, Gouda, n.d., p.536. (https://archive.org/stream/armorialgnra01rietuoft#page/536/mode/2up)

http://biography.yourdictionary.com/anthony-meuza-van-diemen#7rlwMaud6PDd5muu.99

https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/portrait-of-antonio-van-diemen-governor-general-of-the-dutch-east-indies/JAGQPwpz48D5cQ

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_van_Diemen

https://www.forumrarebooks.com/item/_manuscript_coat_of_arms_low_countries___armorial_of_the_bishopric_of_liege_and_of_officials_of_and.html?c=403A2955597B

My thanks to Michael Putter, of Antiquariaat Forum & Asher Rare Books, of ’t Goy-Houten, The Netherlands, for the image from the “Armorial of the Bishopric of Liège …”; and to both Michael Putter and Guus van Breugel, of the Netherlands Centre for Family History, The Hague, for their advice that Maria was probably not of an armigerous family.

The Arms of Dame Patsy Reddy

Gregor Macaulay

Patricia Lee Reddy (known as Patsy) was born in Matamata in 1954, the daughter of two schoolteachers and a distant cousin of Australian singer Helen Reddy.  After Hamilton Girls’ High School, she studied at Victoria University of Wellington, graduating LLB (1976) and LLM with first class honours (1979).  She lectured at Victoria before joining a Wellington law firm, specialising in tax, corporate, and film law, and then working for 11 years for Brierley Investments.  She has had extensive experience in governance and consulting roles in both the public and private sectors, with particular involvement in the governance of creative and charitable organisations.  She was created a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DNZM) in 2014 for services to the arts and business.  She is married to Sir David Gascoigne KNZM CBE CStJ, also a notable lawyer, who served as Judicial Conduct Commissioner from 2009 to 2015.  Having been appointed GNZM, QSO, and DStJ, Dame Patsy took office as New Zealand’s third female Governor-General on 28 September 2016 and held that role until 28 September 2021.  She was appointed CVO in the United Kingdom’s 2022 New Year Honours.

Dame Patsy was granted arms, together with supporters and a badge, by the English Kings of Arms on 24 June 2020.  On 20 September 2021, the carved wooden panel of her armorial bearings was unveiled in the main entrance hall (Taupaepae) of Government House, Wellington, joining the series of armorial panels for Governors and Governors-General since 1910.  The panel is the first not to have been completely hand-carved: it was created by a team at Sir Richard Taylor’s Wētā Workshop and a milling machine was used for the fine details.

Left: Dame Patsy and Sir David Gascoigne with the panel
Right: Close-up showing the high relief of the carving

According to notes prepared by Phillip O’Shea, who designed the arms (borne on a shield rather than a lozenge), the red field is a play on Dame Patsy’s surname, the cotises allude to film and the film industry, and the masks of comedy and tragedy represent the performing and visual arts. The two carved pūtōrino (Māori flutes) recall those played by former Government House Artist-in-Residence Horomona Horo while the motto was a favourite proverb of Dame Patsy’s former kaumatua (Māori elder and adviser), Professor Piri Sciascia.

In the badge, displayed above the shield in place of a crest, an extinct huia standing on a fern frond is surrounded by a gold chain and stylised mānuka flowers, representing the Queen’s Service Order.  Although Mr O’Shea asserts that “Crests are not granted to women”, crests have been granted by the English Kings of Arms to two previous female Governors-General: Canada’s Mme Jeanne Sauvé (1985 – an amended version was recorded in Canada in 1989) and New Zealand’s Dame Catherine Tizard (1994).  The badge is the first to have been granted to a New Zealand woman.

The arms of Dame Catherine Tizard

The arms of Mme Jeanne Sauvé

           

The arms of Rt Hon. Dame Patsy Reddy

The arms of the Rt Hon. Dame Patricia (Patsy) Lee Reddy

GNZM CVO QSO DStJ

Arms

Gules, between two cotises bendwise, two masks bendwise in bend one of comedy in chief and the other of tragedy in base, the ties hanging inwards, those in base overlapping those in chief, all between two pūtōrino [Māori flutes] bendwise Or.

Supporters

On a compartment Vert on which are red pōhutukawa blossom and yellow kōwhai flowers slipped and leaved two tīeke birds [saddlebacks] Proper.

Motto

He toi whakairo he mana tangata

(where there is artistic excellence there is human dignity)

Badge

A female huia Proper statant on a fern frond curved upwards to the dexter Vert, all within a solid circular chain charged with four stylised mānuka flowers in cross Or.

English grant 24 June 2020 (Grants Register 183/5)

Illustration above and photographs on page 2 reproduced

from the Governor-General’s website with permission.

Here’s a Health unto Her Majesty!

Gregor Macaulay

This article acknowledges Her Majesty the Queen’s unprecedented Platinum Jubilee with a representation (below) of the arms she has used in New Zealand since 1963, surrounded by the collar of the New Zealand Order of Merit and cartouches bearing crowned symbols intended to represent the other parts of the Realm of New Zealand: the Cook Islands (top left – a circle of stars as on the flag and arms of the Cook Islands); Niue (top right – a fiti pua, the national flower of Niue); Tokelau (bottom left – a tuluma or fisherman’s carved wooden tackle box, the national badge of Tokelau); and the Ross Dependency (bottom right – a white lion holding a white estoile; both lions and estoiles appear in the arms of Sir James Clark Ross, after whom the Ross Dependency is named).

Illustration by Roger Barnes

Armorial Panels at Government House, Wellington

Gregor Macaulay

The main entrance hall of Government House, Wellington (below), is decorated with carved panels (each about one metre high and 50 cm wide) of the armorial bearings of all of the vice-regal residents of the house since Lord Islington (Governor 1910-1912; his successor, Lord Liverpool, was redesignated as Governor-General in 1917) except for Dame Silvia Cartwright (Governor-General 2001-2006). Dame Silvia chose not to seek a grant of arms and her panel instead shows the insignia of her honours. Such a series of carved panels is possibly unique amongst Government Houses in the Commonwealth, although Government House in Sydney has a display of the arms of successive Governors of New South Wales in full colour on painted panels and stained glass windows.

Individual photographs of and information about the panels may be found on the Governor-General’s website. The depictions of the arms have been taken from peerages, bookplates, and grants of arms (particularly in the case of Governors-General with newly-granted rather than inherited arms).

Lord Jellicoe (Governor-General 1920-1924) was the first Governor-General without inherited arms. Although Jellicoe was a peer while in New Zealand (he was created a viscount in 1918 and an earl in 1925), his panel shows only a knight’s helm (rather than a peer’s) and no coronet. The panel for Lord Freyberg (Governor-General 1946-1952, raised to the peerage in 1951) also includes a knight’s helm and lacks a coronet. The panel for Sir Charles Norrie (Governor-General 1952-1957) describes him as Lord Norrie although his peerage title was not gazetted until after he had left New Zealand (his panel has two knight’s helms – he had two crests – and no coronet).

The achievement of Viscount Cobham (Governor-General 1957-1962) is even more curious as it both omits his coronet and has a mere esquire’s helm, although he had inherited his peerage in 1949. Cobham’s panel was based on a bookplate by noted engraver Reynolds Stone CBE (1909-1979), who should have known better.

Left: Panels for Lord Jellicoe (image from Governor-General’s website)

Right: Panels for Lord Cobham, Lord Norrie, and Lord Freyberg

Panels for Dame Silvia Cartwright (left) and Sir Jerry Mateparae (right)

The panels for all of the Governors-General who have held office since the establishment of the New Zealand Order of Merit in May 1996 include a representation of the collar of the Order (worn only by the Sovereign and by the Governor-General in his or her capacity as Chancellor of the Order). Statute 25 of the Order specifies that the collar “shall consist of representations of the Circlet of the Order interchanged with gold Koru, in the form of the letter “S” linked together with, in the centre of the Collar, the shield of the New Zealand Coat of Arms ensigned by a Royal Crown, enamelled proper, from which shall hang the Badge of the Order.” Leaving aside the fact that the colours of the arms of New Zealand are incorrectly depicted on the physical collar (the lymphads are gold rather than black and the stars in the first quarter are edged with gold rather than white/silver) and that “the Badge of the Order” is nowhere defined in the Statutes (clearly what is meant is the badge of a Knight or Dame Grand Companion), a more notable error is that a roundel bearing the arms of New Zealand is enclosed within each circlet on the collar in both the physical collar and in the representations of the collar on the carved panels. Their inclusion is plainly not in accord with the Statutes; either the insignia or the Statutes require correction.

The panels for Sir Michael Hardie Boys, Dame Silvia Cartwright, Sir Anand Satyanand, and Sir Jerry Mateparae

(all include the collar of the New Zealand Order of Merit)