Some English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish Arms in Medieval Continental Rolls

Extract

It is generally prudent to regard foreign coats in any rolls of arms with circumspection: they not infrequently depart widely from the versions accepted at home. Yet it sometimes happens that records of arms are found earlier in foreign than in native documents. Thus the first occurrence so far known anywhere of the arms of a Count of Chalon is in our Fitzwilliam and Camden Rolls. So, too, the lion and battle-axe of the King of Norway in the same two rolls, and also in the Segar Roll, give earlier news of the colours, it is said, than have ever yet been found in that country. And there are other examples of the kind. This is not surprising, seeing that we have more copious resources surviving from earlier times than other countries. The coats now to be spoken of are the more unexpected that they show the converse case: points of heraldry appertaining to these isles have been recorded in several continental rolls, but do not appear in our rolls at all.