#bezante

[griffinrampant]

Arms of Alan de la Zouche (1267 - 1314) from the Dering Roll (c. 1270-1300)

Blazon: Gules bezanté

The de la Zouche arms are also sometimes described and depicted as gules ten bezants in pile or 4, 3, 2, 1, including on the Baron’s Letter. This is likely just a fairly typical variation before the practice and language of heraldry became more standardized.

De la Zouche himself inherited his father’s lands in 1289, close to the beginning of his military career. He served for quite some time in France and Scotland (including a moderately disgraceful episode in 1296, when his standard bearer was captured near Bordeaux). He shows up in several early rolls of arms, including the Caerlaverock Poem, which I really should cover someday. He was made a baron in 1299, but as he died fifteen years later with no male heirs, the barony quickly went into abeyance.

[griffinrampant]

Arms of Ricard de Ore from the Dering Roll (c. 1270-1300)

Blazon: Argent three bars azure surmounted by a bend gules bezanté

The full name appears to be Richard de Grey; some sources assert he was “Lord of Ore,” but I’m not entirely sure where that is. It’s possible that “Ore” is a corruption of Codnor Castle, the ancient seat of the family. Richard’s son Henry was later recorded as the first Baron Grey of Codnor. At some point, Richard or his son dropped the bend recorded here, and the arms changed to barry of six argent and azure.

[griffinrampant]

Arms of Willem de Bodiham from the Dering Roll (c. 1270-1300)

Blazon: Argent a bordure gules bezanté

The Bodham family appears to have been located in Norfolk since at least the early eleventh through the fourteenth centuries. Someone named Ralph held the manor of Bodham under Hugh de Montfort, thereby giving the family its name. There is another Bodham family, first recorded in 1550, but it is unclear whether they are related to the previous family. The newer line bears argent on a cross gules five molets or.

[griffinrampant]

Arms of Thomas Peverell from the Dering Roll (c. 1270-1300)

Blazon: Gyronny of eight argent and gules within a bordure sable bezanté

[griffinrampant]

Arms of Robert d’Amory (1230? - 1285?) from the Dering Roll (c. 1270-1300)

Blazon: Vairy argent and gules a label sable bezanté

There’s not much information on Robert d’Amory except that he was a knight, and master of Bucknell and Woodperry in Oxfordshire. He had at least one son, Roger, who played a significant role in the Despenser War (after Hugh Despenser replaced him as a favorite of Edward II). Roger would be the last d’Amory; his only child by Elizabeth de Clare was another Elizabeth, who married into the Bardolfs.

[griffinrampant]

Arms of Alan la Zouche (1205-1270) and Ellen de Quincy (?-1296)

From p81 of Lacies Nobilitie by Sir John Ferne (1586)

Blazon: Per pale baron and femme gules thirteen bezants 4, 3, 3, 2, and 1 and a canton ermine and gules seven mascles conjoined or 3, 3, and 1

The la Zouche arms have virtually always involved some number of bezants, but how many depends greatly on the source. The most common is probably ten in pile or 4, 3, 2, and 1, but thirteen or fourteen also occur, and some authorities simply describe them as bezanté, or deliberately unspecified.