#maunch

[jaraxles]

So this last Saturday, Their Majesties of the East inducted me into the Order of the Maunch (Grant level A&S) for my embroidered but mainly for my bladesmithing. This is something I've been working on for a long time and I'm truly honored to be included in the ranks of many of the East's finest artisans.

Also, look at this sexy scroll that was made for me! The words are the pattern in the Damascus!

[griffinrampant]

Arms of Braunstone Town Council, England

Granted 1976

Blazon: Gules on a fess wavy azure fimbriated or between in chief a maunch argent between two bezants and in base a cross paté argent, two shovellers close of the last

Crest: On a wreath argent and gules a stag statant resting its dexter leg on a mound of stones, all proper

Mantling: Gules lined argent

Motto: Spectemur agendo (Let us be judged by our actions)

[griffinrampant]

Arms of Ralph de Tosny from the Dering Roll (c. 1270-1300)

Blazon: Argent a maunch gules

I didn’t know anything about the de Tosnys before I started looking into this, but they seem to have been extremely prominent in the eleventh through thirteenth centuries. Roger I, the first well-documented family member, was exiled from Normandy and spent his time away killing Muslims in the Reconquista. He eventually came back, although the peace didn’t last for long. In 1035, some new duke came to power in Normandy - Bill? Willy? Whatever - and Roger refused to serve him due to the fact the new duke was, literally, a bastard. Instead, Roger took the opportunity to raid the holdings of nearby nobles, which got him killed in 1040. Twenty-six years later, of course, that bastard duke would invade and conquer England, earning himself a more famous sobriquet… accompanied by Roger’s grandson, Raoul II. Raoul also had the good fortune to marry Isabel de Montfort, daughter of Simon de Montfort (no, not the Simon de Montfort who basically exterminated the Cathars). There are reports of Isabel riding out in full armor and participating in at least one local conflict during the late eleventh century. No word on whether she bore arms, sadly.

The fact that literally everyone in the male de Tosny line is named either Ralph, Raoul, or Roger (and some of these might be misspellings of each other) complicates things, but I’d speculate that the Ralph featured here is the seventh Ralph, lord of Flamstead in Hertfordshire, born in 1253 and died in 1295. I can’t quite get the dates to line up for other Rs de Tosny. If I’m right, he broke the centuries-long name chain by naming his only son… Robert. Maybe he shouldn’t have; it seems like Robert died before 1309, passing the English property of the de Tosnys to Alice, Countess of Warwick.

[griffinrampant]

Arms of Jon de la Mare from the Dering Roll (c. 1270-1300)

Blazon: Gules a maunch argent

Either this Jo[h]n de la Mare or his son of the same name was responsible for building Nunney Castle in Somerset. Eventually, Nunney Castle and the other lordships held by the de la Mares passed to William Paulet, Marquess of Winchester.

[griffinrampant]

Arms of John de Monceux from the Dering Roll (c. 1270-1300)

Blazon: Gules a maunch or

[griffinrampant]

Arms of George Hastings, 3rd Baron Hastings of Hastings and 1st Earl of Huntingdon (1488-1545)

Blazon: Per quarterly; I argent a maunch sable (Hastings), II sable two bars argent, in chief three plates (Hungerford), III argent a griffin segreant gules, armed azure; IV paly wavy of six or and gules

[life-itself-is-a-quotation-blog]

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.

Henry David Thoreau