****** Laurel Letter of Pends and Discussion (LoPaD): April 20, 2005
******

                                      Society for Creative Anachronism
                                                       College of Arms

                                              15910 Val Verde Dr.
                                           Houston, TX 77083-4921
                                                  +1-281-277-4055
                                                   herald@sca.org
                For the December 2004 meetings, printed April 20, 2005

To all the College of Arms and all others who may read this missive,
from Fran{c,}ois Laurel King of Arms, Gwenllian Wreath, and Margaret
Pelican, greetings.

This letter contains the issues raised in the December 2004 LoAR for
CoA discussion. The text in this letter is copied verbatim from that
LoAR; it is provided here for convenience. As with a March LoI, these
matters are currently scheduled for the Laurel meetings in July 2005.
Original commentary must be in the College's hands no later than May
31 2005. Responses and rebuttals to commentary must be in the
College's hands no later than June 30 2004.

   1. Chlothar Bructerus. Badge. (Fieldless) A saltire couped voided
      and gringol{e'} Or.

      While we would not register a cross/saltire gringol{e'} voided
      (with the voiding being gringol{e'} as well), this voiding is
      plain, and we have examples of the simpler period crosses being
      voided and then having some elaborate treatment applied to the
      ends. For example, Humphery-Smith's Anglo-Norman_Armory_Two has
      a cross clechy voided and bottony (p.309, Benstede, John, from
      the Falkirk Roll of 1298); there are many examples in the
      Matrices_de_Sellos_Espanoles_(Siglos_12_-16) and the Livro_de
      Armeiro-Mor showing crosses whose interior has a plain-cross
      shape inside of the same tincture as the field (all the examples
      had plain undivided fields) but whose arms end in complex ways.
      (The most common was fleury, but others exist as well, including
      at least one with acorns issuant from the ends!)

      What is not obvious is whether these were being treated as a
      complex cross charged with a simpler one, or as a for-real
      voiding; for in order for charges with interior voids to be
      registerable as fieldless badges, there must be evidence that
      the treatment was considered in period to be a voiding. As all
      the examples studied show an interior of the plain undivided
      field, it is very difficult to tell. Had there been any examples
      with divided fields showing on the interior that would have been
      immense evidence in support of the idea. As it is, we are
      pending this to give the College a chance to research and
      comment on this specific issue further.

Pray know that I remain

In service

Fran{c,}ois la Flamme
Laurel Principal King of Arms

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Created at 2005-05-13T23:09:20