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HEN. VII. himself to the eldest daughter of Edward IV., and heir to her unfortunate Pursuivants brothers. The eagle seems to have succeeded the falcon; but I have never seen the baptismal or family name of this pursuivant.

Extraordinary

Comfort.

Rose-blanch.

COMFORT.

JOHN JOYNER, Gent.-See Rouge-croix.

In him this ancient office became extinct, and was never revived.

ROSE-BLANCH.

The rose was continued by the Tudors; but its color was changed afterwards to red, by Elizabeth. Henry wore a jewel, representing a white rose within a red one.

Rich. 111.-LAURENCE ALFORD, Gent.-See Blue-mantle.

THOMAS HAWLEY. Gent.-See next reign..

The name of this office must have been very disagreeable to Henry; but perhaps he thought it would be too pointed to abolish it, as his Queen was distinguished by this epithet. It would have been most appropriate to have stiled it the Union-rose.

Wallingford:

WALLINGFORD.

This name was borrowed from a place so called in the county of Berks, and there was a pursuivant of this denomination, as far back as the reign of Henry V.; and we see, therefore, that it was strictly Lancastrian. The castle of Wallingford belonged to the Princes of Wales, as Dukes of Cornwall, until separated from it by an act of parliament, which passed April 2, 31. Henry VIII.

Oct. 1, 1489.-THOMAS WRYTHE, OF WRIOTHESLEY, Esq.-See Garter. It is remarkable, that this king at arms should be so highly advanced from the place of a pursuivant extraordinary. He was created Wallingford, upon the investiture of the King's eldest son, Arthur, as Prince of Wales. Lant erroneously says, Wrythe was Wallingford in the following

reign.

* Prince Arthur entered the King's barge, attended by noblemen, knights, esquires, kings at arms, heralds and pursuivants, trumpets, and minstrils. After he had been created a knight, the King created him an herald, and named him Wallingford. Anstis' Notes.

reign. To make that agree, he gives the date of his creation to be Garter, HEN. VII. November 1, 1528.

,

BERWICK.

Pursuivants
Extraor

dinary.

Berwick.

Rich. 111.-WILLIAM JENNINGS, Gent.-See Rouge-croix.

THOMAS WALL, Gent.-See next reign.

DUBLIN.

This pursuivantship was taken from the name of the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. Mr. Edmondson acquaints us, that Dublin pursuivant conveyed several prisoners from that kingdom into England, in the seventeenth year of this reign, which was in 1501 or 1502.

KILDARE.

This is the name of a town, the chief place in the county of Leinster, in Ireland. A pursuivant, with this title, attended the funeral of Henry VII. Mr. Edmondson supposed that he was in the service of the Earl of Kildare. What precludes the possibility of Kildare's being the pursuivant of a nobleman is, that he received cloth from the royal wardrobe.

CALAI S.

Edw. IV. THOMAS WALL, Gent.-See Blue-mantle.

RALPH LAGYSSE, Gent.-See Portcullis.

CHRISTOPHER BARKER, Gent.-See Rouge-dragon.

I give him upon the testimony of Lant and Weaver Probably there was another person who had this office before Milner, mentioned in the following reign.

GUISNES.

Edw. IV. ROBERT BROWNE, Gent.-See Rouge-croix.

WILLIAM FELLOWS, Gent-See Portcullis.
WILLIAM TYNDALL, Gent.-See Rouge-dragon.

There was one more in this office in the reign of Henry VII.:

perhaps more than one.

Dublin.

Kildare.

Calais.

Guisnes.

HAMPNES

HEN. VII.

Pursuivants
Extraor-
dinary.
Hampnes.

Risebank.

Mont-Orgueil.

HAMPNES.

This is the name of a castle and district, standing near Calais. At that time it was often written Hames or Hammes.

RISEBANK.

The name of the place from whence this office arose is more pro. perly Rysbrook. It has been supposed, that it was built by the Roman. Emperor Caligula; but it owes its origin to our Richard II. The occasion of its erection was, because the French, in 1891, having augmented the fortifications of Ardres, St. Omers, and Boulogne, caused a great alarm to the English court, which sent over John, Duke of Lancaster, then lieutenant-general of Richard's dominions in Picardy, to inspect and examine the condition of the fortresses in this part of our continental dominions, from the fear of losing Calais. The Duke discovering that the town was weak near the harbor, erected a strong tower, which received the name of the New Tower, and from its founder was afterwards called Lancaster's New Tower. After the battle of Agincourt, Henry V. ordered John Gerrard, who then commanded it, to build two strong bastions, separated by a curtain of one hundred and thirty-two feet in length, which served as a walk for the casements. They were carried on throughout its whole extent, and fortified with turrets at each angle. From that time it was called the fortress of Rysbrook, until by corruption it took the name of Risebank. In the engraving of the "Meeting of the Kinge (Henry VIII.) by Sir Anthonie Browne, upon the Hill betweene "Callis and Marquison," published by the Society of Antiquarians, is a representation of it as it then was. This account is taken from Sir Joseph Ayloffe's description of it, given in the Archæologia, Vol. III. In the plan of the Siege of Calais by the Duke of Guise, in 1558, published by M. Lesebure in his history of that place, is a plan exactly similar to it.

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THOMAS BYSLEY, Gent.-See Blue-mantle.

There might have been other pursuivants bearing this name, in the reign of Henry VII.

MONT-ORGUEIL.

The name is borrowed from a castle in Jersey; a place so important, that Henry III. gave the appointment of it to the governor or warden of the

Pursuivants
Extraor-

dinary.

the island, with a salary of £200. In 1374, the constable of France, HEN. VII, d'Guesclin, in vain attempted to wrest it from Edward III. The heroic Henry V. greatly improved and strengthened it. The French surprized this castle during the civil wars of York and Lancaster; but Edward IV. regained it. Elizabeth put it in complete repair. It still retains marks of its ancient consequence. Part of it is used by troops. The ascent to the top is by about two hundred steps, from whence the two front towers of Constance's cathedral, in Lower Normandy, were discernible with a telescope. Mont-Orgueil is sometimes called by the islanders Gourray, from the village of that name in its vicinity. Here the factious Prynne was confined three years. The bed in which Prince Charles reposed his proscribed body is still seen. When he succeeded to the throne of his ancestors, he remembered with gratitude the asylum Jersey gave him. The pursuivant of this name was the public messenger of this, and the other Anglo-Normanic islands. Henry VII. probably had always an officer at arms of this name; because one attended at his coronation, another at his funeral. Neither the baptismal or surnames of these pursuivants have reached our time.

CONK.

Conk, or Conceneau, is a town and castle in Lower Bretagne, upon the river Kimper, one of the cautionary towns delivered to Henry VII., by Ann, Duchess of Bretagne.

In

This King made Conk the name of a pursuivant. One of this name, in 1489 or 1490, being the fifth of this reign, was so created. Henry, in this year, gave him 100s., and called him "our well-beloved Conk." the following one he was sent by the Lord-treasurer with letters to his Majesty, then at Bury, and afterwards dispatched into Bretagne. The office probably expired with this pursuivant. I have never seen his baptismal or family name.

BARNE S.

I do not find from whence the name of this office was borrowed.
RICHARD RATCLIFFE, Gent.-See next reign.

Here are no less than eighteen offices of pursuivants employed by Henry VII., and there have been mentioned RASUNE and SERRESHALL,

Conk.

Barnes.

O 2

places

145307B

HEN. VII. places unknown to me. We must reasonably suppose, that all of them were not existing at the same time; but, on the other hand, he might have created still more offices than these. The number appears disproportionably large to those of his kings and heralds.

Pursuivants Extraordinary.

One reason why Henry VII. had so many officers of arms at some parts of his reign, was the great correspondence upon the Continent he kept, more than his predecessors. It was then judged necessary to send them with the ambassadors. At one time Master Christopher Urswicke, Dean of York, and Sir John Don, knight, were sent into France, and with them York herald; Dr. Sauvage, Sir Richard Nanfant (Nanfan), and Richmond king at arms, into Portugal, with the Garter; Dr. Wansworth, and Sir John Riseley, knight, with Carlisle herald, to the King of the Romans; and Sir Richard Edgecombe, knight, and Falcon pursuivant, into Bretagne; so that, at one time, there were at least five officers of arms abroad upon duty.

Most of the pursuivants were not ordinary, but extraordinary ones. At this period, pursuivants were the regular messengers of our Sovereigns. Sometimes the extraordinary ones were created to be sent on a sudden emergency, without any expectation of farther promotion: if they shewed peculiar adroitness, they were sometimes made in ordinary, and from thence might become heralds, and even kings at arms. Many of the offices of pursuivants extraordinary, were those from whence the ordinary ones were taken, but some of the others seldom. Henry had Berwick pursuivant upon the borders of Scotland, two for Ireland, several for our dominions in France, Jersey, and such as were yielded to Henry in Bretagne. These, probably, were often resident upon the spot, whence the names of their office were taken; they were chiefly employed in carrying messages to, and from the governors to the Sovereign.

Fabian mentions a pursuivant, who was executed for treason in 1502 his family name was Curson. He, and Matthew Jones, a yeoman, were put to death at Guisnes, for aiding Sir Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk; soon after which a papal bull issued against this nobleman, Sir Robert Curson, knight, and five other persons. From the place of execution, it might be supposed that Curson was Guisnes pursuivant. He appears to have been a gentleman by birth; probably brother to Sir Robert Curson.

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