The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-09-28
BY ia ,fAnorIsE DE rONTENOY.
wv , HlLE King George has deferred
NA/ to the nationalist sentiments
Wv OF Wales to the extent of talk

WV lille king George has deferred
NA/ to the nationalist sentiments
wv OF Wales to the extent of taxi
ing steps for the investitura
of his eldest son as Prince of Wales
with all the old time pomp and eere-
monial, he has turned deaf ear to
the demands that the Welsh red dragon
should be accorded place on his coat
of arms. and should supplant the three
lions OF England on the lower fourth
quarter of the shield. The other three
quarters are filed by second series
of English lions, by the Scotch lion
and by the Irish harp.
George v. has not made any definite
announcement upon the subject him
self: but the new Great Seal of Eng
and this work could not be undertaken
until he had declared" his arms. They
Will be Identical with those of his
father, and, in fact, with MI of his
immediate predecessors on the throne
Ii he has refrained from according
any attention to the arguments in
the Welsh press, and even to those
which We're put forward in the House
OF Commons by the parliamentary rep
rlesentatives of Wales, 1t is no doubt
the red dragon is actually the real
and historic heraldic emblem OF Wales.
The most eminent genealogists of the
united Kingdom declare that there Is
no sSAhliila VI eNi"ehce tHat the dragon
is in any historic sense the badge of
Wales The arms invented for and
assigned to Cadwaladr FendigaId by
the medieval Welsh heralds, were
azure, a cross patee fitchee. or; while
no red dragon or Wyvern ever inquired
on the shield of Llywelyn or of owen
Glyndwr.
The dragon is Plantagenet rather
than Welsh and made its appearance
as a heraldic emblem IN England when
Henry III. adopted 1t as one of his
devices, by virtue of the fact that IT
had been feature of the arms Of
his mother, Isabella. daughter and
heiress Of the Count of Angouleme;
There is no absolute evidence to show
that Wales ever had a coat of-arms
legally had any; whereas England,
Scotland, Ireland, as we'll as the
Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall,
all have legal arms.
ute compelling the sovereign to adopt
any particular arms. They are not
forced upon him by heritage, and their
selactlon is absolutely and entirely
governed by his personal pleasure ha
being perfectly independent of Parlla-
sible after his accession he declares"
his arms as he sees fit and thereupon
the Great Seal of England is engraved
in exact conformity Herewith, and
+tiFss re tIc lIIllS VI IllS EclSll. IIC
is at liberty to change them during
his tenure of the throne If he sees
fit; but that, of course. would involve
a new Great Seal.
As they now exist the. Royal Arms
of England are of relatively modern
origin; at any rate in so far as the.
supporters are concerned. Thus,
although the lion has already Inquired
as a royal heraldic device in the reign
Of Richard Coeur-de- Lion, yet Henry
n .fy,r.s- ~ h f<1,t AL O
couple Of silver antelopes; Edward v.
n gold lion and white hart; Henry
VII, red dragon and silver grey
mound. unlcorns We're unknown IS a
heraidlc device of British royalty, prior
TO. the advent of James !. to the
essentially Stuart, and its con-
nection with the latter house
Is asserted to date from James M.
though It was probably. Of Crusader
origin, that is to say, in heraldic
sense The lion seems to have gone
out of fashion, as far as the English
arms We're concerned when the Stuarts
Were ON the throne OF Great Britain.
liam Ill, the lion constituting tho
principal feature of the armorial bear
ngs OF the house of Orange. to which
he belonged. 1t was this association
Of the lion with the house Of Orange,
and that Of the unicorn with, the
revelation which deprived James II.
Of his throne In favor of his Dutch
son-i law, William III, to the vogue
Of the familiar verse:
"The lion and the unicorn We're fight
ing for the crown;
The lion beat the unicorn all around
the town."
Since the reign Of William Ill, nut
only since then, the supporters OF the
british rulers shield have always co1l-
sisted of lion and n unicorn
The use OF supporters in nrmorial
human, animal or bird. on either sldp
Of the shield, is limited In England
to peers of the realm and to peeresses,
not by marriage, but In their own right