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Among
St Mary’s splendid collection of funereal hatchments is that of Admiral
Lord Nelson, located towards the end of the North Aisle and ironically
placed next to that of his rival in love, Sir William Hamilton. |
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The
lozenge shaped board is painted black on the dexter side, but remains white
on the sinister, indicating that Nelson’s wife Fanny was still alive at his
death. The shield is technically described (or blazoned)
or a cross flory sable, a bend gules surmounted by another
engrailed of the field, charged with three bombs fired proper; on a chief of
honourable augmentation undulated argent of waves of the sea, from which a
palm tree issuant between a disabled ship on the dexter and a battery in
ruins on the sinister, all proper.
The
cross on a gold background is the undifferenced arms of the Nelson family.
These arms have been appropriately differenced by a bend charged with bombs
for Horatio himself. The scene on the chief – the name given to the top
third of the shield – is known as an ‘augmentation’ which is a heraldic
device added to someone’s coat of arms in recognition of some great (usually
military) feat. Better known examples include the Union Jack borne at the
honour point on the arms of the Duke of Wellington, or the inescutcheon of a
lion’s head erased on the arms of the Duke of Norfolk, commemorating the
victory of a previous Howard over the King of Scotland and known as the
‘Flodden Augmentation.’ (There was a fashion in the 18th and 19th
centuries to grant chiefs of augmentation decorated with elaborate scenes to
all kinds of colonial warriors, although it must be said that Nelson’s is
among the strangest and ugliest known.)
There
are two crests, the technical term for the devices sitting above the
shield. The dexter crest is again an augmentation, consisting of a naval
crown, issuing from which is the ‘plume of triumph’ presented to Nelson by
Sultan Selim III. The sinister crest, upon the waves of the sea, the
stern of a Spanish man-o’-war, all proper, inscribed with the words ‘San
Joseff’, is the family crest, with the motto “Faith and Works” above
it. (The crest historically used by the Norfolk Nelsons was a severed arm
grasping a sword, but perhaps the heralds of the day felt it might be
insensitive to inflict something similar on the famously handicapped
Admiral.)
The
supporters (the figures which flank the shield) are reminiscent of the
Admiral’s career. The dexter supporter is a sailor armed with a cutlass and
a pair of pistols, holding in his right hand a commodore’s flag, and in his
left a palm branch. The sinister supporter is a lion rampant reguardant,
holding in his mouth two broken flagstaffs, one with a Spanish flag and the
other with a French tricolour. In his paw, he also carries a palm branch.
The motto is Palmam qui meruit ferat, which translates (I think!) as ‘he who
merits bears the palm.’
The
symbols of the four chivalric orders conferred on Nelson are included. The
collar of the Order of the Bath surrounds the shield. Also included are the
badges, suspended from their ribbons, of the Order of St Ferdinand and Merit
of Naples, which he received in 1801 along with the title Duke of Bronte in
that kingdom; the Order of the Crescent of Turkey; and the Order of St
Joachim of Leiningen, widely regarded as a self styled order of no dynastic
provenance, although its presence on Nelson’s hatchment belies the assertion
by several of his biographers that he did not regard himself as a member of
it.
There
are two coronets over the shield. The ducal coronet, one of strawberry
leaves, represents his Sicilian dukedom of Bronte, and his Viscounts coronet
(with 16 silver balls) is the coronet of a British peer.
Nelson’s
coat of arms is perhaps not the prettiest ever designed, but it is a good
example of the use of heraldry in commemorating the career of the grantee.
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