There is one class of early arms, which it is important that students of Armory should observe with especial care, lest they be led by them into unexpected errors. These are arms that were invented _after_ Heraldry had been established, and then were assigned to personages of historical eminence who had lived and died _before_ the true heraldic era. In the days in which every person of prominence bore heraldic arms, and when Heraldry had attained to high renown, it was natural enough to consider that suitable armorial devices and compositions should be assigned to the men of mark in earlier ages, both to distinguish them in accordance with the usage then prevalent, and to treat their memory with becoming honour. Such arms were also in a sense necessary to their descendants for the purposes of quartering. No proof can be shown that the arms said to have been borne by WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR are not of this order--made for him, that is, and attributed to him in after times, but of which he himself had no knowledge. These arms, No. 22, differ from the true Royal Insignia of England only in there being _two_, instead of _three_, lions displayed upon the shield. The arms of EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, No. 2, were certainly devised long after his death, and they appear to have been suggested to the heralds of HENRY III. by one of the Confessor’s coins: the shield is blue, and the cross and five birds (martlets) are gold. In like manner, the arms attributed to the earlier Saxon Sovereigns of England, No. 23, a gold cross upon blue, are really not earlier than the thirteenth century. The arms, No. 2, having been assigned to ST. EDWARD, a patron saint of mediæval England, were long regarded with peculiar reverence. I have placed them, drawn from a fine shield of the thirteenth century in Westminster Abbey, to take a part in forming a group at the head of my Preface, with the shields of the two other saintly Patrons of “old England,” ST. GEORGE and ST. EDMUND, No. 1 and No. 3--a red cross on a silver shield, and three golden crowns upon a shield of blue. CHAPTER III _The English Heraldry that is now in existence-- First Debasement of Heraldry-- Later Debasement-- Revival of English Heraldry-- Heraldic Art._ “Sans changer.” --MOTTO OF STANLEY.