Image: Penkridge St Michael - Edward Littleton 1558 Helen Swynnerton Arms

Description: Arms Sir Edward Littleton (died 1558), impaling those of his first wife, Helen Swynnerton, on their tomb in St Michael's church, Penkridge, Staffordshire. Swinnerton has been blazoned as Argent, a cross formée, the ends fleury sable or preferably Argent, a cross pattée fleury sable but in this artwork the holiness of Helen Swynnerton is being emphasized by visual allusion to the arms of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Blazon: Baron: quarterly of 4: 1st: Or, a lion rampant sable langued gules overall a fess chequy or and azure (for Burley alias Mylde). Text per Grazebrook, Sydney, The Heraldry of Worcestershire[1]: Arms of Burley, of Bromscroft Castle, Shropshire: Argent, a lion rampant sable debruised with a fesse counter-componee or and azure. Thomas Lyttelton, (or Littleton, as his name is usually written), the learned author of the Tenures (i.e. Sir w:Thomas de Littleton (c.1407-1481), English judge and legal writer), married Joan Burley, daughter and co-heiress of William Burley, of Bromscroft In Edmondson's Baronagium, among the hundred and twenty-two coats quartered by Lyttelton is that of Mylde alias Burley, as above. 2nd and 3rd: Argent, a chevron between three escallops sable a crescent or for difference (for Littleton of Pillaton Hall); 4th: Or, three piles (sable, should be gules?) meeting in point a canton (should be ermine) (Basset of Drayton ?); impaling Femme: quarterly, 1st and 4th: Argent, a cross pattée fleury (or, should be sable) (for Swynnerton of Swynnerton, Staffordshire); 2nd and 3rd: Argent, a cross pattée fleury (or, should be sable) a bordure engrailed argent (for Swynnerton of Hilton?). Possibly the crosses have merely been repainted with the incorrect tincture, which offends the "rule of tincture" no metal on metal, as the arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. More information see http://www.swinnerton.org/Saga/Volume15/No_2_Jun2012.pdf
Title: Penkridge St Michael - Edward Littleton 1558 Helen Swynnerton Arms
Credit: Own work
Author: Sjwells53
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License: CC BY-SA 3.0
License Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
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