Shropshire's Punning Heraldry - 185 images

Today I have completed all of the illustrations for the Shropshire's Punning Heraldry series - all 185 of them. Now begins the work of putting everything together into a full colour illustrated book along with every explanation of each individual pun.  

Zouche

Arms: Gules, 10 bezants 4, 3, 2, & 1 a file of three points throughout Azure.

(Visitations) (Corbet Pedigree).

It is said that there is an intentional heraldic pun in the historic coat of arms borne by the Zouche family. However, the pun does not rest on the word "bezant" itself, but rather on the ancient French word for a tree stump. The Anglo-Norman surname Zouche (originally de la Zouche) derives from the Old French and Norman word chouche or çouche (modern French: souche), which means "a tree stump." In early medieval heraldry, fields that were scattered entirely with small round charges (known as semé) were often meant to represent the texture, leaves, or parts of a plant related to the family name. A red field scattered with gold coins (Gules, bezantée) was, in this coat, visually used by the family to look like a blazing or glowing tree stump. 

Stretching a point? Probably but this is in fact a well known and accepted cant. 

This exact wordplay was openly recognized by medieval contemporaries. In the famous Caerlaverock Poem (a 1300 roll of arms written in Old French verse), the poet explicitly describes the arms of Alan la Zouche:"...sa rouge baniere o besans... ke fust brisans". This translates to: "...his red banner with bezants... which signified a burning branch/stump". The word brisans or buisson played directly on the visual illusion of a burning log or root system created by the gold dots on a bright red background. While early records from the 13th and 14th centuries simply describe the shield as Gules, bezantée (an unquantified scattering of gold coins), it later became standardized by heralds to a fixed number for easier rendering. This settled into the neat triangular layout of 10 bezants arranged 4, 3, 2, 1.

The surname Zouche (historically written as de la Souche) comes from the Old French word souche, which means a tree stump or stock. While many branches of the family later used an actual tree stump as a crest or badge, the famous shield featuring gold coins (bezants) on a red field (Gules, ten bezants 4, 3, 2, 1) relied on a clever linguistic connection to spending money. The specific punning nature of these arms is famously documented in the Caerlaverock Poem, a heraldic roll from the siege of Caerlaverock Castle in 1300. The poet mocks Alan de la Zouche's arms: "Aleyn de la Souche tresor signfiout ke fust brisans, sa rouge baniere o besans. Car biens cai ki a dependu tresor plus ke en burce pendu." Translation: "Alan de la Zouche meant to show that his treasure was being broken up [spent/scattered], his red banner with bezants. For I well know that he has spent more treasure than could ever be suspended in a purse."

The file, or label, of three points is a mark of cadency to denote the heir (the first son) and it is removed once the arms have been inherited.