Holy Roman Empire surfacing at Nunraw.
After diving into the deeper waters of the historical significance of the Nunraw painted calling, it is only fair to quote from the succinct introduction given by Fr. Michael Sherry's "Nunraw Past & Present", 1950.
The Ceiling. Nunraw's main interest for antiquarians is the painted ceiling executed in tempera and discovered in 1864. Originally it measured 30 feet by18 feet and was composed of 14 strong oaken joists supporting long panels on which the colours had been laid. The ceiling today is somewhat smaller, 20 feet by 17 feet 6 inches, but two other sections are preserved in the National Museum of Antiquities. In each panel the prominent feature is the title and armorial bearings of monarchs who flourished in mediaeval days. The shields give the arms of the kings of
I have been finding out some curious comparisons by lining up the parallel Coats of Arms of Nunraw and of St. Macher's Cathedral, Aberdeen.
1. (McRoberts). The crown assigned to the King of Scots is of a different type. Here the royal coat of arms is surmounted by a jewelled circlet of gold, adorned with crosses and fleurs-de-lys, but it has also four arches rising from the circlet, enclosing the top of the crown and carrying an orb and cross over it. This was a new form of crown which was coming into fashion in Christendom. The civil lawyers, imbued with the rising spirit of nationalism,, had been teaching that each individual King was actually an emperor in his own right within his own kingdom. As early as 1469, a Scottish Parliament, in the reign of King James III, had asserted that :”Our Sovereign Lord has full jurisdiction and free empire within his realm”. Such claims to imperial jurisdiction and authority within each kingdom came to be expressed by the use of a crown, enclosed by arches in imitation of the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor. The practice became general and the French phrase “fermer la couronne” - to enclose the crown with arches, came to signify the efforts of a prince to free himself from vassalage to a superior. The French Monarch, Charles VIII adopted the closed crown in 1495. It is usually stated that King Henry VI of
The Scottish Crown looks like an imperial crown, but there are no pearls on the arches, instead there are two curlicues on each arms. In addition there is a pearl on a gold mounting on the velvet cap in each quarter (so you can see two of them).
2. Comparison the Nunraw and the St Machar’s ceilings of the shield King of England are marked by the interval of some 90 years.
Comment on the 1529 ceiling:
(McRoberts) Only in the fourth place comes the King of England, King Henry VIII, and the coat of arms assigned to him would have been regarded by that monarch as an insult. English Kings were accustomed to quarter the three English leopards with the fleurs-de-lys of
The later 1607 ceiling shows the faded shield of
3. Other comparisons raise further questions.
Another domain of Charles V is
The corresponding Nunraw version is very difference, assuming the the archaic script indicates
There is much scope for research into these Heraldic Shields which our friends in the College Heraldic Club of St. Aloysius might take on board. The 13 November 2007 was a special day for the Petra Sancta Heraldry group and for the whole college. The College Coat of Arms matriculated by the Lord Lyon was officially unveiled by the Archbishop Of Glasgow. This picture was taken to mark the historic occasion.