[Arms   confirmed    and    crest   and    supporters  granted    by   Wm.    Harvey,
Clarenceux,  29th  August  1561.     Grant  printed  "  Misc.  Gen.  et  Her.,"  Qs.  ii.  343.]


386


THE  BOOK  OF  PUBLIC  ARMS

IRELAND.  Azure,  a  harp  or,  stringed  argent.  Crest — On  a  wreath  of  the  colours
(or  and  azure)  a  tower  triple-towered  or,  from  the  portal  a  hart  springing  argent,
attired  and  unguled,  also  or.     (Refer  to  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.)

At  the  present  time  the  crest  is  universally  quoted  with  the  hart  "spring-
ing," and  it  was  so  blazoned  in  the  Royal  Warrant  of  King  George  III.  The
earliest  record  in  the  College  of  Arms,  however,  distinctly  shows  the  hart
"  lodged,"  and  it  is  interesting  to  trace  through  the  different  drawings  how,
through  "  indifferent  drawing,"  the  position  of  the  animal  has  been  altered.  The
following  is  taken  intact  from  Burke's  "  General  Armory  "  : —

"  Ireland,  Kingdom  of — Az.  a  harp  or,  stringed  ar.  The  ancient  arms  of
the  kingdom  after  the  invasion  of  1 172  were,  '  Az.  three  crowns  or.'  [These  are
now  the  arms  of  the  Province  of  Munster. — Ed.]  This  was  the  coat  of  St
Edmund,  and  it  is  possible  the  Anglo-Norman  invaders,  who  were  arrayed
under  the  banners  of  St  George  and  St  Edmund,  introduced  the  bearings  of  the
latter  saint  as  the  ensigns  of  their  new  conquest.  When  Richard  II.  created
Robert  de  Vere,  Earl  of  Oxford,  Duke  of  Ireland,  he  gave  him  as  a  coat  of
augmentation  the  arms  of  Ireland,  viz.,  '  Az.  three  crowns  or.'  Henry  VIII.
