FITZROGER - MEDIEVAL English Horse Harness Pendant. 12th/13th Century.

Rare and intriguing English medieval horse harness pendant. 12th/13th Century.



ENGLISH MEDIEVAL HORSE HARNESS PENDANTS

FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION.

Mainly 13th and 14th Century.

Coats of arms on copper alloy, with gold, silver and enamel depending on the colours of the arms - they depicted the allegiance of the rider. However, a small proportion were used for decorative purposes only to show status.

Pendants are found in a variety of shapes, usually attached to the harness by means of a separate hinged mount, which might be a horizontal bar with a downward projecting suspension loop, or sometimes a cruciform design. They were often attached to the peytrel - a strap girdling the front of the horse and sometimes also on the horse's forehead, suspended from the upper bridle strap.

These pendants were at the peak of their use in the 13th and 14th century. The fashion faded away when arms became less simple and quartering was introduced.

Most families have been traced and many of them came over with William the Conqueror.



FITZROGER de GRESSENHALL

ARMS: Quarterly (Gu) and (Or)

Overall a riband (Sa)

C 12th- 13th

Several clusters of FitzRogers in England during medieval period in E. Anglia,

Cheshire & the West Country. By the C13th the Norfolk FitzRogers seem to have survived

only in the descendants of Isabel FitzRoger (de Gresenhall) c. 1160-1207, by her second husband Osmund de Stuteville (d. in Joppa, Palestine 1192 on the Third Crusade).

A seal of 1303 for Robert FitzRoger bearing these arms is recorded among the Medieval seals in the Durham Cathedral Muniments.