History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 78
The great-grandson of William Lindsay of Luffness, Sir Alexander Lindsay, made a
change to the family arms around 1297 AD. On a seal of his, bearing that date and
attached to a document giving a surety for Robert de Bruce, the eagle displayed had
been displaced by a fess chequey, argent and azure – an adaptation of the Stewart
device, and the present-day arms of Crawford.
The chequered device came down to both the houses of Lindsay and Stewart from the
mighty house of Vermandois. The Vermandois were descended from Charlemagne’s
second son, Pepin, King of Italy. The first Lindsay connection to the house of
Vermandois was through the Lords of Alost. However, there were other more recent
connections:
Count Hugh IV de Montfort sur Risle’s marriage to Adeline de Beaumont,
daughter of Isabel de Vermandois;
the marriage, about 1154 AD, of Gundrada de Warenne (daughter of Elizabeth de
Vermandois by her second husband) to William de Lancaster;
the great-great-granddaughter of William de Lancaster , Alice, married William de
Lindsay;
Gundrada’s sister, Adeline, was the wife of Prince Henry of Scotland – son of Queen
Maud and King David I of Scotland. Thus, the Lindsays had yet another shared
descent with the royal family.
The Vermandois fess chequey, its tinctures different but pattern unmistakable, would
come to speak as loudly as anything could in those non-literate days of kinship with
the Stewarts.
Sir Alexander’s son, David, Lord of Crawford, made another change. He kept the
eagle as a single supporter and quartered the fess chequey with the arms of his wife’s
father, Sir Alexander de Abernethy. Those arms were or, a lion rampant gules,
debruised by a ribbon sable. The Abernethy bearing was the exact replica of one
borne in the 12th century by the Flemish noble house of Zottegem, which was one of
the lordships of Alost – indicating a further relationship.
In spite of the change on the shield, the Lindsay family’s crest would remain the head
and wings of a swan – that most evocative of the symbols of Boulogne.
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