Page:Sussex Archaeological Collections, volume 6.djvu/100

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76
ORIGIN OF THE ARMS OF

of an alliance with that eminent family, which the Says (7) adopted entirely, on marrying the heiress of Marainot. The arms of the distinguished Sussex family of Sackville (8) were chiefly derived from the De Veres, Sir Jordan de Sackville, who died in the ninth of King John's reign, marrying a daughter of the Earl of Oxford.

Adelisa, widow of Henry I, gave to her brother, Josceline de Louvaine, the honour and manor of Petworth. He married, a.d. 1122, Agnes de Percy, the heiress of that noble house. "Before his nuptials," says Collins (v. 318), "she covenanted with him that he should bear the arms of the Lords Percy and omit his own, or continue his own arms, and take the surname of Percy, to him and his posterity for ever; and he chose the latter alternative ; which is taken notice of in the following lines, under the picture in the pedigree at Sion House:

"Lord Percy's heir I was, whose noble name
By me survives unto his lasting fame;
Brabant's Duke's son I wed, who for my sake
Retain'd his arms, and Percy's name did take."

The arms of Louvaine, henceforth of Percy, were or a lion rampant azure. This being a simple ancient device, and of the colours, supposed to be the privilege originally of noble families, and their eldest sons, it is probable they were the ancient hereditary ensigns of the Dukes of Brabant for centuries. As Josceline de Louvaine was only a younger son, he ought, according to the laws of heraldry to have borne some difference on his shield, but probably it was the custom, in order to render the charges as few and as simple as possible, to abandon marks of cadency on settling in another country, where the same coat might not occur, just as an elder son dropped the label generally put on his escutcheon, on succeeding to the paternal honours. But the old arms of Percy—az. 5 fusils conjoined in fess or—were perpetuated in the family of Dawtrey, of West Sussex, whose ancestor, Josceline de Alta Ripa, was nephew of Josceline de Louvaine.

The FITZALANS, Earls of Arundel, adopted the arms of the De Albinis, whose titles and estates they inherited. These, as attributed to "John le Fitz Aleyn" in the Roll of Arms, a.d. 1240-45, were "de goides a ung lion d'or rampant." This