On February 7, 2008 His Most Eminent Highness the Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of the Hospital of Saint John the Baptist of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, Fra Andrew Bertie, passed away. He was the 78th Prince and Grand Master and the only Englishman to hold that position. His fine coat of arms, quartered with that of the Order and surrounded by a chaplet (as a Professed Religious) is depicted below by Marco Foppoli.
"surrounded by a chaplet"—looks like a rosary; is chaplet another name for it?
yes, actually, it’s the heraldic name for it.
According to Papworth, and as shown in Peter Drummond-Murray of Mastrick’s 2004 article in Double Tressure, "Heraldic Practices of the Order of Malta," battering rams in the Bertie quarters of the late grand master’s arms should be proper with blue rams’ heads and hoops. Papworth blazons the Bertie arms are Argent three battering rams barways in pale proper, headed and garnished Azure. Marco Foppoli’s emblazonment appears to have a tincture violation of Or on Argent, at least is the image appears on my screen.
Apparently, Foppoli isn’t the only one who occasionally ignored the blazon as is illustrated below.
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/6047/bertiemaltaznak2tv0.jpg
That one in the lower right hand appears to have gotten it right; the rams’ heads and the loops appear to be azure.
Cheers,
That’s the point I was trying to illustrate: that it was sometimes shown that way and sometimes not. I’m not sure that the blazon which stipulates azure rams heads is "right". I’ve more often seen it with battering rams entirely or. Well, it really doesn’t matter now since he is dead.
Dear Fr Guy, a) I hope HMEH Fra Andrew is pretty much alive, more than we are in a sense, b) it may happen that now he has a chance to pay more attention to heraldry, c) his arms stay with us anyhow.
The Grand Commander of the Order of Malta, Bailliff Frà Giacomo dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto, has been sworn in as Lieutenant ad interim of the Order, and remains acting head of the Sovereign Order until a new Grand Master is elected.
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/1972/torre2aih5.jpg
His arms by I.A. Yamashita
The Lieutenant is entitled to quarter his arms with those of the Order (like the Prince and Grand Master) during the time of his Lieutenancy but he may not use the external ornaments of the Prince and Grand Master.
The Council Complete of State of the SMOM meets in Rome tomorrow, Tuesday, March 11, 2008, to elect a new Grand Master.
Fra Matthew Festing, Prior of England, was elected today as the 79th Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta.
His arms are - - ???
Well, since the GM would have to have proven X number of generations of gentility to be eligible for this office, I’d bet he’s from the family of Festings listed in Robson’s The British Herald (1830), who bore Sable three horned owls Argent, with the crest a fire beacon enflamed proper.
Fra Matthew may, of course, have accumulated quarterings over the generations—or he may be from a different family of Festings altogether, but that would seem unlikely.
<div class=“bbcode_center” >
The bookplate of Fra’ Matthew Festing as used while in his previous office of SMOM Prior of England:
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/5578/scan0001yk9.jpg
</div>
Unfortunately, Burke’s General Armory does not list this version of the Festing arms but rather the blazon cited earlier by Joseph. As the arms in the bookplate are not hatched I am unable to search through Papworth’s Ordinary of Arms. I did however look through my copy of the 1970 Edition of Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage but found no listing for Festing. It would seem that the blazon of the new grandmaster’s coat-of-arms will remain a mystery at least for tonight.