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Standard of the 2nd Earl Marischal |
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The standard was carried at Flodden Field and still shows traces of blood from the man who carried it, the Earl Marischal's standard-bearer, Black John Skirving of Plewland. It illustrates the Scottish practice of using the crest as a badge, as it bears three harts' heads erased, one hart's head being the crest of the Keiths; the motto, Veritas Vincit, is embroidered not on a scroll, but straight along the fly of the flag. Among the Scottish dead at Flodden were Sir William Keith of Inverugie and Sir John Keith of Ludquhairn. Robert Dickson of Buhtrig was also one of the gentlemen who fell on the fatal field of Flodden. The Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh retains the original standard. |
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Standard of the Earls of Kintore |
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n the year 1010, King Malcolm II dipped three fingers into the blood of
Camus, the slain Danish general, and drew vertical stripes upon the shield of Robert, leader of the
Catti troops. These stripes then became the identifying marks for
Robert's descendants, under the surname of Keith, along with a motto quoting Malcolm's
words, "Veritas Vincit". Some heralds describe the Keith arms as "argent, on a chief or,
three pallets gules" (silver shield with three, vertical red stripes on gold
in the top 1/3rd of the shield). Even so, the configuration presently used in Keith arms,
and recently proclaimed by the Lyon Court as the official version, enters a fourth pallet
of gules, so that the chief begins and ends with red. This latter recording (now
the correct description for Keith) is what we see in arms of Keith-Marischal and Earls of
Kintore, and arms of allied families. Did Malcolm draw
stripes with three bloody fingers or four? History says three. The fourth stripe in Keith
arms, let us say, represents poetic license.
