A wolf azure, ducally gorged is how you may feel after Christmas dinner and too much plum pudding with brandy butter. It is also a supporter, sinister, on the Bellew arms.
In layman’s terms, language we can understand, it is a blue wolf precariously balanced on its hind legs on one end of the Bellew motto and using its front legs to hold up the Bellew Arms. That’s why it is called a supporter. The wolf has a duke’s coronet as a collar (ducally gorged).
To be thorough, the supporter dexter is a leopard or goûtte de sang langued gules murally gorged azure. You should know the first and last words: leopard and azure. It is a yellow (or) leopard with spots (goûtte), a red tongue (sang langued) and a blue collar depicting battlements (murally gorged azure). You will have realised ‘dexter’ means right and ‘sinister’ left and in heraldry these are the sides the supporters are on from their point of view.
Any questions? The red hand, top centre of the arms, is the red hand of Ulster. It first appears on Patrick Bellew’s Arms in the 19th century. I don’t know why he adopted this label but guess it may have been to differentiate his arms from the Lords Bellew of Bellewstown, although this branch of the family was no longer extant in the male line. There is no mantling on the arms depicted above. Mantling or ‘lambrequin’ (its name in French) is drapery tied to the helmet above the shield. It depicts the protective cloth covering worn by knights from their helmets to stave off the elements, and to decrease the effects of sword-blows against the helmet in battle. It is usually shown tattered or cut to shreds. In practice when mantling is depicted it takes the place of supporters.
The picture at the head of this post was taken by Seamus Bellew on a visit to Barmeath in 2011 to gather information for his website: Irish Heraldry. The arms are an embroidered tapestry. The tapestry was repaired by my grandmother and put on a stool in the library when I was a child. Now I make do with a simpler version of the arms to step on when I get out of bed.
Does the Red Hand indicate a Baronet of Ulster?
Thank you. You have set me on the right track. The first Baronetcies, granted by James I in 1611, were to some 200 “settlers’ in Ulster and the heraldic symbol chosen for the Baronetage was O’Neill’s Red Hand of Ulster. I should have known this as I am a member of the Standing Council of the Baronetcy and the red hand features on our neck decorations and ties.