Kitley Heritage - Chichester impaling Bourchier

4/ Checky gules and or a chief vair Impaling Argent a cross engrailed gules between four water bougets sable – Chichester impaling Bourchier

Of course, not all of the generations in the various lines in the Bastard ancestry can be shown in the heraldic display at Kitley, and four have been omitted between the previous marriage (shield 3) and this one (shield 4). This latter indicates the marriage, c1515, of Edward Chichester, son and heir to John Chichester of Arlington Court, to Lady Elizabeth, daughter of John Bourchier, 1st Earl of Bath. His great granddaughter married Amias Copleston de Copleston (q.v. shield 7). Also, his son, Sir John, married Gertrude, the daughter of Sir William Courtenay, and so this shield also connects, albeit rather obtusely, with the impalements displayed in the following two (q.v. shields 5 & 6).

Thus, to summarise the intent of the shields above the doorway, numbers 1, 3 & 4 are displayed to introduce the early ancestry of the opening series of impalements shown on the main walls (q.v. shield 5 &c). These must not be muddled with shield 2 which, although also displaying the Plantagenet coat, must really be considered in isolation from the others, displayed to signify the ultimate ancestor of Lady Bridgett Poulett (q.v. shield 15). Why this particular impalement was chosen cannot be divined – more apposite would have been a coat which also led into shield 1, displaying the arms of Plantagenet (England) alone, signifying the marriage of King Henry II to Eleanor of Acquitaine, thus showing the common ancestor of the Plantagenet lines of descent.