Twin Town Of Carentan Coat Of Arms - Selby, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 46.982 W 001° 04.416
30U E 626923 N 5961103
Carentan is a French twin town of the UK town of Selby. Next to Selby's town hall is a finger post pointing in the direction of Carentan that shows its coat of arms.
Waymark Code: WMPHYH
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/04/2015
Views: 1
Carentan is a small market town in the Mancheregion of Normandy, well-known for dairy products. There has been a link with Selby since the 1980s.
The coat of arms shown have been Carentan's arms since 1697 as told by this tourist office web site.
"From the 12th century onwards, provinces, towns, corporations, convents and monasteries were granted the right to have their own arms, marking either services rendered to the king or outstanding merit. Our town was amongst them. In fact, during its history, it had more particularly two coats of arms, changing them for the last time at the start of the 17th century.
The first were still in use under Louis XIV when, in 1697, the herald and genealogist d’Hozier was charged with the task of checking all the armorial bearings in France. Carentan had its own registered at that time, which were: “Azure three ships masts or upon waves argent, in chief (the upper part of the escutcheon) an etiole or”. They recorded the role of the city in maritime navigation and also river-borne trade, a secondary role depicted by the ships’ masts.
The last, which are richer and more complicated, are still in use today.
They are, according to the letters patent of 19 April 1817, signed by the hand of the King himself: “Argent an eagle gules within a bordure of nine billets also gules in orle (on the border of the escutcheon) under a chief azure charged with three fleur de lys or fessewise”.
The presence of the three gold fleurs de lys fesswise on a chief azure is somewhat surprising because this was a rare privilege and these symbols were only entered on the armorial bearings as a royal concession. The importance of Carentan in the past, although relatively greater than today, does not seem to justify their presence.
It is however useful to remember that the town was a royal Concession without any seigniorial appurtenance. Since the last war, the arms of the town have been enriched with a military honour recalling the steadfast courage of its inhabitants during the difficult days of the D-Day landings and the first engagements: a military cross with a bright red star together with a citation on being Mentioned in Despatches. This cross now features in the exterior ornamentation of the escutcheon: it is attached to the bow of the ribbon joining the two branches of oak and laurel."
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