Charles de Batz de Castelmore, Comte D’Artagnan
ARMS: Quarterly: 1st & 4th: Argent a double-headed Eagle displayed Sable; 2nd & 3rd: Gules a castle with two towers Argent.
SOURCE, NOTES & CREDITS:
ARMS: from V. & H. V. Rolland’s “Supplement to the Armorial Général”, by J. B. Rietstap, Volume IV, Heraldry Today, London, 1970, page 120. Translated from the French by D. Wedvick.
These are the arms of the real D’Artagnan who died in combat before the town of Maastricht in 1672, I believe struck down by a canon ball. My friend Henrik Degerman and I were happily surprised to find them in my lavishly illustrated copy of “The Three Musketeers” when he was on a flying visit here on Tuesday, 1 July 2008. It was an illustration of Maurice LeLoir, engraved by J. Huyot, page iv Volume 2 of “The Three Musketeers”, D. Appleton and Company, New York and London, 1922, one of the 250 wonderful illustrations by this fine artist for this book.
We have somewhere a boring 3 volume “Memoirs of M. D’Artagnan” digested by Dumas père, who found them boring too, so he rewrote them into the exciting trilogy: “The Three Musketeers”, “Twenty Years After” and “Vicomte de Bragelonne” which we noted with a laugh H. Degerman had read in French and Swedish and we had read them in English and Norwegian.
The artwork is a rendering by John Hamilton Gaylor
Wedvick Armorial, 080, D’Artagnan, 20090101
