Diceto, p.691.Neub.p 192, 498] [** Gervase, p.

1551.] It was during the crusades that the custom of using coats of arms was first introduced into Europe.

The knights, cased up in armor, had no way to make themselves be known and distinguished in battle, but by the devices on their shields; and these were gradually adopted by their posterity and families, who were proud of the pious and military enterprises of their ancestors.
King Richard was a passionate lover of poetry: there even remain some poetical works of his composition: and he bears a rank among the Provencal poets or Trobadores, who were the first of the modern Europeans that distinguished themselves by attempts of that nature..