Editing Thomas Tenison (section)

==Armorials==
The personal [[coat of arms]] of Archbishop Tenison consists of the arms of the [[see of Canterbury]] [[Impalement (heraldry)|impaled]] with the Tenison family arms. The former, placed on the [[Dexter and sinister|dexter]] side of honour, are [[blazon]]ed as: ''[[Tincture (heraldry)|Azure]], an archiepiscopal cross in pale [[Tincture (heraldry)|or]] surmounted by a [[Pall (heraldry)|pall]] proper charged with four [[Cross (heraldry)|crosses patee fitchee]] [[Tincture (heraldry)|sable]]''. The arms of Tenison, placed on the [[Dexter and sinister|sinister]] side of the [[escutcheon (heraldry)|escutcheon]] are blazoned as: ''[[Gules]], a bend engrailed argent voided azure, between three [[Leopard (heraldry)|leopard]]'s faces or [[jessant-de-lys]] azure''. In standard English: a red field bearing a white (or silver) diagonal band with scalloped edges, and a narrower blue band running down its centre. This lies between three gold [[Leopard (heraldry)|heraldic lion's]] faces, each of which is pierced by a [[fleur-de-lys]] entering through the mouth.

These arms are a [[Difference (heraldry)|difference]], or variant, of the mediaeval arms of the family of Denys of [[Siston]], Gloucestershire, and may have been adopted by the Tenison family because its name signifies "Denys's or Denis's son". The arms were originally those of the Norman de Cantilupe family, whose feudal tenants the Denys family probably were in connection with [[Candleston Castle]] in [[Glamorgan]]. [[Thomas de Cantilupe|St Thomas Cantilupe]] (died 1282), bishop of Hereford, gave a reversed (i.e. upside down) version of the Cantilupe arms to the [[see of Hereford]], which uses them to this day. A version of the Denys arms was also adopted by the family of the [[poet laureate]] [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson]], not known to have been a descendant of Archbishop Thomas Tenison.