The social position of James Cottrell in the royal household placed him on a level with the established Portuguese nobility, and he was very quickly awarded knightly status and a coat of arms (Section D.2).  Not surprisingly he retained the colours of his own family's arms in England (arms: azure, three mascles or), blue and gold, but took as his device a chequered chess board, possibly from the chess board used as a shield by Sir Gawain in Wolfram's Parzival.