The frog

[R. Sale]

The first thing to be said is that salamanders do not have long necks, a minor detail that apparently was frequently overlooked. Dragons are better looking anyway. 

If it is a salamander, the heraldic interpretations are very limited.
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If it is Francis I of France, then his dates (1494-1547) are well outside the parchment range.

I was happy with the original side sprout off the main root hypothesis. There are two faint lines making a connection, but are they the sides of a shoot or the legs of a bug, something with long legs, like a mayfly?

If this is a reference to the frog of Charlemagne and the salamander of Francis I, then it is one of the more significant clues and also one of the more ambiguous representations and tenuous connections. Just what might be expected from the VMs.

NOTE: I saw an illustration of a knight in a white surcoat with green frogs recently, which I thought I remembered as Charlemagne, but (as usual) can't recover it. Perhaps it was Clovis instead.
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