Some Miscellaneous Charges
ANNULET.--A simple ring, as in the mark of cadency of a fifth son,
Fig. 295, p. 288. A ring in which a precious stone is mounted is
called a gem-ring, and an interesting example occurs in one of
the badges of the Medici, Fig 234; another Medici badge has three
gem-rings interlaced.
[Illustration: FIG. 234.--Badge of Medici from Dialogo dell’ imprese,
1559.]
BARNACLES OR BREYS.--An instrument that was used to control a restive
horse by exerting pressure on his nostrils. They are represented as in
Fig. 235, or open as in Fig. 236. (_See also_ Geneville, Fig. 223, p.
248.)
[Illustration: FIG. 235.]
[Illustration: FIG. 236.]
BATTERING-RAM.--A siege weapon consisting of a heavy beam headed like
a ram and having hooks or other means of fastening the chains by which
it was supported and swung. Figs. 237 to 239 are some of its forms.
When difference of tincture requires it is said to be headed, or
armed, and garnished of these appliances. Sometimes the term purfled
is used for garnished. One of the best known examples is the coat of
Bertie: _Az._ three battering rams barways in pale ppr. headed and
garnished, az.
[Illustration: FIG. 237.]
[Illustration: FIG. 238.]
[Illustration: FIG. 239.]
BUCKLES.--Being important part of military equipment were frequently
employed as charges or as badges in allusion to battle occurrences
or other notable events. Thus the Badge of the Pelhams commemorates
the capture of King John of France at the Battle of Poictiers. Buckles
afford some scope for decoration, as in Fig. 240, a fifteenth century
example from Westminster Abbey.
[Illustration: FIG. 240.]
[Illustration: FIG. 241.]
BUGLE HORN.--This, the most frequent of the charges derived from the
Chase, forms an interesting subject for decorative treatment, in its
possible grace of line and in the ornamental character of its details.
It is usually shown as if suspended from a knotted or twisted cord, of
which it is _stringed_, though it is occasionally hung from a flatter
form of baldric. Its garnishings, mouth-piece, rim rings, etc., are
usually gold (Fig. 241).
[Illustration: FIG. 242.]
[Illustration: FIG. 243.]
[Illustration: FIG. 244.]
CHAPLET.--A wreath of leaves or of flowers and leaves. In the
latter the flowers are usually four in number (Fig. 242). When a
“chaplet” without further qualification is mentioned, a severely
conventionalized form is sometimes employed, consisting of a ring
with four flower bosses, as Fig. 243. _See_ Garland. A chaplet of oak
is called a civic crown (Fig. 244), and one of laurel a triumphal
crown.
CHESS-ROOK (Fig. 245).--This is probably the result of a mis-reading
of roc, the coronal of a tilting spear. It is always represented with
the cleft shape of the latter and never as a castle, the usual form of
chess-rook.
CINQUE-FOIL (Fig. 246).--A five membered leaf, or conventional flower
of five petals.
[Illustration: FIG. 245.]
[Illustration: FIG. 246.]
[Illustration: FIG. 247.]
CLARION.--A combination of musical pipes in a hand case, the Syrinx
or Pan-pipe. It is of frequent occurrence in the heraldry of the
Middle Ages and in a large variety of more or less elaborate forms,
one of which is here represented (Fig. 247). It is sometimes called
a rest, with the suggestion that it represents the piece fixed on a
breast-plate as a support for the tilting spear, but this appears to
be extremely improbable.
CLOUDS occur as bordures and other ordinaries in various interesting
conventional forms and also as points from which emerge arms and other
objects. Ordinaries composed of clouds in this way are blazoned
nebuly equally with the more simplified nebuly line. There are many
examples of this treatment of which Fig. 72, p. 57, will give an idea
of a bordure nebuly, as it appears in one of the representations at
the Heralds College of the arms of the Mercers Company.
[Illustration: FIG. 248.]
COCKATRICE.--A wyvern-like monster with a cock’s head, as in the many
sixteenth century drawings of the arms of the City of Basle, to which
it was a supporter under its other name of Basilisk, as in Fig. 248,
part of a drawing by Holbein.
CORONETS.--Crown and coronets other than those of rank, already
described, may be considered as of two kinds, and are of purely
symbolic import.
[Illustration: FIG. 249.]
Crowns (including coronets) used as charges, are generally those that
are more accurately described as heraldic crowns, that is, those which
have no allusion to specific rank, but are emblematic in various other
ways. The coronet of decorative leaves set on a rim and sometimes
called a crest coronet (Fig. 249) is thus borne as a charge in the
arms of some of the Companies of London in allusion to events in which
kings have been concerned. When, however, a specifically Royal Crown
appears it is usually as an Augmentation by special grant from the
Sovereign. A fine example of crowns and their distribution as charges
on a shield is Fig. 250, from the tomb of Prince Edmund of Langley, at
Kings Langley, Herts. The arms are those ascribed to St. Edmund.
[Illustration: FIG. 250.--Shield from the tomb of Prince Edmund of
Langley. Early Fifteenth Century.]
Other heraldic crowns are the mural crown, representing a fortified
wall (Fig. 251), and the naval crown, composed of sails and sterns of
ships (Fig. 252), and both are at the present time restricted with
care, in the cases of new grants or augmentations, to circumstances in
which their obvious symbolism applies.
[Illustration: FIG. 251.]
[Illustration: FIG. 252.]
[Illustration: FIG. 253.]
The mural crown is usually composed in our heraldry of the simple
crenellations shown in the example. Abroad, however, a more elaborate
and picturesque form occurs in the form of a castellated wall showing
three towers at intervals.
[Illustration: FIG. 254.]
[Illustration: FIG. 255.]
The crown vallery is intended to represent palisades, as in Fig. 253,
and when the palisades are more definite and are fastened to the rim
instead of rising out of it, the crown is palisado instead of vallery
(Fig. 254).
The Eastern crown, sometimes called an antique crown, is formed of
five straight rays (Fig. 255), and when in addition there is a star
on each point it becomes a celestial crown.
CRESCENT.--This charge, beautiful as it appears in the badges
connected with Henry II of France and Diana of Poitiers, has come
to be drawn clumsily as to look more like a biscuit with a bite out
of it than a graceful shape derived from the crescent moon. When it
is simply described as a crescent it always has its points upwards,
and it becomes a decrescent if they point to the sinister, and an
increscent when they are pointed to the dexter. Still rarer as a
charge than these latter is the full moon, and when she thus occurs
she is blazoned a Moon in her Plenitude. It is understood that the
proportionate thickness of a crescent may be any that is felt to be in
harmony with the general character of the design that accompanies it.
ESCALLOP SHELL.--This beautiful charge, with its radiating lines
within its outline, appears to have been specially connected with the
Crusades as the pilgrim’s badge, as such being sewn on to the cloak
or hat. Later the shells so worn were sometimes elaborately painted
in the manner of the illuminators, in memory of the pilgrimage. The
escallop is especially associated with St. James, and so frequently
occurs in Spanish decoration such as that of the House of the Shells,
Saragossa, the whole front of which is semée of escallops in high
relief.
Also, an old writer says: “The shell thereof is the fairest instrument
that can be, being of nature’s making, which for the beauties sake is
put in the collars of Saint Michael’s Order.”
ESTOILE.--A star of six wavy points.
[Illustration: FIG. 256.]
ESCARBUNCLE (Fig. 256).--Is derived from the strengthening bands of
the shield which the mediaeval metal worker’s decorative instinct
made into beautiful ornament even as it did the hinges of a door. The
metal plates radiating from the central boss of the shield terminated
in foliated forms of great beauty, the fleurs-de-lis of the present
charge, while the hollow ring in the centre enabled it to fit over the
boss. Many beautiful examples exist of this piece of armour become the
Badge of Anjou, worn by Henry II.
[Illustration: FIG. 257.]
FOUNTAIN (Fig. 257).--The symbol of a spring of water, is a roundle
barry, wavy argent and azure, wavy lines having been emblematic
of water from time immemorial. Its occurrence in the arms of Lord
Stourton (Sable a bend or between six fountains) is very interesting
as an example of heraldry of which the meaning is well understood. In
the admirable account given by Mr. Fox Davies in _The Art of Heraldry_
he points out that the manor of Stourton on the borders of Wilts and
Somerset obtained its name from the river Stour which rises within
the manor. The sources of that river are six wells which exist in a
tiny valley in Stourton Park, which is still called Six Wells Bottom.
When Leland wrote in 1540 to 1542 the whole six were in existence
(some have since disappeared), for he wrote: “The ryver of Stoure
risith ther of six fountaynes or springes, whereof 3 be on the northe
side of the Parke, harde withyn the Pale, and other 3 be northe also
but withoute the Parke. The Lorde Stourton giveth these 6 fountaynes
yn his Armes.” In addition, not only were three springs inside the
park and three outside, but also three were in Wiltshire and three in
Somerset. The appropriateness of three fountains on either side of the
ordinary is therefore manifest. Would that all heraldic origins were
equally clear!
[Illustration: FIG. 258.]
FYLFOT (Fig. 258).--A symbolic figure which appears to have been used
from the remotest antiquity and round which much literature has been
written in common with its Indian form, the Swastica. Its presence in
heraldry is probably to be ascribed to mere copying from some eastern
example, though even thus a symbolic meaning may have been ascribed to
its cross-like form, or perhaps some one of the transmitted meanings
may even have been known.
It occurs in the arms of Sir Wm. Kellaway in a “Copy of an antient
roll of Arms,” in the Heralds’ College.
In Japan it is well-known as the Mon or badge of the Matsudaira family.
HAMMER.--In heraldry both the workman’s hammer, emblematic of
industry, if it have no more definite symbolism, occurs as well as the
military _martel-de-fer_. Examples of both are given in Figs. 259 and
260. Another instance of the first is in the Arms of the Blacksmiths
Company of London, Sa a chev. Or between three hammers Arg. handled
and ensigned with crowns gold; and with this is their swinging motto,
“By hammer and hand all arts do stand.”
[Illustration: FIG. 259.]
[Illustration: FIG. 260.]
HAWK’S BELLS AND JESSES.--The bells are of the globular kind (Fig.
261), and jesses are the leather straps by which they were secured to
the falcons’ legs. Also attached to the jesses were pieces of metal,
called vervels, that were stamped with the owner’s monogram or badge.
HAWK’S LURE.--A bird’s wing that was attached to a cord by means of
which it was thrown in the air in order to attract the falcons to
hand. Its usual shape as a charge is as in Fig. 262.
[Illustration: FIG. 261.]
[Illustration: FIG. 262.]
[Illustration: FIG. 263.]
HEMP-BRAKE OR HACKLE.--An instrument for bruising hemp. Its best known
heraldic example is as the badge of Sir Reginald Bray (Fig. 263), the
architect to Henry VII, for whom he built the magnificent Chapel in
Westminster Abbey and completed St. George’s Chapel at Windsor. The
badge is now used by Lord Bray, who is descended from Sir Reginald’s
brother.
[Illustration: FIG. 264.]
[Illustration: FIG. 265.]
[Illustration: FIG. 266.]
[Illustration: FIG. 267.]
KNOTS.--A form of badge that is composed of one or more cords or
straps twisted into open knots and used to symbolize the bond of a
vow. The best known, perhaps, is the Stafford knot (Fig. 264), which
from being the badge of the Earls of Stafford has been appropriated by
many institutions connected with that county. The Heneage knot, also
on a single line, is Fig. 265, and is sometimes accompanied by the
motto, “Fast though untied,” and Fig. 266 is the Bowen knot of four
bows. Fig. 267 is from among the devices on the robe of the effigy
of Anne of Bohemia on her tomb at Westminster Abbey, and is thought
by Boutell to convey the idea of a monogram. He also sees in the Wake
and Ormond knot (Fig. 268) the initials W and O entwined. A modern
attempt was made to form a monogram of the silken tags represented as
depending from the seal shape of the bookplate (by C. W. Sherborn,
R.E.) of the celebrated J. Robinson Planché, Dramatist and Somerset
Herald.
[Illustration: FIG. 268.]
[Illustration: FIG. 269.]
[Illustration: FIG. 270.]
[Illustration: FIG. 271.]
The Bouchier knot is Fig. 269, and Boutell mentions a Bouchier badge
formed of the knot tied to a coudiere or elbow piece, as from a
monument in Westminster Abbey.
The Dacre knot is less a knot than a badge, consisting of an escallop
shell linked by a cord with a ragged staff or a billet (Fig. 270). In
the same way a sickle and a garb are tied together in the badge of
Lord Hastings, and are suggestive of the way in which initial letters
of names were linked with each other and with badges in the splendid
pageants of the sixteenth century.
The Lacey knot is shown at Fig. 271.
LOZENGE.--Fig. 272.
[Illustration: FIG. 272.]
[Illustration: FIG. 273.]
[Illustration: FIG. 274.]
MANCHE OR MAUNCHE.--A severely conventionalized form of a sleeve,
derived from the actual sleeve which was worn at a tournament, as a
ladies’ favour, floating from the shoulder of a favoured knight. The
illustrations are from the fifteenth century seal of Lord Hastings
(Fig. 273), and from a MS. of the following century relating to the
same family (Fig. 274).
MULLET.--A five-pointed star-like figure whose name is derived from
Mollette, the rowel of a spur (Fig. 293).
PALL.--An heraldic figure which occurs in the arms of certain
Archbishoprics, being indeed a representation of the Pallium, which is
an especial vestment of an Archbishop. Mr. Everard Green, Rouge Dragon
Pursuivant, has fully dealt with this in an admirable monograph which
is among the Archaeologia of the Society of Antiquaries, from which it
appears certain that the pall is not the arms of a particular see, but
is an ensign of the ecclesiastical rank of an archbishop.
PHEON.--The head of a dart, the so-called broad arrow of Government
stores. It usually has its inner edges engrailed, but this is not
essential any more than are the rigidly straight lines with which
it is generally drawn. There are many other forms in early use that
are much more satisfactory, such as Fig. 275, which is from an early
sixteenth century MS. The pheon is understood to be point downwards as
in the example, unless it is otherwise described.
[Illustration: FIG. 275.]
ROUNDELS.--Circular charges whose names differ according to their
tincture. Thus a roundel or is supposed to be a flat piece of gold
and is called a Bezant after Byzantium. A roundel arg. is a Plate; a
roundel gules is a Torteau; the Hurt is azure; the Pellet or Ogress is
sable; the Pomme is vert. Ancient armorists also mention Golpes, which
are purpure; Guzes, sanguine; and Oranges, tenné; but these are not
actually used in English heraldry. Another roundel, called a Fountain,
is barry-wavey arg. and az., and is further alluded to under its name
(Fig. 250). The use of the heraldic names of the various roundels
is not obligatory, however, their description by tinctures, like
other charges, being equally correct. They are frequently themselves
charged and may be of ermine or other fur, and be treated in every
way as other flat spaces. Their treatment in relief or otherwise is
largely a matter of taste, and whether a roundel be treated as flat
or globular must depend on the character of the surrounding work. The
frequently made suggestion that bezants and plates, being derived
from flat objects, should always be flat, while others should always
be globular, would often be awkward if carried out in practice,
especially in sculpture; and even if the derivations be correct, a
roundel as a circular object without other qualification is just as
conceivable as a roundel derived from a coin. Suitability to the
general design seems to be the governing factor here as elsewhere.
[Illustration: FIG. 276.]
[Illustration: FIG. 277.]
PORTCULLIS.--A strong grille for the protection of a fortified
gateway. It was made of heavy beams securely clamped together and shod
with iron, and is represented with the chains on either side by which
it was suspended. The example (Fig. 276) is from the Chartulary of
Westminster Abbey, where it forms part of the painted decoration of
the MS. as one of the favourite badges of Henry VII. It has given a
name to one of the pursuivants of arms, and as part of the armorials
of the city of Westminster is one of the most familiar charges.
QUATREFOIL (Fig. 277).--A four-leaved charge, derived from clover or
from a four-petalled flower.
SHAKEFORK (Fig. 278).--An unusual charge which occurs in the Arms of
Cunningham.
[Illustration: FIG. 278.]
[Illustration: FIG. 279.]
[Illustration: FIG. 280.]
SPADE.--Emblematic of agriculture and industry. It is of great variety
of form. Figs. 279 and 280 are fifteenth and sixteenth century forms
of these implements, which were usually of wood shod with iron, as in
the examples.
[Illustration: FIG. 281.]
[Illustration: FIG. 282.]
SPEAR.--Is usually described as a tilting spear, and when its shaft is
without swell as a javelin. It is regarded as the emblem of manhood,
as the distaff is the symbol of womanhood. As usually depicted,
without the vamplate, it appears as in Fig. 281; but there is no
reason against representing the plate in addition if it is thought
desirable. Although the tilting spear was most frequently used with
the blunted head, the coronel or roc, it is almost always represented
heraldically with a sharp spear point. The shaft is sometimes
parti-coloured, or else grooved into flutings as it was in actual use.
In some cases these grooves were so large and deep as to result in
a form of the girder principle by which great lightness and strength
were obtained. The Arms of Shakespeare, granted in 1546, are: Or on a
bend Sable a spear Gold.
SPURS.--As the peculiar symbol of knighthood are naturally of frequent
occurrence as charges. They are given star-shaped rowels unless the
more ancient form with a single point is intended, and it is then
blazoned a Prick Spur.
“The Spurs ben given to a knight to signify diligence and swiftness.”
SRUTTLE.--Another name for winnowing fan (Fig. 282).
[Illustration: FIG. 283.]
[Illustration: FIG. 284.]
[Illustration: FIG. 285.]
SWORD.--Is sometimes borne in allusion to St. Paul, as it is in the
Arms of the City of London. Unless otherwise described, a straight
sword with a cross hilt, an arming sword as it was sometimes called,
is understood. Its position--that is to say, the direction of the
blade--whether pale, wise or fesswise, and where there are more swords
than one, their relative positions and the direction of their points
are duly stated.
TREFOIL (Fig. 283).--Is always represented with a stalk, as in the
example, but the term slipped is always included in the blazon
nevertheless. The form of the charge is usually as given, but in rare
instances it appears as in Fig. 284, which is from a fifteenth century
MS. in the Heralds’ College.
WATER BOUGET.--This, like the maunche, is an instance of the
conventionalization of an actual thing into a shape that bears but
remote likeness to the original form. Although there are instances
in which its derivation from water carriers, its undoubted origin,
is more nearly suggested, its heraldic form was clearly established
in the fourteenth century, chiefly in connexion with the family of
Bourchier, which furnished so many persons of note to mediaeval
history.