The five small projecting leaves of the calyx, that radiate about the
flower itself, are styled _barbs_, and when they are blazoned "proper"
these barbs are green, as the "seeds" in the centre of the flower are
golden. Both the "red rose" of LANCASTER and the "white rose" of YORK,
but more especially the latter, are at times surrounded with rays, and
each is termed a "_rose-en-soleil_," No. 300. The rose, the emblem of
ENGLAND, is generally drawn like the natural flower; or with natural
stem, branches, leaves, and buds, but with heraldic rose-flowers. In
modern cadency the heraldic rose is the difference of the seventh son.
_Roundle._ See page 72.
_Rustre._ A mascle pierced with a circular opening: No. 144.
_Sable._ The colour black: No. 54.
_Sagittary._ The fabulous centaur, half man and half horse.
[Illustration: Nos. 298, 299.--Heraldic Roses.]
[Illustration: No. 300.--Rose en Soleil.]
_Salamander._ An imaginary being, supposed to live in flames of fire; it
is represented sometimes as a kind of lizard, and at other times (as in
the crest of Earl DOUGLAS, A.D. 1483) as a quadruped somewhat like a
dog, breathing flames.
_Salient._ Leaping or bounding.
_Saltire._ An ordinary, in form a diagonal cross: Nos. 120, 121, 122.
_Saltire-wise_, or _in saltire_. Arranged after the form of a saltire.
_Sanglier._ A wild boar.
_Sans._ Without. "_Sans nombre_," without any number fixed or specified.
_Savage-man_, or _Wood-man_. A wild man, naked except large wreaths of
leaves about his head and loins, and carrying a club.
[Illustration: No. 301.--Crest of Hamilton.]
_Saw_, or _Frame-saw_. Borne as the crest of HAMILTON, Duke of HAMILTON,
which is thus blazoned--_Out of a ducal crest-coronet or, an oak-tree
fructed and penetrated transversely in the main stem by a frame-saw
ppr., the frame gold; above the crest the motto_, "THROUGH!" This device
is said to commemorate the escape into Scotland, in 1323, of Sir GILBERT
HAMILTON, a reputed ancestor of the present ducal house. At the court of
EDWARD II. Sir Gilbert had unadvisedly expressed admiration for ROBERT
BRUCE, on which JOHN LE DESPENCER struck him. Despencer fell in single
combat the next day, and Hamilton fled, hotly pursued, northward. Near
the border the fugitive and a faithful esquire joined some wood-cutters,
assumed their dress, and commenced working with them on an oak, when the
pursuers passed by. Hamilton, saw in hand, observed his esquire
anxiously watching their enemies as they passed, and at once recalled
his attention to his woodman's duties by the word, "Through!"--thus, at
the same time, appearing to consider the cutting down the oak to be far
more important than the presence of the strangers. So they passed by,
and Hamilton followed in safety. This crest does not appear in the
Hamilton seals till long after the days of Bruce and his admirer, Sir
Gilbert: No. 301.
_Scarpe_, _Escarpe_. A diminutive of a _Bend sinister_.
_Scintillant._ Emitting sparks.
_Seax._ A Saxon sword.
_Seeded._ Having seeds or seed-vessels, as in the centre of an heraldic
rose. See Nos. 298-300.
_Segreant._ A term applied to a griffin when rampant.
_Sejant._ Sitting.
_Semée._ Sown broadcast or scattered, without any fixed number, over the
field; parts of the charge thus semée appearing at the border-lines of
the composition. See Nos. 247, 250, 252.
_Shake-fork._ Resembles the letter Y, but does not extend to the margin
of the shield, and is pointed at its extremities.
_Shamrock._ A trefoil plant or leaf, the badge of IRELAND.
_Shield_, or _Escutcheon_. The Shield of Heraldry is fully described at
page 32. See also Nos. 27, 39-49.
_Ship._ Sometimes blazoned as a modern vessel, but sometimes also as an
ancient galley. See _Lymphad_.
_Shoveller._ A species of duck.
_Simple Quartering._ Dividing a shield quarterly, with the quartering of
any of the quarters. See _Quartering_.
_Sinister._ The left side. No. 27.
_Sinople._ The colour _vert_ in French Heraldry.
_Sixfoil._ A flower of six leaves: No. 302.
_Slipped._ Having a stalk, as a leaf or branch: No. 309.
_Spear._ The spear or lance is not of common occurrence in blazon; but
it appears, with heraldic propriety, in the arms granted in 1596 to the
father of the great poet, who bore--_Or, on a bend sa. a spear gold, the
head arg._--the arms of SHAKESPEARE, No. 303. (In the woodcut the bend
is accidentally shaded for _gules_, instead of _sable_.)
[Illustration: No. 303.--Arms of Shakespeare.]
_Spur._ Not common as an heraldic charge. Before about 1320 the spur had
a single point, and was known as the "pryck-spur"; about that time
appeared a "rouelle-spur" of simple form; in the middle of the fifteenth
century spurs of extravagant length were introduced.
_SS., Collar of._ See _Collar_, and No. 231.
_Stafford-knot._ No. 304.
_Stall-plate._ A plate bearing the arms of a knight and placed in his
stall. The stall-plates of the Knights of the GARTER and the BATH are
severally placed in the Chapels of ST. GEORGE and of HENRY VII., at
Windsor and Westminster. The earliest plates now in existence at
Windsor, though many of them bear arms of an earlier date, were executed
about 1430.
_Standard._ A long narrow flag, introduced for the purpose of heraldic
display, in the time of EDWARD III., but not in general use till a later
period. Standards generally had the Cross of ST. GEORGE next the staff,
to which succeeded the badge or badges and the motto of the owner. See
Chapter XVII.
[Illustration: No. 302.--Sixfoil.]
[Illustration: No. 304.--Stafford Knot.]
[Illustration: No. 305.--Stapleton Badge.]
_Staple._ Borne by STAPLETON: No. 305 represents a badge formed of two
staples.
_Statant._ Standing.
_Star._ See _Estoile_ and _Mullet_; also a knightly decoration.
_Stirrup._ Borne, with appropriate straps and buckles, by SCUDAMORE,
GIFFARD, and a few others.
_Stock._ The stump of a tree.
_Stringed._ As a harp or a bugle-horn; or, suspended by, or fastened
with, a string.
_Sun._ When represented shining and surrounded with rays, he has a
representation of a human face upon his disc, and is blazoned "_In
splendour_." _Sunbeams_, or _Rays_, are borne in blazon, and form an
early charge. See _Collar_.
_Supporter._ A figure of whatsoever kind that stands by a Shield of
arms, as if _supporting_ or guarding it. Single Supporters occasionally
appear, but the general usage is to have a pair of Supporters--one on
each side of the _supported_ Shield. They came gradually into use in the
course of the fourteenth century, but were not regularly established as
accessories of Shields till about 1425, or rather later. At first they
were generally alike, being then duplicate representations of the badge,
but subsequently the more prevalent custom was that the two Supporters
should differ, as in the case of the Royal Supporters, the Lion and the
Unicorn, famous in History as in Heraldry. See _Bearer_, _Tenant_, and
also Chapter XVI.
_Surcoat._ Any garment worn over armour; but especially the long flowing
garment worn by knights over their armour until about 1325, when its
form was modified by cutting it short in front, and it was distinguished
as a _Cyclas_. See _Jupon_.
_Surmounted._ Placed over another.
_Swan._ When blazoned "_proper_," white with black beak and red legs. It
is the badge of the BOHUNS, and of their descendants the LANCASTRIAN
PLANTAGENETS, the STAFFORDS, and some others. This Swan has his neck
encircled with a coronet, from which a chain generally passes over his
back. By HENRY V., the Swan badge of his mother, MARY DE BOHUN, was
borne with the wings expanded.
_Sword._ When borne as a charge, straight in the blade, pointed, and
with a cross-guard. All the appointments of the weapon are to be
blazoned. It appears, as a spiritual emblem, in several episcopal coats
of arms; in the arms of the CITY OF LONDON, No. 306, the first quarter
of a Shield of ST. GEORGE (_arg., a cross gu._) is charged with _a sword
erect gules_, the emblem of ST. PAUL, the special patron of the English
metropolitan city. The sword is also borne in blazon in its military
capacity.
[Illustration: No. 306.--Arms of City of London.]
_Tabard._ A short garment with sleeves, worn in the Tudor era. It has
the arms blazoned on the sleeves as well as on the front and back: No.
307, the Tabard of WILLIAM FYNDERNE, Esquire, from his brass, A.D. 1444,
at Childrey in Berkshire: the arms are--_Arg., a chevron between three
crosses patée sable_, the ordinary being charged with _an annulet of the
field_ "for Difference." A similar garment is the official habit of
heralds.
[Illustration: No. 307.--Tabard; A.D. 1444.]
_Tau_, _Tau-Cross_. A cross formed like the letter T, so called in
Greek, No. 93; borne as a charge in the arms of DRURY, TAWKE, and some
others: this charge is also called the Cross of ST. ANTHONY: it is
sometimes borne on a badge, as in the Bishop's Palace at Exeter. See
Chapter XV.
_Templars_, _Knights_. See Chapter XIX.
_Tenent_, _Tenant_. Used by French Heralds to distinguish human figures
from animals, as _supporters_.
_Tennée_, or _Tawney_. A deep orange-colour; in use in the Middle Ages
as a _livery-colour_.
_Thistle._ The national Badge of SCOTLAND, represented after its
national aspect, and tinctured _proper_. JAMES I. of Great Britain, to
symbolise the union of the two realms of England and Scotland,
compounded a Badge from the _Rose_ of one realm, and the _Thistle_ of
the other, united by impalement under a single crown: No. 308. The
impaled rose and thistle is borne by the Earl of KINNOULL, repeated
eight times upon a bordure.
[Illustration: No. 308.--Badge of James I.]
_Timbre._ In the early Heraldry of England, this term denotes the true
heraldic _crest_: but, in the modern Heraldry of France, the "timbre" is
the _Helm_ in an armorial achievement. _Timbred._ Ensigned with a Helm;
or, if referring to an early English achievement, with a Crest. It is a
term very seldom met with in use.
_Tiercée._ _In tierce_, _Per tierce_. Divided into three equal parts.
_Tinctures._ The two _metals_ and the five _colours_ of Heraldry: Nos.
50-56. See page 40. It was one of the puerile extravagancies of the
Heralds of degenerate days to distinguish the Tinctures by the names of
the _Planets_ in blazoning the arms of Sovereign Princes, and by the
names of _Gems_ in blazoning the arms of Nobles.
_Torse._ A crest-wreath.
_Torteau_, plural _torteaux_. A red spherical Roundle: No. 152.
_Tower_, _Turret_. A small castle. _Towered._ Surmounted by towers, as
No. 222, which is a "_Castle triple towered_."
_Transposed._ Reversed.
_Trefoil._ A leaf of three conjoined foils, generally borne "slipped,"
as in No. 309.
_Treflée_, or _Botonée_. A variety of the cross: No. 103. _Treflée_ also
implies _semée_ of trefoils.
[Illustration: No. 309.--Trefoil Slipped.]
_Treille_, _Trellis_. See page 71, and No. 150.
_Tressure._ A subordinary. See pages 66, 67; and Nos. 135-8.
_Tricked._ Sketched in outline.
_Trippant_, or _Tripping_. In easy motion, as a stag. See page 81; and
No. 168.
_Triton._ See _Mermaid_.
_Trivet._ A circular or triangular iron frame, with three feet, borne by
the family of TRYVETT.
_Trogodice._ An animal like a reindeer.
_Trumpet._ In blazon usually a long straight tube, expanding at its
extremity: No. 310, from the brass to Sir R. DE TRUMPINGTON, at
Trumpingdon, near Cambridge; A.D. 1272.
[Illustration: No. 310.--Trumpet.]
_Trussed._ With closed wings. _Trussing._ Devouring--applied to birds of
prey.
_Tudor Rose._ An heraldic rose, _quarterly gu. and arg._; or a white
heraldic rose, _charged upon_ a red one.
_Tun._ A cask; the rebus of the final syllable _TON_ in many surnames.
See _Rebus_.
_Tynes._ Branches of a stag's antlers. See _Attires_.
_Ulster._ See _Baronet_ and _Herald_.
_Undy_, _Undée_. Wavy: No. 38, C.
_Unguled._ Hoofed.
_Unicorn._ A well-known fabulous animal, famous as the sinister
supporter of the Royal Shield of England.
_Union Jack._ The National Ensign of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, fully described in Chapter XVII. It is borne on an
inescutcheon upon the arms of the Duke of WELLINGTON as an augmentation.
_Uriant._ A term said to be applied to a fish when it swims in a
vertical position, head downwards. The reverse of _Hauriant_, _q.v._
_Vair._ A Fur: Nos. 61, 62, 63.
_Vane._ See _Fan_.
_Vert._ In French Heraldry, _Sinople_. The colour green: No. 55.
_Vervels_, _Varvals_. Small rings.
_Vested._ Clothed.
_Viscount._ The _fourth_ degree of rank and dignity in the British
Peerage, in Latin _Vice-Comes_, introduced by HENRY VI., A.D. 1440.
_Vice-comes_ is also the Latin word for the office of Sheriff.
A Viscount is "Right Honourable," and is styled "My Lord." All his sons
and daughters are "Honourable." His Coronet, granted by JAMES I., has a
row of sixteen pearls, of comparatively small size set on the circlet;
in representations nine are shown: No. 311. The wife of a Viscount is a
_Viscountess_, who has the same rank, style, and coronet as her husband.
[Illustration: No. 311.--Circlet of a Viscount's Coronet.]
_Vivre._ An early term, fallen into general disuse; but apparently
denoting a _Barrulet_ or _Cotise Dancettée_; as in No. 312, at St.
Michael's Church, St. Albans.
_Voided._ Having the central area removed.
_Voiders._ Diminutives of _Flanches_.
_Volant._ Flying. _Vorant._ Devouring.
[Illustration: No. 312.--Shield at St. Michael's Church, St. Alban's.]
_Vol._ Two bird's wings conjoined, having the appearance of an eagle
displayed without its body: No. 207.
_Vulned._ Wounded.
_Wake Knot._ No. 313.
_Walled._ Made to represent brick or stone-work. The term _masoned_ is,
however, usually employed.
[Illustration: No. 313.--Wake Knot.]
[Illustration: No. 315.--Wyvern.]
[Illustration: No. 314.--Catherine Wheel.]
_Water Bouget._ No. 218.
_Wattled._ Having a comb and gills, as a cock.
_Wavy_, _Undée._ No. 38, C.
_Wheat-sheaf._ See _Garb_.
_Wheel_, _Catherine Wheel_. Has curved spikes projecting from its rim:
No. 314: from a shield upon a boss, about A.D. 1400, in the south
choir-aisle of the church of Great Yarmouth.
_Wreath_, _Crest-Wreath_. See _Crest-Wreath_, and No. 233; also Chapter
XIV.
_Wreathed._ Adorned with a wreath, chaplet, or garland; or twisted into
the form of a wreath, &c.
_Wyvern_, _Wivern_. A fabulous creature, being a species of dragon with
two legs: No. 315.
CHAPTER XI
MARSHALLING
_Aggroupment-- Combination-- Quartering-- Dimidiation-- Impalement--
Escutcheon of Pretence-- Marshalling the Arms of Widowers, Widows, and
others; Official Arms; and, the Accessories of Shields._
"Marshalling is a conjoining of diverse Coats in one Shield."
--GUILLIM.
Upon this concise definition, Guillim, in another part of his work, adds
the following comment:--"_Marshalling_ is an orderly disposing of sundry
Coat Armours pertaining to distinct Families, and their contingent
ornaments, with their parts and appurtenances, in their proper places."
Hence it is apparent that this term, "Marshalling," implies--
1. First, the bringing together and the disposition of two or more
distinct "Coats in one Shield":
2. Secondly, the aggroupment of two or more distinct Coats to form a
single heraldic composition, the Shields being still kept distinct from
one another: and,
3. Thirdly, the association of certain insignia with a Shield of arms,
so as to produce a complete heraldic achievement.
The association of "Arms" with Names, Dignities, and Estates would
necessarily require, at an early period in the history of Heraldry, the
establishment of some regular and recognised system for the combination
and aggroupment of various distinct coats and insignia, whenever a
single individual became the representative of more than one family, or
was the hereditary possessor of several dignities and properties.
Again: it would be equally necessary that this system should extend to
the becoming heraldic declaration and record of _Alliances_ of every
kind, including (a matter of no little importance in the Middle Ages)
_feudal dependence_.
In another, and a secondary sense, this same term, _Marshalling_, is
used by Heralds to denote the general arrangement and disposition of
heraldic charges and insignia in blazon upon the field of a Shield.
[Illustration: No. 316.--Seal of Margaret, Queen of Edward I.]
[Illustration: No. 317.--Seal of Margaret, Lady de Ros. (_Laing._)]
In its simplest form, MARSHALLING is effected by _Aggroupment_ without
Combination--by placing two or more Shields of arms, that is, in such
positions as to form a connected group of distinct Shields, either with
or without various accessories. Seals afford excellent examples of
Marshalling of this order. These Seals may be classified in two
groups,--one, in which an effigy appears; and a second, in which the
composition does not include any effigy. Here I may observe that the
same armorial blazonry that was displayed upon their military surcoats
by Princes, Nobles, and Knights, was adopted by Ecclesiastics for the
decoration of their official vestments, and also (towards the close of
the thirteenth century) by Ladies of rank, as an appropriate style of
ornamentation for their own costume: and many examples of the effigies
of Ladies, with a few of Ecclesiatics, adorned in this manner with
heraldic insignia, exist in Seals and in Monumental Memorials. In
Beverley Minster there is a noble effigy of a priest, a member of the
great family of PERCY (about A.D. 1330), the embroideries of whose
vestments are elaborately enriched with numerous allied shields of arms.
Upon his episcopal seal, LEWIS BEAUMONT, Bishop of Durham from 1317 to
1333, has his effigy standing between two Shields of Arms (to the
dexter, _England_; to the sinister, a cross potent between four groups
of small crosses patées, three crosses in each group), while his
chasuble is semée de lys and also charged with a lion rampant--the arms
of the house of Beaumont. The obverse of the Seal of MARGARET, daughter
of PHILIP the Hardy, King of France, the second Queen of our EDWARD I.,
illustrates this usage in the instance of ladies: No. 316. Upon her
tunic the Queen has emblazoned the three lions of her royal husband; on
her right side is a shield of _France_, the arms of her royal father;
and on the left side a corresponding shield is charged with a lion
rampant. I have already shown the reverse of this fine Seal (No. 251),
which in the original is one inch more in depth than it appears in these
woodcuts.[5] Other characteristic examples are the Seals of AGNES DE
PERCY, whose effigy, having the arms of Louvaine upon the tunic, holds
two armorial shields, one in each hand: and of MARGARET, Countess of
LINCOLN and PEMBROKE (about 1241), who blazons the old arms of DE
LACI--_quarterly or and gu., a bend sa., over all a label vert_--upon
the tunic of her effigy, and has the same arms on a Shield to the
dexter, while another Shield to the sinister is charged with the _lion
rampant_, borne by the DE LACIES as Earls of LINCOLN. The effigies of
illustrious Ladies, which appear on Seals with allied Shields of arms,
are not always represented in heraldic costume: good examples are the
Seals of ISABELLE OF FRANCE, Queen of EDWARD II., and of ELIZABETH,
daughter of EDWARD I., who was Countess, first of HOLLAND, and
afterwards of HEREFORD: both are engraved in Sandford's "Genealogical
History of England," page 121. The Seal of MARGARET BRUCE, of Skelton,
Lady DE ROS, attached to a deed, dated 1820, has the effigy of the noble
lady, wearing her ermine mantle, and supporting two Shields of arms--the
Shield of DE ROS, _gu., three water-bougets arg._, to the dexter, and a
Shield of BRUCE, _a lion rampant_: No. 317. I am indebted, for the use
of the excellent woodcut of this very interesting seal, to Mr. Laing of
Edinburgh, the talented author of the two noble volumes on the _Early
Seals of Scotland_, which occupy a foremost position amongst the most
valuable as well as the most beautiful heraldic works that have ever
been published in Great Britain. (See page 11.) In the Monumental
Brasses and also in the Sculptured Monumental Effigies of Ladies of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, heraldic costume is frequently
represented, and the figures are constantly associated with groups of
Shields of arms. As most characteristic examples I may specify the
effigy of a Lady, about A.D. 1325, at Selby in Yorkshire; and the Brass
in Westminster Abbey, A.D. 1399, to ALIANORE DE BOHUN, Duchess of
GLOUCESTER.
[Footnote 5: In No. 251 the initial A of the word AQVITANNIE has
been omitted.]
[Illustration: No. 318.--Seal of Joan, Countess of Surrey.]
The aggroupment of various armorial ensigns upon a Seal, without the
presence of any effigy, is exemplified in the characteristic Seal of
JOAN, daughter of HENRY Count DE BARRE, and of ALIANORE, daughter of
EDWARD I., the widow of JOHN DE WARRENNE, Earl of SURREY, A.D. 1347. In
this remarkable composition, No. 318, the arms, blazoned on lozenges,
are, in the centre, _Warrenne_; in chief and base, _England_; and to the
dexter and sinister, _De Barre_ (No. 162): also, at the four angles of
the group, the lion and castle of _Leon_ and _Castile_, in direct
allusion to the descent of the Countess from ALIANORE, first Queen of
EDWARD I. In the original, this elaborate composition is only one and a
half inches in diameter. Still smaller, measuring no more than one and a
quarter inches in diameter, and yet no less rich in either its Heraldry
or its Gothic traceries, is the beautiful little Counter-seal of MARY DE
SAINT PAUL, wife of AYMER DE VALENCE, Earl of PEMBROKE, which is
faithfully shown on an enlarged scale, in order to render the details
more effectively, in No. 319. This illustrious lady, who founded
Pembroke College, Cambridge, A.D. 1373, was the daughter of GUY DE
CHASTILLON, Count of ST. PAUL, by his wife MARY, daughter of JOHN DE
DREUX, Duke of BRITTANY, and of BEATRICE, sister of EDWARD I. On her
Seal, accordingly, the Countess of Brittany marshals, in the centre, the
arms of her husband (_De Valence_: No. 86), and those of her father (_De
Chastillon_--_gu., three pallets vair, on a chief or a label of three
points az._), united upon a single shield by "Dimidiation"--a process
presently to be described: to the dexter, the arms of her Royal
relatives of _England_ are blazoned in a circular compartment: to the
sinister, in a similar compartment, are the fleurs de lys of _France
Ancient_, No. 247, at that time so closely allied with the English
lions: and, finally, in a third roundle, in the base of the composition,
are the arms of _De Dreux_ (_chequée or and az., within a bordure
gu.;[6] over all a canton of Brittany_, No. 15, borne by the maternal
grandfather of the Countess: the legend is, + S . MARIE . DE . SEYN .
POVL . COMITISSE . PEMPROCHIE. The original impression of this Seal,
from which the woodcut, No. 319, was drawn, is appended to a charter,
dated 1347, which is preserved amongst the muniments of Pembroke
College. A very good example of the aggroupment of Shields upon a Seal,
under conditions differing from those that now have been illustrated,
I have already given in No. 204. Another beautiful and most interesting
example, now unfortunately partially mutilated, is the Seal of MATILDA
of LANCASTER, the wife, first, of WILLIAM DE BURGH, Earl of ULSTER (and
by him mother of ELIZABETH, the wife of Prince LIONEL OF CLARENCE), and,
secondly, of Sir RALPH DE UFFORD. This seal, of circular form, No. 320,
displays to the dexter a shield of _De Burgh_--_or, a cross gu._; to the
sinister, a shield of _Ufford_--_or, a cross engrailed sa._, in the
first quarter _a fleur de lys, for difference_: in base there is a
lozenge of _De Chaworth_ (the mother of the Countess was MATILDA DE
CHAWORTH)--_barrulée arg. and gu., an orle of martlets sa._; and in
chief there remains part of another lozenge of _Lancaster_, to complete
this remarkable heraldic group. Of the legend there remains only . .
ILLV MATILD' . . . . SE . . . The introduction of _Badges_, with a
Shield or Shields of arms, in the composition of a Seal, is another
variety of this same system of Marshalling. No. 321, the Seal of OLIVER
DE BOHUN, exemplifies this usage, having the _white swan Badge_ of the
noble house of BOHUN thrice repeated about the Shield. See No. 114. Also
see, in the frontispiece, the Seal of Earl RICHARD DE BEAUCHAMP, No.
449, which is described in Section II. of Chapter XXII.
[Footnote 6: In No. 319 the bordure of _De Dreux_ in the roundle in
base is charged with Lions of England, as borne by JOHN DE DREUX;
but the presence of these in the Seal of the Countess is uncertain.
See No. 322.]
[Illustration: No. 319.--Seal of Mary, Countess of Pembroke.]
[Illustration: No. 320.--Seal of Matilda of Lancaster.]
Marshalling by Aggroupment was practised under another form by placing
Shields of arms in the different panels of the same architectural
monument.
MARSHALLING _by Combination_ is effected by actually forming, for the
blazonry of a single Shield, a composition which includes the principal
charges of two or more allied Shields. The composition of the Shield
borne by the house of DE DREUX, to which I have just referred in
describing the Seal of the Countess of Pembroke, No. 319, is a most
striking example of this variety of Marshalling: and this Shield was
borne by JOHN DE DREUX, created Earl of RICHMOND by his uncle King
EDWARD I., who lived and died in England, as it is represented in No.
322--the _field, chequée or and azure_, being for De Dreux; the _canton
ermine_ for Brittany; and the _bordure, gules charged with golden lions
of England_, representing the royal Shield of England, and showing the
close connection existing between the Earl of Richmond and his
Sovereign. The shield of Prince JOHN of ELTHAM (No. 24), _England within
a bordure of France_, is another characteristic example of this
Marshalling by Combination.
[Illustration: No. 321.--Seal of Oliver de Bohun.]
[Illustration: No. 322.--Shield of Earl John de Dreux.]
For many reasons, except in particular instances, these methods of
Marshalling were not considered to be altogether satisfactory.
Accordingly, a fresh arrangement was devised which would preserve intact
the original integrity of each coat of arms, would imply a definite
systematic method of arrangement, and would admit into a single
composition any required number of distinct coats. This MARSHALLING _by
Quartering_, naturally suggested by such simple bearings as Nos. 16 and
17, consists in dividing the Shield, as in No. 30, into four parts, and
placing in each of these divisions or quarters one of the coats to be
marshalled on a single Shield. If two coats only are thus to be
"_quartered_," the most important of the two occupies the first quarter,
and is repeated in the fourth; and, the other coat is placed in the
second quarter, and repeated in the third. The earliest example known in
England is the quartered Shield of _Castile and Leon--quarterly: first
and fourth, gules, a castle triple-towered or; second and third, argent,
a lion rampant gu._, No. 323. This shield is sculptured upon the
monument in Westminster Abbey to ALIANORE, daughter of FERDINAND III.,
King of CASTILE and LEON, and Queen of EDWARD I.: the date is 1290. This
form of Marshalling began gradually to be adopted during the first half
of the fourteenth century, and in the second half of that century it
became generally adopted. Other examples of quartered shields I have
already given in Nos. 252 and 253.
[Illustration: No. 323.--Shield of Castile and Leon.]
Should there be _three_ Coats to be quartered, they would severally
occupy the first, second, and third quarters of the Shield, in due
order, and the first quarter would be repeated in the fourth. In
quartering _four_ coats, no repetition would be necessary. If more than
four coats would require to be quartered, the Shield would be divided
into whatever number of sections might be necessary, as in No. 36, and
the required arrangement would be made; should any repetition be
necessary, the first quarter is to be repeated in the fourth. This
process, whatever the number of the coats thus marshalled (and their
number sometimes is very great), is always entitled "_quartering_"; and
each of these divisions of a Shield, for the purpose of Marshalling, is
distinguished as a "Quarter." Occasionally a _quartered coat_ would have
to be marshalled with others. In the "grand quartering" which then takes
place, the quartered coat is treated precisely as any other member of
the group. See No. 37. For example, the Shield, No. 324 (R. 2), of
HENRY, first Earl of NORTHUMBERLAND, is--I. and IV. Grand
Quarters,--_first and fourth, or, a lion rampt. az._, for Louvaine, or
Percy modern: _second and third, gu., three lucies haurient arg._ (No.
164) for Lucy: II. and III. Grand Quarters,--_az., five fusils conjoined
in fesse or_, for Percy ancient.
[Illustration: No. 324.--Shield of Henry, Earl of Northumberland.]
When a Shield to be quartered has a very numerous array of Quarterings,
Grand Quartering is seldom adopted; but, in its stead, the new
quarterings are marshalled in their proper succession, with the original
quarterings of the Shield.
In this Marshalling the first quarter is occupied by the most important
quartering, which is determined (without any fixed rule) by the original
grant or licence: the other quarterings follow, in the order in which
they may have been "brought in" to the composition.
[Illustration: No. 325.--Shield of Mayor of Winchelsea.]
[Illustration: No. 326.--De Valence, dimidiating Claremont Nesle.]
To denote and record ALLIANCE BY MARRIAGE, two distinct Coats were first
marshalled upon a single Shield by _Dimidiation_. This process is
accomplished in the following manner. The Shield to be charged with the
two Coats in union is divided _per pale_, as in No. 28: on the dexter
half the corresponding half, or generally somewhat more than that half,
of the arms of the husband is marshalled: then, in like manner, the
sinister half is charged with the corresponding portion of the arms of
the wife. In the Shield, No. 250, from another Seal of Queen MARGARET,
_England_ dimidiates _France ancient_, Nos. 187 and 247. This
Dimidiation in most cases produces a singular effect; as in No. 325,
a Shield from the Seal of the Mayor of Winchelsea, one of the famous
Sussex Cinque Ports, which bears _England_ dimidiating _azure, three
hulls of ships, in pale, or_: here the dimidiated lions and ships appear
to unite for the purpose of forming the most extravagant of compound
monsters. The Seal of the Borough of Great Yarmouth substitutes _three
herrings_, in allusion to the staple fishery of the port, for the ships,
and dimidiates them with the national lions. In the central Shield of
the Seal, No. 319, I have shown _De Valence_ dimidiating _De
Chastillon_. In No. 326, from the monument of WILLIAM DE VALENCE, _De
Valence_ appears dimidiating the French Coat of _Claremont Nesle_--_gu.,
semée of trefoils, two barbels haurient addorsed or_: the Dimidiation
here cuts off and removes one-half of the De Valence martlets and also
one of the two barbels of Claremont.
[Illustration: No. 327.--Camoys, impaling Mortimer.]
The characteristic features of one or of both of the united Coats, as I
have just shown, being commonly rendered indistinct and uncertain by
Dimidiation, that form of marshalling was generally superseded by
IMPALEMENT in the course of the third quarter of the fourteenth century.
This process, at once simple and effectual, marshals the whole of the
husband's arms on the dexter half of a Shield divided per pale, as No.
28; and the whole of the arms of the wife on the sinister half of it.
Such an impaled Shield is borne by a husband and wife during their
conjoint lives; and should the wife become a widow, by her the impaled
arms are borne during her widowhood charged upon a lozenge. The dexter
half only--the husband's arms--of an impaled Shield is hereditary. Fine
examples of Shields that are both impaled and quartered, are preserved
in the monuments of EDWARD III. and his Queen PHILIPPA, in the Brass to
ALIANORE DE BOHUN, and in the monument to MARGARET BEAUFORT, all in
Westminster Abbey. Other fine examples occur on the monument of Earl
RICHARD BEAUCHAMP, at Warwick. No. 327, from the Brass to THOMAS, LORD
CAMOYS, K.G., and his wife, ELIZABETH MORTIMER (the widow of HENRY
HOTSPUR), at Trotton, in Sussex, A.D. 1410, marshals _Camoys_--_arg., on
a chief gu. three plates_, impaling _Mortimer_, No. 131. Again, at
Warwick, the Brass to Earl THOMAS DE BEAUCHAMP and his Countess,
MARGARET FERRERS of Groby, A.D. 1406, has a Shield of _Beauchamp_--_gu.,
a fesse between six crosslets or_, impaling _Ferrers_--_gu., seven
mascles, three three and one, or_.
[Illustration: No. 328.--D'Aubigny, impaling Scotland.]
It is to be observed that _Bordures_ and _Tressures_, which are not
affected by Quartering, are _dimidiated by Impalement_,--that is, that
side of both a Bordure and a Tressure which adjoins the line of
Impalement is generally removed: thus, one of the small Shields
sculptured upon the canopy of the monument of Queen MARY STUART, at
Westminster, is charged with _D'Aubigny_ impaling _Scotland_,--that is,
_az., three fleurs de lys or, within a bordure gu. charged with eight
buckles gold_, impaling No. 138. This Shield, represented in No. 328,
has both the bordure on its dexter half, and the tressure on its
sinister half, dimidiated by the impalement. There are other excellent
examples of this partial dimidiating in the monuments of MARGARET TUDOR
and MARGARET BEAUFORT, in the same chapel of Westminster Abbey.
The husband of an _Heiress_ or a _Co-heiress_, instead of impaling the
arms of his wife, marshals them upon his Shield charged as an
_Escutcheon of Pretence_. The son of an heiress, as heir to his maternal
grandfather through his mother, as well as to his own father, _quarters_
on his Shield, and transmits to his descendants, _the arms of both his
parents_, his father's arms generally being in the first quarter. The
Shield of RICHARD BEAUCHAMP, K.G., Earl of WARWICK (died in 1439), is a
good example of the use of an Escutcheon of Pretence; it is represented
in No. 329, drawn from the garter-plate of the Earl, in St. George's
Chapel, Windsor. The Earl himself, as his hereditary coat, quarters
_Beauchamp_ with _Newburgh_--_chequée or and az., a chevron erm._: upon
this, for his Countess, ISABELLE, daughter and heiress of THOMAS LE
DESPENCER, Earl of GLOUCESTER, he marshals an Escutcheon of Pretence
charged with _De Clare_, No. 124, quartering _Le Despencer_--_quarterly
arg. and gu., in the second and third quarters a frette or, over all a
bend sa._ In the monument of this great Earl, at Warwick, upon the
Escutcheon of Pretence the arms of Bohun are quartered with those of
Clare and Despencer.
[Illustration: No. 329.--Shield of Earl Richard Beauchamp.]
[Illustration: No. 330.]
[Illustration: No. 331.]
[Illustration: No. 332.]
[Illustration: No. 333.]
[Illustration: No. 334.]
[Illustration: No. 335.]
A few very simple diagrams will clearly elucidate the principle of
Marshalling the arms of Husband and Wife. Suppose B (_Baron_) to
represent the Husband, and F (_Femme_) the Wife: then, No. 330 B may
represent the arms of the Husband, and No. 330 F the arms of the Wife.
If F be _not_ an heiress, the arms of B and F, as husband and wife, are
borne impaled, as in No. 330 B F; and their son bears No. 330 B only. If
F _be an heiress_, the arms of B and F, as husband and wife, are borne
as in No. 331--the arms of the wife on an Escutcheon of Pretence; and,
in this case, the son of B and F quarters the arms of both his parents,
as No. 332. Now, suppose this son, whose arms are No. 332, to marry a
lady, _not_ an heiress, whose arms are No. 330 F F, he would simply
impale the arms of his wife, as in No. 333, and his son would bear No.
332 only, as his father bore that quartered shield before his marriage.
But if the wife of the bearer of No. 332 were to _be an heiress_, he
would charge the arms of his wife in pretence upon his own hereditary
paternal Shield, as in No. 334; and his son, by this heiress, as before,
would quarter the arms of both his parents, as in No. 335. It is obvious
that Marshalling on this system (of which I here give the general
outline) admits of a widely-extended application. Younger sons in all
cases place over all the quarterings of their Shield their own
distinctive Mark of Cadency, until they inherit some different
quartering from those to which the head of their house is entitled, and
the quartering itself then forms sufficient difference.
A _Widower_ who marries again places the arms of both his wives upon any
permanent record, but for ordinary purposes of use, _e.g._ on a seal or
carriage, bears only the arms of his living wife.
An _Unmarried Lady_ bears her paternal arms on a _lozenge_, without any
Helmet, Crest, or Motto.
A _Widow_ bears on a _lozenge_ the arms borne by her husband and
herself. Should she marry again, a Widow ceases to bear the arms of her
former husband.
A _Peeress in her own right_, if married to a Peer, has both her own
arms and those of her husband fully blazoned, and the lozenge and the
Shield, with all their accessories, are marshalled to form a single
united group, the achievement of the husband having precedence to the
dexter. If married to a Commoner, a Peeress in her own right bears her
own arms on a lozenge as before, and her husband marshals her arms
ensigned with her coronet in pretence on his Shield: and this lozenge
and Shield are grouped together, the lozenge yielding precedence.
_Prelates_ bear the arms of their see impaling their own paternal and
hereditary arms, the insignia of the see occupying the dexter half of
the Shield, this Shield being ensigned with a mitre only. A married
Prelate bears also a second Shield, placed to the sinister of the other,
on which are marshalled, in accordance with ordinary usage, his own
personal arms with those of his wife. The mitre then is placed over the
conjoined shields.
The _Kings of Arms_, in like manner, bear two Shields, disposed to form
a single group: on the dexter Shield their official arms impale their
personal; and on the sinister Shield their personal arms are marshalled
with the arms of their wives.
Again, the same usage obtains in marshalling the arms of _Knights of
Orders of Knighthood_ who, when married, bear two Shields grouped
together. On the dexter Shield are blazoned the arms of the Knight
himself alone; and around this Shield are displayed the insignia of his
Order, or Orders, of Knighthood: and on the sinister Shield the arms of
the Knight and of his wife are marshalled, but without the knightly
insignia. This second Shield is generally environed with decorative
foliage. This usage, prevalent in England, is not accepted or adopted by
foreign Heralds: nor does it appear to be required by true heraldic
principle, or to be strictly in accordance with it. The wife of a Knight
shares his knightly title, and takes precedence from her husband's
knightly rank; and a knight, with perfect heraldic consistency, might
marshal his own knightly insignia about the Shield which is charged with
his own arms and those of his wife, whether united by impalement, or
when the latter are borne in pretence: and thus a single Shield would be
borne, and there would cease to exist any motive for endeavouring to
impart to a second Shield some general resemblance to its companion by
wreaths or other unmeaning accessories. There are ancient precedents for
the use of a single shield.
_Official Arms_ are not hereditary.
_Royal Personages_, when married, bear their own arms on a separate
Shield; and a second Shield bears the arms of the husband and wife
conjoined.
The circumstances of every case must exercise a considerable influence
in determining the Marshalling of the Accessories of any Shield,
Lozenge, or Group. As a general rule, however, the _Helm_ always rests
on the chief of the Shield: Commoners, Knights, Baronets, and Peers
place their _Crest_ upon the Helm: Peers and Princes place their _Helm_
upon the Coronet, and their Crest is placed upon the Helmet. The
SOVEREIGN places the Crest upon the Royal Crown, which is a part of the
Royal Crest, and it is unusual to duplicate the Crown by repeating it
below the Helmet. The _Mantling_ is displayed from the back of the Helm:
it is most effective when simple in its form and adjustment, and when it
droops behind the Shield. The _Motto_ is usually placed below the
Shield; but if it has special reference to the Crest, above the Crest.
A Scottish motto always goes over the Crest. _Supporters_ are usually
placed erect, as if in the act of really supporting the Shield: they
ought to stand either on an appropriate ground, or on a Gothic basement
to the entire Achievement. _Badges_, with all _Official_ and _Knightly
Insignia_, and all other _Honourable Insignia_ of every kind, are
rightly marshalled in an Achievement of Arms.
CHAPTER XII
CADENCY
_Marks of Cadency are temporary or permanent-- The Label-- The
Bordure-- The Bendlet, Barrulet, and Canton-- Change of Tincture--
Secondary Charges-- Single Small Charges-- Differences of
Illegitimacy-- Cadency of Crests, Badges, &c.-- Modern Cadency._
"Merke ye wele theys questionys here, now folowying!"
--BOKE OF ST. ALBANS, A.D. 1486.
Amongst his comrades in arms, or in the midst of a hostile array, the
last object that a mediæval Knight would expect or desire to observe, on
the morning of a battle or a joust, would be an exact counterpart of
himself. Occasions, indeed, might sometimes arise, when it might be
highly desirable that five or six counterfeit "Richmonds" should
accompany one real one to "the field"; or, when a "wild boar of
Ardennes" might prefer to encounter the hunters, having about him the
choice of his own "boar's brood," garnished at all points exactly after
his own fashion. These, however, are rare and strictly exceptional
cases. And the Knight, to whom distinction was as the breath of his
nostrils, as he closed his vizor trusted confidently to his heraldic
insignia to distinguish him, while, in the fore-front of the fray, with
sword and lance and axe he would strive manfully to distinguish himself.
This implies that Heraldry, besides assigning to different families
their own distinct insignia, should possess the faculty of
distinguishing the several members, and also the various branches of the
same family, the one from the other. A faculty such as this Heraldry
does possess, in its marks of CADENCY.
In "_marking Cadency_"--that is, in distinguishing the armorial insignia
of kinsmen, who are members of the very same family, or of some one of
its various branches, it is a necessary condition of every system of
"Differencing" that, while in itself clear and definite and significant,
it should be secondary to the leading characteristics of the original
Coat of Arms which denotes the senior branch of the Family, and also
declares from what fountain-head all the kinsmen of all the branches
have derived their common descent.
Various methods for thus marking Cadency were adopted, and accepted as
satisfactory, in the early days of Heraldry. Of these I now shall
describe and illustrate such as are most emphatic in themselves, and in
their character most decidedly heraldic,--such also as most
advantageously may be retained in use in our own Heraldry of the present
time. It will be seen that the "Differences" which mark Cadency
necessarily resolve themselves into two groups or classes: one, in which
the "Difference" is _temporary_ only in its significance and use,--as,
when an eldest son, on the death of his father, succeeds to the position
in the family which his father had held, he removes his Mark of Cadency
as eldest son from his Shield, assumes the unmarked Shield as his father
had borne it before him, and transfers to his own son the mark that
previously had distinguished his Shield from that of his father. In the
other group, the Marks of Cadency are more _permanent_, and consequently
may become integral elements of the heraldic composition in which they
appear: thus, the mark of Cadency which distinguishes any particular
branch of a family, is borne alike by all the members of that branch,
and in that branch it is transmitted from generation to generation.
More than one Mark of Cadency may be introduced into the same Coat of
Arms; and, for the purpose of some form of secondary distinction, it is
quite correct Heraldry to _mark Marks of Cadency_--to charge one variety
of mark, that is, upon another.
[Illustration: No. 336.--Eldest Sons of Edward I. and II.]
[Illustration: No. 337.--Black Prince.]
The LABEL, Nos. 271, 272, is blazoned as a Mark of Cadency in the
earliest Rolls of Arms, and it appears discharging this duty in the
earliest examples. The Label is generally borne with three points, as in
No. 271; frequently with five, as in No. 272; and occasionally with four
or with more than five points. It is quite certain that no significance
was formerly attached to the number of the points, the object in all
cases being to make the Label distinctly visible, and to adjust the
points to the general composition of the Shield. Labels are of various
tinctures. EDWARD I., EDWARD II., and EDWARD III., each one during the
lifetime of his father, bore the Shield of England, No. 187, differenced
with an _azure label_, sometimes of three points, as in No. 336, and
sometimes having five points. EDWARD the BLACK PRINCE marked the Royal
Shield of EDWARD III. with a _label argent_, as in No. 337; and a plain
silver label has since been the Mark of Cadency of every succeeding
heir-apparent to the English throne. The Label has been used in this
manner by personages of all ranks who have borne arms, from the time of
HENRY III.; and examples abound in all the early Rolls of Arms, in
Monuments, and upon Seals.
The _Label_, borne as a Mark of Cadency, was sometimes, particularly in
the cases of junior members of the Royal Family, charged with other
figures and devices, as differences of a secondary rank. Or, when it is
thus charged, the charges upon a Label may be considered to be elements
of the Label itself, in its capacity of a Mark of Cadency. EDMOND, the
first Earl of LANCASTER, as I have already shown, No. 249, differenced
his father's Arms of England with a _Label of France_, No. 338--an azure
label, that is, charged with golden fleurs de lys, to denote his French
alliance; and thus by the same process he was Marshalling and Marking
Cadency. JOHN OF GHENT, Duke of LANCASTER, differenced with an _ermine
Label_, No. 339, derived from the ermine shield of Brittany (No. 15):
and the Plantagenet Dukes of YORK charged each point of their silver
Label with _three torteaux_, No. 340, which may be considered to have
been derived from the shield of Wake (No. 82). In order to show them on
a larger scale, the Labels in Nos. 338-343 are represented without the
Shields on which they were charged. All these Shields would be
repetitions of the same blazonry of France and England quarterly: Nos.
252 and 253.
[Illustration: No. 338.--Lancaster.]
[Illustration: No. 339.--Brittany.]
[Illustration: No. 340.--York.]
The Label, with various Differences, has generally been the Royal Mark
of Cadency; and now differenced silver Labels are borne, to mark
Cadency, by every member of our Royal Family.
[Illustration: No. 341.]
[Illustration: No. 342.]
[Illustration: No. 343.]
Like the points of Labels, the Charges blazoned on those points had no
fixed or determinate numbers. That both the Labels and their Charges
should be distinct and conspicuous, was the special object with which
they were blazoned. Accordingly, in different examples of the same Label
the number of the repetitions of the Charges sometimes is found to
differ. At the same time, in the earliest examples of charged Labels,
the repetitions of the Charges, while devoid of any special differencing
aim or meaning, may be considered to have been suggested by the sources
from which the Charges themselves were derived. For example: the Label
of Lancaster, No. 338, of Earl EDMOND, derived directly from the Shield
of _France ancient_, No. 247, with its field _semée de lys_, has three
fleurs de lys upon each point, so that this Label has the appearance of
being also _semée de lys_. Had it been derived from the Shield of
_France modern_, No. 248, charged with three fleurs de lys only,
a single fleur de lys in all probability would have been blazoned on
each of the three points of this same Label. Upon this principle the
Label of Prince LIONEL, DUKE of CLARENCE, second son of EDWARD III.,
which is differenced with _cantons gules_, has a single canton on each
point, as in No. 341, evidently because only a single canton can be
blazoned on a Shield. The figures and devices that are charged for
secondary difference upon Labels vary widely in their character; but,
however difficult it now may be in very many instances to trace these
differencing charges to their sources, and so to determine the motive
which led to their adoption, there can be no doubt that originally they
were chosen and adopted for the express purpose of denoting and
recording some alliance or dependency. Some early Labels are of a
compound character; that is, they are charged with two distinct groups
of devices, which are at once divided and conjoined by impalement. Such
a Label was borne by Prince HENRY, son of JOHN of GHENT, between the
time of his father's death and his own accession as HENRY IV. (Feb. 3 to
Sept. 30, 1399): it was a _Label of five points per pale of Brittany and
Lancaster_, No. 342, being his father's Label impaling that of his
mother's father. The second son of this Prince, THOMAS Duke of CLARENCE,
instead of adopting impalement, charged _a red canton upon each point of
an ermine Label_, as in No. 343: while his brother, JOHN Duke of
BEDFORD, bore their father's Label, No. 342.
[Illustration: No. 344.--Holland, of Kent.]
The BORDURE, both plain and charged, is a Mark of Cadency borne by
Princes and by personages of various ranks. EDMOND, youngest son of
EDWARD I., differenced _England_ with a plain _silver bordure_, as in
No. 344: the HOLLANDS, Earls of KENT, did the same: and the same silver
bordure also was borne by THOMAS, youngest son of EDWARD III., about the
quartered shield of _France ancient and England_; and about the
quartered shield of _France modern and England_ by HUMPHREY, youngest
son of HENRY IV. Prince JOHN of ELTHAM, as I have already shown, and
after him the HOLLANDS, Dukes of EXETER, differenced _England with a
Bordure of France_: No. 24. Though not so numerous as Labels, Bordures
employed to mark Cadency exist in very many early examples, and a
variety of devices appear charged upon them for secondary Difference.
See No. 140. In the Royal Heraldry of our own times the Bordure is not
used as a Royal Difference; but its use is retained in Scotland for
differencing Shields of less exalted rank.
In some few early Examples a BENDLET is charged upon the paternal shield
as a mark of Cadency: and a BARRULET is found to have been also used for
the same purpose. Thus, HENRY, second son of EDMOND the first Earl of
LANCASTER, during the lifetime of his elder brother, differenced
_England_ with an _azure Bendlet_, as in No. 345: and, in the Seal of
HENRY DE PERCY, son and heir of HENRY third Baron, the lion is
debruised, for Difference, by a Barrulet which crosses the Shield in the
honour-point. Possibly, this Barrulet may be a _Label without points_.
A CANTON, plain, or more frequently charged, and in many examples of
ermine, is also added to Shields to mark Cadency, but more frequently
nowadays its use denotes absence of blood descent. See Nos. 128, 129,
130.
[Illustration: No. 345.--Henry of Lancaster.]
To mark Cadency by a _change of Tinctures_ was a simple expedient, and
such a one as would naturally be practised at an early period. It was
effected, first, in the case of the _Field_: thus (H. 3) the brothers DE
LA ZOUCHE severally bear--_Gu., bezantée_, and, _Az., bezantée_; and the
brothers FURNIVAL (H. 3) bear--_Arg., a bend between six martlets gu._,
and, _Or, a bend between six martlets gu._ Secondly, the change is
effected in the _Charges_: thus, two William BARDOLFS (H. 3 and E. 2)
severally bear--_Az., three cinquefoils or_, and, _Az., three
cinquefoils arg._ Thirdly, the tinctures are _reversed_: for example,
for two Sir JOHN HARCOURTS (E. 2)--_Gu., two bars or_, and, _Or, two
bars gu._ Fourthly, there is a complete change in _all the tinctures_:
and so, while Sir ANDREW LOTEREL (E. 2) bears--_Or, a bend between six
martlets sa._, Sir GEFFREY LOTEREL (E. 2) bears--_Az., a bend between
six martlets argent_. Finally, this system of marking Cadency admits
various modifications of the changes already described: thus, in the
Arms of Mortimer, No. 131, _gules_ is substituted for _azure_; and,
again, in the same Shield an _inescutcheon ermine_ takes the place of
the _inescutcheon argent_.
[Illustration: No. 346.--Beauchamp of Elmely.]
[Illustration: No. 347.--Beauchamp at Carlaverock.]
Another and a favourite method of marking Cadency, calculated to
exercise a great and decided influence in the development of heraldic
blazon, is the _addition of secondary Charges_ of small size (not on a
Label or a Bordure but) semée over the field of a Shield, or charged
upon an Ordinary, or disposed in orle. In a large number of examples,
these small charges are found to have been gradually reduced to six or
three, in order to admit of their being blazoned on a somewhat larger
scale, and consequently made more distinct. Again: while the number and
the tinctures of the secondary differencing charges remain the same, in
order to carry out the Cadency still farther the secondary charges
themselves are varied: and, once more, in other cases the identity of
the original secondary charges is retained, but their number is
increased or diminished. I must be content to illustrate these various
forms of Cadency with a few examples only. First, a group of shields of
the BEAUCHAMPS:--Beauchamp of Elmely (H. 3)--_Gu., a fesse or_, No. 346:
Beauchamp at Carlaverock--_Gu., crusilée and a fesse or_, No. 347:
Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick--_Gu., a fesse between six crosses crosslets
or_, No. 348: and Beauchamp of Bletshoe--_Gu., a fesse between six
martlets or_, No. 349. Second, a corresponding group of shields of the
BERKELEYS:--Maurice de Barkele (or Berkeley)--_Gu., a chevron arg._
(H. 3): and then for other Berkeleys--_Gu., a chevron between ten
crosses pattées, six and four, arg._; and the same Ordinary, with either
_ten cinquefoils of silver_, or the same number of _white roses_. Three
CORBETS bear severally (E. 2)--_Or, a raven sa._; _Or, two ravens sa._;
and, _Or, three ravens sa._ And, once more, their original Shield--_Gu.,
a chevron or_, is differenced by the COBHAMS by charging the Ordinary
with three lioncels, three eaglets, three crosslets, three mullets,
three estoiles, three crescents, or three fleurs de lys, all of them
sable. The particular devices and figures selected thus to mark Cadency,
like those charged upon Labels or Bordures, must be considered to have a
special significance of their own, though this significance may
frequently fail to be discerned in consequence of our being no longer
able to trace out their association with the sources from which they
were obtained. The alliances and the incidents that give these various
Marks of Cadency, when it is possible to ascertain what they may have
been, illustrate in a striking manner the motives by which the early
Heralds were influenced when they differenced the Arms of Kinsmen.
[Illustration: No. 348.--Beauchamp of Warwick.]
[Illustration: No. 349.--Beauchamp of Bletshoe.]
_Official Insignia_ sometimes become Marks of Cadency. Thus, JOHN DE
GRANDISON, Bishop of Exeter (A.D. 1327-1369), on the bend in his
paternal arms, No. 89, substitutes a _golden mitre_ for the central
eaglet, as in No. 350. WILLIAM COURTENAY, Archbishop of Canterbury (A.D.
1381-1396), adopts a different course, and charges three golden mitres
upon each point of the Label of Courtenay--_Or, three torteaux, over all
a label of three points az. charged on each point with as many mitres
gold_. And again, HENRY LE DESPENCER, Bishop of Norwich (A.D.
1370-1406), places about his paternal shield an _azure bordure charged
with eight golden mitres_ (see the largest shield in No. 351). On his
official seal the canopied effigy of the Bishop stands between this, his
personal Shield, and the Shield of his see--_az., three mitres or_: but
his Secretum, or private seal, is much more interesting, as an heraldic
image of the man himself. Haughty, fierce, cruel, and pugnacious, his
career not less inglorious as a military commander than as a churchman,
this HENRY LE DESPENCER, a grandson of the unhappy favourite of the no
less hapless EDWARD II., was one of the war-loving prelates who
occasionally appear sustaining a strange, and yet as it would seem a
characteristic, part in the romantic drama of mediæval history. His
Secretum, No. 351, displays his Shield of _Despencer_, differenced with
his bordure of mitres, couché from a large mantled helm, surmounted by a
mitre, in place of a crest-coronet, which supports the Despencer crest,
a silver griffin's head of ample size; on either side are the Shields of
the _see of Norwich_, and of _Ferrers_ (the Bishop's mother was Anne,
daughter of WILLIAM Lord FERRERS of Groby)--_Or, seven mascles, three
three and one, gu._; the legend is, S . HENRICI . DESPENCER .
NORWICENSIS . EPISCOPI.
[Illustration: No. 350.--Bishop Grandison.]
[Illustration: No. 351.--Secretum of Bishop le Despencer.]
[Illustration: No. 352.--Sir Fulk Fitz Warin.]
[Illustration: No. 353.--Thomas le Scrope.]
[Illustration: No. 354.]
[Illustration: No. 355.]
At an early period, Cadency was marked by _adding a single small charge_
to the blazon of a Shield, or by charging some secondary device or
figure upon any accessory of a Shield of arms. Such a Mark of Cadency as
this, obtained from some allied Shield, and charged upon an ordinary or
principal bearing, or occupying a conspicuous position in the general
composition, was in high favour with the Heralds of both the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries. From the early examples, which exist in great
numbers and in as great variety, it will be sufficient for me to adduce
only a few specimens--a single example, indeed, illustrates the system.
The Shield of _Ufford_, in the Seal of MATILDA of LANCASTER, which I
have already described (No. 320), is thus differenced with a single
fleur de lys in the first quarter. Precisely in the same manner Sir FULK
FITZ WARIN differences the Shield of the head of his house, No. 17, by
charging a _mullet sable_ upon the first quarter, as in No. 352. THOMAS
LE SCROPE, on the other hand, for Cadency marks the golden bend upon his
azure Shield, No. 111, with an _annulet sable_, as in No. 353. Two
members of the family of Beauchamp charge their golden fesse (see Nos.
346-349), the one with a _crescent sable_, and the other with a _pierced
mullet_ of the same tincture: Nos. 354, 355. In like manner, in addition
to various labels, the NEVILLES charge no less than eight different
small figures upon their silver saltire, No. 121, to distinguish
different members and branches of their powerful race: I give one of
these Shields in No. 356, which was borne by GEORGE NEVILLE, Lord
LATIMER, from the monument to Earl RICHARD DE BEAUCHAMP at
Warwick--_Gu., on a saltire arg. a gimmel-ring az._: another differenced
shield of Neville, No. 357, has _a cinquefoil_ charged on the saltire:
a third example from this group I have already given, No. 122,
differenced with _a rose_: this shield, No. 122, is now borne by the
Earl of ABERGAVENNY. Once more: Sir WILLIAM DE BREWYS (E. 2)
bears--_Az., crusilée and a lion rampt. or_, No. 358, which coat another
Sir WILLIAM DE BREWYS differences, to distinguish himself from his
kinsman, while at the same time declaring their near relationship, by
simply charging a _red fleur de lys_ upon his lion's shoulder.
[Illustration: No. 356.--Lord Latimer.]
[Illustration: No. 357.--Neville.]
[Illustration: No. 358.--Sir William de Brewys.]
Differences of Illegitimacy, which rightly and indeed necessarily are
included under the general head of "Cadency," do not appear at any time
to have assumed a definite or decided character, and yet they bring
before the student of Heraldry much curious matter for inquiry and
investigation. Early in the true heraldic era illegitimate sons are
found to have differenced their paternal arms, as other sons lawfully
born might have done: and it does not appear that any peculiar methods
of differencing were adopted, palpably for the purpose of denoting
illegitimacy of birth, before the fourteenth century had drawn near to
its close. And even then, if any express heraldic rule on this point
ever was framed, which is very doubtful, it certainly was never observed
with any care or regularity.
The earliest known example of the arms of a man of illegitimate birth is
the fine Shield of WILLIAM LONGESPÉE, Earl of SALISBURY, son of
HENRY II. and FAIR ROSAMOND, No. 197. This Shield is supposed to have
been assumed and borne by the Earl on his marriage with the daughter and
heiress of D'EVREUX, when in right of his wife he succeeded to the
Earldom of Salisbury: but this theory does not rest upon any solid
foundation, since it would be very difficult to show that the Shield
with the six lioncels was certainly borne, on his armorial ensign, by
the father-in-law of Earl William. Also, if a Shield charged with an
escarbuncle and many lioncels, which has been assigned to GEOFFREY Count
of ANJOU, was really borne by the Founder of the House of PLANTAGENET,
Earl WILLIAM LONGESPÉE may have derived his own Shield from his paternal
grandfather. Upon his Counterseal the Earl displays his own "long sword"
as his proper device. In like manner, certain other personages, also
illegitimate, appear to have borne arms which were either expressly
assigned to themselves by the Sovereign, or such as they assumed in
right of their mothers or wives. In all such cases as these, the Arms
were not the paternal coat in any way differenced, but what now would be
designated "fresh grants." Towards the beginning of the fifteenth
century, however, a peculiar kind of Differencing for Illegitimacy
gradually prevailed throughout Europe: thus, illegitimate children
either altered the position of the charges in their paternal Shield; or
they marshalled the entire paternal arms upon a bend or a fesse; or they
composed for themselves a fresh Shield, either using their father's
badges and the actual charges of his Shield, or adopting devices
evidently derived from the paternal bearings; or they bore the paternal
Shield differenced in a peculiarly conspicuous manner with certain marks
by which they might be readily and certainly distinguished.
[Illustration: No. 359.--Henry, Earl of Worcester.]
When the composition of the paternal Shield would admit of such an
arrangement, the field not being argent, an illegitimate son sometimes
bore his father's arms marshalled fesse-wise, so as to leave both the
chief and the base of his Shield plain white. HENRY, Earl of WORCESTER,
whose father was an illegitimate son of HENRY BEAUFORT, third Duke of
SOMERSET, bore the arms of Beaufort couped in this manner in chief and
in base, as if they were charged upon a very broad fesse on the field:
No. 359.
[Illustration: No. 360.--Beaufort before 1397.]
[Illustration: No. 361.--Beaufort after 1397.]
JOHN DE BEAUFORT (great-grandfather of HENRY, Earl of WORCESTER), eldest
illegitimate son of Prince JOHN of GHENT, _before_ the Act for his
legitimation was passed in the year 1397, bore his father's hereditary
arms of _Lancaster_--_England with a label of France_, No. 249--_on a
broad bend_, the field being _per pale arg. and az._, the Lancastrian
livery colours: No. 360. After their legitimation act had become a law,
this same JOHN DE BEAUFORT, with his brothers, sons, and grandsons, bore
the Royal quartered shield of France and England, No. 361, differenced,
not with labels, but with _a bordure componée arg. and az._ (the
Lancastrian colours): the different members of the Beaufort family
slightly varied the bordure, but by the head of their house it was borne
as in No. 361. It will be seen that this is the coat that HENRY, Earl of
WORCESTER (himself the legitimate son of an illegitimate son), bore
fesse-wise, as in No. 359. The father of this Earl HENRY, CHARLES
SOMERSET, Earl of WORCESTER (illegitimate son of the third Duke of
SOMERSET), differenced _Beaufort_, No. 361, with a _silver bendlet
sinister_, as in No. 362, the bendlet covering the quarterings, but
being included within the bordure.
[Illustration: No. 362.--Charles, Earl of Worcester.]
[Illustration: No. 363.--Sir Roger de Clarendon.]
[Illustration: No. 364.--Radolphus de Arundel.]
Since the fifteenth century, in English Heraldry, a narrow bendlet or
baton sinister, couped at its extremities, either plain or charged, has
usually been the mark employed as difference by the illegitimate
descendants of the Royal Family. It was borne by ARTHUR PLANTAGENET,
Viscount LISLE, son of EDWARD IV.: by HENRY FITZ ROY, Duke of RICHMOND,
son of HENRY VIII., and, variously differenced, by illegitimate
descendants of CHARLES II.--that is, it is borne at the present day,
_argent_, by the Duke of BUCCLEUCH; _ermine_, by the Duke of CLEVELAND;
_componée arg. and az._, by the Duke of GRAFTON; and, _gules charged
with three white roses_, by the Duke of ST. ALBANS.
Sir ROGER DE CLARENDON, illegitimate son of the BLACK PRINCE, bore _on a
sable bend the three Ostrich Feathers_ of his illustrious father's
"_Shield of Peace_," the field of his Shield being golden, as in No.
363. Here the "Difference for Illegitimacy" is very emphatically marked
in a singularly felicitous and beautiful Shield.
The paternal arms of illegitimate children have also sometimes been
carried by them charged on a _canton_, either dexter or sinister, the
rest of the Shield being left blank, or perhaps in some cases displaying
the maternal arms; of this usage I am not able to give any good example,
in English Heraldry, of certain authority: one other variety of these
singular Shields, however, I must add to my small group of examples,
which was first noticed by Mr. MONTAGU ("Guide to the Study of
Heraldry," p. 44). This is the Shield, No. 364, of RADOLPHUS DE ARUNDEL;
and it bears the quartered arms of the Earls of ARUNDEL--_Fitz Alan_ and
_Warrenne_ (_gu. a lion rampt. or_, and No. 68), "_flanched_,"--that is,
blazoned only upon the flanches (see No. 141) of the Shield, the central
area being blank.
For a lengthy period the use of the _bend_, _bendlet_, and _baton
sinister_ was usual for the purpose of denoting illegitimacy, but this
has now given way to the use, in England, of a _bordure wavy_; in
Scotland, of a _bordure compony_; whilst in Ireland both these
_bordures_ are used, more usually, however, the _bordure wavy_ being
employed. By a curious divergence the _bordure wavy_ is not a mark of
illegitimacy in Scotland, but a mark of perfectly legitimate cadency.
The use of the _bendlet sinister_ for the debruising of crests still
exists in England and Ireland, but crests are not usually differenced
for any reason in Scotland.
In treating of this subject, some writers have maintained that the
_bordure componée_ is, in its heraldic nature, the most decided and
unquestionable Difference for Illegitimacy: and this opinion these
writers have derived from the singularly contradictory fact, that the
BEAUFORTS differenced with a bordure componée when they became legally
_legitimate_. A bordure componée _may_, indeed, be used with such an
intention, as it is used by the Duke of RICHMOND, who bears the arms of
CHARLES II. within a _bordure componée arg. and gu., charged with eight
roses of the last_; but by the BEAUFORTS it was used with an intention
exactly the reverse of this. The bordure, however, whatever its aspect
or modification of treatment, remains still, as it was of old, an
honourable Difference, until some abatement of honour has been
associated with its presence under special circumstances. But the
stereotyped use of the _bordure wavy_ in England with a set meaning,
gives to the wavy variety a lack of desirability. Marks of illegitimacy
are intended to remain upon a shield for all time, although in a few
historic cases their use has been discarded. And precisely the same
words may be applied to any other charge that has been employed, or may
be required to mark Cadency.
Marks of Cadency, as they are borne on Shields of Arms, may also be
charged on Badges, Crests, and Supporters. As a matter of course, they
appear on Armorial Banners and Standards under the same conditions that
they are blazoned upon Shields and Surcoats. Such examples as may be
necessary to illustrate heraldic usage in these cases, I propose to
describe in the following Chapters.
It cannot be necessary for me to adduce any arguments in order to
impress upon Students of Heraldry the importance of investigating early
Cadency, or to assure them that a special interest is inseparable from
this inquiry: I may suggest, however, that it is most desirable that
Students should arrange groups of allied Shields, and should carefully
blazon them with their various "Marks of Cadency," being careful also to
record their authorities for every example.
MODERN CADENCY is marked by the Label and by single small Charges, which
take precedence in the following order:--
1. The _Label_, No. 271.
2. The _Crescent_, No. 166, A.
3. The _Mullet_, No. 278.
4. The _Martlet_, No. 161.
5. The _Annulet_, No. 154.
6. The _Fleur de lys_, No. 246.
7. The _Rose_, No. 298.
8. The _Cross Moline_, No. 99.
9. The _Octofoil_, or _Double Quatrefoil_.
When they are adopted, Marks of Cadency now are generally placed upon
the Honour Point of the Shield, or in some other conspicuous position:
one of these Marks also may be charged upon another, if desired,--as a
Martlet may be charged upon a Crescent to denote the fourth son of a
second son; and so in other cases.
[Illustration: No. 365.--Seal of William Fraser:
appended to Homage Deed, A.D. 1295, preserved in H.M. Record Office.]
The Seal of WILLIAM FRASER, No. 365, from Mr. Laing's Collection,
exemplifies in a singular and interesting manner the early use of a
differenced Label. Here the Label appears, without any Shield, borne as
if it were a Badge: and it is charged, on each of its three points, with
two devices that have the appearance of mullets of six points, but which
really may be _fraises_--strawberry-leaves, the rebus-device of Fraser.
(See pp. 182-185.)
CHAPTER XIII
DIFFERENCING
_Differencing to denote Feudal Alliance or Dependency: Differencing
without any Alliance-- Augmentation-- Abatement._
"Differencing, which comprises in truth the growth and ramification
of Coat-Armour, and the whole system of its early development, has
been strangely lost sight of in the numerous treatises on Armory
that have satisfied recent generations of Englishmen."
--HERALD AND GENEALOGIST, II. 32.
DIFFERENCING, using the term here as distinct from, or perhaps as not
identical with, the subject of CADENCY, includes not only the treatment
of Coats of Arms and other armorial insignia, that denote and are based
upon _Feudal Alliance_ or _Dependency_, but without blood-relationship;
but also implies a comprehensive system of distinguishing similar Arms,
when they are borne by individuals or families between whom no kind of
alliance is known to have existed. It is evident, on the one hand, that
a feudal influence would naturally lead to some degree of assimilation
to the Coat-Armour of the feudal Chief, in the Arms of all allies and
dependants: and, on the other hand, it will readily be understood that,
even in the early days of its career, Heraldry would see the necessity
for providing for the constantly increasing demands upon its resources;
and, consequently, that it would organise a system which would enable
the same Ordinaries and the same principal Charges to appear in distinct
Shields, without either confusion or misapprehension.
It is highly probable, and indeed it may be assumed to be certain, that
what I have called a "feudal influence," in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries in no slight degree affected the general
composition of Coats of Arms. In very many instances the working of this
influence is still palpable; and it is always interesting to the student
of Heraldry, as it must always be eminently useful to the student of
History, to detect its presence and to explore its method of action.
Like Cadency, feudal Differencing is expressed by various means, all of
them indicating, in a greater or a less degree, the motive which
suggested their adoption. I proceed at once to examples, which
illustrate and explain the system so clearly and so fully, that
prolonged introductory remarks are altogether superfluous.
Upon his Seal, RANULPH DE BLONDEVILLE, Earl of CHESTER (died in 1232)
bears three garbs or wheat-sheaves; and Rolls of Arms of the time of
HENRY III. blazon the Shield of the Earl of CHESTER as--_Az., three
garbs or_, No. 366. This Shield has been assigned to the Earls of
CHESTER to this day: and, in token of feudal alliance, from the middle
of the thirteenth century, "one or more garbs," in the words of Mr.
PLANCHÉ, "are seen in the majority of Coats belonging to the nobility
and gentry of the County Palatine of Chester." Thus, since the year
1390, the arms of GROSVENOR have been--_Az., a garb or_.
[Illustration: No. 366.--Earl of Chester.]
A cinquefoil, said to have been borne by him on a red Shield, was the
device of ROBERT FITZ-PERNEL, Earl of LEICESTER, who died in 1204.
Accordingly, the cinquefoil, derived from him, as early as the
thirteenth century, appears in token of feudal connection on the Shields
of many families of Leicestershire. As I have already shown, (page 183)
a BERKELEY, who was of Leicestershire, substituted _ten cinquefoils_ for
the ten crosses patée of the Berkeley Shield; and thus he combined
feudal Differencing with Cadency.
[Illustration: No. 367.--Fitz Ralph.]
Many a red chevron or chevronel, with other devices, charged upon a
golden field, or a gold chevron on a red field, is a sign of feudal
alliance with the great house of DE CLARE, whose Shield was--_Or, three
chevronels gu._, No. 124. For example, the FITZ-RALPHS, near neighbours
of the De Clares at Clare in Suffolk, differenced the Shield of the
Earls by charging _silver fleurs de lys_ on each chevronel, as in No.
367 (E. 2); and, for secondary difference, they sometimes added a
_bordure azure_, as in the fine early Brass at Pebmarsh, near Clare.
Again: by a change of tinctures, without affecting the charges of the
Shield, the Arms of L'ERCEDECKNE (now Archdeacon) are--_Arg., three
chevronels sa._
At Carlaverock, EDMUND DE HASTINGS, brother of the Earl, bore--_Or,
a maunche gu., with a label of five points sa._, the Earl himself
bearing simply--_Or, a maunche gu._, No. 276. And, close by the side of
EDMOND DE HASTINGS was his friend and companion, the feudal ally,
without doubt, of his house, JOHN PAIGNEL, a very proper comrade, as the
chronicler testifies--
"Un bacheler jolif et comté,"
who differenced Hastings by change of tinctures, and bore--_Vert,
a maunche or_.
The Shield of the noble house of DE LUTERELL, or LOTEREL, I have
blazoned with changed tinctures for two near kinsmen bearing that name
(page 182), thus showing in what manner they marked their Cadency. This
same shield, No. 368--_Or, a bend between six martlets sa._, was also
differenced by other families to mark their feudal alliance with the
house of Luterell. Thus, the DE FURNIVALS, themselves a powerful and
distinguished family, who held their lands by feudal tenure under the
Luterells, in token of this alliance bore the Shield of De Luterell with
a fresh change of tinctures; and, accordingly, the arms of the De
Furnivals are well known as--_Arg., a bend between six martlets gu._
Then, while the FURNIVALS, for Cadency, differenced these arms amongst
themselves, _their_ feudal allies and dependants, the ECCLESALLS or
EKELESHALES, the MOUNTENEYS, the WADESLES or WADSLEYS, and the WORTELES
or WORTLEYS, all united in declaring their connection with their chief
by assuming arms founded upon the Furnival Coat. These very interesting
and characteristic examples of feudal Differencing are well blazoned, as
follows, in the Roll of EDWARD II. For DE ECCLESALL--_Sa., a bend
between six martlets or_: for DE MOUNTENEY--_Gu., a bend between six
martlets or_: for DE WADSLEY--_Arg., on a bend between six martlets gu.,
three escallops or_, No. 369: and for DE WORTLEY--_Arg., on a bend
between six martlets gu., three bezants_, No. 370.
[Illustration: No. 368.--De Luterell.]
[Illustration: No. 369.--De Wadsley.]
The MOUNTENEYS further difference their common arms, for Cadency, after
this manner. Instead of _gules_, Sir ERNAUF DE MOUNTENEY has the field
of his shield _azure_, his bend and martlets being _golden_: Sir JOHN
bears these same arms, but charges his bend with a _mullet gules_, No.
371: Sir T. DE MOUNTENEY bears Sir John's arms, but with _a field
gules_: and another Sir JOHN cotises his bend thus--_Gu., a bend cotised
between six martlets or_, No. 372.
North of the Tweed, also, the same principle is found to be exemplified
in Scottish Heraldry. "In Annandale," writes Mr. SETON, "the chief and
saltire of the Bruces are carried (of different tinctures and with
additional figures) by the Jardines, Kirkpatricks, Johnstons, and other
families." The arms of BRUCE are--_Or, a saltire and a chief gu._, No.
73: those of JARDINE are--_Arg., a saltire and a chief gu., the latter
charged with three mullets of the field, pierced of the second_: and the
arms of KIRKPATRICK are--_Arg., a saltire and chief az., the latter
charged with three cushions or_. This coat of Kirkpatrick is also borne
by the JOHNSTONS, the tinctures differenced thus--_Arg., a saltire sa.,
and on a chief gu. three cushions or_.
[Illustration: No. 370.--De Wortley.]
[Illustration: No. 371.--Sir John de Mounteney.]
[Illustration: No. 372.--Sir John de Mounteney.]
Once more, returning to the southern side of the Scottish border, of
RICHARD DE NEVILLE, the renowned "King-maker," we find it to be recorded
that, so great was his popularity at Calais, of which city he was
governor, that his Badges were universally adopted,--"no man esteeming
himself gallant whose head was not adorned with his _silver ragged
staff_ (No. 294); nor was any door frequented, that had not his _white
cross_ (silver saltire, No. 121) painted thereon." This was an
extravagant application of the earlier usage in denoting feudal
alliance, such as was in keeping with the heraldic sentiment of the
second half of the fourteenth century. Those good citizens of Calais,
however, who were Neville-worshippers four hundred years ago, were not
singular in exhibiting an armorial ensign at the entrance to their
houses. Numerous, indeed, are the doorways in various parts of England,
and particularly in the counties of Surrey, Sussex, and Norfolk, which
in the "sign of the chequers" still display the insignia (_chequée or
and az._, No. 68) of the once mighty Earls of WARRENNE and SURREY; and
thus show that relics of the old feudal influence are endowed with a
tenacious vitality, which prolongs their existence for ages after the
feudal system itself has passed away. But no doubt some cases must be
referred to the less romantic explanation of the reckoning board of the
Steward.
Differencing adopted, so far as now is apparent, _simply for the sake of
distinction_, lays open before the student of Heraldry a wide and a
diversified field of inquiry. All the miscellaneous charges that are
associated in blazon with the Ordinaries, and also with the
Subordinaries, thus are brought under consideration; and, without a
doubt, it was for the express purpose of Differencing that many of these
charges were introduced into English Heraldry. How far some remote
degree of relationship, or some subordinate feudal motive now lost to
sight and forgotten, may originally have affected the choice of Charges
"for difference," it is not possible now to determine; nor can we always
follow the rebus-loving search for a "Difference," that might speak
through that allusive quality which is a primary element of the Herald's
science. We do know that the act of bearing the same arms by different
families, without some heraldic Difference, was of very rare occurrence;
and that, when it did occur, it was regarded with marked surprise, and
on more than one occasion led to a memorable controversy: and, further,
we find great numbers of early differenced Shields, which illustrate in
a very effective manner the growth and development of English Heraldry.
Shields of this order have strong claims on our attention. The examples
that I am able here to place before students are to be regarded simply
as specimens, few in number, and yet sufficient to show some of the
varied forms under which early Differencing was effected.
The proceedings in the High Court of Chivalry in the suit between Sir
RICHARD LE SCROPE and Sir ROBERT GROSVENOR, relative to the right to the
Arms--_Azure, a bend or_, No. 111--commenced on the 17th of August 1385,
and the final judgment of the King himself upon the appeal of the
defendant against the finding of the Court was not pronounced till the
27th of May 1390. On the 15th of May 1389 the judgment of the Court
assigned the arms--_Azure, a bend or_--to Sir RICHARD LE SCROPE; and to
Sir ROBERT GROSVENOR, these arms--_Az., a bend or, within a plain
bordure argent_. Thus the Court confirmed to Sir Richard le Scrope the
right to bear the Ordinary in its severe simplicity, without any other
charge and without any Difference: and, at the same time, it was decided
that these arms of Scrope should be differenced, in order that they
might become the arms of Grosvenor, and the "Difference" was to be a
_plain silver bordure_. The whole of the proceedings in this remarkable
case are preserved, and have been published; and they derive a peculiar
interest from the circumstance, that amongst the witnesses who gave
evidence was the father of English Poetry, GEOFFREY CHAUCER. Appeal
having been made to the Sovereign, RICHARD II. determined that a "plain
bordure argent" was a Mark of Cadency, good and right, and perfectly
sufficient as a Difference "between Cousin and Cousin in blood"; but
that it was "not a sufficient Difference in Arms between two strangers
in blood in one kingdom." The King, therefore, cancelled and annulled
the sentence of the Court of Chivalry; and in so doing he gave a very
clear definition of the distinction to be observed in Heraldry between
kinsmen and strangers in blood. Then it was that the Shield, _Azure,
a garb or_, was adopted as the arms of Grosvenor. We may assume, that
the judgment of the Court would have been confirmed by the King, had Sir
Robert Grosvenor been commanded to blazon his golden bend between two
garbs, or charged with one or more garbs, or with three garbs on a
chief, or with any other decided Difference which would be palpably
distinct from a Mark of Cadency.
The examples of Differenced Shields which follow I have selected from
the Roll of EDWARD II. It will be seen that in each small group of these
examples some primary feature of the composition is common to every
Shield, so that the distinction between the Shields in each group is
effected either by a simple change of tinctures, or by the introduction
of various secondary charges.
CHIEFS.--Sir JOHN DE ARDERNE--_Gu., crusilée and a chief or_. Sir THOMAS
LE ROUS--_Erm., on a chief indented gu. two escallops arg._ Sir JOHN DE
CLINTONE--_Arg., on a chief az. two fleurs de lys or_, No. 74. Sir JOHN
DE CLINTONE, of Maxtoke--_Arg., on a chief az. two mullets or_, No. 75:
here the Difference denotes Cadency as well as a distinct individuality.
BENDS.--Sir ROBERT POUTREL.--_Or, on a bend az. three fleurs de lys
arg._ Sir WALTER DE BERMYNGHAM--_Arg., on a bend gu., cotised az., three
esallops or_. OLIVER DE BOHUN--_Az., on a bend, cotised and between six
lioncels or, three escallops gu._, No. 321.
FESSES AND BARS.--Sir JOHN DE DAGEWORTH--_Erm., a fesse gu. bezantée_,
No. 80. Sir G. DE WACHESHAM--_Arg., a fesse and in chief three crescents
gu._ Sir R. DE COLEVILLE--_Or, a fesse gu., and in chief three
torteaux_. Sir J. DE GEYTONE--_Arg., a fesse between six fleurs de lys
gu._ Sir G. DE OUSFLET--_Arg., on a fesse az. three fleurs de lys or_.
Sir R. DE LOMELYE (Lumley)--_Gu., on a fesse between three popinjays
arg., as many mullets sa._ Sir B. BADLESMERE--_Arg., a fesse between
bars gemelles gu._ Sir G. DE LA MERE--_Or, a fesse between bars gemelles
az._, No. 84. Sir J. DE PREIERES--_Gu., a fesse between bars gemelles
arg._ Sir J. WAKE--_Or, two bars gu., in chief three torteaux_, No. 82.
Sir B. PYCOT--_Az., two bars or, in chief three bezants_. Sir R. DE
WEDONE--_Arg., two bars gu., in chief three martlets sa._ Sir R.
BORDET--_Az., two bars or, on the uppermost three martlets gu._ Sir R.
DE ROYINGE--_Arg., three bars and an orle of martlets gu._ Sir N. DE
ESTOTEVILLE--_Barry arg. and gu., three lioncels sa._ Sir R. DE
YNGELFELD--_Barrulée arg. and gu., on a chief or a lion pass. az._ Sir
W. DE MONECASTRE--_Barrulée arg. and gu., on a bend sa. three escallops
or_. Sir T. DE PONINGE--_Barry or and vert, on a bend gu. three mullets
arg._
CROSSES.--Sir N. DE WEYLANDE--_Arg., on a cross gu. five escallops or_.
Sir R. BYGOD--_Or, on a cross gu. five escallops arg._ Sir WM.
KIRKETOT--_Az., on a cross arg. five escallops gu._ Sir WM. DE
BERHAM--_Sa., a cross between four crescents arg._ Sir R. DE
BANNEBURY--_Arg., a cross patée between four mullets gu._ Sir J.
RANDOLF--_Gu., on a cross arg. five mullets sa._ Sir G. DE DUREM--_Arg.,
on a cross gu. five fleurs de lys or_. Sir P. DE GEYTONE--_Arg.,
crusilée and three fleurs de lys az._ Sir R. DE HOFTOT--_Az., a cross
patée erm. between four roses erm._
CHEVRONS.--Sir G. ROSSEL--_Or, a chevron az., between three roses gu._
Sir J. DE CRETINGE--_Arg., a chevron between three mullets gu._ Sir R.
MALET--_Sa., a chevron between three buckles arg._ Sir T. DE
ANVERS--_Gu., a chevron between three mullets or_. Sir WM. DE
BERKEROLES--_Az., a chevron between three crescents or_. Sir W.
BLUET--_Or, a chevron between three eagles vert_. Sir R. DE
CAPLE--_Arg., a chevron gu. between three torteaux_. Sir T. MALET--_Sa.,
a chevron between three buckles arg._ Sir R. DE PEYVRE--_Arg., on a
chevron az. three fleurs de lys or_, No. 125. Sir R. DE
BOTERELS--_Chequée or and gu., on a chevron az. three horseshoes arg._
[Illustration: No. 373.--At St. Albans.]
LIONS.--The Earl of LINCOLN--_Or, a lion rampt. purp._, No. 194. The
Earl of ARUNDEL--_Gu., a lion rampt. or_. Sir HENRY DE PERCY--_Or,
a lion rampt. az._, No. 196. Sir JOHN MOWBRAY--_Gu., a lion rampt.
arg._, No. 193. Sir R. DE SOTTONE (Sutton)--_Or, a lion rampt. vert_.
Sir J. DE NORTONE--_Vert, a lion rampt. or_. Sir W. FAUCONBERG--_Arg.,
a lion rampt. az._ Sir G. DE HAUTVILLE--_Sa., crusilée, a lion rampt.
arg._ Sir ---- DE MOUNTFORT--_Arg., crusilée gu., a lion rampt. az._ Sir
WM. MAUFEE--_Arg., semée of escallops gu., a lion rampt. sa._ Sir J. DE
CREPPINGE--_Gu., billetée or, a lion rampt. arg._ Sir R. DE
ASSCHEBY--_Arg., a lion rampt. sa. billetée or_. Sir J. DE
DEYVILLE--_Gu., semée de lys, a lion rampt. arg._ _Arg., within a
bordure gu. bezantée, a lion rampt. sa._, for Sir T. DE PICKERING; and,
_Arg., within an orle of roses gu., a lion rampt. sa._, for Sir R.
PIERPOUND, both apparently founded on the shield of the Earl of
CORNWALL, No. 140, which also is blazoned in this Roll. Sir J. LE
STRANGE--_Gu., two lions pass. arg._, No. 191. Sir J. DE SOMERI--_Or,
two lions pass. az._ Sir R. DE ST. WALY--_Or, two lions pass. gu._ Sir
N. CARRU (Carew)--_Or, three lions pass. sa._ Sir J. GIFFARD--_Gu.,
three lions pass. arg._, No. 192. Sir R. LE FITZ PAYN--_Gu., three lions
pass. arg., over all a bendlet az._ Sir G. DE CANVYLE--_Az., three lions
pass arg._ In the beautiful chantry of Abbot THOMAS RAMRYGE, at St.
Albans, one of the large sculptured Shields is charged with a lion
rampant within what may be considered to be an _orle of roses_--the
arms, as I have just shown, assigned in the Roll of EDWARD II. to Sir R.
PIERPOUND. This Shield, carefully drawn by the engraver himself from the
original in the Abbey Church of St. Alban, is represented in No. 373.
AUGMENTATION, or AUGMENTATION OF HONOUR, is a term employed to denote an
addition to a Shield of arms, specially granted by the Sovereign to
commemorate some worthy or illustrious deed, and forming an integral
element of the Shield as an hereditary bearing. Such additions will be
found marshalled in the forms of Chiefs and Inescutcheons as Cantons, or
as Quarterings; or they may assume the character of additional charges.
Also, this same term denotes similar additions of Crests, Badges, or any
other accessories of Shields.
The Augmentation displayed upon the Ducal Shield of WELLINGTON, a most
honourable exception to the prevailing degenerate heraldic feeling of
the period in which it was granted to the Great Duke, in characteristic
and expressive qualities is second to no other example of its own class
and order. This true Augmentation of Honour is the _National Device of
the British Empire_, as it is blazoned in the "Union Jack," charged upon
an inescutcheon, and displayed upon the honour point of the Duke's
paternal Shield.
An equally significant Augmentation of an earlier date is borne in the
Arms of HOWARD. These Arms before the battle of Flodden were--_Gu.,
a bend between six crosses crosslets fitchée arg._ To commemorate the
great victory won by him at Flodden Field, Sept. 9, 1513, when JAMES IV.
of Scotland was defeated and slain, HENRY VIII. granted to THOMAS
HOWARD, Duke of Norfolk, and to his descendants, as an Augmentation of
Honour, the _Royal Shield of Scotland_ (No. 138), _but having a
demi-lion only, which is pierced through the mouth with an arrow_, to be
borne in the middle of the bend of his proper arms. This Shield is
represented in No. 374; and in No. 374A the augmentation is shown on a
larger scale.
[Illustration: No. 374.--Howard, after Flodden.]
[Illustration: No. 374A.--The Howard Augmentation.]
A small group of additional examples will be sufficient to illustrate
this most interesting class of historical Arms, and at the same time
will not fail to excite in students a desire very considerably to extend
the series through their own inquiries and researches. In memory of the
devoted courage and all-important services of JANE LANE, after the
disastrous battle of Worcester, CHARLES II. granted as an Augmentation a
_Canton of England_ (No. 187 marshalled on a canton), to be added to the
hereditary Coat of Lane, which is--_Per fesse or and az., a chevron gu.
between three mullets counterchanged_. The Crest of the family of DE LA
BERE is said to have been conferred by the BLACK PRINCE upon SIR RICHARD
DE LA BERE, as a memorial of the good service rendered by that gallant
knight on the memorable field of Cressi. This Crest is--_Out of a
crest-coronet a plume of five ostrich feathers per pale arg. and az._,
the Plantagenet colours--the device (as Mr. LOWER observes) being
evidently derived from the Prince's own Badge, and also forming a
variety of the "panache," the Crest then held in such high estimation.
The heart charged upon the shield of DOUGLAS (see Nos. 156, 157, p. 74)
is another remarkable Augmentation. So also is the adoption of the
armorial insignia of the CONFESSOR, No. 2, by RICHARD II., and his
marshalling it upon his own Royal Shield, impaled to the dexter with the
quartered arms of France and England.
English Heraldry has been required to recognise another and a perfectly
distinct class of "Augmentations," which consist of additions to the
blazonry of a Shield or of additional quarterings or accessories,
granted as tokens of Royal favour, for heraldic display, but without any
particular "merit" in the receiver, or any special historical
significance in themselves. Augmentations of this order may be
considered to have been first introduced by RICHARD II., when he
granted, "out of his mere grace," to his favourite ROBERT DE VERE, Earl
of OXFORD, Marquess of DUBLIN and Duke of IRELAND, a differenced Coat of
ST. EDMUND (No. 3)--_Az., three crowns or, within a bordure argent_, to
be quartered with the DE VERE arms as the arms of IRELAND. In the same
spirit, RICHARD II. granted, as similar Augmentations, the arms of the
CONFESSOR to be marshalled, with Differences, on their Shields by THOMAS
and JOHN HOLLAND, Dukes of SURREY and EXETER, and by THOMAS MOWBRAY,
Duke of NORFOLK. It will be remembered that it was one of the capital
charges against the then Earl of SURREY, a lineal descendant of this
THOMAS MOWBRAY, the Duke of NORFOLK, in 1546, that he had assumed,
without the special licence of HENRY VIII., the same arms of the
CONFESSOR as an augmentation.
By EDWARD IV. similar augmentations, "by grace" and not "for merit,"
were granted; and by HENRY VIII. the system was carried to excess in the
grants made to augment the armorial blazonry of ANNE BOLEYN, and of his
English consorts, her successors.
ABATEMENT is a term which was unknown until it made its appearance in
certain heraldic writings of the sixteenth century, when it was used to
denote such marks or devices as, by the writers in question, were held
to be the reverse of honourable Augmentation--_Augmentations of
dishonour_ indeed, and tokens of degradation. True Heraldry refuses to
recognise all such pretended abatements, for the simple reason that they
never did exist, and if they could exist at all, they would be in direct
antagonism to its nature, its principles, and its entire course of
action. Honourable itself, Heraldry can give expression only to what
conveys honour, and it records and commemorates only what is to be
honoured and held in esteem.
The very idea of an heraldic Abatement implies, if not a complete
ignorance, certainly a thorough misconception of the character and the
office of Heraldry. Even if Heraldry were to attempt to stigmatise what
is, and what ought to be esteemed, dishonourable, who would voluntarily
accept insignia of disgrace, and charge and display them upon his
Shield, and transmit them to his descendants? And the believers in
Abatement must hold that Heraldry can exert a compulsory legislative
power, which might command a man to blazon his own disgrace, and force
him to exhibit and to retain, and also to bequeath, any such blazonry.
A belief in heraldic Abatement, however, is by no means singular or
rare. A curious example of its existence was recently brought under my
notice, in connection with one of the most renowned of the historical
devices of English Heraldry. The _bear_, the badge of the BEAUCHAMPS,
Earls of WARWICK, which appears at the feet of the effigy of Earl
RICHARD in the Beauchamp chapel at Warwick, in accordance with a special
provision to that effect, is "_muzzled_"; and, wearing a muzzle has this
bear been borne, as their Badge, by the successors of the BEAUCHAMPS in
the Warwick Earldom, the Earls of the houses of NEVILLE, DUDLEY, RICH,
and GREVILLE. But, it would seem that a legend has found credence at
Warwick Castle itself, which would associate the muzzle of the bear with
some dishonourable action of an Earl of the olden time; and,
consequently, it was proposed that at length this Abatement should be
removed from the bears still at Warwick! Earl RICHARD DE BEAUCHAMP was
not exactly the man to have displayed upon _his_ bear any ensign of
dishonour; nor were his son-in-law, the "King-maker," and Queen
ELIZABETH'S ROBERT DUDLEY, at all more probable subjects for any similar
display; still, it is quite certain that they bore the muzzled bear, as
he appears on the seal of the great Earl, No. 448.[7] That muzzle,
doubtless, has its becoming heraldic significance, without in the
slightest degree partaking in the assumed character of an Abatement.
I hope eventually to be able to trace out conclusively what the muzzle
may really imply, and I commend the research to other inquirers:
meanwhile, neither at Warwick nor elsewhere is there any such thing as
"Abatement" in English Heraldry.
[Footnote 7: See Frontispiece.]
CHAPTER XIV
CRESTS
"On high their glittering crests they toss." --LORD OF THE ISLES.
"Then he bound
Her token on his helmet." --ELAINE.
The idea of a CREST, of some accessory specially designed to form its
crowning adornment, appears inseparable from the existence and use of a
Helm. The Warriors and Warrior Divinities of classic antiquity are
represented to us, wearing head-pieces richly crested: and, in the
Middle Ages, had no other Heraldry ever been devised, assuredly
ornaments of some kind would have been placed on helms and basinets, and
these insignia would have been held in high esteem and honour.
Accordingly, about the time that Coat-Armour became hereditary, having
been reduced to a system and accepted as an independent science,
heraldic Crests began to be worn as honourable distinctions of the most
exalted dignity by the mediæval chivalry.
[Illustration: No. 375.--Richard I.]
[Illustration: No. 376.--Henry de Perci.]
[Illustration: No. 377.--Henry de Laci.]
[Illustration: No. 378.--Seal of Alexander de Balliol, A.D. 1292.]
Upon the Second Great Seal of RICHARD I. the cylindrical helm of the
King appears surmounted by a kind of cap or fan charged with a lion
passant, the whole being arched over by a radiated ornament somewhat
resembling a displayed fan, as in No. 375. Similar Crests, somewhat
modified in their details, are represented in other seals of the same
era, and with them the flowing Contoise or Scarf is sometimes
associated, as in No. 376, from the seal of Baron HENRY DE PERCI, A.D.
1300. Similar ornaments were also placed by the knights of those ages
upon the heads of their chargers. The seal of HENRY DE LACI, Earl of
LINCOLN, A.D. 1272, shows the Fan-Crest both upon the helm of the Earl,
No. 377, and the head of his war-horse. Another equally characteristic
example is the Seal of ALEXANDER DE BALLIOL, No. 378, appended to the
"General Release" given by JOHN BALLIOL to EDWARD I., 2nd January, 1292:
it will be observed that this knight displays the arms of his house, No.
134, upon his Shield, and also, in addition to the Fan-Crest, upon the
barding of his charger. Again I am indebted to the kindness and
liberality of Mr. Laing for the use of his admirable woodcut of this
fine and interesting seal.
[Illustration: No. 379.--Helm of Thomas, second Earl of Lancaster.]
The flowing Contoise continued to be attached to helms till about the
middle of the fourteenth century; unless, indeed, some veritable "lady's
favour" were worn in its stead by knights favoured as was Sir LAUNCELOT,
who, on a memorable day,--
"Wore, against his wont, upon his helm
A sleeve of scarlet, broidered with great pearls,
Some gentle maiden's gift."
[Illustration: No. 380.--Helm and Crest of Sir Geoffrey Luterell:
A.D. 1345.]
[Illustration: No. 381.--Seal of Sir Robert de Marny, A.D. 1366.]
The seal of THOMAS, second Earl of LANCASTER, about A.D. 1320, gives an
excellent example both of such figures as were beginning at that early
time to supersede the Fan-Crests, and also of the Contoise; No. 379.
About this same period the fashion was introduced of fixing two tall
spikes, one on each side of the Crest, upon the helm, probably intended
in the first instance to display the contoise. These singular spikes may
have been derived by the English Heralds from their brethren of Germany,
who delighted, as they still delight, in placing upon helms as Crests,
or as the accessories of Crests, small banners displayed from staves set
erect and surmounted by spear-heads. In German Heraldry also Crests are
very frequently placed between tall upright horns or trumpets: and,
sometimes, upon a German helm the Crest stands between horns shaped like
two elephant's trunks (for which they have often been mistaken by
English Heralds), placed in the same erect position, and, like the
trumpets, so adjusted as to have the general aspect of the curved
outline of a classic lyre. The helm of Sir GEOFFREY LUTERELL, A.D. 1345,
No. 380, drawn from a celebrated illumination, between the tall spikes
has a late example of the Fan-Crest; and it exemplifies the practice
sometimes adopted of charging armorial insignia upon Crests of this fan
form. The Arms of Luterell--_Or, a bend and six martlets sa._--were
borne by Sir GEOFFREY thus differenced (E. 2)--_Az., a bend and six
martlets arg._ A pair of lofty upright wings were held in much esteem in
the Heraldry of both England and Scotland, to form the accessories of
Crests. The Seal of Sir ROBERT DE MARNY, A.D. 1366, No. 381, shows his
armorial shield--_Gu., a lion rampant arg._, suspended from a tree,
between two crested helms, the crest in both cases being a _winged
chapeau_, having the wings very tall and very slender.
From the earliest times, Crests have occasionally been identical with
the principal charge in the Shield of Arms, or they have repeated the
principal charge with some slight modification of attitude or accessory:
but, more generally, Crests have been altogether distinct. The Dragon
and the Wyvern, the latter well exemplified in No. 315, are amongst the
earliest figures that were borne as Crests in England. Other early
Figure-Crests are the Lion, crowned and assumed for the first time by an
English Sovereign by EDWARD III.; and the Eagle, borne by the same
Prince. Various devices and figures are found gradually to have been
added to these earliest Crests. The graceful and peculiarly appropriate
_Panache_ soon joined them, with the heads of various animals and other
creatures: and, as the fourteenth century advances, the _Crest-Coronet_,
No. 232, the _Crest-Wreath_, No. 233, and the _Chapeau_, No. 224, assume
their places in connection with Crests; and the _Mantling_ falls in rich
folds from them, covering the back of the Helm. In the succeeding
century, with Helms less dignified in form, but more elaborately
enriched, and with strangely fantastic Mantlings, Crests become
considerably larger in their proportions; and they often are extravagant
in their character, devices constantly being assumed and borne as
Crests, which are no less inconsistent with true heraldic feeling, than
with the peculiar conditions and the proper qualities of true heraldic
Crests. The Crest of the Duke of HAMILTON, No. 301, is far from being
one of the most inconsistent devices that were intended to be worn upon
helms. And, as it is scarcely necessary for me to add, every really
consistent Crest should be such a figure or device as might be actually
worn upon his helm, by a mediæval knight, with dignity and with a happy
effect.
[Illustration: No. 382.--Seal of William de Wyndesor.]
Early examples of Panache-Crests exist in considerable numbers, and they
show much variety of treatment. No. 285, already given at page 142,
shows a Panache of several heights of feathers, the general outline
having an oval contour. In No. 283, from the Seal of EDWARD DE
COURTENAY, Earl of DEVON, A.D. 1372, there are three heights of
feathers, and the outline has a square form. Again, the Seal of WILLIAM
LE LATIMER, A.D. 1415, gives the peculiar Panache, with the no less
peculiar variety of mantling, shown in No. 284. A Panache of ample
proportions, and of exceedingly graceful form, is represented in the
Seal of WILLIAM DE WYNDESOR, A.D. 1381. The comparatively small size of
the armorial Shield, as it generally appears when introduced into the
composition of Seals in the fourteenth century, is shown in a striking
manner in this same example, No. 382, which in the woodcut is slightly
enlarged, in order to show the device more clearly: the arms are--_Gu.,
a saltire or_. Other fine examples of Panache-Crests may be seen in the
effigies of Sir RICHARD DE PEMBRIDGE, K.G., A.D. 1375, in Hereford
Cathedral; of Sir ROBERT DE MARMION, A.D. 1400, at Tanfield, Yorkshire;
and of Sir THOMAS ARDERNE, about the same date, at Elford, in
Staffordshire. The very fine effigy of Sir EDWARD DE THORPE, A.D. 1418,
at Ashwelthorpe, in Norfolk, has a helm of rare beauty of form, with a
rich mantling, and a most graceful Panache of peacock's feathers; and
peacock's feathers also form the Panache of Lord FERRERS of CHARTLEY, in
his Brass, A.D. 1425, at Merevale, in Warwickshire. And, once more, upon
the Seal of THOMAS DE HATFIELD, Bishop of Durham, A.D. 1345, the Panache
rises from the episcopal mitre, after the same manner as it does in No.
383 from a Coronet.
[Illustration: No. 383.--Crest of Sir Richard Grey, K.G., A.D. 1420.]
Another episcopal Seal, that of Bishop HENRY LE DESPENCER, No. 351,
shows a Shield of small size when compared with the helm and crest, the
latter being the favourite device of a gryphon's head between two tall
upright wings. The Seals of the FITZALANS, Earls of Arundel, and the
Seal of JOHN TIPTOFT, Earl of Worcester, may be specified as displaying
fine examples of the same Crest. With them may be grouped the Crest of
Sir RICHARD GREY, K.G., Lord Grey of Codnor, A.D. 1420--_A peacock's
head and neck, between two wings erect, the feathers az., and their
pens_ (quills) _arg._, No. 383, from the Garter-plate at Windsor. This
Crest rises from such a Crest-Coronet as was borne on their helms by
noblemen in the time of HENRY V.
The use of the _Chapeau_, or Cap of Estate, instead of a Crest-Coronet,
to support a Crest upon a helm, I have already illustrated with Nos. 198
and 199, severally the Lion-Crests of the BLACK PRINCE and of his son
RICHARD II. Like No. 199, No. 384 is from one of the unrivalled series
of helms sculptured in Westminster Hall, with the Crest and
Ostrich-feather Badge of King RICHARD II. In both of these examples the
adjustment of the _Mantling_ is shown. Two famous Lion-Crests are those
borne by the great families of HOWARD and PERCY, severally Dukes of
Norfolk and Northumberland. The HOWARD lion, originally granted by
RICHARD II. to THOMAS MOWBRAY, Earl Marshal, and now borne by the Duke
of NORFOLK, is _a lion statant guardant, his tail extended or, and
ducally gorged arg._: the PERCY lion is _statant, his tail extended or_:
each lion stands upon a chapeau. The Lion-Crest of the BLACK PRINCE,
being charged with the _silver Label_ (which he may be said to wear
after the fashion of a collar), exemplifies the prevailing practice of
_differencing Crests with marks of Cadency_. Crests admit every variety
of Difference: and Mantlings also are frequently differenced with small
charges, or with badges; as in the Garter-plate of Sir JOHN BEAUMONT,
K.G., and in the Brass at Little Easton, Essex, to Sir HENRY BOURCHIER,
K.G., Earl of ESSEX.
[Illustration: No. 384.--Helm, Crest, Mantling,
and Badge of Richard II., from Westminster Hall.]
The _Crest-Wreath_ first appears about the middle of the fourteenth
century. The earliest example to which I can refer is represented in the
Brass to Sir HUGH HASTINGS, at Elsyng, in Norfolk, A.D. 1347. In this
most remarkable engraven memorial, the finial of the principal canopy is
surmounted by a helm with mantling, wreath, and the crest of
HASTINGS--_a bull's head sable_; No. 385. In the effigy of Sir R. DE
PEMBRIDGE, K.G., already noticed, the date of which is 1375, the crest
is united to the great helm that supports the head of the knight by a
wreath formed of a band of four-leaved flowers. A little later, A.D.
1384, at Southacre, in Norfolk, the Brass of Sir JOHN HARSYCK has a
Crest-Wreath formed of two rolls, probably of silk, twisted as in No.
386. In the second half of the next century, amongst many good examples
of Crest-Wreaths I select as typical specimens those which appear in the
Brasses to Sir WILLIAM VERNON, A.D. 1467, at Tong, in Shropshire, No.
386; and to Sir ROBERT HARCOURT, K.G., No. 387, at Staunton Harcourt,
Oxfordshire.
[Illustration: No. 385.--Crested Helm of Sir Hugh Hastings;
A.D. 1347.]
[Illustration: No. 386, 387, and 388.--Crest-Wreaths.]
The Crest-Wreath in the form shown in the last examples, and now almost
universally used in representations of such Crests as are without the
Crest-Coronet and the Chapeau, may fairly be considered to have been
derived from the rich ornamentation, generally, as it would seem, formed
of costly textile fabrics, if not executed in jewelled or enamelled
goldsmith's work, that was frequently wreathed about knightly basinets.
These wreath-like ornaments are represented in numerous effigies both
sculptured and engraven; and they are shown to have been worn either
flat, as in No. 388, or wrought to high relief, as in No. 389. These two
examples are severally from the effigies of a knight in Tewkesbury Abbey
Church, about A.D. 1365, and of Sir HUMPHREY STAFFORD, A.D. 1450, at
Bromsgrove, in Worcestershire. The enamelled effigy of Earl WILLIAM DE
VALANECE, A.D. 1296, at Westminster, has a wreath of delicate
workmanship in relief, which once was set with real or imitative jewels.
For many years after their first appearance, heraldic Crests were
regarded as insignia of great dignity and exalted estate; and it was not
till a considerably later period that the right to bear a Crest came to
be regarded as an adjunct of the right to bear arms. Still later, when
they were granted with Coat-Armour to corporate bodies, communities, and
institutions, Crests altogether lost their original significance; and
they became, in their use, Badges in everything except the habit of
placing them, with their accessories of Wreath or Crest-Coronet, of
Chapeau and Mantling, upon representations of helms.
[Illustration: No. 389.--Basinet with Crest-Wreath,
Effigy of Sir Humphrey Stafford, A.D. 1450.]
When they were actually worn, Crests were undoubtedly constructed of
some very light materials. It is probable that _cuir bouilli_ (boiled
leather), the decorative capabilities of which were so well understood
by mediæval artists, was generally employed.
It has been sometimes held that Crests are personal bearings only; and,
therefore, not hereditary, though capable of being bequeathed or granted
by their possessors. This theory is not sustained by early or general
usage; and, accordingly, Crests must be pronounced to be hereditary, as
is Coat-Armour.
It is evident that as one person may inherit, and therefore may quarter,
two or more Coats of Arms, so the same person might claim to bear _two
or more Crests_ by a similar right of inheritance. This in early times
resulted in selection because no early British precedent exists for the
simultaneous display of _two_ Crests. But it was soon recognised that as
no woman could bear a Crest, she ought not to transmit one, and the idea
of the inheritance of the Crest with a quartering from a female
ancestress ceased. At the present day, several Crests, each with its own
helm and mantling, are occasionally represented above a Shield of arms:
but, in England, by strict heraldic rule, two (or more than two) Crests
can be borne by one individual, only when he has obtained the Royal
licence to bear and use the _Surname and Arms_ of another family _in
addition_ to those of his own family, or, by a special grant from the
Crown.
CHAPTER XV
BADGES
"Might I but know thee by thy household Badge!"
--SHAKESPEARE, _Henry VI._, _Part 2_.
A BADGE, like a Coat of Arms, is an armorial ensign that is complete in
itself, and possesses a definite signification of its own. In use with a
decided heraldic significance long before the adoption of systematic
Heraldry, Badges have always held a conspicuous position in the
estimation of Heralds. A Badge resembles any single charge in Heraldry,
in being a figure or device that is assumed as the distinctive
cognisance of a particular individual or family: but, unlike a charge,
it may be borne by itself, without any Shield, and also without any
accompanying accessory, with the exception, in some instances, of a
_Motto_ (See "Motto," p. 138). Badges, however, are found depicted on
roundels of the livery, and upon Standards, and for decorative purposes
are often depicted upon mantlings. It will be evident that a Badge may
be the very same figure or device as a Crest; but, it must be remembered
that a Badge always differs from a Crest, in usually being altogether
without crest-wreath or coronet, in consequence of having no connection
whatever with the knightly helm. There was, however, a period in which
the Badge was much confused with the Crest, which has resulted in many
devices which are really Crests being officially recorded as Badges.
After the establishment of a true Heraldry, Badges were generally used
to commemorate remarkable exploits, or in reference either to some
family or feudal alliance, or to indicate some territorial rights or
pretensions. Very many Badges are allusive, and consequently they are
_Rebuses_ (see "Rebus," p. 146). Some are taken from the charges of the
bearer's Shield, or they have a more or less direct reference to those
charges. Some trace of Marshalling or of feudal Difference may
constantly be observed in Badges; and even where the motive for the
selection of certain devices has not been discovered, it may fairly be
assumed that a good heraldic motive still exists, although it has become
obscured or been forgotten. It was not uncommon for the same personage
or family to use more than one Badge; and, on the other hand, two or
more Badges were often borne in combination, to form a single compound
device, as in Nos. 235 and 270. The _ragged staff_, in like manner, No.
294, and the _bear_, both of them Badges of the BEAUCHAMPS, Earls of
WARWICK, were sometimes united to form a single Badge, and by the
successors of that great family the "bear and ragged staff" were
generally borne as a single device. (See No. 448, and p. 319.)
Two distinct classes of Badges were in general use in the fourteenth,
fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. Those of the first class, well known
as the insignia of certain eminent personages and powerful houses, were
borne by all the followers, retainers, dependants, and partisans of
those personages and houses: and they were so borne by them, and they
were used by their owners for every variety of decorative purpose,
because they were _known and understood_; and, consequently, because the
presence of these Badges would cause all persons and objects bearing
them to be readily and certainly distinguished. By means of these most
useful devices a wide and comprehensive range was given to the action
and the influence of true Heraldry, without infringing in the slightest
degree upon the lofty and almost sacred exclusiveness of the Coat-Armour
of a noble or a gentle house. In the words which SHAKESPEARE teaches
CLIFFORD to address to WARWICK, "Might I but know thee by thy household
Badge!" it is implied that all the followers of Warwick were well known
by his "household Badge," which was displayed by them all, while some
other insignia were worn by the great Earl upon his own person.
Mr. Lower has remarked ("Curiosities of Heraldry," p. 145) that
"something analogous to the fashion" of embroidering the household
Badges of their lords "upon the sleeves or breasts" of the dependants of
great families in the olden times, "is retained in the Crest which
adorns the buttons of our domestic servants." The accomplished writer
might have added that, in thus employing _Crests_ to discharge
_Badge_-duties, we are content to indulge a love for heraldic display
without observing becoming heraldic distinctions. Crested livery buttons
are heraldic anomalies under all circumstances--even the head of a house
himself, if he were a Herald, would not display his Crest, as a Crest,
upon buttons to be used exclusively by himself. Crests are to be borne
on helms, or represented as being borne on helms: Badges are decorative
insignia, and fulfil with consistent significance their own distinct and
appropriate functions.
Badges of the second class were devices that were borne exclusively by
the exalted personages who were pleased to assume them, often for
temporary use only, and generally with some subtle or latent
significance, which had been studiously rendered difficult to be
detected, and dubious in its application.
These Badges, thus displayed rather to effect disguise or to excite
curiosity than to secure recognition, must be regarded for the most part
as the expressions of heraldic revelry--as the fantasies and
eccentricities of an age, which loved to combine quaint conceits and
symbolical allusions with the display of gorgeous magnificence.
Accordingly, Badges of this order are found generally to have been
assumed on the occasion of the jousts or Hastiludes, the masques, and
other pageants that in feudal times were celebrated with so much of
elaborate and brilliant splendour.
The adoption of Badges of this peculiar character is exactly in keeping
with the sentiment which prompted men of exalted rank and eminent
distinction to appear in public, on occasions of high festivity, bearing
the arms of some friend, kinsman, or ally, instead of their own. A mark
of especial favour and of peculiar distinction would be conferred, when
a Sovereign or a Prince thus would display upon his own person the
armory of some honoured subject or comrade. EDWARD III. delighted thus
to honour the most distinguished cavaliers of his chivalrous Court. For
example, in or about the year 1347, royal Hastiludes were celebrated at
Lichfield with great splendour, the jousters consisting of the KING and
seventeen Knights, and the Earl of LANCASTER and thirteen Knights.
A conspicuous part was taken in these festivities by the King's daughter
ISABELLE, afterwards Countess of BEDFORD, and by six Ladies of high
rank, with twenty-one other Ladies, who all wore blue dresses and white
hoods of the same materials as well as the same colours as the robes of
the Knights, together with various masks or vizors. On this occasion,
the KING himself over his armour wore a surcoat with the Arms of Sir
THOMAS DE BRADESTONE. These Arms in a Roll of EDWARD III. are blazoned
as--_Arg., on a canton gu. a rose or_ (see _Archæologia_, xxxi., pp. 40
and 118). On another occasion, during Hastiludes at Canterbury,
EDWARD III. "is said to have given eight harnesses, worked with the arms
of Sir STEPHEN DE COSYNTON (_az., three roses arg._), to the PRINCE OF
WALES, the Earl of LANCASTER, and six other Knights." In the same
spirit, RICHARD DE BEAUCHAMP, Earl of WARWICK, at a great festival of
arms held at Calais under his presidency, on the first day entered the
lists decorated with the arms of his ancestor the Lord TONEY: on the
second day, he wore the arms of Hanslap: and, on the third day, "he
appeared as the Earl of WARWICK, quartering Beauchamp, Guy, Hanslap, and
Toney, on his trappings; his vizor open, and the chaplet on his helm
enriched with pearls and precious stones." In such times, Badges of
curious device and occult signification could not fail to enjoy a
popularity, not the less decided because of the restricted use and
exclusive character of the Badges themselves.
[Illustration: No. 390.--Secretum of Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick;
A.D. 1296.]
[Illustration: No. 391.--Seal of Sir Walter de Hungerford, K.G.;
A.D. 1425.]
EXAMPLES OF BADGES, such as are distinctive, and consequently of the
class that I have first described. The Badges of PERCY are a _silver
crescent_ and a _double manacle_: of HOWARD, a _white lion_: PELHAM, _a
buckle_: DOUGLAS, a _red heart_: SCROPE, a _Cornish chough_: CLINTON,
a _golden mullet_: TALBOT, a _hound_: BOHUN, a _white swan_: HUNGERFORD,
a _sickle_: PEVEREL, a _garb_: STOURTON, a _golden "drag" or sledge_.
The various "Knots," described and illustrated in Chapter X., Nos. 219,
235, 263, 270, 274, 304, and 313, are Badges. The _bear and ragged
staff_ of the BEAUCHAMPS, and, after them, of the NEVILLES and DUDLEYS,
I have already noticed. Seals frequently have Badges introduced upon
them, in very early times, by themselves, the Badge in each case
constituting the device of the Seal (see p. 193). The Secretum or
private Seal of ROBERT BRUCE, Earl of CARRICK, the father of the King,
appended to the homage-deed extorted by EDWARD I. from the Scottish
nobles, is a good example, No. 390: this is another of Mr. Laing's
beautiful woodcuts. Badges also constantly appear upon Seals in
association with Shields of arms. Thus, a Seal of one of the BERKELEYS,
A.D. 1430, has a mermaid on each side of an armorial shield. Two other
examples of this kind I have already given: No. 318, the Seal of JOAN DE
BARRE, which is charged with the _castle_ and _lion_ of Castile and
Leon, as Badges: and No. 321, the Seal of OLIVER DE BOHUN, charged,
about the Shield, with the Bohun _Swan_. On his Seal, No. 391, Sir
WALTER DE HUNGERFORD, K.G., Lord of HEYTESBURY and HOMET (the latter a
Norman barony), displays his own Badge, the _sickle_, in happy alliance
with the _garb_ of Peverel (borne by him in right of his wife,
CATHERINE, daughter and co-heir of THOMAS PEVEREL), to form his Crest.
The Crest, it will be observed, in No. 391, is _a garb between two
sickles_. The Shield of Hungerford only--_sa. two bars arg., and in
chief three plates_, is also placed between _two sickles_. Two banners,
denoting important alliances, complete the Heraldry of this remarkable
composition: the banner to the dexter, for Heytesbury, bears--_per pale
indented gu. and vert., a chevron or_; and that to the sinister, for
Hussy--_barry of six erm. and gu._ Lord HUNGERFORD died in 1449, and was
succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Sir ROBERT DE HUNGERFORD. The
Seal of this Sir Robert, used by him during the lifetime of his father,
precisely the same in its heraldic composition as his father's Seal, is
remarkable from having _each of its four sickles differenced with an
ermine-spot upon the blade_, to mark Cadency; and also, with the same
motive, it shows that a label of three points was charged upon the
Shield, and upon each of the two banners; No. 392.
[Illustration: No. 392.--Seal of Sir Robert de Hungerford:
before A.D. 1449.]
Through an alliance with the Hungerfords, _sickles_ were borne, as one
of their Badges, by the great family of COURTENAY. They appear, with a
_dolphin_, a _tau cross_, and this same _tau-cross_ having _a bell_
attached to it, as in No. 393, sculptured on the fine heraldic
chimney-piece, the work of Bishop PETER DE COURTENAY (died in 1492), now
in the hall of the Episcopal Palace at Exeter.
The BADGES of our early Heraldry are comparatively but little
understood. They invite the particular attention of students, both from
their own special interest, and the light they are qualified to throw
upon the personal history of the English people, and also from their
peculiar applicability for use by ourselves at the present day. Indeed,
at this time, when the revival of true Heraldry is in the act of being
accomplished with complete success, it appears to be peculiarly
desirable that Badges should be brought into general use. It is not
enough for us to revive our old English Heraldry as once in the olden
time it flourished in England, and to rest content with such a revival:
but we must go on to adapt our revived Heraldry, in its own spirit and
in full sympathy with its genuine feeling, to conditions of our age and
of the state of things now in existence. And very much may be done to
effect this by the adoption of Badges, as our favourite and most
expressive heraldic insignia, both in connection with Coat-Armour and
for independent display. Unlike Crests, which must necessarily be
associated with helms and the wearers of helms, and consequently have
both a military and a mediæval character, Badges are equally appropriate
for use by Ladies, as well as by men of every profession, and they
belong alike to every age and period. This has been recognised
officially, to the extent that the officers of arms have now reverted to
the ancient practice of granting and confirming badges and Standards.
[Illustration: No. 393.--A Courtenay Badge, at Exeter.]
ROYAL BADGES.--I conclude this chapter with a concise list of the more
important of the Badges that have been borne by the Sovereigns and
Princes of England; and with some general remarks upon the famous Badge
of the _Ostrich Feathers_, now considered to be exclusively the Ensign
of the PRINCES OF WALES, not as such, but as the heirs-apparent to the
Throne.
The _Planta-genista_, or Broom-plant, No. 21, is well known as an
English Royal Badge, from the surname derived from it for one of the
most remarkable of the Royal Houses that ever have flourished in Europe.
As well known are the _Rose_, _Thistle_, and _Shamrock_, severally the
Badges of the three realms of the United Kingdom of ENGLAND, SCOTLAND,
and IRELAND. A _golden Rose stalked proper_ was a badge of EDWARD I.:
and from it apparently were derived, but by what process it is unknown,
the _White Rose_ of YORK, the _Red Rose_ of LANCASTER, and the _White
and Red Rose_ of the House of TUDOR.
WILLIAM RUFUS: _A Flower of five foils._
HENRY I.: _A Flower of eight foils._
STEPHEN: _A Flower of seven foils: a Sagittarius._
HENRY II.: _The Planta-genista: an Escarbuncle: a Sword and
Olive-Branch._
RICHARD I.: _A Star of thirteen rays and a Crescent: a Star issuing from
a Crescent: a Mailed Arm grasping a broken Lance, with the
Motto--"Christo Duce."_
JOHN and HENRY III.: _A Star issuing from a Crescent._
EDWARD I.: _An heraldic Rose or, stalked ppr._
EDWARD II.: _A Castle of Castile._
EDWARD III.: _A Fleur de lys: a Sword: a Falcon: a Gryphon: the Stock of
a Tree: Rays issuing from a Cloud._
RICHARD II.: _A White Hart lodged: the Stock of a Tree: A White Falcon:
the Sun in splendour: the Sun clouded._
HENRY IV.: _The Cypher SS: a crowned Eagle: an Eagle displayed: a White
Swan: A Red Rose: a Columbine Flower: A Fox's Tail: a crowned Panther:
the Stock of a Tree: a Crescent._ His QUEEN, JOAN OF NAVARRE: _An
Ermine_, or _Gennet_.
HENRY V.: _A Fire-beacon: a White Swan gorged and chained: a chained
Antelope._
HENRY VI.: _Two Ostrich Feathers in Saltire: a chained Antelope:
a Panther._
EDWARD IV.: _A White Rose en Soleil: a White Wolf and White Lion:
a White Hart: a Black Dragon and Black Bull: a Falcon and Fetter-lock:
the Sun in splendour._
HENRY VII.: _A Rose of York and Lancaster, a Portcullis and a Fleur de
lys, all of them crowned: a Red Dragon: a White Greyhound: a Hawthorn
Bush and Crown, with the cypher_ H.R.
HENRY VIII.: The same, without the Hawthorn Bush, and with a _White
Cock_. His QUEENS: CATHERINE OF ARAGON--_A Rose, Pomegranate, and Sheaf
of Arrows._ ANNE BOLEYN--_A Crowned Falcon, holding a Sceptre._ JANE
SEYMOUR--_A Phoenix rising from a Castle, between Two Tudor Roses._
CATHERINE PARR--_A Maiden's Head crowned, rising from a large Tudor
Rose._
EDWARD VI.: _A Tudor Rose: the Sun in splendour._
MARY: _A Tudor Rose impaling a Pomegranate_--also _impaling a Sheaf of
Arrows, ensigned with a Crown, and surrounded with rays: a Pomegranate._
ELIZABETH: _A Tudor Rose_ with the motto, "_Rosa sine Spinâ_" (a Rose
without a Thorn): _a Crowned Falcon and Sceptre._ She used as her own
motto--"_Semper Eadem_" (Always the same).
JAMES I.: _A Thistle: a Thistle and Rose dimidiated and crowned_, No.
308, with the motto--"_Beati Pacifici_" (Blessed are the peacemakers).
CHARLES I., CHARLES II., JAMES II.: The same Badge as JAMES I., without
his motto.
ANNE: _A Rose-Branch and a Thistle growing from one branch._
From this time distinctive personal Badges ceased to be borne by English
Sovereigns. But various badges have become stereotyped and now form a
constituent part of the Royal Arms, and will be found recited later in
Chapter XVIII.
The _Ostrich Feather Badge_. The popular tradition, that the famous
Badge of the Ostrich Feathers was won from the blind KING OF BOHEMIA at
Cressi by the BLACK PRINCE, and by him afterwards borne as an heraldic
trophy, is not supported by any contemporary authority. The earliest
writer by whom the tradition itself is recorded is CAMDEN (A.D. 1614),
and his statement is confirmed by no known historical evidence of a date
earlier than his own work. As Sir N. HARRIS NICHOLAS has shown in a most
able paper in the _Archæologia_ (vol. xxxi. pp. 350-384), the first time
the Feathers are mentioned in any record is in a document, the date of
which must have been after 1369, and which contains lists of plate
belonging to the King himself, and also to Queen PHILLIPA. It is
particularly to be observed, that all the pieces of plate specified in
this roll as the personal property of the Queen, if marked with any
device at all, are marked with her _own initial_, or with some heraldic
insignia that have a direct reference to _herself_. One of these pieces
of plate is described as "a large dish for the alms of the Queen, of
silver gilt, and enamelled at the bottom with _a black escutcheon with
Ostrich Feathers_--_eym in fund vno scuch nigro cum pennis de ostrich_."
And these "Ostrich Feathers," thus blazoned on a sable field upon the
silver alms-dish of Queen PHILIPPA, Sir N. H. Nicholas believed to have
been borne by the Queen as a daughter of the House of HAINAULT; and he
suggested that these same "Ostrich Feathers" might possibly have been
assumed by the Counts of the Province of Hainault from the Comté of
Ostrevant, which formed the appanage of their eldest sons.
[Illustration: No. 394.--At Worcester Cathedral.]
[Illustration: No. 395.--At Peterborough Cathedral.]
[Illustration: No. 396.--At Peterborough Cathedral.]
At the first, either a single Feather was borne, the quill generally
transfixing an escroll, as in No. 394, from the monument of Prince
ARTHUR TUDOR, in Worcester Cathedral; or, two Feathers were placed side
by side, as they also appear upon the same monument. In Seals, or when
marshalled with a Shield of Arms, two Feathers are seen to have been
placed after the manner of Supporters, one on each side of the
composition: in such examples the tips of the Feathers droop severally
to the dexter and sinister: in all the early examples also the Feathers
droop in the same manner, or they incline slightly towards the
spectator. Three Feathers were first grouped together by ARTHUR TUDOR,
PRINCE OF WALES, eldest son of HENRY VII., as in Nos. 395 and 396, from
Peterborough Cathedral; or with an escroll, as in No. 397, from a
miserere in the fine and interesting church at Ludlow. The plume of
three Feathers appears to have been encircled with a coronet, for the
first time, by Prince EDWARD, afterwards EDWARD VI., but who never was
PRINCE OF WALES: No. 398, carved very boldly over the entrance gateway
to the Deanery at Peterborough, is a good early example. In No. 399 I
give a representation of another early plume of three Ostrich Feathers,
as they are carved, with an escroll in place of a coronet, upon the
Chantry of Abbot RAMRYGE in the Abbey Church at St. Albans: and again,
in No. 400, from the head of a window near the east end of the choir, on
the south side, in Exeter Cathedral, the three Feathers are charged upon
a Shield _per pale azure and gules_, and this Shield is on a roundle.
[Illustration: No. 397.--In Ludlow Church.]
[Illustration: No. 398.--The Deanery, Peterborough.]
[Illustration: No. 399.--In the Abbey Church of St. Alban.]
[Illustration: No. 400.--In Exeter Cathedral.]
The Ostrich Feathers were borne, as a Badge with his Shield of Arms,
upon one Seal of EDWARD III. himself: they were used, as an heraldic
device, about the year 1370, by PHILIPPA, his Queen: they appear on
some, but not on all, the Seals of the BLACK PRINCE, and they are
omitted from some of his Seals after the battle of Cressi (A.D. 1346):
and they were also borne, generally with some slight difference, marking
Cadency, in all probability by all the other sons of
EDWARD III.--certainly by JOHN OF GHENT, Duke of LANCASTER, and by
THOMAS OF WOODSTOCK, Duke of GLOUCESTER. They were adopted by
RICHARD II., and placed on either side of his crested Helm in the
heraldic sculpture of Westminster Hall, as appears in two of these
beautiful examples, Nos. 199 and 384: by this Prince the Ostrich
Feathers were placed on his first Royal Seal, and they were habitually
used for decoration and heraldic display; and they also were formally
granted by him, as a mark of especial favour, to be borne as an
Augmentation of the highest honour, to his cousin THOMAS MOWBRAY, Duke
of NORFOLK. The Ostrich Feathers were borne, in like manner, by the
succeeding Princes, both LANCASTRIAN and YORKIST: by at least two of the
BEAUFORTS: by the Princes of the House of TUDOR: and by their successors
the STUARTS. Thus, it is certain that the Ostrich Feathers were held to
be a _Royal Badge_, from the time of their first appearance in the
Heraldry of England about the middle of the fourteenth century; and that
in that character they were adopted and borne by the successive
Sovereigns, and by the Princes, sometimes also by the Princesses (as in
the instance of a Seal of MARGARET BEAUFORT, the mother of HENRY VII.),
of the Royal Houses, without any other distinction than some slight mark
of Cadency, and without the slightest trace of any peculiar association
with any one member of the Royal Family. From the time of the accession
of the House of Stuart to the Crown of the United Kingdom, however, the
coroneted plume of three Ostrich Feathers appears to have been regarded,
as it is at this present day, as the special Badge of the Heir to the
Throne.
In accordance with the express provision of his will, two armorial
Shields are displayed upon the monument of the BLACK PRINCE in
Canterbury Cathedral, which Shields the Prince himself distinguishes as
his Shields "for War" and "for Peace"; the former charged with his
quartered arms of France and England differenced with his silver Label,
No. 337; and the latter, _sable_, charged with _three Ostrich Feathers
argent_, their quills passing through scrolls bearing the Motto, "_Ich
Diene_" No. 401. The same motto is placed over each of the Shields that
are charged with the Feathers, as in No. 401: and over each Shield
charged with the quartered arms (there are on each side of the tomb six
Shields, three of the Arms, and three of the Feathers, alternately) is
the other motto of the Prince, "_Houmout_." In his will, the BLACK
PRINCE also desired that a "_black Pennon with Ostrich Feathers_" should
be displayed at his Funeral; and he further appointed that his Chapel in
Canterbury Cathedral should be adorned in various places with his Arms,
and "_likewise with our Badge of Ostrich Feathers--noz bages dez plumes
d'ostruce_."
[Illustration: No. 401.--Shield "for Peace" of the Black Prince.]
The will of the BLACK PRINCE proves the Feathers to have been a Badge,
and not either a Crest or the ensign of a Shield of Arms, since twice he
expressly calls them "_our Badge_": and it also is directly opposed to
the traditional warlike origin and military character of the Feathers,
as a Badge of the BLACK PRINCE, for it particularly specifies the
peaceful significance of this Badge, and distinguishes it from the
insignia that were worn and displayed by the Prince when he was equipped
for war. The Mottoes "_Ich Diene_" and "_Houmout_" are old German, and
they signify, "I serve," and "magnanimous." It has been suggested by Mr.
Planché, that "Houmout" is Flemish, and that the three words really form
a single Motto, signifying, "Magnanimous, I serve," that is, "I obey the
dictates of magnanimity" (_Archæologia_, xxxii. 69).
[Illustration: No. 402.--From the Seal of King Henry IV.]
[Illustration: No. 403.--From the Seal of Thomas, Duke of Gloucester.]
[Illustration: No. 404.--From the Garter-Plate of John Beaufort, K.G.]
Upon a very remarkable Seal, used by HENRY IV. a short time before his
accession, the shield with helm and crest are placed between two tall
Feathers, about each of which is entwined _a Garter_ charged with his
favourite and significant Motto--the word SOVEREYGNE, as in No. 402. His
father, Prince JOHN OF GHENT, placed _a chain_ upon the quills of his
Feathers, as in the very curious boss in the cloisters at Canterbury.
The uncle of HENRY IV., THOMAS, Duke of GLOUCESTER, on one of his Seals,
differenced his two Feathers with _Garters_ (probably of the Order)
displayed along their quills, as in No. 403. And, about A.D. 1440, JOHN
BEAUFORT, K.G., Duke of SOMERSET, on his Garter-plate placed two Ostrich
Feathers erect, their _quills componée argent and azure_, and fixed in
golden escrolls; No. 404. In the Harleian MS. 304, f. 12, it is stated
that the Ostrich Feather of silver, the pen thus componée argent and
azure, "is the Duke of Somerset's": also that the "Feather silver, with
the pen gold, is the King's: the Ostrich Feather, pen and all silver, is
the Prince's: and the Ostrich Feather gold, the pen ermine, is the Duke
of Lancaster's."