Our materials for proof during this century are peculiarly numerous
and rich. There is great store of beautiful seals, many of them highly
decorated, and preparing us for their decay and disappearance after
about 1490. Then again, MS. illustrations of tournaments show the
shaped shields of the knights hung up on tents or elsewhere, and
adorned with their heraldry; and occasionally, and in one case as late
as 1480, two knights appear on horseback, jousting and bearing shields;
also, in some cases, combats on foot, where the knights carry shields.
We have also stained glass with shields, which, at this early time,
seem more closely to follow the shapes of those actually in use.
Grants of arms now begin to supply shapes of shields, and towards the
end of the century printers' marks appear, although these last seem to
be affected by a fanciful exaggeration.
[Illustration: Add. MS. 15,477--date 1360.]
As a case of recrudescence of old ideas we must refer to the instance
of a bouche, in which to rest the spear, so early as 1360, in Add. MS.
15,477, in the British Museum (Hewitt, vol. ii, p. 231); indeed one is
represented vastly earlier, in 1159, in the seal of Theodoric Count of
Flanders, engraved in Oliver Vredius, p. 17 (see No. 46). Such shields
are now very frequent, except upon seals, where they seldom occur;
and the reason is, no doubt, that they would have interfered with the
heraldic charges, which now begin to be multiplied.
Heater shields, and sometimes pointed, just as they appear at earlier
dates, are still continued; but in most cases, and especially towards
the middle and end of the century, they become much more square and
blunter at the base.
Seals of the more important families are filled up with elaborate
decorations--diapering on the fields, leaves and mantlings filling up
the whole space, and supporting animals, finely and boldly designed,
are introduced; and several concentric lines, differently ornamented,
with quatrefoils, crosses, mullets, and stars upon these circular bands
sometimes occur within the inscription.
[Illustration]
From about 1420 a custom began, and is occasionally adopted in the
larger seals, to represent as scrolls those bands upon which the
inscriptions of name and title, &c., were written, while the ends were
ornamentally unfolded and loose. To show exactly what I mean I would
refer to the seal of John de Clinton de Say, 1438, No. 54, engraved
in _Archæologia_, vol. xxxviii, p. 272, and to that of Sir John
Pelham, 1469. This is engraved in _Archæological Journal_, vol. vii,
p. 323; the Sussex Archæological Society's vol. iii, p. 220; also in
_Historical and Genealogical Notices of the Pelham Family_, privately
printed in 1873 by the late Mr. M. A. Lower.
Many of these seals are marvels of design and execution. At the very
end of the century we notice so much is sought to be represented that
the designs in consequence become flat and weak, losing much of their
character and boldness, and thus preparing us for the startling change
in the following century. Another noticeable circumstance is that
such splendid and pretentious seals are not confined to the greatest
nobility or people of vast territorial influence. Many untitled
families towards the end of the fifteenth century showed seals not
quite so large, but fully equal in workmanship and beautiful design to
those of the house of Lancaster, the Nevilles, Lords of Abergavenny;
the Dukes of Buckingham, and other great titled nobles. Through the
kindness of Mr. H. S. Grazebrook I am able to show the seal of Richard
Dudley of Clapton, Northants; the arms of Dudley quartering Hotot [see
William Salt Society vol. x, p. 54]. This seal was exhibited to the
Heralds at their Visitation of Northants, 1618, "antiquum Sigillum
argenteum," and is tricked in their original MS. As its date is between
1440 and 1475, I have no doubt it was made for that Richard Dudley of
Clapton who "condidit testamentum" 1465.
[Illustration]
We must now take up those curiously curved outward shields, alluded
to as shown in Harl. MS. 4379, of a date about 1360, see No. 55, and
again at Bamberg Cathedral, 1370 [page 24], see No. 55A and No. 55B.
We may lay it down as an axiom that every alteration in the shapes of
shields at these early dates, and therefore for actual use, arose from
some apparent advantage to be gained by it. Hewitt, vol. ii, p. 314,
engraves a curved shield, about the end of the fourteenth century, from
an ivory chessman. In the _Archæological Journal_, vol. ix, p. 119,
there is one, from stained glass, of early in the fifteenth century.
This is a square parallelogram with a bouche, and the top and bottom
are projected forwards, while the intermediate portion is flat. This
shield is of considerable thickness, see No. 56. In the statue of Henry
VI. at Westminster, of the date 1422, a similar shield appears without
any bouche, but with the top and bottom ends similarly projected and
the middle portion flat, see No. 57. This is engraved in Meyrick's
_Ancient Armour_, plate 42. A similar shield, from an ancient chest in
York Minster, is shown in the same book, vol. ii, at p. 124. In the
grant of arms to the Ironmongers' Company, 1455, and in many other
instances, a bouched shield, deeply engrailed at top and bottom, has
both ends similarly projected, the middle portion being curved, but to
a lesser degree. This is engraved in _Herald and Genealogist_, vol. i,
p. 37, and the same shield of arms is illuminated in the margin of the
charter granted to the Ironmongers in 1483. It seems evident that the
intention in thus hollowing out the face of the shield was to receive
and to retain the spear point with greater certainty upon that part
of the shield; as in combat it was found to slip off above or below,
and search out for itself some dangerous resting place on the helmet
or other vulnerable part of the armour. This shape could not readily
be shown in front view on seals, but such shields curved outwards
appear frequently with great clearness in illuminations where a side
view is commonly given, see an engraving of men at arms in fourteenth
century in Cutts, p. 339. I am also able to show a most interesting
illumination of a knight of the fifteenth century bearing a very
curious shield. This is from Cutts, p. 398.
[Illustration: Date 14th century. Cutts, p. 339.]
[Illustration: Grant of Arms to the Ironmongers' Company, 1st
September, 1455.