THE TREATMENT OF CRESTS
Origin of Crests; Earliest examples of Crests; Ways of
wearing Crests; The Helm and its treatment; Modern use of
Helms; Absurd Crests; Use of Crests other than by
individuals; The comparative sizes of Helms and Crests.
A crest was originally, as its name reminds us, a tuft or plume on the
head of a bird. Such a plume or tuft, or bush as it was often called,
was fixed in early times as an ornament on the top of a helm, of which
it thus formed the crest. Other devices, such as could conveniently be
so worn, were soon used for the same purpose, and like armorial bearings
became associated with particular individuals. In later days when the
helm enveloped the whole head, the crest played a useful part in
revealing the wearer's identity, though his face was hidden.
One of the earliest suggestions of a crest in English armory appears on
the second great seal (of 1198) of King Richard I, whose cylindrical
helm has a leopard upon the cap with two wing-shaped fans above turned
in opposite directions. On many seals of the second half of the
thirteenth century, as, for instance, on those of Robert de Vere earl of
Oxford (1263) and Henry de Laci earl of Lincoln (1272), the knight is
represented as riding in full armour, with the helm surmounted with a
fan-shaped plume, which is also repeated upon the horse's head. (See
also fig. 58 and pl. XI B.)
[Illustration: FIG. 58. Seal of Thomas de Moulton, with fan-shaped crest
on helm and horse's head. From the Barons' Letter.]
[Illustration: A Roger of Leybourne, ob. 1284.
B Henry de Perci, in 1301.
PLATE XI.--Early examples of crests.]
An early use of a crest proper is furnished by the seal of Roger of
Leybourne (_ob._ 1284). This shows his shield of arms (bearing six
lions) hung upon a tree, with his banner (charged with one lion only)
behind, and at one side a helm with lion crest (pl. XI A). Thomas of
Berkeley in 1295 has upon his seal a shield flanked by two mermaids and
surmounted by a helm carrying a mitre for a crest. Thomas earl of
Lancaster (1296) on two separate seals has a wiver, or two-legged
dragon, upon his helm, and this again is repeated upon his horse's head
(fig. 59). The seal of his brother Henry of Lancaster, appended to the
Barons' Letter, also shows his helm crested with a wiver (fig. 60). Two
other early examples of crests on seals from the Barons' Letter are
shown in figs. 61 and 62. Sir John Peche, on a seal appended to a deed
of 1323-4, has his shield flanked by wivers and surmounted by a helm
with squirrel crest. William Montagu earl of Salisbury (1336-7), in the
mounted figure of himself on his fine seal, has a demi-griffin fixed
upon his crowned helm (pl. XII B), and King Edward III shows for the
first time, on his seal of 1340, his crest of a crowned leopard standing
upon the cap of estate which surmounts his helm.
[Illustration: FIG. 59. Seal of Thomas earl of Lancaster, Leicester, and
Ferrers, showing wiver crest on his helm and horse's head. From the
Barons' Letter.]
[Illustration: FIG. 60. Seal of Henry of Lancaster, lord of Monmouth,
with wiver crest and quasi-supporters.]
[Illustration: A B
PLATE XII.--Early uses of crests, on seals of William Montagu earl of
Salisbury, 1337-44.]
During the first half of the fourteenth century there is an interesting
diversity in the manner of representing crests, when not being worn by
their owners.
William Montagu earl of Salisbury shows on his counterseal (pl. XII A)
his shield supported by two griffins, and ensigned by the demi-griffin
issuing from an open crown which in his seal he carries upon his helm.
John Engayn, in 1349, has upon the upper edge of his shield a wolf or
fox walking under a tree. Henry duke of Lancaster (1341) ensigns the
shield of his arms with a cap of estate surmounted by a leopard (pl.
XIII C); and Peter de Mauley, the sixth of that name, in 1379-80 has a
seal with his simple arms (_a bend_) supported by two ramping leopards,
and surmounted by a fierce dragon breathing defiance (pl. XX B). In none
of these cases does a helm appear.
[Illustration: FIG. 61. Seal of Robert de la Warde, with fan crest.]
[Illustration: FIG. 62. Seal of Walter de Mounci, with the helm
surmounted by a fox as a crest.]
After the middle of the fourteenth century the crest is invariably shown
as part of the helm.
The helm, it is hardly necessary to say, was such an one as formed part
of the war harness of the time, and in the numerous armorial
representations that may be found on seals or on monuments or buildings
it is almost invariably shown in profile. This was, however, merely on
account of its being the most convenient way of displaying the crest,
and, in accordance with the usual medieval common-sense, examples are to
be found which show the helm and crest facing the observer.
Thus Thomas de Holand (1353) has on his seal a shield of his arms hung
from a tree and flanked by two fronting helms, each encircled by a crown
and surmounted by a huge bush of feathers; Sir Robert de Marni (1366)
flanks his shield, which is also hung from a tree, with two fronting
helms, each crested with a tall pair of wings rising from the sides of a
cap of estate (fig. 63); Sir Stephen Hales (1392-3) on his seal has a
couched shield of his arms surmounted by a fronting helm, with a crown
about it from which issue two fine wings; Robert Deynelay (1394-5) in
like manner shows his helm crested with two ears of a bat or hare; and
Walter lord FitzWalter (1415-31) has on his seal a couched shield, and
on a fronting helm above a cap of estate surmounted by a star between
two large wings (pl. XIII A). Another example of a fronting helm is
shown in pl. V B.
[Illustration: FIG. 63. Seal of Sir Robert de Marni, 1366, with crested
helms flanking the shield.]
The present custom of using various types of helm facing different ways
to denote grades of rank is comparatively recent as well as often
inconvenient, and utterly subversive of the proper method of displaying
a crest, which should invariably face the same way as its wearer. This
fact is amply illustrated by the early stall-plates at Windsor, but the
modern crested helms surmounting the stalls there were for a long time
the scoff of students of heraldry owing to the absurd manner in which
the crests were set athwart the fronting helms. It is pleasant to be
able to add that the crests have lately been replaced almost
throughout by a new and larger series, worthy of their surroundings,
and set upon the helms in the proper way. Under the same enlightened
administration the most recent stall-plates are enamelled creations of
real artistic and heraldic excellence.
[Illustration: FIG. 64. Crest, etc. of Sir John Astley, from a MS. _c._
1420.]
The crest was, of old time, almost always something that could actually
be set upon a helm, and such objects as naturally were too large or
too heavy were modelled in boiled leather, wood, or other light
material: like the fine crest borne at the funeral of Edward prince of
Wales, now over his tomb at Canterbury, which is a leopard standing upon
a cap of estate and modelled in leather covered with stamped gesso (fig.
65); or the soldan's head of carved wood that surmounts the funeral helm
of George lord Cobham, in Cobham church, Kent (fig. 66).
[Illustration: FIG. 65. Crest of Edward prince of Wales, 1376, of
leather and stamped gesso, from his tomb at Canterbury.]
[Illustration: FIG. 66. Funeral helm and wooden crest of George Brooke
lord Cobham (_ob._ 1558) in Cobham church, Kent.]
Such impossible crests as the pictorial scenes and other absurdities
granted by the kings-of-arms during the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, and even back to Elizabethan days, would not have been
thought of at an earlier period, when heraldry was a living art.
The degradation of the proper use of a crest, other than by those
entitled to wear one, began as soon as the kings-of-arms presumed to
grant armorial bearings by their bestowing crests upon impersonal
corporate bodies like the London livery companies, such as the Tallow
Chandlers (1456), Masons (1472), and Wax Chandlers (1485-6).
Arms were borne by the mayor and commonalty of a city or town at least
as early as 1283 in the case of Chester, and of 1305 in the case of
Dover (or the Cinque Ports), but none presumed to use a crest until
London did so on the making of a new seal in 1539, and no crest was
granted to a town before 1561.
Before leaving crests a word must be said as to their comparative sizes.
Throughout the best period of heraldic art the crested helm and the
shield in pictorial representations practically balance one another,
but there is occasionally a tendency to diminish the shield, and so
apparently to enlarge the crest. This may be seen, for example, in
several of the early stall-plates at Windsor (figs. 67, 68), which
otherwise are admirable models as to the treatment of crests in general.
They also show very clearly how easily and comfortably the crests
surmount the helms.
[Illustration: FIG. 67. Stall-plate of Humphrey duke of Buckingham as
earl of Stafford, _c._ 1429.]
[Illustration: FIG. 68. Stall-plate of Sir Thomas Burgh, _c._ 1483.]
A remarkable early English example of the use of _two_ crests is
furnished by a seal of Richard Nevill (1449-71), the 'Kingmaker,' who
was earl of Salisbury, and, in right of his wife, also earl of Warwick
(fig. 69). This exhibits two helms above the multi-quartered shield, the
one carrying the Beauchamp swan for the earldom of Warwick, the other
the Montagu griffin for the earldom of Salisbury.
[Illustration: FIG. 69. Seal of Richard Nevill with separate crests and
supporters for his earldoms of Salisbury and Warwick.]