BANNERS OF ARMS
The Royal Banner of Arms; the Banner of the Arms of the
City of London; Shapes of Banners; Sizes of certain
Banners; Upright _versus_ Long Banners; Advantages of the
upright form; Banners with Achievements of Arms; Modern
Use of Banners.
Representations of banners constantly occur in medieval pictures (fig.
131); and, as has been shown above, they are not infrequent upon seals.
[Illustration: FIG. 131. Knights with banners, from an illumination in
Royal MS. 19 B XV in the British Museum.]
Every one is familiar with the banner of the royal arms that betokens
the presence of the King, and with our splendid national banner known as
the Union Jack. The banner with the arms of the city that is flown above
the Mansion House when the lord mayor is in residence is familiar to
Londoners, and the citizens of Rochester are equally accustomed to see
the banner of their city flying on Sundays and holidays from the great
tower of their castle. Let a banner once be regarded in the light of a
rectangular shield and its fitness to contain armorial bearings
immediately becomes apparent. The King's banner is now always miscalled
'the royal standard,' even in official language, though heraldically it
is not a standard at all, but simply a banner.
Medieval banners at first were oblong in shape, and set upright with a
longer side next the staff. In the late thirteenth century pictures
formerly in the painted chamber in the palace of Westminster the banners
borne by the knights were more than twice as tall as they were broad.
The same proportion survives even in the famous pictorial pageant of
Richard Beauchamp earl of Warwick, drawn about 1493;[9] but the majority
of the banners therein shown have a height one and three-quarter times
the width, which is better for the display of heraldry. This is also the
proportion of the banners on William lord Hungerford's seal (fig. 132),
but the banners with impaled arms on lady Hungerford's seal are nearly
square (fig. 133). On the monument in Westminster abbey church of Lewis
lord Bourchier (_ob._ 1431) the large quartered banners at the ends,
upheld by lions and eagles, are slightly less than a square and a half
in area, and admirably proportioned for displaying arms (fig. 134). The
banner of King Edward IV, 'which also hung over his grave' in St.
George's chapel in Windsor castle, is described as of 'Taffaty, and
thereon painted quarterly France and England; it had in breadth three
foot four inches, besides a Fringe of about an inch broad, and in depth
five foot and four inches, besides the Fringe.'[10] Ashmole, in his
description of the banners hung above the stalls of the Knights of the
Garter, states (in 1672) that 'the fashion of the Soveraign's and all
the Knight-Companions Banners are square; but it doth no where appear to
us, of what size their Banners anciently were; yet in Queen Elizabeth's
Reign, we find them two yards and a quarter long, and a yard and three
quarters broad, beside the Fringe (which is made of Gold or Silver and
Silk, of the colours in the Wreath) and thereon are wrought or beaten
upon Taffaty-Sarcenet, double-Sarcenet, or rich Taffaty, with fine Gold
and Colours, on both sides, the paternal Coat of the Knights Companion,
together with his Quarterings, or so many of them as he please to make
use of, wherein Garter is to take care that they be warrantly
marshalled.... These Banners of Arms are fixed to the end of long
Staves, painted in Oyl, formerly with the Colours of the Wreath, but now
Red.'[11]
[9] Brit. Mus. Cott. MS. Julius E. IV.
[10] Elias Ashmole, _The Institution, Laws and Ceremonies of the most
Noble Order of the Garter_ (London, 1672), 149.
[11] _Ibid._ 335, 336.
[Illustration: FIG. 132. Seal of Walter lord Hungerford with banners.]
[Illustration: FIG. 133. Part of the seal of Margaret lady Hungerford,
with impaled banner held up by a lion.]
[Illustration: FIG. 134. Tomb of Lewis Robsart lord Bourchier, K.G.
(_ob._ 1431), in Westminster abbey church, with banners of arms upheld
by supporters.]
The remark here as to the quarterings, in view of the comments upon them
in an earlier page of this book, is interesting, but it is more
important to note that both the banner of King Edward IV, and those of
the Knights of the Garter in Queen Elizabeth's time, were of similar
proportions to those on the Bourchier monument.
The fact is that the heraldic draughtsmen of even this late period were
fully as aware as their predecessors of the difficulty of drawing arms
in a banner that exceeded the width of a square, and they also
appreciated the greater advantage of an area that was narrower than that
figure.
The longer form of banner may be tolerated for so simple a combination
as the Union Jack, or even for such of its component parts as the cross
of St. Andrew or the saltire of St. Patrick, but it is rarely possible
so to arrange heraldry upon it as to look well, and even the cross of
St. George looks better upright thus
[Illustration]
than
[Illustration]
when
extended unduly horizontally.
In the King's banner as at present borne it is practically impossible to
draw the arms artistically, or with a proper balancing relation of field
and charge (fig. 135). The leopards of England may be so outrageously
lengthened and attenuated as nearly to fill the quarters allotted to
them, but it is impracticable to display properly the upright form of
the ramping lion of Scotland or to expand horizontally the Irish harp.
In the banner, too, of the lord mayor of London as used on the Mansion
House to-day, the sword of St. Paul in the quarter can only be drawn of
the comparative size of Sir William Walworth's dagger, which it is in
consequence so absurdly mistaken to be.
[Illustration: FIG. 135. The King's banner or 'royal standard' as now
borne.]
Were, however, the King's arms (see frontispiece) and those of his city
of London placed on upright oblong or even square banners, all
difficulties of drawing them would be avoided, and from appearing to be
glaring examples of mean modern heraldry they would forthwith become
fine pieces of artistic decoration.
A close approximation to the better way of displaying the King's arms is
illustrated by the lately adopted banners of Queen Mary and Queen
Alexandra, both of which show the Sovereign's arms impaling those of his
consort. The King's arms are thus restricted to half the usual length of
the present 'royal standard,' that is, to a square, and so can be drawn
with less waste space on either side of the charges.
Whatever be their shape, banners, like shields, ought as a rule to be
covered completely with the heraldry, like the banners of the Knights of
the Garter at Windsor (which, though modern, are quite good in this
respect) and those of more recent institution of the Order of St.
Michael and St. George in St. Paul's cathedral church.
Examples are not lacking, even in the fifteenth century, of banners
charged with regular heraldic achievements instead of arms, and quite
an interesting series may be found among the Windsor stall-plates. Two
small oblong plates of Sir Peter Courtenay and Henry lord FitzHugh are
practically complete banners of their arms, but Walter lord Hungerford
(after 1426) displays his arms, with helm, crest, and mantling, upon a
dull black banner with fringed gold border attached to a writhen gilded
staff (fig. 136). Richard Nevill earl of Salisbury (_c._ 1436) (fig.
137), John earl of Shrewsbury (_c._ 1453), John lord Tiptoft (_c._
1461), and several others have their arms, etc. on plain gold-coloured
fringed banners, but Richard lord Rivers (_c._ 1450), Thomas lord
Stanley (_c._ 1459), and George duke of Clarence (_c._ 1461) have the
field worked all over with decorative scroll-work. Sir John Grey of
Ruthin (_c._ 1439) also displays his arms on an undoubted banner with
black ground and gold fringe and staff (fig. 138), and William lord
Fauconberg (_c._ 1440) on a banner with the field bendy of blue and
silver, with a gold fringe and staff. It is not improbable that several
other quadrangular stall-plates with coloured grounds represent banners.
Edmund of Langley duke of York has the field paly of three pieces of
silver, green, and black; John duke of Bedford (1422-3) has a ground
party blue and silver, and Thomas duke of Exeter (_c._ 1422) a ground
all black. John duke of Somerset (_c._ 1440) has the field of his plate
bendy of silver, red, and green, with a gilded border of scrolled
leaves; and Walter lord Mountjoy (_c._ 1472) disposes the same three
colours in vertical stripes.
[Illustration: FIG. 136. Stall-plate, as a banner, of Walter lord
Hungerford, after 1426.]
[Illustration: FIG. 137. Stall-plate, as a banner, of Richard Nevill
earl of Salisbury, _c._ 1436.]
[Illustration: FIG. 138. Stall-plate, as a banner, of Sir John Grey of
Ruthin, _c._ 1439.]
Two similar displays of heraldic achievements are to be found in a
manuscript at the Heralds' College.[12] In one of these the arms, etc.
of Sir Richard Nanfant (_ob._ 1506-7) are painted upon a quadrangular
field party of blue and green. In the other the impaled shield of Sir
Richard and his dame, upheld by an angel, is painted upon a ground
having the upper three-fourths red and the fourth part pale pink.[13]
[12] MS. M 3.
[13] _Illustrated Catalogue of the Heraldic Exhibition, Burlington
House, 1894_ (London, 1896), pl. xxviii.
In modern practice there is no conceivable reason why banners for the
display of arms should not be more widely adopted; not only as banners
proper, to fly upon a staff, but in decorative art, such as painting,
sculpture, and embroidery. Both the Royal Society and the Society of
Antiquaries regularly notify their existence in Burlington House by
displaying banners of their arms over their apartments, and their
example is one that might be followed by other corporations entitled to
bear arms. On the use of banners by individuals it is unnecessary to
enter after the useful series of examples and usages thereof already
noted.
The curious flags known as standards, which were in use during the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, seem to have been borne simply for
display in pageants or at funerals. For decorative purposes they are
most effective, and as they were anciently borne by men of every degree
down to and including esquires, they might with much advantage from the
artistic standpoint again be devised and brought into use.
A standard (fig. 139) was a long narrow flag with the lower edge
horizontal, and the upper gradually descending from the staff to the
extremity, which was split into two rounded ends. A compartment next the
staff always contained the arms of St. George. The rest of the ground
not infrequently was formed of two, three, or four horizontal stripes of
the livery colours of the owner, and divided into three sections by two
slanting bands with his word, reason, or motto. Upon the section next to
the St. George's cross was generally displayed the principal beast or
other device of the bearer and in later times the crest on a torse,
while the other sections and the field in general were powdered with
badges or rebuses. The whole was fringed of the livery colours.
[Illustration: FIG. 139. Standard of Sir Henry Stafford, K.G. _c._
1475.]
The series illustrated in the volume in the De Walden Library on
"Banners, Standards, and Badges from a Tudor Manuscript in the College
of Arms" will supply ample evidence of the playful composition of
ancient standards, and hints as to the way in which they may be invented
nowadays.
Pennons were small and narrow flags of varying length, sometimes
pointed, sometimes swallow-tailed at the end, fixed below the point of a
lance or spear and carried by the owner as his personal ensign (fig.
140). That held by Sir John d'Abernoun in his well-known brass (_c._
1277) at Stoke d'Abernoun is short and pointed and fringed, and bears
his arms (_azure a cheveron gold_). A contemporary illustration of a
large and more fluttering form of pennon is to be seen in fig. 141. An
example of a pennon charged with a badge, in the shape of the Percy
crescent, occurs on the seal of Henry Percy earl of Northumberland,
who is shown with it in his hand (pl. XXIX A).
[Illustration: FIG. 140. Knights with pennons, from an illumination in
Royal MS. 19 B XV in the British Museum.]
[Illustration: FIG. 141. Armed Knights carrying pennons, temp. Edward I,
from an illumination in Arundel MS. 83 f. 132.]
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it was not unusual to set up on
gables, pinnacles, and other high places figures of animals holding
banners as vanes or ornaments. Heraldic beasts as finials began to be
used even in the thirteenth century, and an example so early as 1237 is
noted on the Pipe Roll of 22 Henry III, when a charge occurs 'for making
and setting up a certain lion of stone upon the gable of the King's
hall'[14] within the castle of Windsor. Examples of the fourteenth
century are hard to find, but in the fifteenth century and first half of
the sixteenth they are common enough. In most of these later examples
the creatures sit up and support shields with arms or badges; some, like
the fine groups at Mapperton in Dorset, once held vanes as well.
[14] 'Et in quodam leone de petra faciendo et erigendo super gabulum in
eadem aula.'
Early vanes from their tendency to decay are rare. In 1352-3 14s. were
spent 'upon a vane of copper painted with the king's arms, bought to be
put upon the top of the hall of the king's college'[15] in Windsor
castle; and a delightful example, also of copper, pierced with the arms
of Sir William Etchingham, its builder (_ob._ 1389), still surmounts the
steeple of Etchingham church in Sussex (fig. 142). A simple specimen of
an iron vane may yet be seen on Cowdray House in the same county. The
octagonal steeple of Fotheringay church, Northants, built at the cost of
Richard duke of York _c._ 1435, is surmounted by a fine representation
in copper of his badge, the falcon within a fetterlock.
[15] 'Et in una vane de cupro picta de armis Regis empta ad ponendum
super summitatem aule Collegij Regis ibidem, xiiij s.' Pipe Roll, 28
Edward III.
[Illustration: FIG. 142. Armorial vane on Etchingham church, Sussex.]
The employment of a creature to hold up a banner of arms was already no
novelty in the fifteenth century, and examples have been noted above of
those on the tomb of Lewis lord Bourchier (_ob._ 1431) and on the seal
of Margaret lady Hungerford (_c._ 1460); to which may be added the
banner-bearing lion on the seal (_c._ 1442) of Henry Percy, eldest son
of Henry second earl of Northumberland. The conversion therefore of the
sitting beast into a vane-holder came about quite naturally. A good
instance of the end of the fifteenth century forms a charming finial to
the well-known kitchen at Stanton Harcourt in Oxfordshire, but the
griffin which sits aloft there has, alas, no longer a vane to hold (fig.
143).
[Illustration: FIG. 143. Vane formerly upon the finial of the kitchen
roof at Stanton Harcourt, Oxon.]
Quite an array of such vane-holders was set up early in the sixteenth
century upon the pinnacles of the nave clerestory of St. George's chapel
in Windsor castle, and the contract made in 1506 for completing the
quire in like fashion provides for 'as well the vautte within furth as
archebotens, crestys, corses, and the King's bestes stondyng on theym to
bere the fanes on the outside of the said quere, and the creasts,
corses (and) beasts above on the outsides of Maister John Shornes
Chappell.' The contract made in 1511 for finishing the adjacent Lady
chapel also includes 'making up crests, corses, and the King's bestes
stondyng on theym to bere furth squychons with armes.' These beasts
holding their glittering vanes seem to have been completed only so far
as the great chapel was concerned, and are plainly shown in Hollar's
engraving of the building; but they were all taken down in 1682 by the
advice of Sir Christopher Wren, who suggested that pineapples be set up
in their stead!
Another mention of figures with vanes occurs in the contract made in
1546 for the building of the Coventry cross:
And further to set on every principall pinnacle in the
lowest story of the same new Crosse, the Ymage or a Beast
or a foule, holding up a fane, and on everie principall
pinnacle in the second story the image of a naked boy with
a Targett, and holding a Fane.[16]
[16] T. Hearne, _Liber Niger_, ii. 620.
These beasts, fowls, and boys obviously performed a double duty, like
the creatures on Mapperton manor-house.
The exact nature of the 'King's bestes' at Windsor and elsewhere is
illustrated by the accounts for the building of the great hall of
Hampton Court in 1533-4. These include payments 'for the workyng and
makyng of a lyon and a dragon in stone, standyng at the Gabull ends of
the said hall'; 'for two pynnys of irne for stayes for the two bests of
freston, standyng at the gabyll endes of the haull'; and 'for gylding
and payntyng of two vanys, servyng the bests of freston stondyng at the
endes uppon the haull, oon of the Kynges armys, the other of the Quenys,
wrowghte wyth fyne golde and in owyle.' Further payments are 'for makyng
of 29 of the Kynges bestes to stand upon the new batilments of the
Kynges New Hall, and uppon the femerell of the said Hall' and 'for 16
vanys for the bestes standyng upon the battylment of the hall.' Also
'for the payntyng of 6 great lyons, standyng abowght the bartyllment, of
tymber worke, uppon the Kynges New Hall, theyre vaynys gylte with fyne
golde and in oyle,' and for the painting 'of 4 great dragons & of 6
grewhounds servyng the same barttylment.'
There are also payments to a 'Karver, for karvyng and coutting of 2
grewhondes, oon lybert, servyng to stande uppon the typpis of the vycys
abowght the Kynges new haull,' and to a 'paynter, for gyldyng and
payntyng of 2 grewhondes, oon lybert, syttyng upon basys baryng vanys,
uppon the typys at the haull endes'; likewise 'for gyldyng and payntyng
of 24 vanys with the Kynges armes and the Quenes badges.'[17]
[17] Ernest Law, _The History of Hampton Court Palace_ (London 1903), i.
346-8.
The free use of external colouring should be noted.
The use of the King's beasts as heraldic adjuncts was not confined at
Hampton Court to the building only, but they were made to do duty, in an
equally delightful manner, as garden decorations. Thus the payments
already quoted include charges
for makyng and entaylling of 38 of the Kynges and the
quenys Beestes, in freeston, barying shyldes wythe the
Kynges armes and the Quenys; that ys to say, fowre
dragownes, seyx lyones, fyve grewhoundes, fyve harttes,
foure Innycornes, servyng to stand abowght the ponddes in
the pond yerd;
for cuttyng and intayling of a lyon and grey-hound in
freestoon, that is to say, the lyon barying a vane with
the Kynges armes, &c. servyng to stand uppon the bases of
freeston abought the ponds;
for pynnes servyng the pyllers of freestoon that the
beastes standyth uppon abowght the ponds in the pond yerd;
for payntyng of 30 stoon bests standyng uppon bases
abowght the pondes in the pond yerd, for workmanship,
oyle, and collers. Also
for payntyng off 180 postes wyth white and grene[18] and
in oyle ... standyng in the Kynges new garden;
also for lyke payntyng of 96 powncheones wyth white and
grene, and in oyle, wrought wyth fyne antyke uppon both
the sydes beryng up the rayles in the sayd Garden;
also for lyke payntyng of 960 yerdes in leyngthe of
Rayle.[19]
[18] White and green were the livery colours of King Henry VIII.
[19] Law, _op. cit._ i. 370, 371.
The quaint aspect of such an heraldic garden has been preserved to us in
the large picture at Hampton Court itself of King Henry VIII and his
family. This has at either end archways in which stand Will Somers the
King's jester and Jane the fool, and behind them are delightful peeps of
the garden, with its low brick borders carrying green and white
railings, and its gay flower beds from which rise tall painted posts
surmounted by the King's beasts holding up their glittering vanes (figs.
144, 145).
[Illustration: FIG. 144. Part of King Henry VIII's garden at Hampton
Court, from a contemporary picture.]
[Illustration: FIG. 145. Part of King Henry VIII's garden at Hampton
Court, from a contemporary picture.]
Before finally leaving the subject of banners, a few remarks may be
offered touching our beautiful national banner which we call the Union
Jack.
This charming and interesting composition is not only, in a large number
of cases when it is flown, displayed upside down, but in a still greater
number of instances it is made quite incorrectly.
The first Union Jack, that in use from 1606 to 1801, combining as it did
only the cross of St. George for England and the saltire of St. Andrew
for Scotland, presented little difficulty, since there was practically
no excuse for not drawing the St. Andrew's cross straight through from
corner to corner. But the present Union Jack is a much more difficult
banner to draw, as well as to understand, and the prevailing
ignorance of its history even among so-called 'educated' people is
extraordinary.
The Union Jack consists actually of (i) the banner of St. George with
its white field reduced to a narrow edging on all sides of the red
cross, to enable it to be superposed, without breaking the heraldic rule
of colour upon colour, upon (ii) the blue banner of St. Andrew with his
white cross; but since the Union with Ireland there has been combined
with these (iii) the banner of St. Patrick, which has a red saltire upon
a white field. This combination, in order to meet Scottish
susceptibilities, has been effected in a very peculiar but ingenious
way, first by treating the Irish banner like that of England, and
reducing its white field to a narrow edging about the saltire, and then
by slitting this down the middle of each arm, and joining the pieces to
the opposite sides of St. Andrew's saltire similarly treated, yet so
that the Scottish pieces are uppermost next the staff. It thus comes
about that whatever be the shape of the flag, whether square or oblong,
two straight lines drawn across it diagonally from corner to corner
should always equally divide the Scottish and Irish crosses, and if this
cannot be done the flag is not correctly built up (pl. XXXI).
[Illustration: PLATE XXXI. RIGHT AND WRONG VERSIONS OF THE UNION JACK.]
It also happens that unless the flag is exactly square the blue sections
of the field must differ more or less in size. Ignorant flag-makers try
to correct this, but only by dislocating in the middle the diagonal
lines that ought always to be straight and continuous.
The right way up of a Union Jack is indicated by the Scottish, that is,
the broader white, half of the diagonal members being always uppermost
in the two pieces next the staff.