HERALDIC EMBROIDERIES
The introduction of armorial insignia in embroidered
Vestments: on Robes: on Beds, etc.
No one who has had occasion to examine any series of old wills and
inventories, especially those of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
can fail to have noticed what a large part was played by heraldry in the
household effects of our forefathers. In the vestments and other
ornaments of the chapel, the hallings, bankers, and like furniture of
the hall, the hangings and curtains of the beds and bedchambers, the
gold and silver vessels and utensils of the table, or in carpets and
cushions and footstools, shields of arms, badges, mottoes, and
quasi-heraldic devices of all sorts were as common as blackberries in
autumn.
And the evidence of illuminated pictures and monumental effigies is
equally strong in showing that heraldry was quite as much in vogue for
personal adornment.
As a matter of fact heraldry had its very origin in a system of
devices to be worn on shields and banners and coats-of-arms to
distinguish the wearer in battle, and from the coat-of-arms of the
knight it was but a step to the armorial gown or mantle of his lady.
[Illustration: FIG. 188. Part of an embroidered altar frontal with a
rebus at Baunton in Gloucestershire: date, late fifteenth century.]
It would be somewhat tedious to extract from the authorities just cited,
especially since they are easily accessible, every entry relating to an
heraldic ornament or piece of furniture. But with regard to hangings and
embroideries the case is somewhat different, inasmuch as numbers of
ladies are engaged nowadays in stitch-work of every kind, amongst which
heraldic embroidery ought certainly to have a place.
As might be expected, the inventories of Church stuffs furnish us with
some of the earliest examples of heraldic embroideries, and often in
sufficiently precise terms to enable us to realize what the things
looked like.
Thus an inventory taken in 1315 of the ornaments at Christchurch,
Canterbury, enumerates such things as a chasuble and five copes, the
gift of Katharine Lovel, sewn with arms of divers persons; a white cope
of the arms of the King of Scotland; a cope of Peter bishop of Exeter
(_ob._ 1291) of baudekyn 'with biparted shields' (an early example); a
cope of John of Alderby bishop of Lincoln, and another of Thomas Burton
bishop of Exeter, of green cloth embroidered with shields; an albe with
apparels of blue velvet embroidered with shields and fleurs-de-lis; two
albes sewn with shields and black letters, and a third of red samite
embroidered with shields and popinjays; an albe sewn with lozenges with
the arms of the King of England and of Leybourne; an albe sewn with
shields and embroidered with letters; an albe sewn with the arms of
Northwood and Poynyngs in quadrangles; and an albe, stole, and fanon
sewn with divers arms in lozenges with purple frets. The same inventory
mentions a vestment of Philip King of France, made, quite properly, of
blue cloth with fleurs-de-lis; and a number of vestments with orphreys
of the arms of the King of England and of France.
The inventory of the vestry of Westminster Abbey taken in 1388 also
contains some interesting heraldic ornaments, such as a frontal with the
arms of England and France in red and blue velvet woven with golden
leopards and fleurs-de-lis, from the burial of King Edward III; six
murrey carpets woven with the new arms of the King of England and of the
count of Hainault (in other words, the quartered shield adopted by
Edward III in 1340, and the arms of his queen, Philippa of Hainault);
four carpets of the arms of the earl of Pembroke; four carpets of red
colour woven with white shields having three red fleurs-de-lis, of the
gift of Richard Twyford, whose arms they were; five black carpets having
in the corners shields of the arms of St. Peter and St. Edward; two
green silk cloths sewn with the arms of England, Spain, and Queen
Eleanor; a bed with a border with the arms of the King of Scotland;
three new copes of a red colour of noble cloth of gold damask, with
orphreys of black velvet embroidered with the letters T and A and swans
of pearl, the gift of Thomas duke of Gloucester, whose wife was Eleanor
Bohun, and her family badge a white swan; a cope of red velvet with gold
leopards and a border of blue velvet woven with gold fleurs-de-lis,
formerly the lord John of Eltham's, whose fine alabaster tomb in the
abbey church has the same arms on his shield.
A St. Paul's inventory of 1402 also contains a few choice examples: a
cope of red velvet with gold lions, and orphreys of the collars of the
duke of Lancaster and a stag lying in the middle of each collar; a suit
of blue cloth of gold powdered with gold crowns in each of which are
fixed two ostrich feathers; six copes of red cloth of gold with blue
orphreys with golden-hooded falcons and the arms of Queen Anne of
Bohemia; three albes and amices of linen cloth with orphreys of red
velvet powdered and worked with little angels and the arms of England,
given by Queen Isabel; three albes and amices with apparels of red cloth
of gold powdered with divers white letters of S and with golden
leopards, given by John of Gaunt; two great cushions of silk cloth of
blue colour with a white cross throughout, and in each quarter of the
cross the golden head of a lion.
The secular documents carry on the story.
Some quite noteworthy items may be found in the account of the expenses
of the great wardrobe of King Edward III (1345-48-9): for making a bed
of blue taffata for the King powdered with garters containing this word
~hony soit q mal y pense~; for making a jupe of blue taffata for the
King's body with Garters and buckles and pendants of silver-gilt; for
making 40 clouds for divers of the King's garments, embroidered with
gold, silver, and silk, with an ~E~ in the middle of gold, garnished
with stars throughout the field; for making six pennons for trumpets and
clarions against Christmas Day of sindon beaten with the King's arms
quarterly; for making of a bed of red worsted given to the lord King by
Thomas de Colley powdered with silver bottles having tawny bands and
curtains of sindon beaten with white bottles; for making a harness for
the lord David King of Scotland of 'blu' velvet with a pale of red
velvet and within the pale aforesaid a white rose; for making a harness
of white bokeram for the King stencilled with silver, namely, a tunic
and shield wrought with the King's word ~hay hay the wythe swan; by
godes soule I am thy man~ and a crupper, etc. stencilled with silver;
for making a doublet for the King of white linen cloth having about the
sleeves and bottom a border of green long cloth wrought with clouds and
vines of gold and with the King's word ~it. is. as. it. is.~
In 1380 Edmund Mortimer earl of March leaves 'our great bed of black
satin embroidered with white lions (the badge of the house of March) and
gold roses with scutcheons of the arms of Mortimer and Ulster'; and in
1385 Joan princess of Wales leaves to King Richard her son 'my new bed
of red velvet embroidered with ostrich feathers and leopards' heads of
gold with branches and leaves issuing from their mouths.'
In 1389 William Pakington archdeacon of Canterbury leaves 'my halling of
red with a shield of the King's arms in the midst and with mine own arms
in the corners'; and in 1391 Margaret, the wife of Sir William
Aldeburgh, leaves (i) a red halling with a border of blue with the arms
of Baliol and Aldeburgh, (ii) a red bed embroidered with a tree and
recumbent lion and the arms of Aldeburgh and Tillzolf, and (iii) a green
bed embroidered with griffins and the arms of Aldeburgh.
The inventory of Thomas of Woodstock duke of Gloucester, taken in 1397,
also contains some interesting items: a white halling (or set of
hangings for a hall) consisting of a dosser and four costers worked with
the arms of King Edward (his father) and his sons with borders paly of
red and black powdered with Bohun swans and the arms of Hereford; a
great bed of gold, that is to say, a coverlet, tester, and selour of
fine blue satin worked with gold Garters, and three curtains of tartryn
beaten with Garters to match; and a large bed of white satin embroidered
in the midst with the arms of the duke of Gloucester, with his helm, in
Cyprus gold.
A number of other items in the list are also more or less heraldic: a
bed of black baudekyn powdered with white roses; a large old bed of
green tartryn embroidered with gold griffins; twelve pieces of tapestry
carpet, blue with white roses in the corners and divers arms; a large
bed of blue baudekyn embroidered with silver owls and gold
fleurs-de-lis; fifteen pieces of tapestry for two rooms of red worsted
embroidered with blue Garters of worsted with helms and arms of divers
sorts; three curtains of white tartryn with green popinjays; a green bed
of double samite with a blue pale (stripe) of chamlet embroidered with a
pot of gold filled with divers flowers of silver; an old bed of blue
worsted embroidered with a stag of yellow worsted; a red bed of worsted
embroidered with a crowned lion and two griffins and chaplets and
roses; a bed of blue worsted embroidered with a white eagle; a coverlet
and tester of red worsted embroidered with a white lion couching under a
tree; a single gown of blue cloth of gold of Cyprus powdered with gold
stags; and a single gown of red cloth of gold of Cyprus with mermaids.
In 1381 William lord Latimer leaves 'an entire vestment or suit of red
velvet embroidered with a cross of mine arms,' and in 1397 Sir Ralph
Hastings bequeathed 'a vestment of red cloth of gold with orphreys
before and behind ensigned with maunches and with colours of mine arms,'
which were a red maunch or sleeve on a gold ground.
Among the chapel stuff of Henry Bowet archbishop of York, in 1423, were
a sudary or veil of white cloth with the arms of the duke of Lancaster
on the ends, and two costers or curtains of red embroidered with great
white roses and the arms of St. Peter (the crossed keys).
In 1437 Helen Welles of York bequeathed a blue tester with a couched
stag and the reason _Auxilium meum a Domino_.
In 1448 Thomas Morton, a canon of York, left a halling with two costers
of green and red say paled with the arms of archbishop Bowet; and in
1449 the inventory of Dan John Clerk, a York chaplain, mentions two
covers of red say having the arms of Dan Richard Scrope and the keys of
St. Peter worked upon them.
To the examples worked with letters may be added a bed with a carpet of
red and green with crowned M's, left about 1440 by a Beverley mason, who
also had another bed with a carpet of blue and green with Katharine
wheels; a vestment left in 1467, by Robert Est, a chantry priest in York
minster, of green worsted having on the back two crowned letters,
namely, R and E; and a bequest in 1520 by Thomas duke of Norfolk of 'our
great hangede bedde palyd with cloth of golde whyte damask and black
velvet, and browdered with these two letters T. A.,' being the initials
of himself and his wife.
There is of course nothing to hinder at the present day the principles
embodied in the foregoing examples, which could easily be extended _ad
infinitum_, from being carried out in the same delightful way; and a
small exercise of ingenuity would soon devise a like treatment of one's
own arms, or the use of a favourite device or flower, or the setting
out of the family word, reason, or motto.
The medieval passion for striped, paned, or checkered hangings might
also be revived with advantage, and the mention in 1391 of 'a bed of
white and murrey unded' shows that waved lines were as tolerable as
straight.