The Handbook to English Heraldry Part 29

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 a.s.sumed 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 _Archaeologia_, x.x.xi., 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 390.--Secretum of Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick; A.D. 1296.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 391.--Seal of Sir Walter de Hungerford, K.G.; A.D. 1425.]

EXAMPLES OF BADGES, such as are distinctive, and consequently of the cla.s.s 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 ill.u.s.trated 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 const.i.tuting 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 n.o.bles, is a good example, No. 390: this is another of Mr. Laing's beautiful woodcuts. Badges also constantly appear upon Seals in a.s.sociation 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 a.s.sociated with helms and the wearers of helms, and consequently have both a military and a mediaeval 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 c.o.c.k_. His QUEENS: CATHERINE OF ARAGON--_A Rose, Pomegranate, and Sheaf of Arrows._ ANNE BOLEYN--_A Crowned Falcon, holding a Sceptre._ JANE SEYMOUR--_A Phnix 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 Spina_" (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 const.i.tuent 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 _Archaeologia_ (vol. x.x.xi. pp. 350-384), the first time the Feathers are mentioned in any record is in a doc.u.ment, 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 c.u.m 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 a.s.sumed by the Counts of the Province of Hainault from the Comte of Ostrevant, which formed the appanage of their eldest sons.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 394.--At Worcester Cathedral.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 395.--At Peterborough Cathedral.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 397.--In Ludlow Church.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 398.--The Deanery, Peterborough.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 399.--In the Abbey Church of St. Alban.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 a.s.sociation 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 pa.s.sing 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_."

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 401.--Shield "for Peace" of the Black Prince.]