The Handbook to English Heraldry Part 30

The will of the BLACK PRINCE proves the Feathers to have been a Badge, and not either a Crest or the ensign of a Shield of Arms, since twice he expressly calls them "_our Badge_": and it also is directly opposed to the traditional warlike origin and military character of the Feathers, as a Badge of the BLACK PRINCE, for it particularly specifies the peaceful significance of this Badge, and distinguishes it from the insignia that were worn and displayed by the Prince when he was equipped for war. The Mottoes "_Ich Diene_" and "_Houmout_" are old German, and they signify, "I serve," and "magnanimous." It has been suggested by Mr.

Planche, that "Houmout" is Flemish, and that the three words really form a single Motto, signifying, "Magnanimous, I serve," that is, "I obey the dictates of magnanimity" (_Archaeologia_, x.x.xii. 69).

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 402.--From the Seal of King Henry IV.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 403.--From the Seal of Thomas, Duke of Gloucester.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 404.--From the Garter-Plate of John Beaufort, K.G.]

Upon a very remarkable Seal, used by HENRY IV. a short time before his accession, the shield with helm and crest are placed between two tall Feathers, about each of which is entwined _a Garter_ charged with his favourite and significant Motto--the word SOVEREYGNE, as in No. 402. His father, Prince JOHN OF GHENT, placed _a chain_ upon the quills of his Feathers, as in the very curious boss in the cloisters at Canterbury.

The uncle of HENRY IV., THOMAS, Duke of GLOUCESTER, on one of his Seals, differenced his two Feathers with _Garters_ (probably of the Order) displayed along their quills, as in No. 403. And, about A.D. 1440, JOHN BEAUFORT, K.G., Duke of SOMERSET, on his Garter-plate placed two Ostrich Feathers erect, their _quills componee argent and azure_, and fixed in golden escrolls; No. 404. In the Harleian MS. 304, f. 12, it is stated that the Ostrich Feather of silver, the pen thus componee argent and azure, "is the Duke of Somerset's": also that the "Feather silver, with the pen gold, is the King's: the Ostrich Feather, pen and all silver, is the Prince's: and the Ostrich Feather gold, the pen ermine, is the Duke of Lancaster's."

The Shield charged with three Ostrich Feathers, No. 401, was borne by Prince JOHN OF GHENT; and it appears on the splendid Great Seal of HENRY IV., between the Shields of the Duchy of CORNWALL and the Earldom of CHESTER. HUMPHREY, Duke of GLOUCESTER, is also recorded to have borne this same Feather Shield.

In the Vaulting of the ceiling over the steps leading to the Hall at Christchurch, Oxford, the Ostrich Plume Badge is carved within a Garter of the Order: and, again, the Badge is represented after the same manner, environed with the Garter, in the beautiful binding of a copy of the Bible which is reputed to have been used by CHARLES I. in his last moments.

The Ostrich Feathers are repeatedly mentioned in early doc.u.ments; and they are shown to have been constantly used for various decorative purposes, always evidently with an heraldic motive and feeling, by the same Royal personages who blazoned them on their Seals, and displayed them elsewhere as their armorial insignia. A well-known example of a diaper of White Ostrich Feathers on a field per pale argent and vert, is preserved in the stained gla.s.s now in the great north window of the transept of Canterbury Cathedral.

CHAPTER XVI

SUPPORTERS

"Standing by the Shield In silence." --IDYLLS OF THE KING.

A SUPPORTER is a figure, sometimes of an angel, frequently of a human being, but more generally of some animal, bird, or imaginary creature, so placed in connection with a Shield of Arms as to appear to be protecting and supporting it. In English Heraldry a single Supporter is of comparatively rare occurrence, but a number of examples are to be found in the Heraldry of Scotland. In early examples, when two Supporters appear, they are in most cases alike: but, more recently (except in the Heraldry of France), the two figures are generally quite distinct the one from the other, the earlier usage of having the two Supporters alike being less frequent. The modern prevailing practice in England is happily exemplified in the well-known instance of the present Royal Supporters, the Lion and the Unicorn.

Supporters are considered to have been introduced into the Heraldry of England during the reign of EDWARD III.; but they may with greater accuracy be a.s.signed to the middle of the fifteenth century, than to the second half of the fourteenth. As armorial insignia of a very high rank, Supporters are granted in England only by the express command of the Sovereign, except to Peers and Knights Grand Cross and Knights Grand Commanders. In Scotland, where they occur more frequently than in the Heraldry of the South of the Tweed, the "Lord Lyon" has power to grant Supporters. Originally by the Scottish Heralds these accessories of Shields were ent.i.tled "Bearers."

Supporters are now granted, on payment of fees, to all Peers of the Realm to descend to the holders of a specified Peerage, and to Knights of the Garter, Thistle, and St. Patrick, and to Knights Grand Cross and Knights Grand Commanders of all other orders of knighthood to be borne for life. Most Nova Scotia Baronets and Chiefs of Scottish Clans have supporters registered with their arms.

Supporters probably owe their origin rather to several concurrent circ.u.mstances, than to any one particular circ.u.mstance. The mere fact of a Knight carrying his own armorial Shield, or his Esquire bearing it beside him, might suggest the general idea of some _supporting_ figure in connection with a representation of that Shield. The act of carrying a Banner of Arms, in like manner, might suggest a representation of a "Supporter" for a Shield of Arms. To early Seals, however, Heraldry is in an especial degree indebted for the development of the idea of Supporters, and for bringing it into a definite form. Again, the prevalent use of Badges in the fourteenth century, and in the fifteenth also, would necessarily exercise a powerful influence in the same direction; and would lead Heralds to a.s.sociate with Shields of Arms certain other figures which, while in themselves distinct and independent, were closely allied with certain Shields of Arms. The prototypes of true Supporters, indeed, as they appear on Seals, are Badges. In fact, it is often difficult to determine whether specified figures on the Seals of a certain period are heraldic supporters or merely representations of Badges.

An Effigy represented upon a Seal, as in No. 405, the Seal of DEVORGUILLA CRAWFORD, about A.D. 1290, from LAING'S Volume: or in Nos.

316, 317, would be even more than a suggestion of a Supporter. The same may be said, when some figure, almost certainly a Badge, was introduced into the composition of a Seal, holding or supporting a Shield by its guige, as in No. 203; or when a Shield, or two or more Shields, were charged upon some figure, as in No. 204: both of these examples, indeed, might be regarded as ill.u.s.trations of the origin or first adoption of single Supporters.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 405.--Seal of Devorguilla Crawford, about 1290.]

The introduction of angelic figures, which might have the appearance of acting as "Guardian Angels," in their care of Shields of Arms, was in accordance with the feeling of the early days of English Heraldry; and, while it took a part in leading the way to the systematic use of regular Supporters, it served to show the high esteem and honour in which armorial insignia were held by our ancestors of those ages. In No. 159 I have already shown an example of a sculptured Shield thus supported by Angels, from St. Albans. In the same n.o.ble church there are other examples of the same character in stained gla.s.s. Angel Supporters, the figures treated in various ways, occur in very many Gothic edifices; particularly, sculptured as corbels, bosses or paterae, or introduced in panels, and employed for the decoration of open timber roofs, as in Westminster Hall. They appear also on Seals; as on the Seal of HENRY OF LANCASTER, about A.D. 1350, which has the figure of an Angel above the Shield, and a lion on each side of it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 406.--Part of Seal of Margaret, Lady Hungerford.]

The representation of armorial Banners upon Seals would lead to at least the occasional introduction of some figure to hold, or _support_, the Banner; and here, again, we discern the presence of some of the immediate predecessors of "Supporters," properly so called. In the Seals, Nos. 391, 392, the Banners are not supported, and yet they are indirectly suggestive of giving support to the Shield which is marshalled with them in the same composition. Another Hungerford Seal, that of MARGARET BOTREAUX, widow of the second Baron HUNGERFORD (who died in 1477), in the centre of the composition has a kneeling figure of the n.o.ble lady, and on each side a banner of arms is held (_supported_) erect, so that the two banners form a kind of canopy over her head, by a lion and a gryphon. In No. 406 I give a part only of this elaborate Seal, sufficient to show how its general composition bears upon the adoption of Supporters. The Monument in Westminster Abbey of Sir LUDOVIC ROBSART, K.G., Lord BOURCHIER, Standard-Bearer to HENRY V. at Agincourt, has two banners sculptured in the stone work of the canopy, which are placed precisely in the same manner as the banners in No. 406; and, like them, they are held by Badges acting as Supporters. Two well-known seals of the PERCIES are charged with banners, and in each case the banner-staff is held by a single Supporter: one of these figures is a man-at-arms, A.D. 1386; the other is a lion, A.D. 1446. At the same period, two lions appear on another Percy Seal. Another, of the same date, has the shield supported by an armed man, without any banner, but having a lance with a long pennon charged with the Crescent badge of PERCY, No. 412, p. 247. Other Percy Seals, again, of the fourteenth century, on either side of the Shield have two lions or two birds.

Numerous examples of great interest ill.u.s.trate the early introduction of Badges into the composition of Seals, as accessories of Shields. A Seal of Prince JOHN OF GHENT, which has two falcons and padlocks, is one of the most beautiful and suggestive works of its cla.s.s: in this Seal the two birds are addorsed, and consequently they also have their backs turned towards the central achievement. This position of the figures on early Seals is not uncommon; but it is an ill.u.s.tration that the use of Badges in the form from which they developed into supporters was an artistic necessity, arising from the form of the s.p.a.ces to be occupied by the figures upon the Seal. Another most characteristic example of that marshalling of Badges upon Seals, which certainly led the way to true Supporters, is the Seal of Sir MAURICE DE BERKELEY, A.D. 1430, upon which _a mermaid_--the Berkeley badge--is blazoned on each side of the Shield. The two figures are drawn with much skill and elegance. The Shield itself quarters _Berkeley_ within a bordure, and a differenced coat of _Bottetourt_: it hangs from a large helm, which, in its turn, is ensigned by as large a _mitre_--the singular Crest of the Berkeleys. The two figures, generally animals, which fill up the s.p.a.ces to the dexter and sinister of the central achievement on Seals, in the fifteenth century are almost invariably drawn of a comparatively large size; and, for the most part, they really act as _Supporters to the Crested Helm_, being themselves _supported by the Shield_. The composition of the Seal of EDMUND DE MORTIMER, Earl of MARCH, A.D. 1400, though now mutilated, exhibits in a most satisfactory manner this very effective arrangement, from which true Supporters to a Shield of Arms might obviously be derived. In this Seal, No. 407, the Shield quarters _Mortimer_, No. 131, and--_or, a cross gu._, for _Ulster_. The Seal of WM. DE WYNDESOR, No.

382, ill.u.s.trates with no less happy effect the occasional use of birds instead of beasts, as Supporting Badges. Other examples exist in great numbers, and in abundant variety: the two that I add from Mr. Laing's Volume, Nos. 408 and 409, are in every respect most characteristic; they are severally the Seals of ROBERT GRAHAM, of Kinpont, and of Sir WILLIAM LINDSAY, of the Byres.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 407.--Seal of Earl Edmund de Mortimer; A.D. 1400.]

It is scarcely necessary for me to point out to students that Supporters always have a decided heraldic significance. In supporting a Shield of Arms, they discharge an heraldic duty: but, in themselves, Supporters are armorial symbols of a high rank; and, with peculiar emphasis, they record descent, inheritance, and alliance, and they blazon ill.u.s.trious deeds.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 408.--Seal of Robert Graham, of Kinpont, A.D. 1433.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 409.--Seal of Sir Wm. Lindsay, of the Byres, A.D. 1390.]

Supporters should always be represented in an erect position. In whatever direction also they actually may be looking, they always ought to appear to fulfil their own proper office of giving vigilant and deferential _support to the Shield_. It would be well, in our blazoning of supported Achievements, not only for us to regard a becoming position and att.i.tude for Supporters to be matters determined by positive heraldic law, but also that some satisfactory arrangement should be made and recognised for general adoption, by which an equally becoming _support_ would be provided for "Supporters." An unsatisfactory custom has been either to place the Supporters, whatever they may be, upon some very slight renaissance scroll work that is neither graceful nor consistent, or, to constrain the Motto scroll to provide a foundation or standing-place for them. In the latter case, an energetic lion, or a ma.s.sive elephant, and, in a certain cla.s.s of achievements of comparatively recent date, a mounted trooper, or a stalwart man-of-war's man, probably with a twenty-four pounder at his feet, are made to stand on _the edge of the ribbon_ that is inscribed with the Motto. Mr. Laing has enabled me to give an excellent example of Supporters--two lions standing upon a motto-scroll or ribbon--in No. 410, the Seal of JOHN DRUMMOND, created Earl of MELFORT and Viscount FORTH in the year 1686: the Shield is _Scotland, within a bordure componee_; the Supporters are gorged with collars charged with thistles; and the Crest is the Crest of Scotland issuing from a celestial Crown. As says the Motto of Sir WILLIAM MAHON, "_Moniti, meliora sequamur_"--now that we have been told of it, let us produce something better than this support for our Supporters. Happily the best heraldic artists of the moment seem very generally to have reverted to the older and more preferable form.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 410.--Seal of John Drummond, Earl of Melfort, A.D. 1686.]

The Heralds of France still restrict the term "Supporters"--"_Les Supports_"--to animals; whilst to human beings, to figures of angels, and to mythological personages or other figures in human form, when supporting a Shield, they apply the term "_Les Tenants_." When trees or other inanimate objects are placed beside any armorial shield, and so discharge the duty of Supporters in French achievements, they are distinguished as "_Les Soutiens_." An old French writer on Heraldry, PALLIOT, however, says that in his time (A.D. 1660), _Tenant_ is used in the singular number, and denotes any kind of _single Supporter_, while _Supports_ is used when there are _two_.

In the French Heraldry of the present time, a single Tenant or Support is of rare occurrence; and when two Tenants or Supports appear in blazon, they are generally, though not always, alike.

CHAPTER XVII

FLAGS

_The Pennon-- The Banner-- The Standard-- The Royal Standard-- The Union Jack-- Ensigns-- Military Standards and Colours-- Blazoning-- Hoisting and Displaying Flags._

"Many a beautiful Pennon fixed to a lance, And many a Banner displayed."

--SIEGE OF CARLAVEROCK, A.D. 1300.

"Prosper our Colours!"

--SHAKESPEARE, _Henry VI._, _Part 3_.

Admirably adapted for all purposes of heraldic display, rich in glowing colours, and peculiarly graceful in their free movement in the wind, FLAGS are inseparably a.s.sociated with spirit-stirring memories, and in all ages and with every people they enjoy an enthusiastic popularity peculiar to themselves.

In the Middle Ages, in England, three distinct cla.s.ses of heraldic Flags appear to have been in general use, each cla.s.s having a distinct and well-defined signification.

1. First, the PENNON, small in size, of elongated form, and either pointed or swallow-tailed at the extremity, is charged with the Badge or some other armorial ensign of the owner, and by him displayed upon his own lance, as his personal ensign. The Pennon of Sir JOHN D'ABERNOUN, No. 286, fringed and pointed, A.D. 1277, bears his arms--_Az., a chevron or_: and No. 411, another example of the pointed form of Pennon, is from the Painted Chamber, Westminster, about A.D. 1275. No. 412, a long swallow-tailed Pennon, charged with the Percy crescent Badge, is from the Seal of HENRY DE PERCI, first Earl of NORTHUMBERLAND. Before the true heraldic era, _Lance-Flags_ with various decorative devices, but without any blazonry having a definite signification, were in use: See Nos. 5, 6. The _Pennoncelle_ was a modification of the Pennon.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 411.--Pennon, from the Painted Chamber.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 412.--Pennon of Percy; A.D. 1400.]

2. Second, the BANNER, square or oblong in form, and of a larger size than the Pennon, bears the entire Coat of Arms of the owner blazoned over its whole surface, precisely as the same composition is blazoned upon a Shield: No. 162. The Banner has been described as the ensign of the Sovereign, or of a Prince, a n.o.ble, or a Knight who had been advanced to the higher rank or degree of a "Banneret"; but it would seem almost certain that the display of Arms upon a Banner was never confined to a Banneret. Two Banners are represented in each of the Hungerford Seals, Nos. 391, 392. A small group of oblong Banners, with two pointed Pennons, is represented in No. 413, from the Painted Chamber.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 413.--Oblong Banners and Pointed Pennons, from the Painted Chamber.]

In the olden time, when a Knight had distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry, it was the custom to mark his meritorious conduct by prompt advancement on the very field of battle. In such a case, the point or points of the good Knight's Pennon were rent off, and thus the small Flag was reduced to the _square_ form of the Banner, by which thenceforth he was to be distinguished. FROISSART, in his own graphic manner, has described the ceremonial which attended the first display of the Banner of a newly-created Banneret on the field of battle. Sir JOHN CHANDOS, one of the Knights Founders of the Garter, appeared with his maiden Banner on the field, on the morning of the battle of Naveret, in Castile, April 3rd, 1367:--"He brought his banner in his hands," says the chronicler, "rolled up" (rolled round the staff), "and said to the PRINCE OF WALES"--it was the BLACK PRINCE,--"'My Lord, behold, here is my Banner: I deliver it to you in this way,"--still rolled round the staff, that is--"'that it may please you to display it, and that this day I may raise it; for, thank G.o.d, I have land and heritage sufficient to support the rank as it ought to be!' Then the Prince and the King"--Don PETRO, King of Castile--"took the Banner, which was of silver with a sharp pile gules, between their hands by the staff, and displayed it, and returned it to him, the Prince saying--'Sir John, behold your Banner; may G.o.d grant you may do your duty!' Then Sir JOHN CHANDOS bore his Banner (displayed) to his own Company, and said--'Gentlemen, see here my Banner and yours; preserve it as your own!'" We see that, like another hero of a later period, the BLACK PRINCE held the maxim--"England expects every man to do his duty."

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 414.--Seal of Earl John Holland, Admiral of England, &c., A.D. 1436.]