Heraldry as art: An account of its development and practice, chiefly in England

by G. W. Eve

FOOTNOTES:

[2] Needlework as Art, Lady Marion Alford.

CHAPTER XI
Some Miscellaneous Charges

Annulet.—A simple ring, as in the mark of cadency of a fifth son, Fig. 295, p. 288. A ring in which a precious stone is mounted is called a gem-ring, and an interesting example occurs in one of the badges of the Medici, Fig 234; another Medici badge has three gem-rings interlaced.

Fig. 234.—Badge of Medici from Dialogo dell’ imprese, 1559.

Barnacles or Breys.—An instrument that was used to control a restive horse by exerting pressure on his nostrils. They are represented as in Fig. 235, or open as in Fig. 236. (See also Geneville, Fig. 223, p. 248.)

Fig. 235.

Fig. 236.

Battering-ram.—A siege weapon consisting of a heavy beam headed like a ram and having hooks or other means of fastening the chains by which it was supported and swung. Figs. 237 to 239 are some of its forms. When difference of tincture requires it is said to be headed, or armed, and garnished of these appliances. Sometimes the term purfled is used for garnished. One of the best known examples is the coat of Bertie: Az. three battering rams barways in pale ppr. headed and garnished, az.

Fig. 237.

Fig. 238.

Fig. 239.

Buckles.—Being important part of military equipment were frequently employed as charges or as badges in allusion to battle occurrences or other notable events. Thus the Badge of the Pelhams commemorates the capture of King John of France at the Battle of Poictiers. Buckles afford some scope for decoration, as in Fig. 240, a fifteenth century example from Westminster Abbey.

Fig. 240.

Fig. 241.

Bugle Horn.—This, the most frequent of the charges derived from the Chase, forms an interesting subject for decorative treatment, in its possible grace of line and in the ornamental character of its details. It is usually shown as if suspended from a knotted or twisted cord, of which it is stringed, though it is occasionally hung from a flatter form of baldric. Its garnishings, mouth-piece, rim rings, etc., are usually gold (Fig. 241).

Fig. 242.

Fig. 243.

Fig. 244.

Chaplet.—A wreath of leaves or of flowers and leaves. In the latter the flowers are usually four in number (Fig. 242). When a “chaplet” without further qualification is mentioned, a severely conventionalized form is sometimes employed, consisting of a ring with four flower bosses, as Fig. 243. See Garland. A chaplet of oak is called a civic crown (Fig. 244), and one of laurel a triumphal crown.

Chess-rook (Fig. 245).—This is probably the result of a mis-reading of roc, the coronal of a tilting spear. It is always represented with the cleft shape of the latter and never as a castle, the usual form of chess-rook.

Cinque-Foil (Fig. 246).—A five membered leaf, or conventional flower of five petals.

Fig. 245.

Fig. 246.

Fig. 247.

Clarion.—A combination of musical pipes in a hand case, the Syrinx or Pan-pipe. It is of frequent occurrence in the heraldry of the Middle Ages and in a large variety of more or less elaborate forms, one of which is here represented (Fig. 247). It is sometimes called a rest, with the suggestion that it represents the piece fixed on a breast-plate as a support for the tilting spear, but this appears to be extremely improbable.

Clouds occur as bordures and other ordinaries in various interesting conventional forms and also as points from which emerge arms and other objects. Ordinaries composed of clouds in this way are blazoned nebuly equally with the more simplified nebuly line. There are many examples of this treatment of which Fig. 72, p. 57, will give an idea of a bordure nebuly, as it appears in one of the representations at the Heralds College of the arms of the Mercers Company.

Fig. 248.

Cockatrice.—A wyvern-like monster with a cock’s head, as in the many sixteenth century drawings of the arms of the City of Basle, to which it was a supporter under its other name of Basilisk, as in Fig. 248, part of a drawing by Holbein.

Coronets.—Crown and coronets other than those of rank, already described, may be considered as of two kinds, and are of purely symbolic import.

Fig. 249.

Crowns (including coronets) used as charges, are generally those that are more accurately described as heraldic crowns, that is, those which have no allusion to specific rank, but are emblematic in various other ways. The coronet of decorative leaves set on a rim and sometimes called a crest coronet (Fig. 249) is thus borne as a charge in the arms of some of the Companies of London in allusion to events in which kings have been concerned. When, however, a specifically Royal Crown appears it is usually as an Augmentation by special grant from the Sovereign. A fine example of crowns and their distribution as charges on a shield is Fig. 250, from the tomb of Prince Edmund of Langley, at Kings Langley, Herts. The arms are those ascribed to St. Edmund.

Fig. 250.—Shield from the tomb of Prince Edmund of Langley. Early Fifteenth Century.

Other heraldic crowns are the mural crown, representing a fortified wall (Fig. 251), and the naval crown, composed of sails and sterns of ships (Fig. 252), and both are at the present time restricted with care, in the cases of new grants or augmentations, to circumstances in which their obvious symbolism applies.

Fig. 251.

Fig. 252.

Fig. 253.

The mural crown is usually composed in our heraldry of the simple crenellations shown in the example. Abroad, however, a more elaborate and picturesque form occurs in the form of a castellated wall showing three towers at intervals.

Fig. 254.

Fig. 255.

The crown vallery is intended to represent palisades, as in Fig. 253, and when the palisades are more definite and are fastened to the rim instead of rising out of it, the crown is palisado instead of vallery (Fig. 254).

The Eastern crown, sometimes called an antique crown, is formed of five straight rays (Fig. 255), and when in addition there is a star on each point it becomes a celestial crown.

Crescent.—This charge, beautiful as it appears in the badges connected with Henry II of France and Diana of Poitiers, has come to be drawn clumsily as to look more like a biscuit with a bite out of it than a graceful shape derived from the crescent moon. When it is simply described as a crescent it always has its points upwards, and it becomes a decrescent if they point to the sinister, and an increscent when they are pointed to the dexter. Still rarer as a charge than these latter is the full moon, and when she thus occurs she is blazoned a Moon in her Plenitude. It is understood that the proportionate thickness of a crescent may be any that is felt to be in harmony with the general character of the design that accompanies it.

Escallop Shell.—This beautiful charge, with its radiating lines within its outline, appears to have been specially connected with the Crusades as the pilgrim’s badge, as such being sewn on to the cloak or hat. Later the shells so worn were sometimes elaborately painted in the manner of the illuminators, in memory of the pilgrimage. The escallop is especially associated with St. James, and so frequently occurs in Spanish decoration such as that of the House of the Shells, Saragossa, the whole front of which is semée of escallops in high relief.

Also, an old writer says: “The shell thereof is the fairest instrument that can be, being of nature’s making, which for the beauties sake is put in the collars of Saint Michael’s Order.”

Estoile.—A star of six wavy points.

Fig. 256.

Escarbuncle (Fig. 256).—Is derived from the strengthening bands of the shield which the mediaeval metal worker’s decorative instinct made into beautiful ornament even as it did the hinges of a door. The metal plates radiating from the central boss of the shield terminated in foliated forms of great beauty, the fleurs-de-lis of the present charge, while the hollow ring in the centre enabled it to fit over the boss. Many beautiful examples exist of this piece of armour become the Badge of Anjou, worn by Henry II.

Fig. 257.

Fountain (Fig. 257).—The symbol of a spring of water, is a roundle barry, wavy argent and azure, wavy lines having been emblematic of water from time immemorial. Its occurrence in the arms of Lord Stourton (Sable a bend or between six fountains) is very interesting as an example of heraldry of which the meaning is well understood. In the admirable account given by Mr. Fox Davies in The Art of Heraldry he points out that the manor of Stourton on the borders of Wilts and Somerset obtained its name from the river Stour which rises within the manor. The sources of that river are six wells which exist in a tiny valley in Stourton Park, which is still called Six Wells Bottom. When Leland wrote in 1540 to 1542 the whole six were in existence (some have since disappeared), for he wrote: “The ryver of Stoure risith ther of six fountaynes or springes, whereof 3 be on the northe side of the Parke, harde withyn the Pale, and other 3 be northe also but withoute the Parke. The Lorde Stourton giveth these 6 fountaynes yn his Armes.” In addition, not only were three springs inside the park and three outside, but also three were in Wiltshire and three in Somerset. The appropriateness of three fountains on either side of the ordinary is therefore manifest. Would that all heraldic origins were equally clear!

Fig. 258.

Fylfot (Fig. 258).—A symbolic figure which appears to have been used from the remotest antiquity and round which much literature has been written in common with its Indian form, the Swastica. Its presence in heraldry is probably to be ascribed to mere copying from some eastern example, though even thus a symbolic meaning may have been ascribed to its cross-like form, or perhaps some one of the transmitted meanings may even have been known.

It occurs in the arms of Sir Wm. Kellaway in a “Copy of an antient roll of Arms,” in the Heralds’ College.

In Japan it is well-known as the Mon or badge of the Matsudaira family.

Hammer.—In heraldry both the workman’s hammer, emblematic of industry, if it have no more definite symbolism, occurs as well as the military martel-de-fer. Examples of both are given in Figs. 259 and 260. Another instance of the first is in the Arms of the Blacksmiths Company of London, Sa a chev. Or between three hammers Arg. handled and ensigned with crowns gold; and with this is their swinging motto, “By hammer and hand all arts do stand.”

Fig. 259.

Fig. 260.

Hawk’s Bells and Jesses.—The bells are of the globular kind (Fig. 261), and jesses are the leather straps by which they were secured to the falcons’ legs. Also attached to the jesses were pieces of metal, called vervels, that were stamped with the owner’s monogram or badge.

Hawk’s Lure.—A bird’s wing that was attached to a cord by means of which it was thrown in the air in order to attract the falcons to hand. Its usual shape as a charge is as in Fig. 262.

Fig. 261.

Fig. 262.

Fig. 263.

Hemp-brake or Hackle.—An instrument for bruising hemp. Its best known heraldic example is as the badge of Sir Reginald Bray (Fig. 263), the architect to Henry VII, for whom he built the magnificent Chapel in Westminster Abbey and completed St. George’s Chapel at Windsor. The badge is now used by Lord Bray, who is descended from Sir Reginald’s brother.

Fig. 264.

Fig. 265.

Fig. 266.

Fig. 267.

Knots.—A form of badge that is composed of one or more cords or straps twisted into open knots and used to symbolize the bond of a vow. The best known, perhaps, is the Stafford knot (Fig. 264), which from being the badge of the Earls of Stafford has been appropriated by many institutions connected with that county. The Heneage knot, also on a single line, is Fig. 265, and is sometimes accompanied by the motto, “Fast though untied,” and Fig. 266 is the Bowen knot of four bows. Fig. 267 is from among the devices on the robe of the effigy of Anne of Bohemia on her tomb at Westminster Abbey, and is thought by Boutell to convey the idea of a monogram. He also sees in the Wake and Ormond knot (Fig. 268) the initials W and O entwined. A modern attempt was made to form a monogram of the silken tags represented as depending from the seal shape of the bookplate (by C. W. Sherborn, R.E.) of the celebrated J. Robinson Planché, Dramatist and Somerset Herald.

Fig. 268.

Fig. 269.

Fig. 270.

Fig. 271.

The Bouchier knot is Fig. 269, and Boutell mentions a Bouchier badge formed of the knot tied to a coudiere or elbow piece, as from a monument in Westminster Abbey.

The Dacre knot is less a knot than a badge, consisting of an escallop shell linked by a cord with a ragged staff or a billet (Fig. 270). In the same way a sickle and a garb are tied together in the badge of Lord Hastings, and are suggestive of the way in which initial letters of names were linked with each other and with badges in the splendid pageants of the sixteenth century.

The Lacey knot is shown at Fig. 271.

Lozenge.—Fig. 272.

Fig. 272.

Fig. 273.

Fig. 274.

Manche or Maunche.—A severely conventionalized form of a sleeve, derived from the actual sleeve which was worn at a tournament, as a ladies’ favour, floating from the shoulder of a favoured knight. The illustrations are from the fifteenth century seal of Lord Hastings (Fig. 273), and from a MS. of the following century relating to the same family (Fig. 274).

Mullet.—A five-pointed star-like figure whose name is derived from Mollette, the rowel of a spur (Fig. 293).

Pall.—An heraldic figure which occurs in the arms of certain Archbishoprics, being indeed a representation of the Pallium, which is an especial vestment of an Archbishop. Mr. Everard Green, Rouge Dragon Pursuivant, has fully dealt with this in an admirable monograph which is among the Archaeologia of the Society of Antiquaries, from which it appears certain that the pall is not the arms of a particular see, but is an ensign of the ecclesiastical rank of an archbishop.

Pheon.—The head of a dart, the so-called broad arrow of Government stores. It usually has its inner edges engrailed, but this is not essential any more than are the rigidly straight lines with which it is generally drawn. There are many other forms in early use that are much more satisfactory, such as Fig. 275, which is from an early sixteenth century MS. The pheon is understood to be point downwards as in the example, unless it is otherwise described.

Fig. 275.

Roundels.—Circular charges whose names differ according to their tincture. Thus a roundel or is supposed to be a flat piece of gold and is called a Bezant after Byzantium. A roundel arg. is a Plate; a roundel gules is a Torteau; the Hurt is azure; the Pellet or Ogress is sable; the Pomme is vert. Ancient armorists also mention Golpes, which are purpure; Guzes, sanguine; and Oranges, tenné; but these are not actually used in English heraldry. Another roundel, called a Fountain, is barry-wavey arg. and az., and is further alluded to under its name (Fig. 250). The use of the heraldic names of the various roundels is not obligatory, however, their description by tinctures, like other charges, being equally correct. They are frequently themselves charged and may be of ermine or other fur, and be treated in every way as other flat spaces. Their treatment in relief or otherwise is largely a matter of taste, and whether a roundel be treated as flat or globular must depend on the character of the surrounding work. The frequently made suggestion that bezants and plates, being derived from flat objects, should always be flat, while others should always be globular, would often be awkward if carried out in practice, especially in sculpture; and even if the derivations be correct, a roundel as a circular object without other qualification is just as conceivable as a roundel derived from a coin. Suitability to the general design seems to be the governing factor here as elsewhere.

Fig. 276.

Fig. 277.

Portcullis.—A strong grille for the protection of a fortified gateway. It was made of heavy beams securely clamped together and shod with iron, and is represented with the chains on either side by which it was suspended. The example (Fig. 276) is from the Chartulary of Westminster Abbey, where it forms part of the painted decoration of the MS. as one of the favourite badges of Henry VII. It has given a name to one of the pursuivants of arms, and as part of the armorials of the city of Westminster is one of the most familiar charges.

Quatrefoil (Fig. 277).—A four-leaved charge, derived from clover or from a four-petalled flower.

Shakefork (Fig. 278).—An unusual charge which occurs in the Arms of Cunningham.

Fig. 278.

Fig. 279.

Fig. 280.

Spade.—Emblematic of agriculture and industry. It is of great variety of form. Figs. 279 and 280 are fifteenth and sixteenth century forms of these implements, which were usually of wood shod with iron, as in the examples.

Fig. 281.

Fig. 282.

Spear.—Is usually described as a tilting spear, and when its shaft is without swell as a javelin. It is regarded as the emblem of manhood, as the distaff is the symbol of womanhood. As usually depicted, without the vamplate, it appears as in Fig. 281; but there is no reason against representing the plate in addition if it is thought desirable. Although the tilting spear was most frequently used with the blunted head, the coronel or roc, it is almost always represented heraldically with a sharp spear point. The shaft is sometimes parti-coloured, or else grooved into flutings as it was in actual use. In some cases these grooves were so large and deep as to result in a form of the girder principle by which great lightness and strength were obtained. The Arms of Shakespeare, granted in 1546, are: Or on a bend Sable a spear Gold.

Spurs.—As the peculiar symbol of knighthood are naturally of frequent occurrence as charges. They are given star-shaped rowels unless the more ancient form with a single point is intended, and it is then blazoned a Prick Spur.

“The Spurs ben given to a knight to signify diligence and swiftness.”

Sruttle.—Another name for winnowing fan (Fig. 282).

Fig. 283.

Fig. 284.

Fig. 285.

Sword.—Is sometimes borne in allusion to St. Paul, as it is in the Arms of the City of London. Unless otherwise described, a straight sword with a cross hilt, an arming sword as it was sometimes called, is understood. Its position—that is to say, the direction of the blade—whether pale, wise or fesswise, and where there are more swords than one, their relative positions and the direction of their points are duly stated.

Trefoil (Fig. 283).—Is always represented with a stalk, as in the example, but the term slipped is always included in the blazon nevertheless. The form of the charge is usually as given, but in rare instances it appears as in Fig. 284, which is from a fifteenth century MS. in the Heralds’ College.

Water Bouget.—This, like the maunche, is an instance of the conventionalization of an actual thing into a shape that bears but remote likeness to the original form. Although there are instances in which its derivation from water carriers, its undoubted origin, is more nearly suggested, its heraldic form was clearly established in the fourteenth century, chiefly in connexion with the family of Bourchier, which furnished so many persons of note to mediaeval history.

CHAPTER XII
Marks of Cadency

Fig. 286.

Fig. 287.

Fig. 288.

In order to distinguish the various members of a family among themselves certain additions to the shield called marks of cadency are employed; and in the earliest days of the heraldic system a son charged the arms that he derived from his father with such a mark of difference as he thought fit and effectual, but by the middle of the fourteenth century some amount of regularity was arrived at, and by the end of the sixteenth century the present method had become usual. In this system the eldest son is distinguished by a file or label of three points, which consists of a horizontal part from which depend the lambeaux (Fig. 286 et seq.). Its origin is extremely obscure, and whether it represents the points of garments, or tongues or labels threaded on a cord, no one can say with certainty. It seems probable that it may have originally been a favour or distinction whose history and original significance have been lost. The effigy at Artois of Charles Count d’Eu has a label which passes round the shoulders, exactly as other collars did, and consists of large labels charged with castles and suspended from what appears to be a narrow cord (Fig. 288).

On a shield the label is borne in chief and passes over any charges that may be in that part of the arms. In early examples the pendant parts are wider than the rest, in some cases much wider, as in the Garter Plate of Gaston de Foix, Comte de Longueville and Captal de Buch, whose label is charged with a complete coat of arms repeated on each point, a cross charged with five escallop shells, which are the arms of John de Grielly, a previous Captal de Buch who married Blanche de Foix. In later times the points of labels were widened at the ends as in Fig. 289, a form which in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had become as squat and ugly as the still common type (Fig. 290). In ordinary cadency the label which extends from side to side of the shield is no longer used, being reserved for members of the Blood Royal, and a shortened form takes its place in ordinary coats of arms. Distinctions of cadency are provided to the number of nine, and no regular provision is made beyond the ninth son; not because others are to go undifferenced, but because in old heraldic treatises great importance is ascribed to that mystic figure 9. There were nine tinctures (including the rare colours tenné and sanguine), nine ordinaries, nine partitions, or methods of displaying charges with ordinaries, and so forth. The differences are as follows:—

Fig. 289.

Fig. 290.

The eldest

son

a label.

second

”

a crescent.

third

”

a mullet.

fourth

”

a martlet.

fifth

”

an amulet.

sixth

”

a fleur-de-lis.

seventh

”

a rose.

eighth

”

a cross moline.

ninth

”

a double quatrefoil.

Figs. 291-299.

A mark of cadency is borne on any part of a coat that may be found most suitable for its conspicuous display, but always in such a manner that it may not be mistaken for a charge. It is generally placed somewhere in chief or sometimes in the centre of the shield, and its colour may be any that is well seen. Bossewell says (1572): “Every difference ought to be placed in the moste evidente part of the coat armour, videlicit, in the place where the same maie soonest be scene or perceived.” And another early writer indicates the distance at which a difference should be easily perceived on a banner or other flag as eighteen yards.

The sons of the eldest son bear each his own difference charged upon the label of his father, and in similar manner the sons of the second son of the head of the family charge their differences on their father’s crescent, and so forth. As marking the degree of nearness to the headship of the family such distinctions are disused or changed as circumstances dictate, but in some cases a second or other junior son continues to use his difference after his father’s death in order to prevent confusion with his elder brother who has in due course succeeded to the undifferenced coat, and in spite of the inevitable clashing with the second son of that elder brother, who would also bear a crescent for difference. Such a method of distinguishing “Houses” as well as sons would, of course, become impossible in a very few generations, and this points to the superiority of the mediaeval method of differencing as well as to what is the principal weakness of modern heraldry in England as a system, namely, the want of distinction between the branches of a family. That, however, is more a matter for the scientific herald. The mark of cadency may be placed on the crest as well as on the arms, but it is not commonly done, except when the crest is used alone.

It should be noted here that though daughters (other than Princesses of the Blood) do not difference their arms personally, for they rank equally among themselves, they do bear their father’s difference so long as he bears it.

When by impalement or other means the individuality of the bearer is sufficiently pointed out, marks of cadency are frequently considered to be redundant, and are therefore omitted; but their inclusion is preferable.

Royal cadency follows a method apart, and when arms are assigned by the Sovereign to the various members of the Royal Family, as is done by warrant on their arrival at full age, the proper individual mark of cadency is assigned at the same time. At the present day it always takes the form of a label; which is plain for the Prince of Wales, and charged in some distinctive manner for other members of the Blood Royal.

The labels of the other living Princes and Princesses to whom arms have been assigned are as follows: and it should be noted that all these various labels are Argent. The Princess Royal (Duchess of Fife) bears over the Royal Arms a label of five points charged with three crosses gules alternating with two thistles ppr.

The Princess Victoria differences her arms with a label of five points charged with three roses alternately with two crosses gules.

The Princess Maud (Queen of Norway) bears a label of five points charged with three hearts and two crosses gules.

The Duke of Connaught has a label of three points, charged on the centre point with St. George’s Cross and on each of the others with a fleur-de-lis Azure.

The Princess Christian, of Schleswig-Holstein, bears a label of three points, the centre of which is charged with St. George’s Cross and each of the others with a rose gules.

The Princess Louise (Duchess of Argyll) bears a label of three points, the centre point charged with a rose, each of the others with a canton gules.

The Princess Beatrice (Princess Henry of Battenberg) bears a label of three points, the centre one charged with a heart and each of the others with a rose.

In Royal Achievements the labels are charged on the crest and supporters as well as the arms, and in these positions are usually couped at the ends, though there is no reason why they should be so; on the contrary, remembering that these figures are “in the round” it would be preferable to follow the ancient usage.

A further distinction from the arms of the Sovereign is made by substituting for the Imperial Crown, which is borne on the heads of the lion crest and supporter and also encircles the throat of the unicorn, the coronet which is proper to the personage concerned.