FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
This century opens with that most valuable fund of information the celebrated Baron's letter, 1301, the seals attached to which are beautifully engraved in the Monumenta Vetusta of the Society of Antiquaries, vol. i, plates 28-33. A large number of these show heater shields, some more and some less pointed. The beautiful round seal of Simon de Montacute shows a square shield, No. 7, with a pointed French base; while to represent the curving of the shield the top is concave. The side spaces in the field, as is frequently the case with seals of this date, are filled up with two grotesque animals or worms, while in the place where a crest would be appears a large castle, &c. The counterseal to this is square, representing a griffin segreant, not in a shield at all, but surrounded by a bordure.
Badges or portions of armorial bearings obtained from heiresses now frequently appear on the fields, to fill up; being the way in which such intermarriages were shown before the general introduction of quarterings. Flowers in the field, also enarching and architectural details, are freely used to fill up the blank spaces, and in one of the seals attached to the Baron's letter—that of Hugo Bardolf, of Wormgay (see No. 50)—no room is left outside the architectural embellishment for an inscription. Seals also occur shaped entirely like a heater shield; with a similar shield in the centre containing the arms, as in that of Matthew Fitz John, where the three lions rampant appear, while the space beyond is filled up with the inscribed name of the owner. See No. 51.
The seals of this whole century are most beautifully designed and executed, and almost universally show the heater shape; pointed in the earlier decades, and becoming gradually shorter and more square-shaped say about 1370. The secretum of Robert Braybroke, Bishop of London 1382-1401, well shows this squareness. It is engraved in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 9th Dec, 1869, also 3rd Feb., 1887. To the same deed, dated 21st May, 1392, is also attached the seal of Sir Gerard Braibrok the younger.
The fields are beautifully decorated, being diapered or filled up with architectural or ornamental details—lines, dots, and flowers; while frequently crests, with helmets and mantlings, occur; and sometimes two of such helmets are placed as supporters on each side of the shield, or two grotesque animals hold up the helmet and crest, while the shield of arms appears in the base.
Gothic lettering in the Latin inscriptions now first appears, although more frequently longobardic, and occasionally still the plain Roman capitals. Frequently the whole face of the seal is so filled up that the only spaces left for the inscription are on the edges, above and below the arms. The seal of Edmund of Arundel, 1301-26, shows this arrangement. It is from Herald and Genealogist, vol. ii, p. 56. Now, also, two, three, or more shields appear, conjointed or standing side by side. The earliest instance I have noticed is Sigillum Ide de Clinton, 1298-1300, with three heater shields, points to the centre [Nicholas Upton, p. 82]. Towards the middle of the century they are frequently found.
In the curious seal of Rich., fil. Ricardi de Beyvill of Wodewalton, which is heater-shaped, and attached to a deed 1349, a square heater shield shows a chevron between three roundels, and is supported by two worms or dragons, while across the top of the seal appears the name "Beyvil." This is engraved Visit. Huntingdon, p. 116.
Besides the curved heater of the last century, which appears in the great seal of Edward II., 1307, and in several monumental effigies, others of Norman heater form No. 2 appear with the upper corners cut off and sometimes rounded. Refer to an effigy in Norton Church, Durham, engraved in Surtees History, vol. iii, p. 155 (see No. 52), while in illuminated MSS. shields occur with the bouche deeply cut and the base of the shield curved outwards. This curved outward turning will be discussed while speaking of similar shields found in the next century. Two which occur in Bamberg Cathedral are engraved Archæological Journal, vol. ii, p. 217, and in Hewitt's Armour, vol. ii, pp. 138-9, and are specially curious (see No. 55); and several are shown from Harl. MS. 14379, and engraved in Cutts, p. 434.
59 [see Plate iv].
Shields on monumental effigies almost, if not entirely, disappear in the course of this century, and in battles and tournaments in ancient MSS. of this date the knights are more usually represented without shields. Such is the fact; the reason being that defensive armour had been added to and improved, and increased in respect of weight, as experiences of war showed the contingencies against which it was desirable to be protected. The shield, therefore, became an encumbrance to the mounted knight, while so perfect was his case of steel, and so admirably fitted and designed, that the shield was no longer required. We notice that this general discarding of shields by mounted knights begins about the latter half of this fourteenth century among the wealthy and powerful, who could procure expensive and perfect suits of mail. It is in memory of such only that costly monumental effigies were erected, and, as a consequence, the shields formerly shown carved by the side of the knights now entirely disappear from effigies. The reasons here put forward are quite borne out by other evidences. Monumental brasses, which now lend their assistance to our search, were far less costly memorials than such effigies. Some of the earliest of these represent the dead knight as he appeared in his life, with, his shield upon the arm; but in the course of the following fifteenth century these, too, follow the fashion we find prevailing in MS. illustrations, and the shields are only used for the purposes of heraldry, and are relegated into the corners of the brass, or up among its tabernacle work.
While on this subject of suits of mail, I may with advantage overstep the limits of this century—as, indeed, I have already done—and mention that such went on increasing so greatly in protective perfectness, and, pari passu, in their oppressive weight, that a knight falling off the horse upon which he had been placed lay perfectly helpless; and history records many times that they were slain by clowns and boys while lying helpless on the ground. When the style of protective armour became so exaggerated, a man so hampered could do little more than hold his spear and guide his horse. Until at last, about the year 1602, King James I. summed up the past experience of armour thus:—"It was an admirable invention, which preserved a man from being injured,—and made him incapable of injuring any one else."
In some books it is stated that the introduction and gradually increasing use of gunpowder in war led by degrees to the abandonment of shields; but the above evidences completely refute such an idea. Heavy mail armour, exaggerated into an absurdity—as pointed out by King James—did so disappear when it became evident that such afforded no protection whatever against a small bit of well-directed lead. But shields had already been abandoned by the knights,—long before, at a period when gunpowder was as yet a great and rare mystery.
Besides, we find round shields were still in continued use by the foot-soldiery, when every battlefield was contested with fire and sword—the smoke as well as the din of battle.
Moreover, examples have come down to us of such shields with fixed pistols projecting through, and with a peep-hole for sighting. Thus shields were made the handmaid of gunpowder; and, as a matter of fact, they were in use by foot soldiers so late as the middle of the seventeenth century.
We noticed that the heater shields which obtained so largely during this century, and grew less and less pointed as it progressed, at last became much squarer. The seal of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, 1372, might well be taken for the fifteenth century; the square heater, with blunt-shaped base; the inscription in Gothic, and curiously placed at the top and bottom; and the two supporting helmets, with mantlings and huge panaches, out of which appear below the hinder half of the bodies and legs of two animals, the rest of their carcasses being crammed inside these helmets. This is taken from the engraving in Herald and Genealogist, vol. ii, p. 56.
But from about this date downwards we can perceive much more discriminating taste exercised in designing seals. The seal of Richard Earl of Arundel, 1330-76, from the engraving in Herald and Genealogist, vol. ii, p. 54, is an example of such beautiful design and execution.[3]
The small seal of Matilde Fraunceys, relict of Simon Fraunceys, citizen of London, attached to a deed 33 Edward III. [1359], is a characteristic example of ordinary small well-executed seals prevailing in this century. The engraving is from the Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries, 11th Dec., 1856.
Some families seem to have taken a special pride in their seals. Those of the Bardolfe family of Wyrmegeye, Norfolk, continue pre-eminent for several generations. Occasionally one member of a family shows a seal of extreme beauty, the work of some "Strongitharm" or "Wyon" of those days, and in this way the centuries may frequently seem to overlap each other. Such exceptional seals show an execution, shape of shield frequently, and design somewhat later than their art-date, in the sequence we are endeavouring to lay down. Other such overlappings occur from the great age of the seal user. Elianor Ferre uses on a deed, 1348, a dimidiated seal, which was surely made about 1290. She died, a very old lady, in 1349. This seal is engraved in Archæological Journal, vol. xi, p. 375; and if you will refer to Herald and Genealogist, vol. i, p. 485, you will see a seal of Clare and Fitzgerald dimidiated on a shield of apparently identical date. The inscription is "Sigill-Elianore-Ferre"; so she used her own seal made in early life, perhaps dating from her marriage. The seal of Isabella de Fortibus, Countess of Albemarle, used in 1292, is another dimidiated heraldic seal, almost identical. See No. 53.
Pointed heater shields with concave tops, suggesting their curved shape, are not uncommon in this century, and inscriptions in Gothic type became much more frequent.
The description of a shield which used to hang, before the Great Fire, in old St. Paul's, London, will be an interesting illustration of how shields were made in the fourteenth century. This was the shield of John of Gaunt (or Ghent, as it was originally spelled), our Duke of Lancaster, the third brother of Edward the Black Prince, and father of Henry IV. He was born 1340, and died 1399, so we may assign 1370 as about the date of its manufacture. In shape it is an oblong square with rounded corners and hollowed-out sides and base, while a very deep bouche is cleft into the dexter chief. It much resembles the "Gothic-rounded No. 12," but the base is flat and hollowed out. I am quoting from Bolton's Elements of Armories, 1610, p. 69:—"It is very convex toward the bearer, whether by warping through age, or as made of purpose. It hath in dimensions more than three-quarters of a yeard of length and above halfe a yeard in breadth: next to the body is a canvas glew'd to a boord, upon that thin board are broad thin axicles, slices or plates of horne nail'd fast, and againe over them 20 and sixe peeces of the like all meeting or centring about a round plate of the same in the navell of the shield, and over all a leather clozed fast to them with glew or other holding stuffe,—upon which his armorie was painted, but now they with the leather itself have very lately and very lewdly bin utterly spoil'd." This is engraved in Bolton's Elements, in Willement's Regal Heraldry, in Randle Holme's Academy, and in several other heraldic works. There is also engraved in Bolton's Elements, p. 67, the shield of Edward the Black Prince hanging over his tomb at Canterbury. This was of the egg shape No. 35; and in a circle in the centre were, on a heater shield No. 5, the arms of France and England quarterly with a label of three points; while around this circle the rest of the shield was embossed or "tooled" with an elaborate filagree pattern, and a narrow plain rim extended round the outer edge.
The inscriptions in this century continue to be in Latin and in Roman letters, but sometimes Gothic lettering is used.