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 illustrations of the origin or first adoption of single Supporters.
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 noble church there are other examples of the same character in stained glass. Angel Supporters, the figures treated in various ways, occur in very many Gothic edifices; particularly, sculptured as corbels, bosses or pateræ, 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.
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 noble 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.