No. 210.— Shield at St. Albans.
The German Heralds, and also their brethren of France, delight in exaggerations of what I may distinguish as the Westminster Eagle, [No. 200]. The Austrian Eagle, besides having both its heads crowned, has a large Imperial Crown placed between and above the two heads, as in No. 211. The Imperial Eagle (Holy Roman Empire) sometimes has a nimbus or glory about each head, which dignified accessory is represented by a circular line, as in No. 212. In some examples of Eagles, as well in our own Heraldry as in that of continental countries, the wings are represented as erect (the more usual form in England), and having the tips of all the principal feathers pointing upwards, as in No. 213. The Eagle borne as the Ensign of Imperial France was represented grasping a thunderbolt, in an attitude of vigilance, having its wings displayed, but with the tips of the feathers drooping, as they would be in the living bird; [No. 214].
No. 211.— The Austrian Eagle.
| No. 212.— Imperial Eagle, with Nimbus. | No. 213.— Eagle “displayed,” with Wings erect. |
Edward III., as a Second Crest, bore an Eagle. An Eagle also was borne for his Crest, as the imperial bird was displayed upon his Shield ([No. 206]), by Earl Ralph de Monthermer. In the more recent Heraldry of England, the Eagle is a Supporter to the Shields of the Earls of Clarendon, Coventry, and Malmesbury; the Viscounts Bolingbroke and St. Vincent; and the Barons Heytesbury, Radstock, Wynford, and others. Eagles also and Demi-Eagles are borne as Crests in the English Heraldry of our own day.