CHAPTER X
Embroidered Heraldry
The romantic associations that embroidered heraldry call to mind, of fair fingers working the devices on battle flags and on knightly surcoats, render it a subject of the utmost fascination, and although its adequate treatment would demand more space than can be devoted to it here, it will still be possible to refer in some measure to an art that, like the heraldry it embodied, touched in one way or another all the life of the Middle Ages and has transmitted no little of its beauty and charm to the work of our own time.
Long before heraldry was formulated noble ladies practised the art and found in it a delightful occupation. Embroidered heraldry is even alluded to in that dim time where myth and history meet, as when the Raven banner of the Vikings, the dread Landeyda, desolation of the land, was woven and embroidered in one noontide by the daughters of Reyner Lodbrock, son of Sigurd.
In England in the sixth century Aldelswitha, a noble Saxon lady, taught the art to some young girls and so formed the first school of art needlework of which we have any record. The four daughters of Edward the Elder were celebrated embroiderers, and there was a constant succession of skilled needleworkers whose names and even many of their notable works were handed down as worthy of remembrance; the altar cloths and vestments, covered with golden eagles, that had been worked by Queen Aelgitha the wife of Canute among many others. And the reputation was not merely a local one, but throughout Europe the praises are recorded of the Opus Anglicum, whose name, from being at first a general one, afterwards acquired a particular technical meaning. The excellence that called forth such universal appreciation continued throughout the mediaeval period, as when in the thirteenth century Pope Innocent III was enthusiastic in its praise. In the development of heraldry embroidery found a congenial subject, and ladies busied themselves in depicting with the needle their husbands’ armorials, as their predecessors had pictured the incidents of their own times, on hallings and banners and emblazoned garments, such employment being a frequent subject of the beautiful illuminations of the painted MSS. which had so much affinity with fine needlework, from which it copied and was itself copied in return.
Ecclesiastical vestments and altar frontals contain much heraldry, and the Syon Cope, that most interesting work of the thirteenth century, contains on its orphreys and borders some sixty coats of arms on round or diamond shaped shields. One of those on the orphreys is shown at Fig. 223, although it is perhaps more curious than beautiful.
Fig. 223.—Arms of Geneville from the Syon Cope.
Among the earliest examples of heraldic embroidery that survive is the surcoat of Edward the Black Prince, no less admirable in its way than the already mentioned shield, and on account of its unique character it is necessarily reproduced again and again. It consists of the arms of the shield translated into terms of embroidery, and if it were but in better preservation a finer model for heraldic work it would be hardly possible to conceive. This is but one of the many splendid heraldic garments of which so little remains, but which are depicted on the monumental effigies with absolute fidelity. Of the latter fact this surcoat is one of the proofs, for its copy on the effigies was made with such accuracy that even the faults of the needlework are there.[2] The embroidery of badges on garments instead of the regular arms was also common, as witness the effigies of Richard II and his Queen, Anne of Bohemia, in Westminster Abbey.
Fig. 224.—Embroidered Cap with badges, Victoria and Albert Museum. Sixteenth Century.