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.
