Heraldry as art: An account of its development and practice, chiefly in England

by G. W. Eve

Fig. 169.—Coronet of the Prince of Wales.

Royal coronets, other than that of the Prince of Wales, do not change automatically as private marks of cadency do, but being arranged under the same Royal Warrant by which the arms are assigned, they remain as so designated until they are changed by the same authority.

The Coronets of Peers were definitely assigned to the various ranks by warrant of Charles II, having by that time become developed into distinctive forms, as the Crown had been, from the circlets which in themselves were marks of high rank and were so used ceremonially in conferring a title.

The coronet of a Duke is composed of eight ornamental leaves of equal height, wrongly called strawberry leaves, set on a rim which is ornamented with jewel-like tracery but not with actual gems. Eight being the full number of leaves, five of which are visible in representation.

A Marquis’s coronet has four leaves alternately with an equal number of silver balls, called pearls, which are set on points to the height of the leaves, and the coronet is always represented as so posed that three leaves and two balls are visible. It is directed that in all coronets the balls shall be of silver and not counterfeit pearls.

An Earl’s coronet has eight balls raised on high points and showing between them leaves which are set low down. Five balls and four alternate leaves are usually shown. This form is evidently derived from the beautiful coronet that is sculptured on the tomb of Thomas Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, 1445, and in the same way that the coronet of another Earl of Arundel (A.D. 1487) foreshadowed that of a duke. The former of these is very fine, having groups of three pearls on alternate points, and with the leaves also on points to the same height as the others.

A Viscount’s coronet is a circle with surface decorations which, like all the preceding, is as in that of a Duke and has sixteen silver balls set close on the rim, and of them nine are shown.

A Baron’s coronet has six silver balls, also set directly on the rim and not on points, the circlet in this instance being plain, i.e., without indications of jewel forms.

In the warrant of Charles II it is directed that all the coronets shall be worn over a cap of crimson velvet lined with ermine, and having a tassel of gold at the top. This cap, however, is not an essential part of the coronet, although a head covering of considerable distinction in itself. During the greater part of the Middle Ages the temporal peerage consisted principally of earls and barons, the former distinguished by the circlet of gold, which was variously decorated, and the latter by a cap of crimson lined with fur. For military purposes, the coronet was fixed to the helmet, and at other times it was placed, for practical reasons of comfort among others, round the cap which formed part of contemporary costume, as may be seen in many of the beautiful French and Italian medals of the fifteenth century, notably in one of Louis XII at the end of that period. Fig. 143. In another composition of about the same time, a head of King Herod has a crown which encircles a cap of the shape usually ascribed, in modern times, to a Cap of Maintenance. The last-named head covering is one of much interest as an early subject of privilege, although but little appears to be known about it. Its shape was obviously not its distinctive quality, and it must therefore have been the material or colour which constituted its especial value; and having regard to the sumptuary restrictions concerning the wearing of ermine, among other things, it seems probable that its lining of this fur was its distinctive quality, and that being prohibited to those of inferior rank, it would naturally be the cap that would be associated with a coronet when it was actually worn. Thus was formed the prototype of the coronets as described in the warrants of the end of the seventeenth century, when caps of this character had ceased to be part of the ordinary costume of people of position. The cap is therefore a means of wearing the coronet and no indication of definite rank and may certainly be omitted in heraldic design, since it adds nothing to what is signified by the coronet itself and is not an essential part of it.