That joyfully we van-ward go!
The shield of the Bismarcks exhibits a device, which, although it has not materially changed in the course of centuries, has at different times been variously blazoned. It displays a double trefoil, or, more exactly speaking, a round-leafed trefoil, flanked in its corners by three long leaves. The centre device has altered in the seals of various times, sometimes resembling a rose leaf, sometimes a clover leaf; finally it has remained a clover leaf. The other trefoil has been treated in the same way, the leaf being sharply serrated and shorter, or sometimes longer and but slightly serrated, finally becoming an oak leaf. The colors have also only been decided in later years. The shield is thus described:—
“In a field azure a golden clover leaf supported in the three angles by three silver oak leaves.” As to the crest, the arms of Ludolf von Bismarck exhibit two stags’ antlers on the helmet, evidently alluding to his official position as Ranger to the Margrave, for the buffalo horns now in use also often appear at a very early period. The present emblazoning of the crest is thus given:—“On a coronetted helmet displayed two buffalo horns proper in azure and argent crosswise—the helmet is azure and argent.”
The small gold coronet, which, contrary to every rule of good heraldry, is represented hovering between the horns, is a more recent addition. We are unable to decide when and how this coronet became part of the crest. Brüggemann, in his description of Pomerania, describes it as a Count’s coronet—for what reason we do not perceive.
On inspection of the earliest seals it is evident that the round trefoil was unquestionably the peculiar and original device, the elongated leaves having been subsequently added, disputing precedence with the clover leaf. Thus it is that afterwards we find the oak leaves small and the centre trefoil large—and contrariwise. If the clover be regarded as the principal device, it would be more heraldically true, as it is always emblazoned in gold, to blazon the horns in azure and or. Indeed, the heraldic ensigns of the Prussian Monarchy (Vol. I. p. 19) give the correct crest of the Bismarcks in the Armorial Bearings of the Counts of Bismarck-Bohlen.
The seal of the first Nicholas von Bismarck (1365) displays the device in a neat border, with a string of pearls within the inscription. This inscription, no longer very legible, is S. (Sigillum) Nicolay de Bismark. This border disappears on the seals of his three sons: the shield lies within a string of pearls on a field strewn with small crosses. In all these seals the trefoil is prominent, but in the seals of succeeding generations it becomes very small, the long leaves being prominent, until by lapse of time they assumed proportionate dimensions.
It would be idle and unheraldic to endeavor to identify symbols deriving their names from the botanical world, hence it would be useless to define the long leaves in the Bismarck arms as those of the Wegedorn, Christ-thorn, or White Bramble. This has, however, been done in support of the extraction of the Bismarcks from the Slavonic race—to identify it with Bij smarku (Beware of the Bramble), an idea which we must dismiss as entirely erroneous. The legends only recognize the clover leaf, and call the long leaves those of the nettle. In popular tradition these two ideas have become intermingled, as a proverb shows which was engraven on the blade of a sword of honor presented to Count Bismarck some years ago. This proverb is:—
Der Wegekraut sollst stehen lah’n—
Hüt dich, Junge, sind Nesseln d’ran.