CHAPTER VIII.
Heraldric Mottoes.
“We ought to be meek-spirited till we are assured of the honesty of our ancestors; for covetousness and circumvention make no good motto for a coat.”
Collier.
A motto is a word, or short sentence, inserted in a scroll placed generally under a coat of arms, and occasionally over the crest. The word is Italian, and equivalent to verbum. As usual with things of long standing, a variety of opinions exists as to the origin of these pithy and interesting appendages to family ensigns. It would be erroneous to suppose that mottoes belong exclusively to Heraldry, for they are of much more antient date than the first outline of that system. Both sacred and profane history furnish us with proofs of their very early use. The declaration of the Almighty to Moses,[191] “I am that I am,” may be regarded as a motto expressive of the immutability of the Divine perfections. Among mankind, mottoes must have been chosen to express the predominant feelings of piety, love, moral virtue, military courage, and family pride, as soon as those feelings manifested themselves, that is to say, in the earliest stages of social existence. Without tarrying to enter into the philosophy of this subject, it will be sufficient for us here to inquire in what way these brief expressions of sentiment became the almost indispensable adjunct to the armorial honours of individuals and of families.
The origin of heraldric mottoes might probably be traced to two sources, in themselves diametrically opposed to each other; I mean Religion and War. “Extremes,” we are told, “sometimes meet,” and certainly these two feelings did coalesce in the institutions of chivalry, if we may be allowed to prostitute the holy name of religion by identifying it with the frenzy which possessed the human mind in such enterprises as the Crusades. It is uncertain whether we ought to deduce the origin of mottoes from those devout ejaculations, such as ‘Drede God!’—‘Jesu mercy—Lady helpe,’ which occur on antient tombs, or from the word of onset, employed by generals on the battle-field to stimulate their soldiers to great feats of prowess. The preponderance in point of number of religious mottoes would incline us to the former supposition; but the general opinion of our best authors favours a military origin. The war-cry, known in Latin as the Clamor militaris, in French as the Cri de guerre, and in the Scottish language as the Slughorn, or Slogan, is of very remote antiquity. In early scripture history we have an example in “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon,” the word of onset employed by the Hebrews against the Midianites in the valley of Jezreel.[192] Among barbarous nations at the present day it has its representative in the war-whoop, or yell, employed as well to animate the courage of their own party as to inspire terror in the hearts of their enemies. From an early period the phrase ‘a boo!’ was employed by the Irish for these purposes. This expression, in course of time, became the motto of many of the great families of that island, with the adjunct of their surname or the name of their chief fortress. Hence the ‘Crom a boo’ of the Earls of Leinster; the ‘Shanet a boo’ of the Earls of Desmond; the ‘Butler a boo’ of the Butlers; the ‘Galriagh a boo’ of the Bourkes, Lords Clanricarde, &c. &c. In England, France, and other countries, an invocation of the patron saints, St. George, St. Denis, &c. constituted the war-cry of the common cause; but in intestine wars each party had their separate cry, and every commander urged on his forces by the well-recognized shout of his own house. That this practice prevailed in England so recently as the close of the fifteenth century appears from an Act of Parliament, passed in the tenth year of Henry VII, to abolish these cries as productive of rancour among the nobles, who, with their retainers, were thenceforth enjoined to call only upon St. George and the king.
The following are some of the antient cris-de-guerre:
The kings of France, ‘Montjoye[193] St. Denis!’
The kings of England, ‘Montjoye Notre Dame, St. George!’