It may be almost unnecessary to observe, that many of the anecdotes about to be related are of a very apocryphal description, referring to periods antecedent to the introduction of armorial bearings. Some of these, however, may be correct in the incidents though incorrect in point of time; and doubtless, in many cases, the arms have been assumed in rather modern times, to commemorate the exploits of ancestors of a much earlier period; the highly-prized family tradition having been confided to the safer custody of the emblazoned shield. At all events, I deliver them to the reader as I find them set down in ‘myne authoures,’ and leave the onus probandi to the families whose honour is concerned in their perpetuation.
First among these pictorial mementoes should be noticed the well-known cognizance of the Prince of Wales, the Ostrich Feathers, the popular origin of which is known to every schoolboy. Whether the King of Bohemia fell by the trenchant blade of the Black Prince himself, or by that of some knight or ‘squier of lowe degree,’ it would now be useless to inquire; and whether the feathers and the mottoes, Ich Dien and Houmout, signifying respectively in old German, ‘I serve,’ and ‘A haughty spirit,’ had any relation to that event is altogether a matter of dubiety. It has been shown by Mr. J. G. Nichols[199] that the King of Bohemia used (not ostrich feathers, but) a pair of vulture’s wings as a crest. It further appears that the badge of the Black Prince was a single feather, while, on his tomb at Canterbury, the three feathers are represented singly upon a shield, the quill of each being attached to a scroll, with the motto ICH . DIENE. The popular version of the story, however, is somewhat supported by the fact that an ostrich, collared and chained, with a nail in his beak, was a badge of the Bohemian monarchs; and Mr. Nichols suggests that the feathers may probably have been adopted by Edward as a trophy of his victory. Randle Holme deduces the three ostrich feathers from a totally different source, and asserts that they were the ensign of the princes of Wales during the independence of that country, prior to the invasion of the English. After this event, (he adds) the eldest sons of the kings of England, as princes of Wales, continued the badge ensigned with a coronet, with the motto, ‘Ich Dien,’ I serve; to express the sentiment that, although of paramount dignity in that country, they still owed allegiance to the crown of England.[200] It is asserted by other authorities that a single ostrich feather was borne as a badge by Edward III, by all the brothers and descendants of the Black Prince, and by Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, who was descended by the female line from Thomas de Brotherton, fifth son of Edward I. In the Harl. MS. 304, we are told that,
“The ostrich fether, sylver, and pen gold, is the King’s.
The ostrich fether, pen and all sylver, is the Prince’s.
The ostrich fether, gold, ye pen ermyne, is the Duk of Lancaster’s.
The ostrich fether, sylver, and pen gobone, is the Duk of Somersett’s.”
Who has not heard of the ‘Bear and ragged staff’ of the earls of Warwick? This is a combination of two badges of that antient line, which sprang, according to the family tradition, from Arthgal, one of the knights of King Arthur’s ‘Round Table.’ Arth or Narth, in the British language, is said to signify a bear; hence this ensign was adopted as a rebus or play upon his name. Morvidus, another earl of the same family, a man of wonderful valour, slew a giant with a young tree torn up by the roots and hastily trimmed of its boughs. In memory of this exploit his successors bore as their cognizance a silver staff in a shield of sable.[201]
The supporters of the Scottish family of Hay, earls of Errol, are two husbandmen, each carrying an ox-yoke. In the year 980, when the Danes invaded this island, an engagement took place at Longcarty, near Perth, in which Kenneth III was routed. An honest yeoman, yclept John de Luz, and his two sons, were ploughing in a field hard by the scene of action. Seeing their countrymen fly before the victorious enemy, these stalwart ploughmen stopped them in a narrow pass with the gear of their ploughs, and upbraiding them with cowardice induced them to stand the brunt of a new attack. The Danes, astonished at this unexpected turn of affairs, which they attributed to the arrival of fresh succours, wheeled about and made a hasty retreat, and the Scots obtained a signal victory. Kenneth, to reward the valour of his faithful subject, gave him as much land in the district of Gowrie, as a falcon, flying from his fist, should measure out before he perched. Hence the supporters and the crest (a falcon rising) of this family. The earls of Kinnoul, a younger branch of the family, further allude to the circumstance first mentioned in their motto, RENOVATE ANIMOS, ‘Rouse your courage,’ or ‘Rally.’
There are still existing indubitable evidences of a great conflict on the spot referred to in this legend; and it may be admitted that the ancestors of the family were concerned in it; but the above heraldric ensigns must be considered to have been adopted as remembrances of long past events, albeit their assumption may have taken place at a very early period.
The family of Keith, earls Marischal, bear Argent, on a chief or, three pallets gules, OR gules, three pallets or. These ensigns likewise originated in an engagement between the Scots and the Danes. An ancestor of the Keiths having greatly distinguished himself in a battle near Dundee, in which Camus, the Danish general, was killed, the Scottish monarch, Kenneth III, charmed with his valour, dipped his royal fingers in the blood of the Dane and drew three stripes or pallets on the top of his chieftain’s shield. Hence the arms of Keith. As in the former instance, this anecdote assumes the existence of armorial bearings, at too remote a date, though, as in that case, there are evident vestigia of a great battle at the place referred to. A stone called ‘Camus’s Cross’ was standing a few years since; and in the last century a large tomb, inclosed with four huge stones, containing bones, conjectured to have been those of the Northman, was discovered near the spot.[202]
Bulstrode, of Bulstrode, co. Bucks, bore, as a crest, A bull’s head, erased gules, attired argent, between two wings of the same. When William the Conqueror subdued this kingdom he gave the estate of this family to one of his own followers, and lent him a thousand men for the purpose of taking possession, vi et armis. The rightful owner calling in the aid of some neighbouring gentlemen, (among others, the ancestors of the Penns and the Hampdens,) gallantly resisted the invader, intrenching himself with an earthwork, which is still pointed out as evidence of the truth of the story. It seems that the besieged party, wanting horses, mounted themselves upon bulls, and, sallying out of their camp, so affrighted the Normans that many of the latter were slain and the rest put to flight. The king hearing of this strange affair, and not wishing to push matters to an imprudent extent, sent for the valiant Saxon, with a promise of safe conduct to and from his court. The Saxon paid the Conqueror a visit, riding upon a bull, accompanied by his seven sons similarly mounted. The result of the interview was that he was allowed to retain his estate. In commemoration of these events, he assumed the crest above described, together with the name of Bullstrode!! The whole narration exhibits strong characteristics of that peculiar genus of history, known as ‘Cock and Bull stories,’ although it is probably quite as true as a distich preserved in the family, that
“When William conquered English ground,
Bulstrode had per annum, Three Hundred Pound.”[203]