[66] Guillim. “Heraldry.”
In Saxony Rue has given its name to an Order. A chaplet of Rue borne bendwise on “barrs of the Coat Armour of the Dukedom of Saxony” (till then “Barry of ten, sable and or,”) was granted by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to Duke Bernard of Anhalt (the first of his house to be Duke of Saxony), at his request, “to difference his arms from his Brothers’,” Otho, Marquis of Brandenberg, and Siegfrid, Archbishop of Breme. This took place in the year 1181, but the Order was not founded till more than six centuries had passed, and was then due to Frederick Augustus, first King of Saxony, who created the Order of the Rautenkrone on the 20th July 1807. In the newspapers of October 24th, 1902, it was announced that the King of Saxony had conferred the Order of the Crown of Rue on the Prince of Wales. Sprigs of Rue are now interlaced in the Collar of the Order of the Thistle, but earlier it was composed of thistles and knots. There is extreme uncertainty as to the origin or this Order, and cold suspicion is thrown on assertions that it was, of old, an established “Fraternity,[67] following the lines of other Orders of Knighthood.” The first appearance of a collar is on the gold bonnet pieces struck in 1539, where King James V. is represented with a collar composed alternately of thistle heads and what seem to be knots or links in the form of the figure 8 or of the letter S, and a similar collar is placed round the Royal Arms in another gold piece of the same year. Collars with knots of a slightly different shape appear on Queen Mary’s Great Seal and on that of James VI. Ashmole says:[68] “It was thought fit that the collars of both the Garter and Thistle of King Charles I. should be used in Scotland, 1633”; but after that the Order seems to have lapsed, for Guillim (Ed. 1679) puts the “Order of Knights of The Thistle or of St Andrewe’s” between the Orders of The Knights of the Round Table and the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and speaks of all their rites and ceremonies in the past tense. This seems as if at that period there was an absolute pause in its chequered career. In 1685 it was “revived” by James II. of Great Britain, who created eight knights, but during the Revolution it lapsed again and “lay neglected till Queen Anne in 1703 restored it to the primitive design of twelve Knights of St Andrew” (Every). “By a statute passed in 1827 the Order is to consist of the Sovereign and sixteen Knights” (Burke). Sprigs of Rue do not make their earliest appearance in the collar till about 1629 and then on doubtful authority. “Mirœus, however, states that the Collar was made of Thistles and Sprigs of Rue; and the Royal Achievements of Scotland in Sir George Mackenzie’s ‘Science of Heraldry’ published in 1680, are surrounded by a Collar of Thistles linked with Sprigs of Rue.” Very shortly before this Guillim had described the collar as being “composed of thistles, intermixed with annulets of gold.” So the publication of Sir George Mackenzie’s book must be the approximate date of the introduction of the Rue; the present collar, badge and robe of the Order are the same as those approved by Queen Anne. André Favyn[69] gives the reasons for this choice of plants, though as the Rue made its first appearance in the collar so much later than the date he assigns (which is that of Charlemagne) one cannot help fearing that he drew a little on his imagination. King Achaius took for “his devise the Thistle and the Rewe. And for the Soule therof, Pour ma deffence Because the Thistle is not tractable or easily handled... giving acknowledgment thereby, that hee feared not forraigne Princes his neighbours... as for the Rewe although it be an Herbe and Plant very meane, yet it is (nevertheless full of admirable vertues)... and serveth to expell and drive serpents to flight... and there is not a more soveraigne remedy for such as are poisoned.” Guillim called Hungus, King of the Picts, the founder, and says that he, “the Night before the Battle that was fought betwixt him and Athelstane, King of England, sawe in the skie a bright Cross in fashion of that whereon St Andrew suffered Martyrdom, and the day proving successful unto Hungus in memorial of the said Apparition, which did presage so happy an omen, the Picts and Scots have ever since bore in the Ensigns and Banners the Figure of the said Cross, which is in fashion of a Saltier. And from thence ’tis believed that this Order took its rise, which was about the year of our Lord 810.” Both authors are quite positive as to their facts regarding the origin of the Order, but they have hardly one fact in common, not even the founder’s name!
[67] Sir H. Nicholas. “History of the Orders of Knighthood of the British Empire.”
[68] “History of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.”
[69] “Theater of Honour.” 1623.
It is perhaps not very well known that there was once a French Order of the Thistle, or, as it was sometimes called, “Order of Bourbon.” It was instituted by Louis II., third Duke of Bourbon, surnamed the Good Duke, and it consisted six and twenty knights,[70] each of whom “wore a Belt, in which was embroydered the word Esperance in capital letters; it had a Buckle of Gold at which hung a tuft like a Thistle; on the Collar also was embroydered the same word Esperance, with Flowers de Luce of Gold from which hung an Oval, wherein was the Image of the Virgin Mary, entowered with a golden sun, crowned with twelve stars of silver and a silver crescent under her feet; at the end of the Oval was the head of a Thistle.”
[70] Ross. “View of all Religions,” 1653.
There are other Orders called after flowers, or of which flowers form the badge. Several of the “Christian Orders of Knighthood”—orders instituted for some religious or pious purpose—bore lilies among their tokens, and flowers-de-luce appeared in many. The Order of the Lily or of Navarre was instituted by Prince Garcia in 1048. The Order of the Looking-Glass of the Virgin Mary was created by “Ferdinand, the Infant of Castile, upon a memorable victory he had over the Moors. The Collar of this Order was composed of Bough-pots, full of Lillies, interlaced with Griffons.” Ross and Favyn give most curious accounts of the Order “De la Sainte Magdalaine.” This was instituted by a Noble Gentleman of France, who is alternately called John Chesnil or Sieur de la Chapronaye, “Out of a godly Zeal to reclaim the French from their Quarrels, Duels and other sins.... The Cross of the Order had at three ends, three Flowers-de-Luce; the Cross is beset with Palms to shew this Order was instituted to encourage Voyages to the Holy Land, within the Palms are Sunbeams and four Flowers-de-Luce to shew the glory of the French Nation.” They had a house allotted them near Paris, “wherein were ordinarily five hundred Knights, bound to stay there during two years’ probation.... The Knights that live abroad shall meet every year at their house called the lodging Royal on Mary Magdalene’s Festival Day.” The Lay Brothers were to be of good family; the Vallets des Chevaliers, of “honestes Familles d’Artisans et Mecaniques.” Their garb was carefully ordered, and they were to take the same vows as their master. Other elaborate arrangements were made—“But this Order, as it began, so it ended in the person of Chesnil.” One’s breath is taken away, as when, in a dream, one falls and falls to immense depths and awakes with a sudden shock! Francis, Duke of Bretaigne, created the Order of Bretaigne: “This Order consisteth of five and twenty Knights of the Ears of Corn, so called to signifie that Princes should be careful to preserve Husbandry.” Favyn, however, finds a much more romantic origin for the name, and tells a long story of a dispute among the gods as to the thing most essential to “les Humains.” After lengthy argument, “de sorte que Jupiter toujours favorisant les Dames,” he declared victory to rest with Ceres, to whose verdict that of Minerva was joined (Minerva had pleaded the Ox), and so they both triumphed over the others.
In Amsterdam, a literary guild was once named after a herb, and was called the White Lavender Bloom. Herbs have not appeared on many signboards, but in 1638 the marigold was the sign of “Francis Eglisfield, a bookseller in St Paul’s churchyard,”[71] as it still is of Child’s Bank—and several signs of the “Rosemary Branch” have been known.
[71] “The History of Signboards.”