Fig. 62. Seal of Walter de Mounci, with the helm surmounted by a fox as a crest.
After the middle of the fourteenth century the crest is invariably shown as part of the helm.
The helm, it is hardly necessary to say, was such an one as formed part of the war harness of the time, and in the numerous armorial representations that may be found on seals or on monuments or buildings it is almost invariably shown in profile. This was, however, merely on account of its being the most convenient way of displaying the crest, and, in accordance with the usual medieval common-sense, examples are to be found which show the helm and crest facing the observer.
Thus Thomas de Holand (1353) has on his seal a shield of his arms hung from a tree and flanked by two fronting helms, each encircled by a crown and surmounted by a huge bush of feathers; Sir Robert de Marni (1366) flanks his shield, which is also hung from a tree, with two fronting helms, each crested with a tall pair of wings rising from the sides of a cap of estate (fig. [63]); Sir Stephen Hales (1392-3) on his seal has a couched shield of his arms surmounted by a fronting helm, with a crown about it from which issue two fine wings; Robert Deynelay (1394-5) in like manner shows his helm crested with two ears of a bat or hare; and Walter lord FitzWalter (1415-31) has on his seal a couched shield, and on a fronting helm above a cap of estate surmounted by a star between two large wings (pl. [XIII] A). Another example of a fronting helm is shown in pl. [V] B.
Fig. 63. Seal of Sir Robert de Marni, 1366, with crested helms flanking the shield.
The present custom of using various types of helm facing different ways to denote grades of rank is comparatively recent as well as often inconvenient, and utterly subversive of the proper method of displaying a crest, which should invariably face the same way as its wearer. This fact is amply illustrated by the early stall-plates at Windsor, but the modern crested helms surmounting the stalls there were for a long time the scoff of students of heraldry owing to the absurd manner in which the crests were set athwart the fronting helms. It is pleasant to be able to add that the crests have lately been replaced almost throughout by a new and larger series, worthy of their surroundings, and set upon the helms in the proper way. Under the same enlightened administration the most recent stall-plates are enamelled creations of real artistic and heraldic excellence.
