PLATE XXIII.—Shields accompanied by badges.

By the third quarter of the fourteenth century the combination of supporters with shields of arms surmounted by crested helms had become fully established, and henceforth the number of beautiful and instructive examples is so great that it is unnecessary to do more than illustrate a typical series (figs. [117]-[121]). It will be seen from these that in seals the majority of the supporters are upholding the heavy helm and its crest, and not the shield that hangs below it; probably on account of the nature of the design. The supporters, too, usually form pairs, and it goes without saying that every variety of creature is made to serve. Sometimes they are composed of badges, like the falcons on crooked billets used by William lord Zouch (pl. [XXIV] A), or the similar birds with 'words' coupled with oak leaves and the letter t that appear on a seal of Sir John Falstaff used in 1456 (pl. [XXIV] B). William lord Botraux, in a seal used in 1426, has his armorial ensigns flanked by two buttresses (Fr. botreaux); while John lord Talbot and Furnival (1406) has two talbots (fig. [122]), and George duke of Clarence (1463) the black bulls of Clare (fig. [123]).

Fig. 117. Seal of Edmund Mortimer earl of March and Ulster, 1400, with rampant leopard supporters.