Birmingham.
The Rabbit as a Symbol (Vol. v., p. 487.).—It will be remembered that Richard of the Lion Heart, on his way to the Holy Land, proceeded to Sicily, where he played all manner of rough fantastic tricks, to the infinite disgust of the king and people of the island. On pretence of certain assumed claims, but the rather pour passer le temps, our Achilles and his myrmidons fixed a quarrel upon the reigning sovereign, Tancred the Bastard, whose immediate predecessor, William the Good, had married Joanna[[4]], Richard's sister; took forcible possession of an important fortress; turned the monks out of a monastery whose situation was convenient for the purposes of his commissariat; and at last, by an act of most unjustifiable aggression, laid siege to the city and castle of Messina,
on whose walls was soon triumphantly planted the royal banner of the Plantagenets. Now the hare and rabbit frequently occur upon the coins of Spain and Sicily, of which countries they were, indeed, the particular and well-recognised symbols. (Fosb. Ency. Antiq., pp. 722. 728.); and I would suggest that the device in question has reference to Richard's proceedings in the latter kingdom, which, in an age whose acknowledged principle was that "Might makes Right," would be looked upon as redounding vastly to his credit and renown, and most worthy, therefore, of commemoration amongst the other emblematic representations which give so remarkable a character to the monumental effigies at Rouen. Regarding it in this point of view, there appears to be much inventive significancy in this device, and the exercise of a little ingenuity would soon, I think, render manifest the peculiar applicability of its "singular details" to the circumstances of Richard's transactions with Tancred, as they are presented to us by our own chroniclers.
The appearance of this symbol or device of a rabbit, upon old examples of playing cards, as referred to by Symbol, is easily accounted for. These "devil's books" came to us originally from Spain; and in ancient cards of that country, columbines were Spades, rabbits[[5]] Clubs, pinks Diamonds, and roses Hearts.—Fosb. ut sup., p. 602.
Cowgill.
Footnote 4:[(return)]
This lady afterwards married Raymond, Count de St. Gilles, son of the Count of Toulouse. Eleanora, another of Richard's sisters, married Alphonso, third king of Castile.
The Clubs, in Spanish cards, are not, as with us, trefoils, but cudgels, i. e. bastos: the Spades are swords, i. e. espadas.—Fosb. ut sup.; see the plate of "Sports, Amusements," &c.
Spanish Vessels wrecked on the Irish Coast (Vol. v., p. 491.).—A fair account of this eventful visitation may be expected from the Annals of the Four Masters, a work compiled within forty years of the occurrence, and not near so many miles removed from the waters over which most of its fatalities were felt:
"A large fleet (says this work) consisting of eight sure ships, came on the sea from the King of Spain this year (1588), and some say it was their intention to take harbour and land on the coasts of England should they obtain an opportunity; but in that they did not succeed, for the Queen's fleet encountered them at sea, and took four of their ships, and the rest of the fleet was scattered and dispersed along the coasts of the neighbouring countries, viz., on the eastern side of England, on the north-eastern shores of Scotland, and on the north-western coast of Ireland. A great number of the Spaniards were drowned in those quarters, their ships having been completely wrecked; and the smaller proportion of them returned to Spain, and some assert that 9,000 of them were lost on that occasion."