Fig. 87.—The shield of the Black Prince. From “Vetusta Monumenta” (after St. John Hope).
Fig. 88.—The surcoat or jupon of the Black Prince. From “Vetusta Monumenta” (after St. John Hope).
With the exception of the signet rings and the ceremonial dress, which were alluded to at the beginning of the chapter, there are now but few cases where armorial bearings are worn on the person. School and college arms are embroidered on the breast pockets of blazers and on the fronts of caps, while perhaps the most common instances are the devices which we see on the buttons of servants. Whole coats of arms may appear, but usually it is the crest of the master, which has now taken the place of the household badge which the retainers wore in olden times.
There is a difference generally between a crest and a badge, though in some cases the badge was really a crest. This was so before armorial bearings became hereditary, for the badge which the knight wore on his helmet formed its crest. Afterwards the same device was handed down to generation from generation. Individuals, possibly with a view of hiding their identity, sometimes wore a special badge instead of their family crest; but the badge as generally understood was, as has already been indicated, worn by the retainers and was usually chosen by each head of the family. The matter is further complicated, because badges were sometimes hereditary and occasionally identical with the crest proper.
It is of course only the hereditary badges which have survived to the present day, and in only one or two cases are they apparently still used as such, though occasionally they survive for other purposes. The Prince of Wales’s feathers we have already mentioned. They were not adopted by the Black Prince for the reasons usually given in history, as there is nothing to show that the King of the Bohemians ever wore them, and long before his time an ostrich feather was often used as a royal badge in England.
On his carriage, the Marquis of Abergavenny wears his badges, a rose and a portcullis, one on each side of his crest, and there are interesting cases here and there of badges worn as part of a livery. The porters of the Inner Temple wear the pascal lamb in silver. Watermen still have badges on their arms, and not very long ago the private firemen of the insurance companies wore badges bearing the sign of the company. When speaking of signs, it is worthy of note that very many royal badges have furnished signs for inns. We cannot go into details, but we may mention the White Hart of Richard II, the Falcon and Fetterlock of Henry VII, now degenerated into the hawk and buckle, and the Rose and Crown also used by the Tudors.
Those who chance to see the dress of our convicts will hardly be inclined to associate it in any way with that of royalty. Yet it is true, nevertheless, that the broad arrow which marks—we can hardly say adorns—the garments of the penitentiary, is in reality a royal badge. The broad arrow can be traced to an ancient symbol consisting of three converging rods or rays of light used by the Druids, and it was adopted by Edward III as his badge. The symbol was also worn by the Black Prince and other Princes of Wales. As early as the year 1386 the broad arrow was used in the Royal household, and from the beginning of the eighteenth century onwards it was adopted as a mark for distinguishing Government stores.