The idea of a Crest, of some accessory specially designed to form its crowning adornment, appears inseparable from the existence and use of a Helm. The Warriors and Warrior Divinities of classic antiquity are represented to us, wearing head-pieces richly crested: and, in the Middle Ages, had no other Heraldry ever been devised, assuredly ornaments of some kind would have been placed on helms and basinets, and these insignia would have been held in high esteem and honour. Accordingly, about the time that Coat-Armour became hereditary, having been reduced to a system and accepted as an independent science, heraldic Crests began to be worn as honourable distinctions of the most exalted dignity by the mediæval chivalry.

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No. 375.— Richard I.	No. 376.— Henry de Perci.	No. 377.— Henry de Laci.

Upon the Second Great Seal of Richard I. the cylindrical helm of the King appears surmounted by a kind of cap or fan charged with a lion passant, the whole being arched over by a radiated ornament somewhat resembling a displayed fan, as in No. 375. Similar Crests, somewhat modified in their details, are represented in other seals of the same era, and with them the flowing Contoise or Scarf is sometimes associated, as in No. 376, from the seal of Baron Henry de Perci, A.D. 1300. Similar ornaments were also placed by the knights of those ages upon the heads of their chargers. The seal of Henry de Laci, Earl of Lincoln, A.D. 1272, shows the Fan-Crest both upon the helm of the Earl, No. 377, and the head of his war-horse. Another equally characteristic example is the Seal of Alexander de Balliol, No. 378, appended to the “General Release” given by John Balliol to Edward I., 2nd January, 1292: it will be observed that this knight displays the arms of his house, No. 134, upon his Shield, and also, in addition to the Fan-Crest, upon the barding of his charger. Again I am indebted to the kindness and liberality of Mr. Laing for the use of his admirable woodcut of this fine and interesting seal.

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No. 378.— Seal of Alexander de Balliol, A.D. 1292.

The flowing Contoise continued to be attached to helms till about the middle of the fourteenth century; unless, indeed, some veritable “lady’s favour” were worn in its stead by knights favoured as was Sir Launcelot, who, on a memorable day,—

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No. 379.— Helm of Thomas, second Earl of Lancaster.

The seal of Thomas, second Earl of Lancaster, about A.D. 1320, gives an excellent example both of such figures as were beginning at that early time to supersede the Fan-Crests, and also of the Contoise; No. 379. About this same period the fashion was introduced of fixing two tall spikes, one on each side of the Crest, upon the helm, probably intended in the first instance to display the contoise. These singular spikes may have been derived by the English Heralds from their brethren of Germany, who delighted, as they still delight, in placing upon helms as Crests, or as the accessories of Crests, small banners displayed from staves set erect and surmounted by spear-heads. In German Heraldry also Crests are very frequently placed between tall upright horns or trumpets: and, sometimes, upon a German helm the Crest stands between horns shaped like two elephant’s trunks (for which they have often been mistaken by English Heralds), placed in the same erect position, and, like the trumpets, so adjusted as to have the general aspect of the curved outline of a classic lyre. The helm of Sir Geoffrey Luterell, A.D. 1345, No. 380, drawn from a celebrated illumination, between the tall spikes has a late example of the Fan-Crest; and it exemplifies the practice sometimes adopted of charging armorial insignia upon Crests of this fan form. The Arms of Luterell—Or, a bend and six martlets sa.—were borne by Sir Geoffrey thus differenced (E. 2)—Az., a bend and six martlets arg. A pair of lofty upright wings were held in much esteem in the Heraldry of both England and Scotland, to form the accessories of Crests. The Seal of Sir Robert de Marny, A.D. 1366, No. 381, shows his armorial shield—Gu., a lion rampant arg., suspended from a tree, between two crested helms, the crest in both cases being a winged chapeau, having the wings very tall and very slender.

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No. 380.— Helm and Crest of Sir Geoffrey Luterell: A.D. 1345.	No. 381.— Seal of Sir Robert de Marny, A.D. 1366.

From the earliest times, Crests have occasionally been identical with the principal charge in the Shield of Arms, or they have repeated the principal charge with some slight modification of attitude or accessory: but, more generally, Crests have been altogether distinct. The Dragon and the Wyvern, the latter well exemplified in No. 315, are amongst the earliest figures that were borne as Crests in England. Other early Figure-Crests are the Lion, crowned and assumed for the first time by an English Sovereign by Edward III.; and the Eagle, borne by the same Prince. Various devices and figures are found gradually to have been added to these earliest Crests. The graceful and peculiarly appropriate Panache soon joined them, with the heads of various animals and other creatures: and, as the fourteenth century advances, the Crest-Coronet, No. 232, the Crest-Wreath, No. 233, and the Chapeau, No. 224, assume their places in connection with Crests; and the Mantling falls in rich folds from them, covering the back of the Helm. In the succeeding century, with Helms less dignified in form, but more elaborately enriched, and with strangely fantastic Mantlings, Crests become considerably larger in their proportions; and they often are extravagant in their character, devices constantly being assumed and borne as Crests, which are no less inconsistent with true heraldic feeling, than with the peculiar conditions and the proper qualities of true heraldic Crests. The Crest of the Duke of Hamilton, No. 301, is far from being one of the most inconsistent devices that were intended to be worn upon helms. And, as it is scarcely necessary for me to add, every really consistent Crest should be such a figure or device as might be actually worn upon his helm, by a mediæval knight, with dignity and with a happy effect.

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No. 382.— Seal of William de Wyndesor.

Early examples of Panache-Crests exist in considerable numbers, and they show much variety of treatment. No. 285, already given at page 142, shows a Panache of several heights of feathers, the general outline having an oval contour. In No. 283, from the Seal of Edward de Courtenay, Earl of Devon, A.D. 1372, there are three heights of feathers, and the outline has a square form. Again, the Seal of William le Latimer, A.D. 1415, gives the peculiar Panache, with the no less peculiar variety of mantling, shown in No. 284. A Panache of ample proportions, and of exceedingly graceful form, is represented in the Seal of William de Wyndesor, A.D. 1381. The comparatively small size of the armorial Shield, as it generally appears when introduced into the composition of Seals in the fourteenth century, is shown in a striking manner in this same example, No. 382, which in the woodcut is slightly enlarged, in order to show the device more clearly: the arms are—Gu., a saltire or. Other fine examples of Panache-Crests may be seen in the effigies of Sir Richard de Pembridge, K.G., A.D. 1375, in Hereford Cathedral; of Sir Robert de Marmion, A.D. 1400, at Tanfield, Yorkshire; and of Sir Thomas Arderne, about the same date, at Elford, in Staffordshire. The very fine effigy of Sir Edward de Thorpe, A.D. 1418, at Ashwelthorpe, in Norfolk, has a helm of rare beauty of form, with a rich mantling, and a most graceful Panache of peacock’s feathers; and peacock’s feathers also form the Panache of Lord Ferrers of Chartley, in his Brass, A.D. 1425, at Merevale, in Warwickshire. And, once more, upon the Seal of Thomas de Hatfield, Bishop of Durham, A.D. 1345, the Panache rises from the episcopal mitre, after the same manner as it does in No. 383 from a Coronet.

Another episcopal Seal, that of Bishop Henry le Despencer, No. 351, shows a Shield of small size when compared with the helm and crest, the latter being the favourite device of a gryphon’s head between two tall upright wings. The Seals of the FitzAlans, Earls of Arundel, and the Seal of John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, may be specified as displaying fine examples of the same Crest. With them may be grouped the Crest of Sir Richard Grey, K.G., Lord Grey of Codnor, A.D. 1420—A peacock’s head and neck, between two wings erect, the feathers az., and their pens (quills) arg., No. 383, from the Garter-plate at Windsor. This Crest rises from such a Crest-Coronet as was borne on their helms by noblemen in the time of Henry V.

The use of the Chapeau, or Cap of Estate, instead of a Crest-Coronet, to support a Crest upon a helm, I have already illustrated with Nos. 198 and 199, severally the Lion-Crests of the Black Prince and of his son Richard II. Like No. 199, No. 384 is from one of the unrivalled series of helms sculptured in Westminster Hall, with the Crest and Ostrich-feather Badge of King Richard II. In both of these examples the adjustment of the Mantling is shown. Two famous Lion-Crests are those borne by the great families of Howard and Percy, severally Dukes of Norfolk and Northumberland. The Howard lion, originally granted by Richard II. to Thomas Mowbray, Earl Marshal, and now borne by the Duke of Norfolk, is a lion statant guardant, his tail extended or, and ducally gorged arg.: the Percy lion is statant, his tail extended or: each lion stands upon a chapeau. The Lion-Crest of the Black Prince, being charged with the silver Label (which he may be said to wear after the fashion of a collar), exemplifies the prevailing practice of differencing Crests with marks of Cadency. Crests admit every variety of Difference: and Mantlings also are frequently differenced with small charges, or with badges; as in the Garter-plate of Sir John Beaumont, K.G., and in the Brass at Little Easton, Essex, to Sir Henry Bourchier, K.G., Earl of Essex.

The Crest-Wreath first appears about the middle of the fourteenth century. The earliest example to which I can refer is represented in the Brass to Sir Hugh Hastings, at Elsyng, in Norfolk, A.D. 1347. In this most remarkable engraven memorial, the finial of the principal canopy is surmounted by a helm with mantling, wreath, and the crest of Hastings—a bull’s head sable; No. 385. In the effigy of Sir R. de Pembridge, K.G., already noticed, the date of which is 1375, the crest is united to the great helm that supports the head of the knight by a wreath formed of a band of four-leaved flowers. A little later, A.D. 1384, at Southacre, in Norfolk, the Brass of Sir John Harsyck has a Crest-Wreath formed of two rolls, probably of silk, twisted as in No. 386. In the second half of the next century, amongst many good examples of Crest-Wreaths I select as typical specimens those which appear in the Brasses to Sir William Vernon, A.D. 1467, at Tong, in Shropshire, No. 386; and to Sir Robert Harcourt, K.G., No. 387, at Staunton Harcourt, Oxfordshire.

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No. 385.— Crested Helm of Sir Hugh Hastings; A.D. 1347.	No. 386, 387, and 388. Crest-Wreaths.

The Crest-Wreath in the form shown in the last examples, and now almost universally used in representations of such Crests as are without the Crest-Coronet and the Chapeau, may fairly be considered to have been derived from the rich ornamentation, generally, as it would seem, formed of costly textile fabrics, if not executed in jewelled or enamelled goldsmith’s work, that was frequently wreathed about knightly basinets. These wreath-like ornaments are represented in numerous effigies both sculptured and engraven; and they are shown to have been worn either flat, as in No. 388, or wrought to high relief, as in No. 389. These two examples are severally from the effigies of a knight in Tewkesbury Abbey Church, about A.D. 1365, and of Sir Humphrey Stafford, A.D. 1450, at Bromsgrove, in Worcestershire. The enamelled effigy of Earl William de Valanece, A.D. 1296, at Westminster, has a wreath of delicate workmanship in relief, which once was set with real or imitative jewels.

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No. 389.— Basinet with Crest-Wreath,
Effigy of Sir Humphrey Stafford, A.D. 1450.

For many years after their first appearance, heraldic Crests were regarded as insignia of great dignity and exalted estate; and it was not till a considerably later period that the right to bear a Crest came to be regarded as an adjunct of the right to bear arms. Still later, when they were granted with Coat-Armour to corporate bodies, communities, and institutions, Crests altogether lost their original significance; and they became, in their use, Badges in everything except the habit of placing them, with their accessories of Wreath or Crest-Coronet, of Chapeau and Mantling, upon representations of helms.

When they were actually worn, Crests were undoubtedly constructed of some very light materials. It is probable that cuir bouilli (boiled leather), the decorative capabilities of which were so well understood by mediæval artists, was generally employed.

It has been sometimes held that Crests are personal bearings only; and, therefore, not hereditary, though capable of being bequeathed or granted by their possessors. This theory is not sustained by early or general usage; and, accordingly, Crests must be pronounced to be hereditary, as is Coat-Armour.

It is evident that as one person may inherit, and therefore may quarter, two or more Coats of Arms, so the same person might claim to bear two or more Crests by a similar right of inheritance. This in early times resulted in selection because no early British precedent exists for the simultaneous display of two Crests. But it was soon recognised that as no woman could bear a Crest, she ought not to transmit one, and the idea of the inheritance of the Crest with a quartering from a female ancestress ceased. At the present day, several Crests, each with its own helm and mantling, are occasionally represented above a Shield of arms: but, in England, by strict heraldic rule, two (or more than two) Crests can be borne by one individual, only when he has obtained the Royal licence to bear and use the Surname and Arms of another family in addition to those of his own family, or, by a special grant from the Crown.

CHAPTER XV
BADGES

“Might I but know thee by thy household Badge!” —Shakespeare, Henry VI., Part 2.

A Badge, like a Coat of Arms, is an armorial ensign that is complete in itself, and possesses a definite signification of its own. In use with a decided heraldic significance long before the adoption of systematic Heraldry, Badges have always held a conspicuous position in the estimation of Heralds. A Badge resembles any single charge in Heraldry, in being a figure or device that is assumed as the distinctive cognisance of a particular individual or family: but, unlike a charge, it may be borne by itself, without any Shield, and also without any accompanying accessory, with the exception, in some instances, of a Motto (See “Motto,” p. 138). Badges, however, are found depicted on roundels of the livery, and upon Standards, and for decorative purposes are often depicted upon mantlings. It will be evident that a Badge may be the very same figure or device as a Crest; but, it must be remembered that a Badge always differs from a Crest, in usually being altogether without crest-wreath or coronet, in consequence of having no connection whatever with the knightly helm. There was, however, a period in which the Badge was much confused with the Crest, which has resulted in many devices which are really Crests being officially recorded as Badges.

After the establishment of a true Heraldry, Badges were generally used to commemorate remarkable exploits, or in reference either to some family or feudal alliance, or to indicate some territorial rights or pretensions. Very many Badges are allusive, and consequently they are Rebuses (see “Rebus,” p. 146). Some are taken from the charges of the bearer’s Shield, or they have a more or less direct reference to those charges. Some trace of Marshalling or of feudal Difference may constantly be observed in Badges; and even where the motive for the selection of certain devices has not been discovered, it may fairly be assumed that a good heraldic motive still exists, although it has become obscured or been forgotten. It was not uncommon for the same personage or family to use more than one Badge; and, on the other hand, two or more Badges were often borne in combination, to form a single compound device, as in Nos. 235 and 270. The ragged staff, in like manner, No. 294, and the bear, both of them Badges of the Beauchamps, Earls of Warwick, were sometimes united to form a single Badge, and by the successors of that great family the “bear and ragged staff” were generally borne as a single device. (See No. 448, and p. 319.)

Two distinct classes of Badges were in general use in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. Those of the first class, well known as the insignia of certain eminent personages and powerful houses, were borne by all the followers, retainers, dependants, and partisans of those personages and houses: and they were so borne by them, and they were used by their owners for every variety of decorative purpose, because they were known and understood; and, consequently, because the presence of these Badges would cause all persons and objects bearing them to be readily and certainly distinguished. By means of these most useful devices a wide and comprehensive range was given to the action and the influence of true Heraldry, without infringing in the slightest degree upon the lofty and almost sacred exclusiveness of the Coat-Armour of a noble or a gentle house. In the words which Shakespeare teaches Clifford to address to Warwick, “Might I but know thee by thy household Badge!” it is implied that all the followers of Warwick were well known by his “household Badge,” which was displayed by them all, while some other insignia were worn by the great Earl upon his own person.

Mr. Lower has remarked (“Curiosities of Heraldry,” p. 145) that “something analogous to the fashion” of embroidering the household Badges of their lords “upon the sleeves or breasts” of the dependants of great families in the olden times, “is retained in the Crest which adorns the buttons of our domestic servants.” The accomplished writer might have added that, in thus employing Crests to discharge Badge-duties, we are content to indulge a love for heraldic display without observing becoming heraldic distinctions. Crested livery buttons are heraldic anomalies under all circumstances—even the head of a house himself, if he were a Herald, would not display his Crest, as a Crest, upon buttons to be used exclusively by himself. Crests are to be borne on helms, or represented as being borne on helms: Badges are decorative insignia, and fulfil with consistent significance their own distinct and appropriate functions.

Badges of the second class were devices that were borne exclusively by the exalted personages who were pleased to assume them, often for temporary use only, and generally with some subtle or latent significance, which had been studiously rendered difficult to be detected, and dubious in its application.

These Badges, thus displayed rather to effect disguise or to excite curiosity than to secure recognition, must be regarded for the most part as the expressions of heraldic revelry—as the fantasies and eccentricities of an age, which loved to combine quaint conceits and symbolical allusions with the display of gorgeous magnificence. Accordingly, Badges of this order are found generally to have been assumed on the occasion of the jousts or Hastiludes, the masques, and other pageants that in feudal times were celebrated with so much of elaborate and brilliant splendour.

The adoption of Badges of this peculiar character is exactly in keeping with the sentiment which prompted men of exalted rank and eminent distinction to appear in public, on occasions of high festivity, bearing the arms of some friend, kinsman, or ally, instead of their own. A mark of especial favour and of peculiar distinction would be conferred, when a Sovereign or a Prince thus would display upon his own person the armory of some honoured subject or comrade. Edward III. delighted thus to honour the most distinguished cavaliers of his chivalrous Court. For example, in or about the year 1347, royal Hastiludes were celebrated at Lichfield with great splendour, the jousters consisting of the King and seventeen Knights, and the Earl of Lancaster and thirteen Knights. A conspicuous part was taken in these festivities by the King’s daughter Isabelle, afterwards Countess of Bedford, and by six Ladies of high rank, with twenty-one other Ladies, who all wore blue dresses and white hoods of the same materials as well as the same colours as the robes of the Knights, together with various masks or vizors. On this occasion, the King himself over his armour wore a surcoat with the Arms of Sir Thomas de Bradestone. These Arms in a Roll of Edward III. are blazoned as—Arg., on a canton gu. a rose or (see Archæologia, xxxi., pp. 40 and 118). On another occasion, during Hastiludes at Canterbury, Edward III. “is said to have given eight harnesses, worked with the arms of Sir Stephen de Cosynton (az., three roses arg.), to the Prince of Wales, the Earl of Lancaster, and six other Knights.” In the same spirit, Richard de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, at a great festival of arms held at Calais under his presidency, on the first day entered the lists decorated with the arms of his ancestor the Lord Toney: on the second day, he wore the arms of Hanslap: and, on the third day, “he appeared as the Earl of Warwick, quartering Beauchamp, Guy, Hanslap, and Toney, on his trappings; his vizor open, and the chaplet on his helm enriched with pearls and precious stones.” In such times, Badges of curious device and occult signification could not fail to enjoy a popularity, not the less decided because of the restricted use and exclusive character of the Badges themselves.

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No. 390.— Secretum of Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick; A.D. 1296.	No. 391.— Seal of Sir Walter de Hungerford, K.G., A.D. 1425.

Examples of Badges, such as are distinctive, and consequently of the class that I have first described. The Badges of Percy are a silver crescent and a double manacle: of Howard, a white lion: Pelham, a buckle: Douglas, a red heart: Scrope, a Cornish chough: Clinton, a golden mullet: Talbot, a hound: Bohun, a white swan: Hungerford, a sickle: Peverel, a garb: Stourton, a golden “drag” or sledge. The various “Knots,” described and illustrated in Chapter X., Nos. 219, 235, 263, 270, 274, 304, and 313, are Badges. The bear and ragged staff of the Beauchamps, and, after them, of the Nevilles and Dudleys, I have already noticed. Seals frequently have Badges introduced upon them, in very early times, by themselves, the Badge in each case constituting the device of the Seal (see p. 193). The Secretum or private Seal of Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, the father of the King, appended to the homage-deed extorted by Edward I. from the Scottish nobles, is a good example, No. 390: this is another of Mr. Laing’s beautiful woodcuts. Badges also constantly appear upon Seals in association with Shields of arms. Thus, a Seal of one of the Berkeleys, A.D. 1430, has a mermaid on each side of an armorial shield. Two other examples of this kind I have already given: No. 318, the Seal of Joan de Barre, which is charged with the castle and lion of Castile and Leon, as Badges: and No. 321, the Seal of Oliver de Bohun, charged, about the Shield, with the Bohun Swan. On his Seal, No. 391, Sir Walter de Hungerford, K.G., Lord of Heytesbury and Homet (the latter a Norman barony), displays his own Badge, the sickle, in happy alliance with the garb of Peverel (borne by him in right of his wife, Catherine, daughter and co-heir of Thomas Peverel), to form his Crest. The Crest, it will be observed, in No. 391, is a garb between two sickles. The Shield of Hungerford only—sa. two bars arg., and in chief three plates, is also placed between two sickles. Two banners, denoting important alliances, complete the Heraldry of this remarkable composition: the banner to the dexter, for Heytesbury, bears—per pale indented gu. and vert., a chevron or; and that to the sinister, for Hussy—barry of six erm. and gu. Lord Hungerford died in 1449, and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Sir Robert de Hungerford. The Seal of this Sir Robert, used by him during the lifetime of his father, precisely the same in its heraldic composition as his father’s Seal, is remarkable from having each of its four sickles differenced with an ermine-spot upon the blade, to mark Cadency; and also, with the same motive, it shows that a label of three points was charged upon the Shield, and upon each of the two banners; No. 392.

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No. 392.— Seal of Sir Robert de Hungerford: before A.D. 1449.

Through an alliance with the Hungerfords, sickles were borne, as one of their Badges, by the great family of Courtenay. They appear, with a dolphin, a tau cross, and this same tau-cross having a bell attached to it, as in No. 393, sculptured on the fine heraldic chimney-piece, the work of Bishop Peter de Courtenay (died in 1492), now in the hall of the Episcopal Palace at Exeter.

The Badges of our early Heraldry are comparatively but little understood. They invite the particular attention of students, both from their own special interest, and the light they are qualified to throw upon the personal history of the English people, and also from their peculiar applicability for use by ourselves at the present day. Indeed, at this time, when the revival of true Heraldry is in the act of being accomplished with complete success, it appears to be peculiarly desirable that Badges should be brought into general use. It is not enough for us to revive our old English Heraldry as once in the olden time it flourished in England, and to rest content with such a revival: but we must go on to adapt our revived Heraldry, in its own spirit and in full sympathy with its genuine feeling, to conditions of our age and of the state of things now in existence. And very much may be done to effect this by the adoption of Badges, as our favourite and most expressive heraldic insignia, both in connection with Coat-Armour and for independent display. Unlike Crests, which must necessarily be associated with helms and the wearers of helms, and consequently have both a military and a mediæval character, Badges are equally appropriate for use by Ladies, as well as by men of every profession, and they belong alike to every age and period. This has been recognised officially, to the extent that the officers of arms have now reverted to the ancient practice of granting and confirming badges and Standards.

Royal Badges.—I conclude this chapter with a concise list of the more important of the Badges that have been borne by the Sovereigns and Princes of England; and with some general remarks upon the famous Badge of the Ostrich Feathers, now considered to be exclusively the Ensign of the Princes of Wales, not as such, but as the heirs-apparent to the Throne.

The Planta-genista, or Broom-plant, No. 21, is well known as an English Royal Badge, from the surname derived from it for one of the most remarkable of the Royal Houses that ever have flourished in Europe.

As well known are the Rose, Thistle, and Shamrock, severally the Badges of the three realms of the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, and Ireland. A golden Rose stalked proper was a badge of Edward I.: and from it apparently were derived, but by what process it is unknown, the White Rose of York, the Red Rose of Lancaster, and the White and Red Rose of the House of Tudor.

From this time distinctive personal Badges ceased to be borne by English Sovereigns. But various badges have become stereotyped and now form a constituent part of the Royal Arms, and will be found recited later in Chapter XVIII.

The Ostrich Feather Badge. The popular tradition, that the famous Badge of the Ostrich Feathers was won from the blind King of Bohemia at Cressi by the Black Prince, and by him afterwards borne as an heraldic trophy, is not supported by any contemporary authority. The earliest writer by whom the tradition itself is recorded is Camden (A.D. 1614), and his statement is confirmed by no known historical evidence of a date earlier than his own work. As Sir N. Harris Nicholas has shown in a most able paper in the Archæologia (vol. xxxi. pp. 350-384), the first time the Feathers are mentioned in any record is in a document, the date of which must have been after 1369, and which contains lists of plate belonging to the King himself, and also to Queen Phillipa. It is particularly to be observed, that all the pieces of plate specified in this roll as the personal property of the Queen, if marked with any device at all, are marked with her own initial, or with some heraldic insignia that have a direct reference to herself. One of these pieces of plate is described as “a large dish for the alms of the Queen, of silver gilt, and enamelled at the bottom with a black escutcheon with Ostrich Feathers—eym in fund vno scuch nigro cum pennis de ostrich.” And these “Ostrich Feathers,” thus blazoned on a sable field upon the silver alms-dish of Queen Philippa, Sir N. H. Nicholas believed to have been borne by the Queen as a daughter of the House of Hainault; and he suggested that these same “Ostrich Feathers” might possibly have been assumed by the Counts of the Province of Hainault from the Comté of Ostrevant, which formed the appanage of their eldest sons.

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No. 395.— At Peterborough Cathedral.	No. 394.— At Worcester Cathedral.	No. 396.— At Peterborough Cathedral.

At the first, either a single Feather was borne, the quill generally transfixing an escroll, as in No. 394, from the monument of Prince Arthur Tudor, in Worcester Cathedral; or, two Feathers were placed side by side, as they also appear upon the same monument. In Seals, or when marshalled with a Shield of Arms, two Feathers are seen to have been placed after the manner of Supporters, one on each side of the composition: in such examples the tips of the Feathers droop severally to the dexter and sinister: in all the early examples also the Feathers droop in the same manner, or they incline slightly towards the spectator. Three Feathers were first grouped together by Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales, eldest son of Henry VII., as in Nos. 395 and 396, from Peterborough Cathedral; or with an escroll, as in No. 397, from a miserere in the fine and interesting church at Ludlow. The plume of three Feathers appears to have been encircled with a coronet, for the first time, by Prince Edward, afterwards Edward VI., but who never was Prince of Wales: No. 398, carved very boldly over the entrance gateway to the Deanery at Peterborough, is a good early example. In No. 399 I give a representation of another early plume of three Ostrich Feathers, as they are carved, with an escroll in place of a coronet, upon the Chantry of Abbot Ramryge in the Abbey Church at St. Albans: and again, in No. 400, from the head of a window near the east end of the choir, on the south side, in Exeter Cathedral, the three Feathers are charged upon a Shield per pale azure and gules, and this Shield is on a roundle.

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No. 397.— In Ludlow Church.	No. 398.— The Deanery, Peterborough.

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No. 399.— In the Abbey Church of St. Alban.	No. 400.— In Exeter Cathedral.

The Ostrich Feathers were borne, as a Badge with his Shield of Arms, upon one Seal of Edward III. himself: they were used, as an heraldic device, about the year 1370, by Philippa, his Queen: they appear on some, but not on all, the Seals of the Black Prince, and they are omitted from some of his Seals after the battle of Cressi (A.D. 1346): and they were also borne, generally with some slight difference, marking Cadency, in all probability by all the other sons of Edward III.—certainly by John of Ghent, Duke of Lancaster, and by Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester. They were adopted by Richard II., and placed on either side of his crested Helm in the heraldic sculpture of Westminster Hall, as appears in two of these beautiful examples, Nos. 199 and 384: by this Prince the Ostrich Feathers were placed on his first Royal Seal, and they were habitually used for decoration and heraldic display; and they also were formally granted by him, as a mark of especial favour, to be borne as an Augmentation of the highest honour, to his cousin Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. The Ostrich Feathers were borne, in like manner, by the succeeding Princes, both Lancastrian and Yorkist: by at least two of the Beauforts: by the Princes of the House of Tudor: and by their successors the Stuarts. Thus, it is certain that the Ostrich Feathers were held to be a Royal Badge, from the time of their first appearance in the Heraldry of England about the middle of the fourteenth century; and that in that character they were adopted and borne by the successive Sovereigns, and by the Princes, sometimes also by the Princesses (as in the instance of a Seal of Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII.), of the Royal Houses, without any other distinction than some slight mark of Cadency, and without the slightest trace of any peculiar association with any one member of the Royal Family. From the time of the accession of the House of Stuart to the Crown of the United Kingdom, however, the coroneted plume of three Ostrich Feathers appears to have been regarded, as it is at this present day, as the special Badge of the Heir to the Throne.

In accordance with the express provision of his will, two armorial Shields are displayed upon the monument of the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral, which Shields the Prince himself distinguishes as his Shields “for War” and “for Peace”; the former charged with his quartered arms of France and England differenced with his silver Label, No. 337; and the latter, sable, charged with three Ostrich Feathers argent, their quills passing through scrolls bearing the Motto, “Ich Diene” No. 401. The same motto is placed over each of the Shields that are charged with the Feathers, as in No. 401: and over each Shield charged with the quartered arms (there are on each side of the tomb six Shields, three of the Arms, and three of the Feathers, alternately) is the other motto of the Prince, “Houmout.” In his will, the Black Prince also desired that a “black Pennon with Ostrich Feathers” should be displayed at his Funeral; and he further appointed that his Chapel in Canterbury Cathedral should be adorned in various places with his Arms, and “likewise with our Badge of Ostrich Feathers—noz bages dez plumes d’ostruce.”

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No. 401.— Shield “for Peace” of the Black Prince.

The will of the Black Prince proves the Feathers to have been a Badge, and not either a Crest or the ensign of a Shield of Arms, since twice he expressly calls them “our Badge”: and it also is directly opposed to the traditional warlike origin and military character of the Feathers, as a Badge of the Black Prince, for it particularly specifies the peaceful significance of this Badge, and distinguishes it from the insignia that were worn and displayed by the Prince when he was equipped for war. The Mottoes “Ich Diene” and “Houmout” are old German, and they signify, “I serve,” and “magnanimous.” It has been suggested by Mr. Planché, that “Houmout” is Flemish, and that the three words really form a single Motto, signifying, “Magnanimous, I serve,” that is, “I obey the dictates of magnanimity” (Archæologia, xxxii. 69).

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No. 402.— From the Seal of King Henry IV.	No. 403.— From the Seal of Thomas, Duke of Gloucester.	No. 404.— From the Garter-Plate of John Beaufort, K.G.

Upon a very remarkable Seal, used by Henry IV. a short time before his accession, the shield with helm and crest are placed between two tall Feathers, about each of which is entwined a Garter charged with his favourite and significant Motto—the word SOVEREYGNE, as in No. 402. His father, Prince John of Ghent, placed a chain upon the quills of his Feathers, as in the very curious boss in the cloisters at Canterbury. The uncle of Henry IV., Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, on one of his Seals, differenced his two Feathers with Garters (probably of the Order) displayed along their quills, as in No. 403. And, about A.D. 1440, John Beaufort, K.G., Duke of Somerset, on his Garter-plate placed two Ostrich Feathers erect, their quills componée argent and azure, and fixed in golden escrolls; No. 404. In the Harleian MS. 304, f. 12, it is stated that the Ostrich Feather of silver, the pen thus componée argent and azure, “is the Duke of Somerset’s”: also that the “Feather silver, with the pen gold, is the King’s: the Ostrich Feather, pen and all silver, is the Prince’s: and the Ostrich Feather gold, the pen ermine, is the Duke of Lancaster’s.”

The Shield charged with three Ostrich Feathers, No. 401, was borne by Prince John of Ghent; and it appears on the splendid Great Seal of Henry IV., between the Shields of the Duchy of Cornwall and the Earldom of Chester. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, is also recorded to have borne this same Feather Shield.

In the Vaulting of the ceiling over the steps leading to the Hall at Christchurch, Oxford, the Ostrich Plume Badge is carved within a Garter of the Order: and, again, the Badge is represented after the same manner, environed with the Garter, in the beautiful binding of a copy of the Bible which is reputed to have been used by Charles I. in his last moments.

The Ostrich Feathers are repeatedly mentioned in early documents; and they are shown to have been constantly used for various decorative purposes, always evidently with an heraldic motive and feeling, by the same Royal personages who blazoned them on their Seals, and displayed them elsewhere as their armorial insignia. A well-known example of a diaper of White Ostrich Feathers on a field per pale argent and vert, is preserved in the stained glass now in the great north window of the transept of Canterbury Cathedral.

CHAPTER XVI
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