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| Works on Heraldry (2) | ||
| The first recordings of heraldic motifs occur on heraldic rolls, which appear from around 1250. These contain descriptions, as well as illustrations, of the coats of arms of participants in tournaments or battles. A long roll known as the Caerlaverock Roll (British Library, Cotton Caligula A vxiii) records the shields of arms of the participants in the siege of Caerlaverock Castle under Edward I in 1300. The individual descriptions, in Norman French, indicate that a systematic vocabulary and syntax of heraldic description has been developed by this time. The standard terms for heraldic colours are there, along with descriptive terms such as cheverons, bendes, label and lions passanz. It seems that the systematisation of descriptive heraldic writing has been going on under the radar. | ||
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These documents, usually illustrated with the appropriate shields, were produced throughout the later middle ages and beyond, with the shields themselves, and the associated bits and pieces which came to be called the full achievement of arms, becoming more elaborate and complex. The rather grotty illustration at left shows a small section of the Rous Roll, produced in the late 15th century, relating to the house of Warwick. The roll itself is actually elaborate and splendid. | |
| Segment of the Rous Roll (British Library, add. ms. 48976). | ||
| Coats of arms are also used in manuscripts as symbols for, or references to, individuals. In this way they can act as a record of heraldic devices. | ||
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| The royal arms in the lower margin of the Historia Anglicorum of Matthew Paris (British Library, Royal 14 C VII), by permission of the British Library. | ||
| In this autograph manuscript, Matthew Paris has rendered the royal arms upside down on the left hand page, to indicate that King John is dead, and turned it right way up again on the right hand page for the beginning of the reign of Henry III. This manuscript contains numerous coats of arms of the participants in English history. | ||
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| Segment from the order of proceedings for the coronation of Richard II (British Library, Cotton Nero D VI, f.65v), by permission of the British Library. | ||
| In the example above, the shields of arms of various participants in the coronation ceremony of Richard II are inserted beside the description of their role: no doubt very helpful for the hapless soul who had to ensure that everyone was in their place and doing the right thing at the right time. | ||
| The early coats of arms were relatively simple affairs with plain motifs in clear colours. The 14th century seems to have ushered in a greater complexity in the whole heraldic thing, with the additions of crests and mantlings, and supporters for those of very high social rank. Shields became more complex as the union by marriage of significant families was recorded by dividing up the shields. | ||
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| Segment of a genealogy of the Beauchamp family, drawn up in the late 15th or early 16th century, from a private collection. | ||
| This segment of the genealogy shows the period around the end of the 13th century and beginning of the 14th. This much more humble document intersects with the Rous Roll shown above, as it concerns the Beauchamp family, one branch of which became Earls of Warwick for a time. It also shows the beginning of the transition to more complex heraldry as the simple shield of William Beauchamp, gules with a bend or (red with a gold stripe), was incorporated into the shields of each of his three sons, who each added elements derived from the coats of arms of their wives. The coronet above the shield of the next William Beauchamp, on the left, indicates his status as Earl of Warwick. Heraldry has become part of the vocabulary and syntax of genealogy. | ||
| There was, however, no central authority in charge of regulating the whole affair. The king had his heralds, and so did other men of might. While they must have had some system of communication to ensure that there was no duplication, barons and bigwigs asserted the right to assign coats of arms to their own nearest and dearest. | ||
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| Letters patent of Ralph, Baron Stafford of 1347, granting arms to his cousin Edmund de Martayn (Eton College Library). (From The New Palaeographical Society 1910) | ||
| The above example of private letters patent, written in Norman French in a cursive script, assigns a crest of a boar's head sable with dexter ear argent and a mantling sable and wreath argent, together with a shield or badge of two colours, sable with two bars argent. At least, that is how it would be described in formal heraldic language, but the letter does use some plain French, such as noyr and blank to describe colours. It is notable that this private sanction of the use of arms includes not only the shield, but the elaborations of crest and mantling that were becoming part of the whole process. | ||
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The display of all this armorial stuff in privately commissioned manuscripts was itself a form of the significata of rank and status. Sir Geoffrey Luttrell is personally commemorated in his famous psalter not for his good looks or piety, but for his ability to display a swanky coat of arms all over himself, his horse, his womenfolk and the surrounding landscape. | |
| Miniature of Sir Geoffrey Luttrell with his horse, wife daughter and coat of arms, from the Luttrell Psalter, f.202v, now in the British Library. Photograph from Joan Evans 1949 English Art 1307-1461 Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Click on image for a larger view.) | ||
| The conspicuous display of arms was not only useful in battle for identification purposes, it reinforced the proper social order. While born out of a feudal conception, it later became an honorific system in a different society. | ||
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