By the middle of the 14th century we find what are clearly recognizable as supporters. These, as in a lesser degree the crest, are often personal rather than hereditary, being changed generation by generation. The same person is found using more than one pair of them. The kings of France have had angels as supporters of the shield of the fleurs de lys since the 15th century, but the angels have only taken their place as the sole royal supporters since the time of Louis XIV. Sovereigns of England from Henry IV. to Elizabeth changed about between supporters of harts, leopards, antelopes, bulls, greyhounds, boars and dragons. James I. at his accession to the English throne brought the Scottish unicorn to face the English leopard rampant across his shield, and, ever since, the “lion and unicorn” have been the royal supporters.
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| Arms of William, Lord Hastings, from his seal (1477), showing shield, crowned and crested helm with mantle and supporters. |
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| Badge of John of Whethamstede, abbot of St Albans (d. 1465), from his tomb in the abbey church. |
Rudder badge of Willoughby. |
An old herald wrote as his opinion that “there is little or nothing in precedent to direct the use of supporters.” Modern custom gives them, as a rule, only to peers, to knights of the Garter, the Thistle and St Patrick, and to knights who are “Grand Crosses” or Grand Commanders of other orders. Royal warrants are sometimes issued for the granting of supporters to baronets, and, in rare cases, they have been assigned to untitled persons. But in spite of the jealousy with which official heraldry hedges about the display of these supporters once assumed so freely, a few old English families still assert their right by hereditary prescription to use these ornaments as their forefathers were wont to use them.
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| Badge of Dacre of Gilsland and Dacre of the North. |
Badges.—The badge may claim a greater antiquity and a wider use than armorial bearings. The “Plantagenet” broom is an early example in England, sprigs of it being figured on the seal of Richard I. In the 14th and 15th centuries every magnate had his badge, which he displayed on his horse-furniture, on the hangings of his bed, his wall and his chair of state, besides giving it as a “livery” to his servants and followers. Such were the knots of Stafford, Bourchier and Wake, the scabbard-crampet of La Warr, the sickle of Hungerford, the swan of Toesni, Bohun and Lancaster, the dun-bull of Nevill, the blue boar of Vere and the bear and ragged staff of Beauchamp, Nevill of Warwick and Dudley of Northumberland. So well known of all were these symbols that a political ballad of 1449 sings of the misfortunes of the great lords without naming one of them, all men understanding what signified the Falcon, the Water Bowge and the Cresset and the other badges of the doggerel. More famous still were the White Hart, the Red Rose, the White Rose, the Sun, the Falcon and Fetterlock, the Portcullis and the many other badges of the royal house. We still call those wars that blotted out the old baronage the Wars of the Roses, and the Prince of Wales’s feathers are as well known to-day as the royal arms. The Flint and Steel of Burgundy make a collar for the order of the Golden Fleece.
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| Ostrich feather badge of Beaufort, from a garter stall-plate of 1440. The silver feather has a quill gobony silver and azure. |
Mottoes.—The motto now accompanies every coat of arms in these islands. Few of these Latin aphorisms, these bald assertions of virtue, high courage, patriotism, piety and loyalty have any antiquity. Some few, however, like the “Espérance” of Percy, were the war-cries of remote ancestors. “I mak’ sicker” of Kirkpatrick recalls pridefully a bloody deed done on a wounded man, and the “Dieu Ayde,” “Agincourt” and “D’Accomplir Agincourt” of the Irish “Montmorencys” and the English Wodehouses and Dalisons, glorious traditions based upon untrustworthy genealogy. The often-quoted punning mottoes may be illustrated by that of Cust, who says “Qui Cust-odit caveat,” a modern example and a fair one. Ancient mottoes as distinct from the war or gathering cry of a house are often cryptic sentences whose meaning might be known to the user and perchance to his mistress. Such are the “Plus est en vous” of Louis de Bruges, the Flemish earl of Winchester, and the “So have I cause” and “Till then thus” of two Englishmen. The word motto is of modern use, our forefathers speaking rather of their “word” or of their “reason.”
Coronets of Rank.—Among accessories of the shield may now be counted the coronets of peers, whose present form is post-medieval. When Edward III. made dukes of his sons, gold circlets were set upon their heads in token of their new dignity. In 1385 John de Vere, marquess of Dublin, was created in the same fashion. Edward VI. extended the honour of the gold circle to earls. Caps of honour were worn with these circles or coronets, and viscounts wore the cap by appointment of James I., Vincent the herald stating that “a verge of pearls on top of the circulet of gold” was added at the creation of Robert Cecil as Viscount Cranborne. At the coronation of Charles I. the viscounts walked in procession with their caps and coronets. A few days before the coronation of Charles II. the privilege
