A
Brief History of
Heraldry
he
adoption of distinguishing symbols by tribes and nations, as
well as by their chieftains and families can be found from time
immemorial and in all quarters of the globe no matter how
primitive. An
examination of the Bible will reveal descriptions of the
standards of the tribes of Israel inspired by the prophecy of
Jacob such as the
lion’s whelp
for Judah, the wolf for Benjamin and the
ship of Zebulon. Greek and Roman literature abounds with
examples of
devices
born on the
shields
of heroes many of which may still be seen depicted on antique
vases. Nor was Asia lacking in such symbols either. The Japanese
nobility had developed a system of
badges
bearing a close similarity to western heraldry. The Chinese
dragon and the Chrysanthemum throne of Japan are ancient symbols
still in use. Carvings from pre-columbine America reveal
portrayals of
shields
and
banners
bearing the
devices
of Aztec chiefs. Even primitive tribes used, and still use,
symbols painted or tattooed on the body or carved on the totem
pole.
None of these ancient systems,
however, seems to have developed into the sophisticated form of
heraldry as we know it today. Hereditary
coats of arms
unique to a person or family with precise rules as to their
usage became manifest in comparatively more recent times and
when the idea of hereditary
armorial
symbols caught the imagination of the
knights
and
nobility,
heraldic development was swift and sudden. Some writers of the
past maintained that heraldry was as old as time, going so far
as to ascribe
blazons
to the heavenly host before the Creation.
Armorial
shield
and
banners
were said to be borne by the courtiers of
Henry the Fowler
and
William the Conqueror.
The famous Bayeux tapestries depicting the battle of Hastings
however prove the opposite. Although
shields
do carry some form of device, the device is never consistent;
appearing in different forms on the same warrior in different
parts of the tapestry and none can be identified as recognisable
in the generations that succeeded the Norman Conquest. Even as
late as the first quarter of the 12th century, the
shields
of the French
knights
who were present in Byzantium were described as plain polished
metal by the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor,
Anna Comnena.
The first to bear
arms must
surely have been royalty and yet it is not until Richard I in
England that we find his
arms on
a seal. His
seal
of 1189 shows his
shield
charged
with a
lion
rampant
towards the
sinister
side although there is some difference of opinion whether one or
two
lions
are depicted since the curvature of the
shield
distorts the image suggesting two
lions
face to face or
affronté.
This however was superseded in 1198 by another
seal
which showed him with a
shield
depicting three
lions
passant guardant
which have been borne in the
arms of
England by his successors ever since.
Well before then, in 1164, the
rampant
lion
had appeared on a
seal
bearing the
arms of
Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders. This is the first known
example of the
arms of
Flanders.
The ancient
arms of
France, the blue
shield
powdered
with golden
fleur-de-lis,
appear even later.
Louis VII,
on the anointing of his son,
Philip Augustus,
ordered that the young prince should be clad in a blue dalmatic
and blue shoes, sewn with golden
fleur-de-lis,
a flower whose name, as "Fleur de Loys", played upon that of his
own, and possibly upon his epithet name of Florus. Another
seal
of the same king has the device of a single lily. The first
French royal
seal
however with the
shield
bearing
fleur-de-lis
is that of
Louis VIII (1223-1226).
The
eagle,
the symbol of the Caesars in Rome, may well be as ancient a
bearing as any in Europe;
Charlemagne,
as first Holy Roman Emperor and successor of the Caesars, is
said to have used the
eagle
as his
badge.
The emperor
Henry III
(1039-1056) had the sceptre on his
seal
surmounted by an
eagle.
At Mölsen in 1080 the emperor's
banner
is said by William of Tyre to have borne the
eagle,
and with the beginning of regular heraldry this imperial
badge
would soon be displayed on a
shield.
The double-headed or
imperial eagle was
not seen on an imperial
seal
until after 1414, when it became the recognised
arms of
the king of the Romans.
There are, however, earlier
examples of
shields
of
arms than
any of these. A document of prime importance
is that of Jean, a monk of Marmoutier and biographer of
Geoffrey of Anjou,
describing the marriage of Geoffrey with the Empress
Matilda,
daughter of
Henry I,
when the king is said to have hung round the neck of his
son-in-law a
shield
with golden "lioncels".
Afterwards the monk speaks of Geoffrey in fight, clipeus
leunculos aureos imaginarios habens*, having little gold
lions
figured on a
shield.
This document seems to be confirmed by two pieces of evidence.
The first is the enamelled plate in the museum at Le Mans, said
to have been placed over the tomb of Geoffrey after his death in
1151, which shows him bearing a long "shield
of
azure
with six golden
lioncels".
The second is the well-known fact that Geoffrey's natural
grandson, William Longspee,
Earl of Salisbury, undoubtedly bore these
same
arms of
the six
lions
of gold on an
azure
field,
as still to be seen upon his tomb at Salisbury.
Notably, once the implications
of the hereditary principles of
armorial
devices
were realised, heraldry appeared swiftly and suddenly in the
major countries of Western Europe. This may have coincided with
the development of the great orders of chivalry, such as the
Knights Hospitaller and
Templar,
which grew in power and importance in the wake of the Crusades.
The gathering together of
knights
from diverse lands in one place with opportunities for display
and pageantry in events such as
tournaments was
as good a reason as any for the individual symbols of the
knights
to be brought to some prominence. The heavy
armour encasing
the entire body together with the closed
helm needed
that very
device
to distinguish one combatant in the lists from another.
From the beginning of the 13th
century
arms upon
shields
increased in number. Soon most of the great houses of the west
displayed them with pride. Leaders in the field, whether of a
royal army or of a feudal detachment, saw the military advantage
of a custom which made
shield
and
banner
items that could be recognised. Although it is probable that
armorial bearings
had their first place upon the
shield,
the
charges
of the
shield
were found displayed on the knight's long
surcoat,
his "coat
of arms",
on his
banner
or
pennon,
on the
trappings
of his horse and even upon the peaks of his saddle. An attempt
has been made to connect the rise of heraldry with the adoption
of the barrel-shaped close
helm;
but even when wearing the earlier Norman helmet with its long
nasal the knight's face could not be recognised. William the
Conqueror, as we know, had to bare his head before he could
persuade his men at Hastings that he still lived.
Armory satisfied
a need which had long been felt. When fully armed, one galloping
knight was like another; but friend and foe soon learned that
the five gold on blue
fusils
distinguished Percy from Waldegrave with his silver and red
shield.
Yet as much influence in the
development of heraldry as any military need was the growth of
the custom of sealing deeds and charters. Thus the
armorial bearings
of the fighting man came to be shared by men and women of peace
in every walk of life as well as colleges and corporations.
Arms
in stone, wood and brass decorated the tombs of the dead and the
houses of the living; they were embroidered in bed-curtains,
coverlets and copes, painted on the sails of ships and enamelled
upon all manner of artifices created by gold and silversmiths.
And, even by warriors, the full splendour of
armory was
at all times displayed more fully in the fantastic magnificence
of the tournament than in the rougher business of war.
There can be little doubt that
ancient
armorial bearings
were chosen at will by the man who bore them, many reasons
guiding his choice. Foremost among these must have been the
cross
as the symbol of Christianity. But symbolism was not necessarily
the guiding factor. Bands painted across the
shield
were chosen because a broad band, aslant or across, is a
charge
easily recognised. These were the origins of the
honourable ordinaries,
as we now know them,
charges
such as the
bend
and the
fess.
As symbols were used up, variations were introduced with
increasing complexity to ensure the uniqueness of the bearer’s
arms.
Charges
from the natural world were adopted from the earliest times, as
we have seen.
The
lion,
as king of beasts with its noble qualities was chosen by
hundreds of
knights
as their bearing. In ancient
shields
almost all beasts and birds other than the
lion
and the
eagle
played upon the bearer’s name. No object was so humble that it
was unwelcome to the knight seeking a pun for his
shield.
Martell, for example, adopted three hammers, whilst Ferrers
chose horseshoes.
Tenants or neighbours of the
great feudal lords were wont to make their
arms
by
differencing
the lord's
shield
or by bringing some
charge
of it into their own bearings. Thus a group of Kentish
shields
borrowed
lions
from that of Leyborne, which is azure with six
lions
argent.
Sometimes the lord himself set forth such
arms
in a formal grant, as when the baron of Greystock granted to
Adam of Blencowe a
shield
in which his own three
chaplets
are
charges.
The Whitgreave family of Staffordshire still show a
shield
granted to their ancestor in 1442 by the earl of Stafford, in
which the Stafford red
chevron
on a golden
field
is four times repeated.
The gradual abandonment of the
suit of armour
after the end of the 16th century saw the end to the practical
purpose of
armory.
Far from disappearing however, heraldry became more popular and
elaborate. Instead of decorating the fighting man’s armour, it
became a decorative art and used widely in stately homes and
churches, woven into tapestry or etched on monuments.
Marshalling became more complex developing from the early
combination of two
shields
to denote the union of two titles to almost unlimited
quarterings
which narrate a genealogical history.
The levelling of society in
modern times does not appear to have diminished the popularity
of heraldry. The proliferation of heraldic sites on the internet
proves the opposite. Corporations and companies, no matter how
small, take pride in their
armorial
bearing. One has but to drive through any tiny villages in most
European countries to be greeted with a sign flaunting the
heraldic
device
of that village.
Perhaps we need to return to
this rich seam of the pageantry of our past to help compensate
for the impersonality, uncertainty and transience of modern
life.
*Jean de
Marmoutier: HISTORIA GAUFREDI, DUCIS NORMANNORUM ET COMITIS
ANDEGAVORUM
Illustrations reproduced with gratitude from the following:
Illuminated Letter: Taken from Guillim's A
Display of Heraldie on
http://www.btinternet.com/~paul.j.grant/guillim/
Funeral plaque of Geoffrey of Anjou:
http://www.heraldica.org/topics/le-mans.htm
Tomb of William of the Long Sword:
http://medievalwriting.50megs.com/word/heraldry.htm
