Attributed arms

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instruments of the Passion

Attributed arms are Western European

coats of arms given retrospectively to persons real or fictitious who died before the start of the age of heraldry in the latter half of the 12th century. Once coats of arms were the established fashion of the ruling class, society expected a king to be armigerous.[1] Arms were assigned to the knights of the Round Table, and then to biblical figures, to Roman and Greek heroes, and to kings and popes who had not historically borne arms.[2]
Individual authors often attributed different arms for the same person, although the arms for major figures eventually became fixed.

Notable arms attributed to biblical figures include the arms of

William I of England. These attributed arms were sometimes used in practice as quarterings
in the arms of their descendants.

History

Attributed or imaginary arms appeared in literature in the middle of the 12th century, particularly in

Arthurian legends. During the generation following Chrétien de Troyes, about 40 of Arthur's knights had attributed coats of arms.[3]
A second stage of development occurred during the 14th and 15th centuries when Arthurian arms expanded to include as many as 200 attributed coats of arms.

Arthur as one of the Nine Worthies, tapestry, c. 1385

During the same centuries,

King David, for instance, was assigned a gold harp as a device.[6]

Once coats of arms were the established fashion of the ruling class, society expected a king to be

armigerous.[1] In such an era, it was "natural enough to consider that suitable armorial devices and compositions should be assigned to men of mark in earlier ages".[7] Each author could attribute different arms for the same person, although regional styles developed, and the arms for major figures soon became fixed.[8]

Some attributed arms were incorporated into the quarterings of their descendants' arms. The quarterings for the family of Lloyd of Stockton, for instance, include numerous arms originally attributed to Welsh chieftains from the 9th century or earlier.[9] In a similar vein, arms were attributed to Pope Leo IX based on the later arms of his family's descendants.[8]

In the 16th and 17th centuries, additional arms were attributed to a large number of saints, kings and popes, especially those from the 11th and 12th centuries. Pope Innocent IV (1243–1254) is the first pope whose personal coat of arms is known with certainty.[10] By the end of the 17th century, the use of attributed arms became more restrained[11]

The tinctures and charges attributed to an individual in the past provide insight into the history of symbolism.[12]

Arthurian heraldry

Lancelot (arms with three red bends) and Tristan from a 15th-century manuscript

In the

heraldic description of a coat of arms. Although these arms could be arbitrary, some characters were traditionally associated with one coat or a few different coats. Early British sources such as the Historia Brittonum assign the Pendragon a white banner with a gold dragon which later becomes the Red Dragon of Wales
.

Three Wise Men in Cologne (which led to the three crowns in the seal of the University of Cologne), and with the grants of Edward I of England to towns which were symbolized by three crowns in the towns' arms. The number of crowns increased to eleven, thirteen and even thirty at times.[13]

Other arms were associated with Arthur. In a manuscript from the later 13th century, Arthur's shield has three gold leopards, a likely heraldic flattery of Edward I of England.

Virgin Mary.[14] An illustration of the latter by D. Endean Ivall, based on the battle flag described by Nennius
(a cross and the Virgin Mary) and including the motto "King Arthur is not dead" in Cornish, can be found on the cover of W. H. Pascoe's 1979 A Cornish Armory.

Tristan and Iseult kissing, with attributed arms on a field of green in center

Other characters in the Arthurian legends are described with coats of arms. Lancelot starts with plain white arms but later receives a shield with three bends gules signifying the strength of three men.[15] Tristan was attributed a variety of arms. His earliest arms, a gold lion rampant on red field, are shown in a set of 13th-century tiles found in Chertsey Abbey.[16] Thomas of Britain in the 12th century attributed these arms in what is believed to be heraldic flattery of his patron, either Richard I or Henry II, whose coats of arms contained some form of lion.[17] In other versions the field is not red, but green. Gottfried von Strassburg attributed to Tristan a silver shield with a black boar rampant[18] In Italy, however, he was attributed geometric patterns (argent a bend gules).[19]

Plain arms

The Arthurian legends contain numerous instances of

green knights challenging the knights of the Round Table. In most cases, the color was chosen at random and has no symbolic significance.[20] Such arms of one tincture create an atmosphere. Plain arms were rare in the 12th century, and were used in literature to suggest a primitive heraldry of a time long past. Geoffrey of Monmouth noted with favor that in the Arthurian age, worthy knights used arms of one color, suggesting 12th century heraldic ornamentation was partly pretence.[20]

Plain arms may also function as a disguise for major characters. In the Chrétien de Troyes' Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, Lancelot bears plain red arms as a disguise. The hero of Cligès competes in a jousting tournament with plain black, green, and red arms on three successive days.[21]

Kings

The attributed arms of Edward the Confessor
Arms of Middlesex County Council

Arms were attributed to important pre-heraldic kings. Among the best known are those assigned to the

fleurs-de-lis of France supposedly derive from these.[22]

William the Conqueror, the first Norman king of England, had a coat of arms with two lions. Richard the Lionheart used such a coat of arms with two lions on a red field,[23] from which the three lions of the coat of arms of England derive. However, there is no proof that William's arms were not attributed to William after his death.[7]

The earlier

Saxon Kings were assigned a gold cross on a blue shield, but this did not exist until the 13th century. The arms of Saint Edward the Confessor, a blue shield charged with a gold cross and five gold birds, appears to have been suggested by heralds in the time of Henry III of England[7] based on a coin minted in Edward's reign.[4] These arms were later used by Richard II of England out of devotion to the saint.[24]

Arms were attributed to the kingdoms of the

Anglo-Saxon heptarchy. The Kingdom of Essex, for instance, was assigned a red shield with three notched swords (or "seaxes"). This coat was used by the counties of Essex and Middlesex until 1910, when the Middlesex County Council applied for a formal grant from the College of Arms
(The Times, 1910). Middlesex was granted a red shield with three notched swords and a "Saxon Crown". The Essex County Council was granted the arms without the crown in 1932.

Even the kings of Rome were assigned arms, with Romulus, the first King of Rome, signified by the she-wolf.[25]

Flags were also attributed. While the King of Morocco was attributed three rooks as arms, which are therefore canting arms,[11] the whole chessboard was shown in some sources, resulting in the 14th-century checkered version of the flag of Morocco.[26]

Religious figures

Jesus and Mary

Example of arms attributed to Jesus from the 15th-century Hyghalmen Roll

Heralds could have attributed to

nails, lance, crown of thorns, sponge and whips
.

The instruments of the Passion were sometimes split between a shield and crest in the form of an achievement of arms.

five Wounds of Christ, three jars of ointment, two rods, and the head of Judas Iscariot with a bag of money.[29]

While Christ was associated with the images of the Passion,

lily flowers. An example can be found on the lower part of the coat of arms of the College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor.[31]

Trinity and angels

Saint Michael the Archangel) in Randle Holme
's Book (c. 1460)
Traditional arms of Satan, based on the "three unclean spirits like frogs" of Book of Revelation 16:13
Main article: Shield of the Trinity

Out of a desire to make the abstract visible, arms were also attributed to the unseen spirits.

William Peraldus' Summa Vitiorum (c. 1260) shows a knight battling the seven deadly sins with this shield. A variation included with the shields of arms in Matthew Paris' Chronica Majora (c. 1250–1259) adds a cross between the center and bottom circles, accompanied by the words "v'bu caro f'm est" (verbum caro factum est, "the word was made flesh"; John 1:14).[34]

Saint Michael the Archangel appears often in heraldic settings. In one case, the device from the shield of the Trinity is placed on a blue field and attributed to St. Michael.[33] More usually, he is shown in armour with a red cross on a white shield, slaying the devil depicted as a dragon. These attributed arms were later transferred to Saint George.[35]

Heraldry is also attributed to Satan, as the commanding general of the fallen angels, to identify him in the heat of battle. The Douce Apocalypse portrays him carrying a red shield with a gold fess, and three frogs (based on Revelation 16:13).[36]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b Loomis 1922, p. 26.
  2. ^ Pastoreau 1997a, p. 258.
  3. ^ Pastoreau 1997a, p. 259.
  4. ^ a b Neubecker 1976, p. 30.
  5. ^ Loomis 1938, p. 37.
  6. ^ a b Neubecker 1976, p. 172.
  7. ^ a b c Boutell & Fox-Davies 2003, p. 18.
  8. ^ a b Turner 1996, p. 415.
  9. ^ Neubecker 1976, p. 94.
  10. ^ Pastoreau 1997a, pp. 283–284.
  11. ^ a b Neubecker 1976, p. 224.
  12. ^ Pastoreau 1997b, p. 87.
  13. ^ Brault 1997, pp. 44–46.
  14. ^ Brault 1997, pp. 22–24.
  15. ^ Brault 1997, p. 47.
  16. ^ Loomis 1915, p. 308.
  17. ^ Loomis 1922, p. 26; Loomis 1938, p. 47.
  18. ^ Loomis 1922, p. 22; Loomis 1938, p. 49.
  19. ^ Loomis 1938, p. 59.
  20. ^ a b Brault 1997, p. 29.
  21. ^ Brault 1997, p. 30.
  22. ^ Neubecker 1976, p. 225.
  23. ^ Loomis 1938, p. 47.
  24. ^ Fraser 2000, p. 44.
  25. ^ Neubecker 1976, pp. 224–225.
  26. ^ Flags of the World.
  27. ^ Dennys 1975, p. 96.
  28. ^ Neubecker 1976, p. 222.
  29. ^ Dennys 1975, pp. 97–98.
  30. ^ Dennys 1975, p. 102.
  31. ^ Dennys 1975, p. 103.
  32. ^ Neubecker 1976, p. 222; Dennys 1975, p. 93.
  33. ^ a b Dennys 1975, p. 95.
  34. ^ Dennys 1975, p. 94.
  35. ^ Dennys 1975, p. 109.
  36. ^ Dennys 1975, p. 112.

Sources

  • "Armorial bearings of Middlesex". The Times. November 7, 1910.
  • ISBN 0-7661-4917-X
    .
  • Brault, Gerald J. (1997). Early Blazon (2nd ed.). Boydell Press.
    ISBN 0-85115-711-4
    .
  • ISBN 0-919974-01-5
    .
  • ISBN 0-520-22460-4
    .
  • Modern Language Association of America
    .
  • Loomis, Roger S. (July 1915). "A Sidelight on the 'Tristan' of Thomas".
    JSTOR 3712621
    .
  • Loomis, Roger S. (January 1922). "Tristan and the house of Anjou".
    JSTOR 3714327
    .
  • "Morocco Historical Flags". Flags of the World. 9 July 2007. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
  • Neubecker, Ottfried (1976). Heraldry: Sources, Symbols and Meaning. McGraw-Hill.
    ISBN 0-07-046308-5
    .
  • Pastoreau, Michel (1983). Armorial des chevaliers de la Table ronde. Leopard d'Or.
  • ISBN 2-7084-0520-9
    .
  • ISBN 0-8109-2830-2
    .
  • Turner, Jane (1996). Dictionary of Art. Vol. 14. p. 415.

External links
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