Equestrian seal

An equestrian seal is a type of

Early examples of equestrian seals are known from the second half of the 11th century. The oldest example that may be addressed as an "equestrian seal" is that of

• 
  William I of England

  (c. 1067)
• 
  Ralph I, Count of Vermandois (1116)
• 
  Thibaut de Blois (1138)
• 
  Fulk, King of Jerusalem (r. 1131–1143)
• 
  Gilbert de Clare (before 1148)
• 
  Gilbert de Clare, 1st Earl of Pembroke (d. 1148)
• 
  Enguerrand (Ingelram),

  count of Saint-Pol

  (before 1150)
• 
  Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona (1150)
• 
  Ottokar III of Styria (1157)
• 
  Ottokar III of Styria (1160)
• 
  David, Earl of Huntingdon (1160)
• 
  Robert III de Vitré (d. 1161)
• 
  Galéran IV de Meulan (1165)

High medieval seals (1170–1300)

The peak of usage comes with the development of the tradition of

Around the middle of the 13th century, there was a fashion to also represent ladies and ecclesiastics on horseback on their seal, not wearing armour, but, as in the cases of Joan, Countess of Flanders (c. 1240), Maria of Brabant, Duchess of Bavaria (c. 1250) and Adelaide of Burgundy, Duchess of Brabant (c. 1260) practicing falconry.

• 
  Philip I, Count of Flanders (1170)
• 
  Berthold V, Duke of Zähringen (1187)
• 
  Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse (r. 1194-1222)
• 
  Richard I of England (1195)
• 
  Theobald III, Count of Champagne (1198)
• 
  Geoffrey III, Count of Perche (d. 1202)
• 
  Casimir I of Opole (1226)
• 
  James I of Aragon (r. 1213–1276)
• 
  Matthew II of Montmorency (died 1230).
• 
  Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester and Hertford, c. 1218–1230
• 
  Gauthier III de Nemours (d. 1239)
• 
  Walter II of Avesnes (d. 1244)
• 
  Alphonse, Count of Poitiers (d. 1271)
• 
  Ottokar II Premysl (1273)
• 
  Henry I of Navarre (r. 1270–1274)
• 
  Alfonso X of Castile (d. 1284)
• 
  Amadeus V, Count of Savoy (c. 1285)
• 
  Frederick III, Duke of Lorraine (1286)

Late medieval seals (1300–1550)

After 1300, equestrian seals were almost exclusively used by the

• 
  Trojden I, Duke of Masovia (1341)^[2]
• 
  Albert I of Habsburg (d. 1308)
• 
  Albert II, Duke of Austria (d. 1358)
• 
  Robert II of Scotland (r. 1371–1390)
• 
  Albert III, Duke of Austria (d. 1395)
• 
  The so-called franc-à-cheval was a gold coin valued one livre tournois minted from 1360. The obverse shows the French king in the style of an equestrian seal. This coin is the origin of the name franc for the French currency.
• 
  Francis II, Duke of Brittany (r.1458–1488)
• 
  Albert III, Duke of Saxony (d. 1500)
• 
  Antoine, Duke of Lorraine (1508)

Late forms (after 1550)

Late forms were used well into the

The reverse of the Great Seal of Charles I of England (1627) shows the monarch in full gallop, wearing a fanciful classicist armour, accompanied by a hunting dog. The British monarchs from 1707 onward continued the convention of depicting the seated and crowned monarch on the obverse, and the monarch on horseback on the reverse. This is the case also for the queen regnants (Great Seal of Queen Anne, Queen Victoria, Elizabeth II), who are depicted in sidesaddle.

In 1976, Austria minted a commemorative gold coin (13.5g 90% Au) on the occasion of the millennial anniversary of the Babenberg dynasty (Leopold I, Margrave of Austria), known as the Babenberger-Bundesgoldmünze. The obverse of this coin was designed in the style of a medieval equestrian seal (with the addition of an alpine panorama).

Modern heraldic forms

In heraldic art, influenced by the equestrian seals, horsemen are a fairly common symbol. Two widely popular forms that the horseman takes is as the

• 
  Modern coat of arms of Lithuania
• 
  Modern alternative national emblem of Belarus
• 
  Saint George on horseback on the coat of arms of Moscow
• 
  Saing George on horseback on the coat of arms of Russia

See also

• History of heraldry
• Pahonia

References

• Sandra Hindman, Sealed in Parchment: Rereadings of Knighthood in the Illuminated Manuscripts of Chretien de Troyes (1994), 118ff.
• Phillipp R. Schofield, Seals and their Context in the Middle Ages (2015)
• "Les Sceaux du Moyen-Âge", in: Mémoires de la Société nationale des Antiquaires de France XXXVII.
• John McEwan, "Equestrian Seals in the Late Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries", Essays in Medieval Studies 22 (2005), 77-93,
  doi:10.1353/ems.2006.0011
  .
• Jean-François Nieus, "Early Aristocratic Seals" in: E. Van Houts (ed.), Anglo-Norman Studies XXXVIII: Proceedings of the Battle Conference 2015 (2016).
• Phillipp R. Schofield, Seals and their Context in the Middle Ages (2015), 38ff.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Equestrian seals.

• http://medievalwriting.50megs.com/decoration/seal3.htm Archived 2020-02-20 at the Wayback Machine
• http://www.hubert-herald.nl/EspanCatalunya.htm