Heraldic badge
A heraldic badge, emblem, impresa, device, or personal device worn as a badge indicates allegiance to, or the property of, an individual, family or corporate body. Medieval forms are usually called a livery badge, and also a cognizance. They are para-heraldic, not necessarily using elements from the coat of arms of the person or family they represent, though many do, often taking the crest or supporters. Their use is more flexible than that of arms proper.
Medieval usage
Origins
Badges with "a distinctly heraldic character" in England date to about the reign (1327–1377) of King Edward III.[1] In the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, the followers, retainers, dependants, and partisans of famous and powerful personages and houses bore well-known badges – precisely because they were known and recognised. (In contrast, the coat of arms was used exclusively by the individual to whom it belonged.)
Badges occasionally imitated a charge in the bearer's coat of arms, or had a more or less direct reference to such a charge. More often, badges commemorated some remarkable exploit, illustrated a family or feudal alliance, or indicated some territorial rights or pretensions. Some badges are rebuses, making a pun or play-on-words of the owner's name. It was not uncommon for the same personage or family to use more than one badge; and, on the other hand, two or more badges were often borne in combination, to form a single compound device.
Livery badges in England
Livery badges were especially common in England from the mid-fourteenth century until about the end of the fifteenth century, a period of intense factional conflict which saw the deposition of Richard II and the Wars of the Roses. A lavish badge like the Dunstable Swan Jewel would only have been worn by the person whose device was represented, members of his family or important supporters, and possibly servants who were in regular very close contact with him. However the jewel lacks the ultimate luxury of being set with gems, for example having ruby eyes, like the lion pendants worn by Sir John Donne and his wife[2] and several examples listed on the 1397 treasure roll of King Richard II. In the Wilton Diptych, Richard's own badge has pearls on the antler tips, which the angels' badges lack. The white hart in the badge on the Treasury Roll, which the painted one may have copied, had pearls and sat on a grass bed made of emeralds,[3] and a hart badge of Richard's inventoried in the possession of Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy in 1435 was set with 22 pearls, two spinels, two sapphires, a ruby and a huge diamond.[4]
Cheaper forms of badge were more widely distributed, sometimes very freely indeed, rather as modern political campaign buttons and tee-shirts are, though as in some modern countries wearing the wrong badge in the wrong place could lead to personal danger. In 1483 King Richard III ordered 13,000 badges in fustian cloth with his emblem of a white boar for the investiture of his son Edward as Prince of Wales,[5] a huge number given the population at the time. Other grades of boar badges that have survived are in lead, silver,[6] and gilded copper relief, the last found at Richard's home of Middleham Castle in Yorkshire, and very likely worn by one of his household when he was Duke of York.[7] The British Museum also has a swan badge in flat lead, typical of the cheap metal badges which were similar to the pilgrim badges that were also common in the period.[8]
In 1377, during a period when the young Richard's uncle
Apparently beginning relatively harmlessly under
In the end it took a determined campaign by Henry VII to largely stamp out the use of livery badges by others than the king, and reduce them to things normally worn only by household servants in the case of the aristocracy. Livery badges issues by guilds and corporations, and mayors, were exempt, and these continued in use until the 19th century in some cases. A particular concern in all the legislation was to forbid the issuing of liveries to those without a permanent contract with the lord; these groups assembled for a particular purpose were believed to be the most dangerous. The Statute of Liveries of 1506 finally forbade entirely the issuing of liveries to those of higher rank; they had to be domestic servants or persons experienced in the law, unless covered by a specific royal licence. A well-known story, first told by Francis Bacon but unsupported in the remaining records, has Henry visiting his principal military commander John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford at Hedingham Castle, who at his departure lined the king's exit route with liveried retainers, for which Henry fined him 15,000 marks.[17] In fact modern historical analysis of the court records shows few prosecutions, but by the end of Henry's reign liveried retainers do seem to have ceased to be a major problem.[18] While the badges of the nobility were carefully restricted, the royal badges of the Tudors, most famously the Tudor rose that signified the union of the Lancastrian and Yorkist dynasties, were used more widely than ever before, for example being added freely to King's College Chapel, Cambridge when the Tudors completed Henry VI's unfinished building. The Collar of Esses became in effect a badge of office, though of course still denoting allegiance to the monarch.
Renaissance and early modern personal device
In the Renaissance, the badge, now more likely to be described as a "personal device", took an intellectual turn, and was usually combined with a short text or motto, which when read in combination were intended to convey a sense of the aspirations or character of the bearer. These impresas or
The device spread far beyond the aristocracy as part of the craze for wittily enigmatic constructions in which combinations of pictures and texts were intended to be read together to generate a meaning that could not be derived from either part alone. The device, to all intents and purposes identical to the Italian impresa, differs from the emblem in two principal ways. Structurally, the device normally consists of two parts while most emblems have three or more. As well, the device was highly personal, intimately attached to a single individual, while the emblem was constructed to convey a general moral lesson that any reader might apply in his or her own life.
Famous English badges
- Bohun swan, a swan argent gorged and chained or: Badge of the De Bohun family and descendants
- Bear and ragged staff: both badges of the Beauchamp Earls of Warwick were sometimes united to form a single badge. The successors of that family, including Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, bore the "bear and ragged staff" as a single device.
- Edward, the Black Prince. A swan was also used by several Princes of Wales, as in the Dunstable Swan Jewel.
- Roses: the Tudor rose badge adopted by Henry VII of England combines the White Rose of York and the Red Rose of Lancaster, the two warring houses of the Wars of the Roses.
- Stafford knot: a distinctive three-looped knot originally borne by the Dukes of Buckingham, and today pictured in the coat of arms of Staffordshire County Council.
- Elizabeth I.
- White Boar: the personal badge of Richard Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III.
Badges of English royalty
- William II: a flower of five foils
- Henry I: a flower of eight foils
- Stephen: a flower of seven foils; a Sagittarius; a Plume of Ostrich Feathers; Motto: Vi nulla invertitur ordo (No force alters their fashion)
- Escarbuncle; a Sword and Olive branch
- Richard I: a star of thirteen rays and a crescent; a star issuing from a crescent; a mailed arm grasping a broken lance, with the motto Christo Duce
- John and Henry III: a star issuing from a crescent
- Edward I: a heraldic rose or, stalked proper
- Edward II: a castle of Castile
- Fleur-de-Lys; a Leopard, a Sword; a falcon; a Gryphon; a Stock (stump) of a tree; rays issuing from a cloud
- Richard II: a White Hart lodged; the Stock (stump) of a tree; a white falcon; a Sun in Splendor; a Sun Clouded
- Henry IV: the Monogram (cypher) SS; a crowned eagle; an eagle displayed; a white swan; a red rose; a Columbine flower; a fox's tail; a crowned panther; the Stock (stump) of a tree; a Crescent
- Henry V: a fire-beacon; a white swan gorged and chained; a chained antelope
- Henry VI: two ostrich feathers in Saltire; a chained antelope; a panther
- Edward IV: a white rose en Soleil; a white wolf and white lion; a white Hart; a black dragon and black bull; a falcon and Fetter-lock; the Sun in Splendor
- Richard III: the White Boar, the Sun in Splendor
- Rose of Yorkand Lancaster (a Tudor Rose); a Portcullis and a Fleur-de-Lis, all of them crowned; a red dragon; a white greyhound; a Hawthorn Bush and Crown, with the cypher H.R.
- Henry VIII: the same, without the Hawthorn Bush and with a White Cockerel
- Catherine of Aragon: a rose, pomegranate, and Sheaf of Arrows
- Anne Boleyn: a crowned falcon, holding a Sceptre
- Tudor Roses
- Catherine Parr: a Maiden's Head crowned, rising from a large Tudor Rose
- Edward VI: a Tudor Rose; the sun in splendor
- Mary I: a Tudor Rose impaling a pomegranate, also impaling a Sheaf of Arrows, ensigned with a Crown, and surrounded with Rays; a pomegranate
- Elizabeth I: a Tudor Rose, with the motto, Rosa sine Spina (a Rose without a Thorn); a crowned falcon and sceptre; her motto, Semper Eadem (Always the same)
Royal badges of British monarchs
- James I: a thistle; a thistle and a Tudor rose dimidiatedand Crowned, with the motto Beati Pacifici (Blessed are the peacemakers)
- Charles I, Charles II and James II: same as James I, without his motto
- Anne: a Tudor rose-branch and a thistle growing from one branch
With the accession of the
- Elizabeth II in addition to all her other badges assumed two badges for Wales, one in 1953 and 2008.
Revival
Heraldic badges were revived in 1906 by the
See also
- Badge of the Royal Air Force
- Distinctive unit insignia
- Cap badge
- Naval heraldry
- Royal Badges of England
- Scottish crest badge
Notes
- ^
ISBN 9781602390010. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
The Heraldic Badge, as we know it, came into general use about the reign of Edward III, that is, the heraldic badge as a separate matter having a distinct existence in addition to concurrent arms, and having at the same time a distinctly heraldic character.
- National Gallery, London; see [1]
- ^ Stratford (2007), Miscellaneous gold objects
- ^ Campbell (1987), p. 524
- ^ Cherry (2003), p. 204
- ^ BBC article on silver boar badge, which it appears was originally silver-gilt
- ^ Cherry (2003), p. 204; no. 69
- ^ Cherry (2003), p. 203; no. 68a
- ^ Given-Wilson (2003), p. 124. Steane (1999), p. 132 for Gaunt's retinue. See Stratford (2007), Richard II's life and reign for a concise account of the upheavals of his reign.
- ^ Steane (1999), p. 132
- ^ Given-Wilson (2003), p. 123
- ^ Given-Wilson (2003), p. 126
- ^ Brown (2002), p. 117
- ^ Given-Wilson (2003), p. 125
- ^ Brown (2002), p. 117
- ^ Given-Wilson (2003), p. 126
- ^ Bacon History of the Reign of King Henry VII.
- ^ Chrimes (1972), pp. 187–192
- ^ As of January 2010, the extra fee is £1,000.
References
- Brown, Peter (2002). A Companion to Chaucer. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-23590-6.
- Campbell, Marian (1987). Alexander, Jonathan; Binski, Paul (eds.). Age of Chivalry, Art in Plantagenet England, 1200-1400. London: Royal Academy/Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
- Cherry, John (2003). Marks, Richard; Williamson, Paul (eds.). Gothic: Art for England 1400-1547. London: V&A Publications. ISBN 1-85177-401-7.(part of text given on BM database)
- Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1907). Heraldic Badges. J. Lane. ISBN 9781115791069.
- Chrimes, Stanley Bertram (1972). Henry VII. University of California Press. Part 2. ISBN 978-0-520-02266-9.
- Given-Wilson, Chris (2003). "Richard II and the Higher Nobility". In Goodman, Anthony; Gillespie, James (eds.). Richard II: The Art of Kingship. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-926220-9.
- Siddons, Michael Powell (2009). Heraldic Badges in England and Wales (PDF). Vol. 4 vols. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-1-84383-493-9. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2011-10-01.
- Steane, John (1999). The Archaeology of the Medieval English Monarchy. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-19788-0.
- Stratford, Jenny (2007). "The swan badge and the Dunstable Swan". Richard II's Treasure; the riches of a medieval king. The Institute of Historical Research and Royal Holloway, University of London.
- This article incorporates text from A. C. Fox-Davies' 1914 edition of Charles Boutell's
- The Handbook to English Heraldry at Project Gutenberg, which is in the public domain in the United States.
External links
- Media related to Heraldic badges at Wikimedia Commons
- French Emblems at Glasgow - two editions of Paradin are available here