BATTLING THE LION: VISUAL COMMEMORATIONS OF CRUSADE IN TWELFTH- AND THIRTEENTH-CENTURY SEALS FROM THE BRITISH ISLES

Abstract

This article examines a group of five surviving twelfth- and thirteenth-century wax seal impressions from the British Isles that depict a scene of an armed knight in combat with a lion. This seal motif has tenuously been linked with crusading in the past, and so this paper seeks to address the connections between the sigillants and crusade, as well as the significance of commemoration of crusade culture on medieval seals. It highlights numerous links between this specific design and crusading experiences, literature and allegory. This paper focuses on an aspect of the medieval memory of crusade and the means of displaying chivalric, crusading identities within literate culture (on charters and letters) and in personal adornment.

INTRODUCTION

The culture of crusade was cloaked in symbolism: ‘taking the cross’ quite literally meant an individual sewed a cross on their garments as they took their vow to embark on holy war. ¹ The concepts surrounding pilgrimage and crusade were so interwoven that crusaders often adopted the symbolic trappings of a pilgrim: a pilgrim’s hat, a scrip and a walking staff. ² It was critical for crucesignati – those ‘signed with the cross’ – and wider western European society that crusaders could easily be picked out. ³ Identifying who was, or had been, a crusader become increasingly necessary during the thirteenth century; no longer laymen per se, crusaders were milites Christi, penitents who held special temporal privileges, such as exemptions from crusade taxes and interest on loans, as well as royal or papal protections for their family and property. ⁴ Participating in crusade was also considered a prestigious act in High Medieval culture. ⁵ Many individuals were, therefore, especially keen to display their participation. Indeed, one of the few commonalities among those who returned from crusade seems to have been a desire to commemorate their journey. ⁶

Crusaders memorialised their experiences in myriad ways; for example, many of the élite founded religious houses or made benefactions, either in thanks for a safe return and/or to entreat prayers for fallen comrades. ⁷ Commoners and nobles alike took on epithets that referenced their pilgrimage – such as Palmer or Jerusalemite, or the various Latinised forms of these names. ⁸ Following the crusaders’ capture of Jerusalem in 1099, and especially Constantinople in 1204, relics and souvenirs flowed back to western Europe where they adorned noble and ecclesiastical spaces, offering tangible connections with the East. ⁹ It was not atypical for such spaces to include wall paintings depicting (or allegorising) crusading events. ¹⁰ Some crusaders’ tombs even included epitaphs celebrating the deceased’s pilgrimage. ¹¹ Scholarship on the commemoration of crusade has uncovered much about gendered, religious, regional and dynastic identities in the High Middle Ages. ¹² However, there remains much to be understood regarding subtle personal expressions of crusading identity in western Europe.

This paper examines a particular motif that appears on some medieval noblemen’s seals: a depiction of an armed knight combatting a lion. Medieval seals – referring to either the matrix used to make an impression or the impressions themselves – were used by individuals and institutions to indicate their affirmation to diplomatic materials, such as charters, letters or legal pronouncements. ¹³ A seal’s particular iconography and legend (the text around the outer rim of a seal matrix) identified the owner and/or reflected elements of their character, social status, secular or religious affiliations or region. ¹⁴ Seals were even used by the élite to augment and celebrate their dynastic memory. ¹⁵ In short, seals were personal, highly mobile and an expressive means to display identity. Given contemporaries’ predilection for celebrating past crusades, the sigillographic evidence offers an opportunity to explore their more personal commemorations. This article will examine five known seals from the British Isles that bear the lion-battle design (as I term it), belonging to: Roger iii de Berkeley (d. c 1170), Bertram iii de Verdun (d. 1192), Hugh de Neville (d. 1234), Saher iv de Quincy (d. 1219) and the latter’s son, Roger de Quincy (d. 1264). It will discuss these five individuals’ connections to crusade and the links between their unusual choice of seal motif. This paper argues that, over time, the lion-battle schema was used, in part, to display a past pilgrimage, display adherence to crusading ideals, or to broadly celebrate crusading culture. ¹⁶

LIONS, CRUSADE AND SYMBOLISM

Interest in ‘crusading symbols’ is not new. Antiquarians attempted to link various heraldic symbols – crosses, stars and animals like swifts, owls and even the ass – with crusade. ¹⁷ Most of these associations had no basis in medieval sources; rather, they were often the product of families’ spurious claims to some crusading pedigree. Nevertheless, it is possible that the crusades helped in the dissemination of heraldic devices or inspired some sigillographic topoi, which were recognised as such by contemporaries. ¹⁸ Adrian Ailes, for one, placed great importance on returning crusaders’ stories of ‘exotic beasts’ for the ‘heraldic menagerie’ that developed on medieval seals. ¹⁹

Overt celebrations of crusade have been identified on medieval seals from Latin Christendom. Kathryn Hurlock has shown that when one English nobleman, Geoffrey of Dutton, returned from the Fifth Crusade (1217–21), in 1220, he adopted a seal design showing a hand grasping a palm frond. ²⁰ It has been suggested that the seal of Henryk the Bearded, duke of Silesia (c 1224), which depicted him holding a palm frond, may indicate his participation in a crusade to the Levant or Prussia. ²¹ Mikołaj Gładysz notes the equestrian seal of Konrad i of Masovia (d. 1247) – a leader in the Prussian Crusade of 1222–3 – which depicted Konrad carrying a cross along with a banner emblazoned with a cross. ²² William Chester Jordan, too, has drawn attention to the seal of Gobert Sarrasin, a Muslim convert to Christianity who came to France at the close of the Seventh Crusade (1248–54) with King Louis ix of France. ²³ Gobert’s seal depicted a king’s head (possibly representing Louis ix) facing another head that bore a bonnet, or possibly a turban (perhaps representing Gobert). ²⁴ Gobert’s seal may have celebrated his conversion within the context of a crusade that was otherwise dogged by Christian failures. Despite the likelihood that all these seals denoted some connection between their owner and crusade, it is hard to grasp exactly what message these motifs communicated; few definitive programmatic crusading symbols have been identified. ²⁵ Indeed, it should certainly not be assumed that everyone who returned from crusade subsequently adopted a seal that celebrated their venture. ²⁶

This article is concerned with a particular motif, rather than one individual’s seal: the pictural scheme of a knight in combat with a lion. This motif has been linked with crusade in the past. Writing in the 1880s, Henry Barkly claimed that this device was assumed by crusaders to ‘typify their adventures to the East’. ²⁷ It is unclear how Barkly came to this conclusion. Nevertheless, John Goodall investigated the Eastern associations of the lion-battle motif. He was convinced that a thirteenth-century matrix from England, ²⁸ which depicted a knight stabbing a lion, was modelled, directly or otherwise, from the Classical iconography of the ancient Assyrian royal lion hunt. ²⁹ Goodall speculated that an Assyrian seal-ring that bore a similar image could have been brought to England by crusaders or pilgrims, and that this inspired the artist who made this matrix, or a precursor. Goodall further believed that this was the origin of depictions of knights fighting lions on medieval seals. Intaglio gems from antiquity were readily incorporated into medieval seals, many of which would have found their way to Europe via returning pilgrims. ³⁰ However, we might consider whether the owners of lion-battle seals were (knowingly or otherwise) replicating a design that originated on souvenirs from the East, or if the design itself was meant to communicate something more directly regarding crusade culture, or the sigillants’ personal or family travels to the Holy Land. ³¹

This is a complex task, namely because lions (and leopards) were ubiquitous in western European art and heraldry. They were used to represent a wide variety of ideas, drawing inspiration from Classical and popular teachings, as well as Christological allegory. ³² Medieval bestiaries considered the lion to be a potent symbol of Christ. It was thought that lions were born dead and came to life after three days, as their father breathed or roared over them, in direct parallel of God’s resurrection of Christ. ³³ Christ was also directly referred to as the ‘Lion of Judah’, in reference to Jacob’s prophecy in the book of Genesis. ³⁴ Both these themes may have influenced seal motifs from the British Isles: the sleeping-lion motif recurs reasonably frequently in catalogues of medieval seals and Alister Sutherland noted one, admittedly very rare, example of an English seal that depicted a lion which had a legend that explicitly confirmed the scene as a representation of Christ. ³⁵

Biblical stories of lions may have influenced medieval seal design. ³⁶ The Old Testament figure of Daniel, for example, was thrown into a lion den and survived unscathed because of his faith. ³⁷ Similarly, the legend of St Jerome safely removing a thorn from a lion’s paw was particularly popular during the thirteenth century. ³⁸ Also, the Four Evangelists were symbolised by animals: a man for Matthew, an ox for Luke, an eagle for John and, crucially, a lion for Mark. ³⁹ Seals that depict a lion in reference to St Mark, however, appear to have included the other three Evangelists in the motif. ⁴⁰ More confrontational encounters with lions could also have served as inspiration. ⁴¹ In the Old Testament, Samson wrestled a lion with his bare hands and killed it, and David similarly bragged to King Saul that he had killed lions and bears while a shepherd. ⁴² The c 1180 seal of Edward of Restalrig (Lothian, Scotland) depicted an unarmoured man kneeling on a lion, while gripping the animal’s jaws. ⁴³ Sometime between c 1222 and 1256, Ralph, son of Waukelin de Gosfend, granted lands in Navestock (Essex) to St Paul’s Cathedral (London); his seal, still attached to the charter, depicts a man kneeling on a large lion, while holding its jaw and raising a straight object in their right hand, possibly a sword or club. ⁴⁴ Similarly, a seal belonging to William of Ayremynne (later bishop of Norwich, 1325–36), dating to 1322, depicted a bearded man on top of a lion, holding its jaw. ⁴⁵ The imagery on these seals have very similar compositions and are probably representations of Samson rending the lion or, in Ralph’s case, possibly Herakles attacking the Nemean Lion. Similarly, many thirteenth-century knightly tomb effigies depict a lion, dog or dragon at the feet of the deceased, possibly inspired by a line in the Psalms: ‘thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk; and thou shalt trample underfoot the lion and the dragon’. ⁴⁶

Lions also featured in popular chivalric romances during the High Middle Ages, which again could explain their depictions on knightly seals. Chrétien de Troyes’ Yvain, the Knight of the Lion (c 1180) is perhaps the most important piece of literature with this regard. A prominent aspect of this narrative involves Yvain saving a lion from a dragon, and it becomes his loyal companion. ⁴⁷ This was an especially popular story, translated by contemporaries into various vernacular languages. ⁴⁸ Seal makers, or those who commissioned them, may have drawn inspiration from the Yvain legend. The PAS database contains a thirteenth-century seal matrix, or possibly a token, found in London that appears to show Yvain stepping on a dragon, with his sword raised, as a lion turns to look at its rescuer. ⁴⁹ The seals of William de Irby, Geoffrey de Wenali (both from the 1290s) and William de Braose, (dating to 1301) depicted lions fighting wyverns/dragons, perhaps in anticipation of Yvain’s arrival. ⁵⁰ The Yvain legend may also have been invoked in the late twelfth-century seal of Hemming, son of William Stawelaus, which survives appended to a charter concerning lands in Saltfleetby (Lincolnshire). ⁵¹ The motif shows an armed knight almost comically stepping on the tail of a dragon and moving to strike it. Alister Sutherland stated: ‘[The seal] indicates that [Hemming] was a knight, capable of qualifying as one, or aspired to be one.’ ⁵² Whether this seal depicts Yvain, or perhaps St George or St Michael, fighting a dragon is unclear; the armed figure could equally represent Hemming himself locked in ‘spiritual warfare’. ⁵³

If a lion-battle motif was indeed intended as a reference to Yvain, the motif may also have crusading allusions: Yvain was allegorised in numerous crusade narratives. High Medieval Occitan troubadours – notably the continuator of the Chanson de la Croisade Albigeoise and the writer of the Notitiae Duae Lemovicenses – described an apocryphal story in which, during the First Crusade (1095–9), Gouffier of Lastours rescued a lion from a serpent, and the beast stayed with Gouffier until he set sail for home, whereupon the lion drowned trying to swim after him. ⁵⁴ Later generations supposedly remade Gouffier’s tomb at Châlard (western France), decorating it with an image of a lion and serpent. ⁵⁵ Similarly, an anonymous fourteenth-century writer working at Newburgh Abbey (Yorkshire) claimed that Roger de Mowbray (d. 1188) saved a lion from a serpent while returning from crusade and the lion accompanied Roger back to England (Roger actually died in the East, however). ⁵⁶ Despite these narratives taking inspiration from Yvain, their focus on crusaders’ encounters with wild beasts was by no means unique. ⁵⁷

Chroniclers, such as Robert the Monk and Albert of Aachen, reported that Wicher the Swabian singlehandedly killed a lion during the First Crusade. ⁵⁸ The twelfth-century Kurdish writer, Usāma Ibn Munqidh (d. 1188), famously recalled that one Levantine-Frankish knight hunted a leopard that resided in a ruined church in Hunāk, near Ma’arrah-al-Nu’mān. However, the beast killed the knight and became locally known as ‘the leopard that takes part in holy war’. ⁵⁹ When describing battle, chroniclers also frequently compared crusaders to lions in combat. ⁶⁰ Indeed, legendary ‘lion knights’, as Nicholas Paul has termed them, became a notable feature of crusading romance and dynastic traditions. ⁶¹

While these stories served a didactic purpose, highlighting the crusaders’ prowess or spiritual triumph (or the opposite in the case of Usāma Ibn Munqidh), we should not necessarily think of these narratives as being entirely fanciful. So-called ‘big cats’, such as the Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica), the leopard (Panthera pardus) and the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) were all still found in the Levant and Syria during the Middle Ages, though in dwindling numbers. ⁶² Outside of royal menageries, such as Woodstock Palace or the Tower of London, pilgrimage to the Holy Land offered northern European people the opportunity to see flora and fauna in the wild that they would seldom encounter in their homelands. ⁶³ It is entirely plausible that seals could serve as a media to celebrate such encounters. While commenting on the seals of Frankish Levantine nobles and religious leaders, Laura Whatley noticed that some ‘reflected the sensory aspects of visiting the Holy Places’. ⁶⁴

LION-BATTLE SEALS

Hugh de Neville’s seal represents the clearest example of a lion-battle motif that may depict the sigillant’s experiences on crusade (fig 1). Hugh – a nobleman who predominantly held lands in Northumberland and Essex – was a participant on the Third Crusade (1189–92). ⁶⁵ His seal impression survives on two undated, thirteenth-century documents; one is attached to a quitclaim to Canterbury Cathedral (though the seal is badly damaged), and a second (better preserved) example is appended to a charter granting land in Oystergate (London) to one Gilbert de Aquila. ⁶⁶ The front of the impression depicts a knight on foot, facing right, raising a sword to strike a leaping lion, while the rear of the impression bears Neville’s heraldry. No heraldry is visible on the figure’s shield, so it is hard to say if this is a depiction of Hugh or a purely allegorical scene. Matthew Paris (d. 1259), however, the chronicler of St Albans Abbey, reported that while Hugh was on crusade he encountered a lion and shot the beast in the chest with arrows before dispatching it with his sword. ⁶⁷ Given reports like that of Usāma ibn Munqidh, it is certainly possible that this could have happened. Yet, as David Crook noted, it is equally possible that the motif on Hugh’s seal inspired Matthew’s story. ⁶⁸ When Hugh returned from crusade, he gave an account of his experiences to the chronicler Ralph of Coggeshall (fl. 1207–26), who does not relate any lion-hunting tale. ⁶⁹ Despite these ambiguities, Hugh is not alone as a crusader who used a seal with this motif.

Fig 1. Hugh de Neville’s lion-battle wax seal (left) and its counterseal (right) – LMA, CLC/313/L/H/001/MS25121/1479. Images: reproduced by permission of the Chapter of St Paul’s Cathedral, London. © St Pauls Cathedral.

Bertram iii of Verdun, seneschal of Ireland, another participant on the Third Crusade, used a very similar design (fig 2). ⁷⁰ Bertram’s seal survives attached to his foundation charter for the Cistercian Abbey of Croxden (Staffordshire), from 1176. ⁷¹ It again depicts an armed knight on foot, facing right, ready to strike a rearing lion. Significantly, however, the only crusading venture that Bertram is known to have joined was the Third Crusade, and he died during the campaign – therefore, his lion-battle seal pre-dates his pilgrimage. ⁷² Bertram did have other connections to crusade: his ancestor Roland of Verdun had been on crusade and Bertram’s first wife, Matilda de Ferrers, came from a family with a strong crusading tradition – Matilda’s father, William de Ferrers earl of Derby (d. 1190), would also join the Third Crusade. ⁷³ Before leaving for the Holy Land, Bertram may have displayed his wider attention to crusading culture (and its dangers) when he dedicated the House of the Crutched Friars in Dundalk (County Louth) to St Leonard, patron saint of women in labour and horses, but also of captives and prisoners of war. ⁷⁴

Fig 2. Bertram iii de Verdun’s wax seal – Bodleian, ms Ch. Staff. a.2, charter 47. Image: © Bodleian Libraries, Oxford.

A third seal that conforms to the same pattern as Bertram and Hugh’s, and the earliest example, belonged to Roger iii de Berkeley, a Gloucestershire-based nobleman (fig 3). This seal is attached to a letter that Roger sent to Archbishop of Canterbury Theobald (dating sometime between 1148 and 1161). ⁷⁵ It, too, depicts an armed knight facing right, carrying a shield with some apparent vertical lines that may be a trace of heraldry, while raising a sword to strike a leaping lion. Unlike the other two sigillants, however, there is no evidence that Roger went on crusade. Around 1131, Roger ii de Berkeley (Roger iii’s father) founded a priory dedicated to St Leonard – patron saint of prisoners of war, among others – at his manor of Stanley (now Leonard Stanley, Gloucestershire). ⁷⁶ Roger ii may have done this while terminally ill, as he was dead by Michaelmas 1131. ⁷⁷ At the time, his heir, Roger iii, was in his majority but apparently abroad, as the family lands were temporarily held by William de Berkeley (Roger ii’s nephew). ⁷⁸ Henry Barkly believed that this inheritance situation, combined with the evidence of Roger iii’s lion-battle seal, indicated that Roger iii had been in the Holy Land at the time of his father’s death. ⁷⁹ However, this interpretation presumes that lion-battle seal motifs were exclusively deployed by men who had been on crusade, and this is a dangerous assumption, particularly for such an early date. ⁸⁰

Fig 3. Roger iii de Berkeley’s wax seal – HCA Deed 775. Image: © Chapter of Hereford Cathedral.

That said, Roger ii’s interest in St Leonard (similarly to Bertram iii de Verdun) while his son was (seemingly) abroad is intriguing. It is possible that Roger iii went on crusade after he assumed the family lands; however, he was certainly in England from 1146–8, when those joining the Second Crusade (1147–54) would have departed. ⁸¹ The author of the Gesta Stephani noted briefly that Philip FitzRobert fought bravely against Roger’s enemies in Gloucestershire during the unrest of the so-called Anarchy (1135–53) and then departed for Jerusalem, but there is no mention of Roger accompanying Philip. ⁸² During the seventeenth century, John Smyth of Nibley wrote that an ancestor of the Berkeley family was believed to have gone on crusade. ⁸³ Members of the early modern gentry were all too keen to claim crusading forebears, so it is hard to give the story credence or ascribe it to Roger iii. ⁸⁴ These later legends may have been based on Robert de Berkeley (d. c 1224), who was a crucesignatus in 1202, but was asked by King John to defer his vow. ⁸⁵ Without any indications that Roger iii went on crusade or held any interest in the military orders, it seems his lion-battle seal cannot firmly be linked with crusading ideas. This shows that, if the lion-battle seal came to hold some crusading connotations, this association probably did not appear fully formed. ⁸⁶

The three lion-battle seals examined share a similar composition. These seals do not appear to be so-called ‘canting’ or ‘rebus’ designs – that is, seals that make a visual pun on the sigillant’s name or character. ⁸⁷ Furthermore, we have seen how lion symbolism could hold Christological or Arthurian allusions, yet these themes do not neatly fit Hugh, Bertram and Roger’s seals. Their seals depict a warrior striking a lion – making it highly unlikely the lion represents Christ or Yvain’s lion companion. Also, the knights are depicted armed with shield and sword – markedly differently from the story of Samson. Richard Leson has considered these ambiguities in relation to the c 1225–30 tympanum that once adorned the donjon of Coucy-le-Château (northern France). This sculpture, similarly, depicted a knight in battle with a lion. Leson notes that there could have been many dimensions – ‘legendary, biblical, and romantic’ – to the tympanum’s symbolism. ⁸⁸ However, he argues convincingly that the sculpture was part of the Coucy dynasty’s celebrations of their ancestor, Thomas of Marle (1073–1130), and alluded to the latter’s experiences on the First Crusade. ⁸⁹ Similarly, Amanda Luyster has observed the blend of crusading, Old Testament and (lost) romance themes in the schema of the c 1250 Chertsey Tiles from England – which famously depicted Richard the Lionheart in (a fictional) battle with Saladin, as well as knights in combat with lions. ⁹⁰ Thomas Morin has also observed some comparable iconography appearing in another crusading context: on a 1248 seal belonging to a Frankish Levantine nobleman, Hugh de Gibelet, which depicted a knight wielding a sword while riding a lion. ⁹¹

The fourth and fifth seals to be discussed, those of Saher iv de Quincy (d. 1219) and Roger de Quincy (d. 1264), follow the same general composition as Hugh, Bertram and Roger’s (fig 4). Examining these seals will help unpack some unanswered questions regarding the theme of identity in the sigillographic lion-battle motif and the significance of its potential relationship to crusading.

Fig 4. Reverse of Saher iv de Quincy’s seal (left) – Magdalen College, Brackley Charter A2. Image: reproduced with the permission of the President and Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford. © Magdalen College. Reverse of Roger de Quincy’s seal (right) – TNA, DL 27/203. Image: © The National Archives.

WHY CELEBRATE CRUSADE ON A SEAL?

Seals were an important means for the knightly and noble classes to communicate their status: equestrian seals, for instance, appear to have exclusively been used by men from these social strata. ⁹² Larger numbers of laymen began engaging in sealing culture and using seals of their own towards the end of the twelfth century, due, partly, to legal necessity as well as lesser knights’ social aspirations. ⁹³ Although Latin Christians from all social classes participated in crusade, the movement was conceived as a pursuit of the élite. ⁹⁴ We might consider, therefore, whether celebrations of crusade, or participation in it, on a seal could have been a means of expressing (or claiming) authority and prestige. This could have had added significance for the usage of a seal. By the late twelfth century, attaching seals to legal documents was rapidly becoming a means of validating the item. ⁹⁵ Displaying that the sigillant had previously been, or intended to become, a crusader may have given added gravitas to their endorsement of a deed. ⁹⁶ It has been noted that many jurors in twelfth-century Gloucestershire had been to the Holy Land and this may indicate that they were considered more trustworthy than others because of the spiritual penance they had undertaken. ⁹⁷

Let us examine the seals of the Anglo-Scottish noblemen Saher iv de Quincy, earl of Winchester, and his son Roger de Quincy, earl of Winchester and constable of Scotland. ⁹⁸ Saher iv altered his seal’s design throughout his life, using as many as four different designs, but settled on a lion-battle motif sometime after 1207. ⁹⁹ The obverse of this latter design shows an equestrian scene, while the reverse is very similar in design to the other three lion-battle motifs discussed. ¹⁰⁰ The reverse of Saher iv’s seal shows an armoured knight on foot, facing left, raising a sword in his right hand and a shield in his left, which displays his newly-adopted arms: seven mascles. A lion leaps up at the knight. Roger de Quincy’s seal is nearly identical, except for a small floret with six petals that appears between the battling figures. ¹⁰¹ The surviving examples of Roger’s seal can be dated sometime after 1235, though, given the design’s similarity to that of his father’s, it is probable that Roger used this design earlier. ¹⁰² Roger’s seal, in particular, is an especially eye-catching object. In his catalogue of seals, Henry Laing set aside his academic tone, calling it ‘exceedingly beautiful’; William Rae MacDonald’s personal copy of his catalogue of Scottish seals had a leather cover with tooled depictions of this seal. ¹⁰³

Saher iv and Roger, like Bertram iii de Verdun and Hugh de Neville, had distinct connections to crusade. Saher iv’s father, Robert de Quincy (d. 1197), had been a minor leader on the Third Crusade. ¹⁰⁴ Saher iv’s father-in-law (and Roger’s grandfather), Robert de Beaumont iii earl of Leicester (d. 1190), and the latter’s son, Robert Fitz-Pernel (d. 1204), also joined the Third Crusade. ¹⁰⁵ During the Fifth Crusade, the Quincy family leapt at the opportunity to be involved: Saher iv and his three sons, Roger and two called Robert, all took the cross. The eldest brother, Robert, died in 1217 before setting out, but his wife, Hawisa, ensured his status as a crucesignatus was remembered by having him buried in the Knights Hospitaller’s house of Clerkenwell (London). ¹⁰⁶ In 1219, Saher iv sailed directly to Damietta in Egypt; however, he died within a month of arriving and asked his ‘sons’ to take his heart and entrails back to be buried at Garendon Abbey (Leicestershire) – presumably this was Roger and the younger Robert. ¹⁰⁷ Roger did not do homage for his father’s lands until around 1221, so he probably remained on crusade until the Christian army disbanded. ¹⁰⁸ Robert the Younger also vowed to go on crusade a second time in 1250. ¹⁰⁹ In short, father and son were intimately connected to the crusading movement.

Their seals are loaded with chivalric imagery. The legend on the obverse of Saher iv’s seal identifies him and his status as ‘earl of Winchester’, while the reverse includes Christ’s last words according to Luke 23:46: ‘into your hands, lord, I commit my spirit’. ¹¹⁰ The obverse of Roger’s, likewise, describes him as ‘earl of Winchester’; the reverse as ‘Constable of Scotland’. ¹¹¹ These lofty designations are not purely reflections of personal choice, but official titles. Both men are depicted as armed knights, their heraldry appearing on the shield of the knight on foot, the shield of the mounted knight and on the horse’s caparison. Furthermore, a wyvern appears under Roger’s horse on the obverse (though not on Saher iv’s) and upon the helmet-crest on the reverse on both seals, which may have been an added allusion to their ties with other nobles. Robert FitzWalter (d. 1235) – a close friend of Saher iv and another Fifth Crusader – had an equestrian seal that also depicted himself riding over a wyvern, and included the seven mascle Quincy arms, a nod to his friendship with the family. ¹¹² The wyvern upon Saher iv’s and Roger’s helmet-crest may also have had Arthurian/crusading connotations. Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain (c 1138) has King Arthur don a helmet engraved with his standard, the red dragon, as Dubricius encourages Arthur and the Britons to fight the pagan Saxons, stating that if they fall in battle their sins will be cleansed. ¹¹³ The antiquarian Thomas Astle posited that the flower on Roger’s seal was an allusion to the arms of Roger’s relatives, the Beaumont earls of Leicester – another celebration of noble ties. ¹¹⁴ The sheer complexity of their design on as small a medium as a seal matrix would have incurred costs, and so also displayed the wealth of the Quincys. ¹¹⁵

Saher iv and Roger were evidently very keen to celebrate their masculine, chivalric identity, and the lion-battle scene helped promote this persona. ¹¹⁶ Unlike the other seals discussed, the use of heraldry on the reverse of both men’s seals indicates that these are distinct representations of these men (or possibly just Saher iv) fighting a lion. Like Bertram iii de Verdun, Saher iv adopted the lion-battle motif before setting out on crusade, but whether this was before he formally became a crucesignatus is hard to say. It has been suggested that he, like many others, may have taken the cross before the First Barons’ War began in 1215 (in which he was a key leader), given both sides’ adoption of crusading rhetoric to describe their cause. ¹¹⁷ It is tempting to think that Saher iv had crusade on his mind when choosing the wording for the legend on the reverse of his seal; however, nothing can be said with certainty unless new evidence comes to light to more accurately date his adoption of the lion-battle motif. Roger, however, almost certainly used the lion-battle design after crusading, and in imitation of his father’s seal. Grant Simpson believed the image was emblematic of Roger’s courage in battle. ¹¹⁸ P D A Harvey and Andrew McGuinness thought it was a biblical or political allusion; however, they were unaware of any other seals with this motif at the time. ¹¹⁹ Roger’s seal design is perhaps best understood as a celebration of continuity with his father, and it was perhaps significant that the transmission of family power occurred while they were on crusade together. The symbolism that this father and son adopted conveyed their noble warrior status and perhaps celebrated crusade culture – as ‘romance’, as well as allegorising lived, imagined or (in Roger’s case) shared experiences.

CONCLUSION

Latin Christians saw crusade as an opportunity to do penance and endure the rigors of wild landscapes, and, although there was an overwhelming variety of intentions behind lion symbolism in the Middle Ages, the five sigillants discussed may have used their lion-battle motif as a celebration of their experiences (or desire to experience) the physical and spiritual ordeals of crusade. ¹²⁰ These five individuals chose remarkably similar seal motifs, which differ dramatically from many of their peers. It cannot definitively be proven that this motif was an intentional celebration of holy war – there is no evidence the earliest sigillant, Roger iii de Berkeley, ever went on crusade – and so, even if we assume the lion-battle motif came to be associated with crusade, this may have been a later phenomenon, and could still have held a multiplicity of meanings for sigillants or contemporary viewers. Yet, four of the five sigillants discussed had links with crusade, which makes it plausible that their highly specific choice of seal design was linked. Indeed, the resemblance of their seals’ design with the tympanum of Coucy-le-Château’s donjon or the lion-battle scenes in the Chertsey Tiles – along with their corresponding crusading associations – lends further weight to this interpretation. It may even be that these individuals saw each other’s seal designs and adopted them precisely because of their shared experiences on crusade. Though some departing crusaders left their seals behind, for fear of theft and fraudulent misuse while on the march, Hugh could have seen Bertram’s lion-battle seal while they were on the Third Crusade (alongside Saher iv de Quincy’s father, Robert). ¹²¹ Similarly, Hugh, Saher iv and Roger de Quincy were members of the Baronial faction from 1215 during the First Barons’ War, which may have provided Saher iv, in particular, an opportunity to admire Hugh’s lion-battle seal. ¹²² However, this study has focused on a small number of case studies, and so no firm conclusions can be made regarding the intended symbolism behind the lion-battle seal design.

Indeed, this paper only focused on a single seal design, but there are opportunities for further research on seals, crusade culture and other animal symbolism. Debra Hassig, for example, has argued that some twelfth- and thirteenth-century bestiaries alluded to crusade when depicting war-elephants. ¹²³ There are certainly examples of the elephant-and-castle seal motif from the British Isles; however, this paper has not had the scope to explore these further. ¹²⁴ Individuals also changed their seals’ design during their lifetime, and it is worth considering whether crusade influenced their choice. William de Mandeville, third earl of Essex, for example, adopted a seal around 1180 modelled on the seal of Phillip of Alsace, count of Flanders; the two were on crusade together from 1177–8. ¹²⁵

The ‘prud’homme’, or prudent knight, of the High Middle Ages was both militarily accomplished as well as educated: the exhibition of crusade culture – with the overtones of piety and martial acumen – on an aspect of the knight’s literary accoutrement would have been a fitting blend of chivalric display. Whatever their precise motives, the five noblemen examined may have felt that their identity could be distilled, on as small an object as a seal, to their interest in holy war. It is also worth appreciating that seals – particularly those with gemstones – may have been worn by their owner for display or to entreat luck or divine intervention. ¹²⁶ This holds some significance for any interpretation of seals with potential crusading implications. Other than crusaders’ practice of sewing crosses onto their garments, there has been limited consideration for other displays of crusading culture in laypeople’s adornment. ¹²⁷ The lion-battle sigillants may have worn their seal matrices to be instantly recognised as adherents to crusading culture.

Matthew Paris may well have concluded that Hugh de Neville had fought a lion on crusade because he had seen Hugh’s seal, but perhaps that is exactly what Hugh wanted Matthew to think.