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XXIV. Observations on the Origin and History of the Badge and Mottoes of Edward Prince of Wales. By Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, G.C.M.G., in a Letter addressed to Hudson Gurney, Esq., F.R.S., Vice-President
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 June 2012
Extract
So much interest has been felt in the origin and history of the Badge and Mottoes of the Prince of Wales—The Ostrich Feathers, “
” and “
,” that they have been treated of by many able antiquaries; from the learned Camden in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to the Messrs. Nichols, Willement, and Planché, in the present day.
- Type
- Research Article
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- Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1846
References
page 350 note a Archæologia, vol. xxix. and Gentleman's Magazine, N.S. vol. xvii.
page 350 note b Heraldic Notices of Canterbury Cathedral, p. 45.
page 350 note c History of British Costume, p. 139, et seq.
page 351 note d Sandford's Genealogical History of the Kings of England, p. 182.
page 351 note e “Æn. x. 187.”
page 351 note f Camden's Remains, Ed. 1605, p. 161.
page 351 note g Ed. 1614, p. 214. Ed. 1629, p. 179. Ed. 1637, by Philpot, and ed. 1674, p. 451.
page 352 note h In the following passage, Randle Holme, in the unpublished part of his “Academy of Armorie” in the Harleian MS. 2035 (cited by Mr. Willement), attributes the Feathers and Motto to a very different, but, it is presumed, equally erroneous, source, though he has ingeniously contrived to combine the two traditions. “The Ensigne of the auntcient Brittaines or Welsh was three Ostrich Feathers white, which they used upon all their warlike colours. But when they were subdued, and brought under the Saxon English government and lawes, and that the King of England's eldest sou was made the hereditary Prince of Wales, the Prince still retained the Badge of The Feathers, adding thereunto the Prince's Crown, and the Motto Ich Dien, which is as much as to say, I serve; signifying thereby that though he be a Prince in his own Country, yet he is but a Subject to the Crowne of England,” (f°. 149.) In another part of the same MS., Randle Holme adds, “But this much let me inform you, that this bearing was after altered by the valiant Edward Prince of Wales, who, after the battle of Cressy, wherein he slew the King of Bohemia, and tooke the Crowne from his head, added the same to his three Feathers, with the Motto aforesaid, which the Princes of Wales of the English line have ever since so borne it.” “Unfortunately for Randle Holmes’ hypothesis,” says Mr. Willement, “we have no contemporary example of the Feathers being used by the Princes of Wales before the Black Prince, nor of the Coronet which now combines the plume previous to the time of Prince Edward, afterwards King Edward the Sixth.”—Heraldic Notices of Canterbury Cathedral, p. 48.
page 352 note i In a careful examination of all the Wardrobe Accounts, from the reign of King Edward the Third to that of King Henry the Eighth, made a few years since for the History of the Order of the Garter, my attention was constantly directed to the Ostrich Feathers, as well as to all notices of any other Badges and Mottoes.
page 353 note j This date is ascertained by one of the items being, “Fourteen dishes of silver, newly made by the wife of Thomas de Hassey, in the year 43, marked on the edges with the Arms of England and France quarterly.”
page 353 note k A literal copy of the Roll will be found in the Appendix, NO. I.
page 355 note m “Et voloms qe entour la ditte tombe soient dusze escuchons de laton, chacun de la largesse d'un pie, dont les syx seront de noz Armes entiers, et les autres six des plumes d'ostruce; et qe sur chacun escuchon soit escript, c'est assavoir sur cellez de noz Armez, et sur les autres des plumes d'ostruce, 
, et paramont la tombe soit fait un tablement de laton suzorrez, de largesse et longure meisme la tombe, sur quele nouz voloms q'un ymage d'ov'eigne leve de latoun suzorrez soit mys en memorial de nous, tout armez de fier de guerre de nous Armes quartillez, et le visage mie, ove notre heaume du Leopard mys dessous la teste de l'ymage; et volons qe sur n're tombe, en lieu ou lon le purra plus clerement lire et veoir, soit escripte ce qe ensuit en la maner qe sera mielz aviz a mes executours.” Then follows the well-known inscription on the Tomb.—Nichols's Royal Wills p. 67.
page 356 note n “Et volons qe a quele heure qe notre corps soit amenez parmy la ville de Cantirbirie tantq' a la priorie, q' deux destrez covertz de nos armez, et deuz homez armez en nos armez et en nos heaumes, voisent devant dit n're corps, c'est assavoir l'un pur la guerre de noz armez entiers quartellez, et l'autre pur la paix de noz bages des plumes d'ostruce, ove quartre baneres de mesme la sute, et qe chacun de ceux q'porteront les ditz baneres ait sur sa teste un chapeau de noz armes; et qe celi qe sera armez pur la guerre ait un home armez portant apres li un penon de noir ove plumes d'ostruce.”—Nichols's Royal Wills, p. 68.
page 356 note o “Item noz donnons et devisons notre sale des plumes d'ostruce de tapiterie noir et la bordure rouge ove cignes ove testez de dames, c'est assavoir un dossier, et huyt pieces pur les costs, et deux banqueres, a la dit eglise de Canterbire.”—ibid. p. 69.
page 356 note p “Et auxi de noz Bages dez plumes d'ostruce.”—ibid. p. 71.
page 356 note q “Horspris toutesfois le vestement blu avec rosez d'or a plumes d'ostruce.” ibid. p. 72.
page 356 note r By his Will, the Black Prince gave a silk bed, with all thereto belonging, to Sir Roger de Clarendon, who, according to Sandford, p. 189, was the Prince's natural son, and bore for his Arms “Or, on a bend sable three Ostrich feathers argent, the quills transfixed through as many scrolls of the first;” but according to a Roll of Arms, compiled in the reign of King Richard the Second, printed by Mr. Willement, “Monsr. Roger de Clarendon” bore Gules, a bend Or.
page 357 note s “Item nous donons et devisons a n're dit filz la sale darras du pas de Saladyn et auxi la sale de worstede embroudez avec mermyns de mier, et la bordure de rouge et de noir pales et embroudez de cignes avec testes de dames et de plumes d'ostruce.” ibid. pp. 72, 73. It is said by Mr. Willement, on the authority of the Lansdowne MS. 932, that there were formerly in the Church of St. Katharine, near the Tower, two shields, one with the Black Prince's Arms, and the other sable, six Ostrich Feathers erect, argent, 3, 2, and 1, each fixed on a scroll or, inscribed Ich Dien, and that a shield similarly charged once stood in a window of the south aisle, in St Olave's church, in the Old Jewry. Heraldic Notices of Canterbury Cathedral, p. 47.
page 358 note t Anstis' MSS. “Officers of Arms,” in the College of Arms, vol. iii. pp. 206, 207.
page 358 note u Original in the Tower. See a copy of the Warrant in Appendix, NO. II. The Warrant was cancelled on the 8th of August, 4 Ric. II. 1380, because the King had granted to the said John de Esquet twenty pounds a year for life out of the County of Chester.
page 358 note v Proceedings of the Privy Council, vol. i. pp. 128, 129, et seq.
page 358 note w ibid. pp. 231, 232.
page 358 note x Proceedings of the Privy Council, vol. i. p. 205, vol. ii. p. 103.
page 360 note y See his Seals in “Olivarii Vredii Sigilla, Genealogia et Historia Comitum Flandriæ,' vol. i. pp. 63, 64, and the Observations on the Heraldic Devices on the Effigies of Richard the Second and his Consort Anne of Bohemia, by John Gough Nichols, Esq. F.S.A. in the Archæologia, vol. xxix. who quotes a Flemish poem cited by Baron Reiffenberg in his recent edition of Barante's History of the Dukes of Burgundy, in which the Crest of John King of Bohemia is thus described as two wings of a Vulture, besprinkled with linden leaves of gold:
“Twee ghiers vlogelen daer aen geleyt
Die al vol bespringelt zyn
Met linden bladeren guld fyn;
Met es, als ick mercken can,
Van Behem coninck Jan.”
page 360 note z Queen Anne, the first Consort of Richard the Second, is represented on her tomb in Westminster Abbey, wearing a dress richly embroidered with Ostriches (standing on a mound, ducally gorged and chained, and having in the beak a nail), a peculiarly formed knot, and the initials 
and 
each surmounted by a crown. See the Plates in the Archæologia, vol. xxix. and Mr. John Gough Nichols's interesting remarks on the subject. An Ostrich was also worn pendant to the Collar of the Queen's livery;—“Item i. coler de la livere de la Roigne que Dieux assoille ove un Ostriche,” &c. “Item j. autre hanape appelle Gryppeshey, le hanape et le coverecle d'un sort, ove deuz peez d'argent ennorez, et en les founcez dedeins le ditz hanape et coverecle d'un sort ove deux peez d'argent ennorez, et en les founcez dedeins le ditz hanape et coverecle steiantz, deux Ostriches blanks, steant sur an vert terage, coronez, et sur le summet les Armes du Roy.” Mr. Nichols' hypothesis respecting the Ostrich Feathers is, that “the Bohemian King, who was a relation of Queen Anne no more distant than her paternal grandfather, may very probably have used the Badge of an Ostrich, as well as his son the Emperor Charles, the Queen's father; and that the Prince, upon his victory over this Monarch, who, from such a Badge, would be called the Ostrich, possibly adopted the conceit that the feathers of the conquered bird formed an emblematical trophy very significant of his success. Such a conjecture may be the more acceptable from accommodating itself with the received tradition respecting the field of Crecy, and may therefore be adopted, unless it should appear that the Feather, (which we also find borne by the brothers of the Black Prince,) was used by our English Princes before that event, which, I confess, I think not improbable.”
page 361 note a A cast, Nos. 147, 148, is in the British Museum.
page 361 note b A cast in the possession of Mr. Doubleday, from the original in the Archives du Royaume, Paris.
page 361 note c ibid, in the Augmentation Office.
page 362 note d P. 125, and a cast from the original in the Archives du Royaume, Paris.
page 362 note e P. 125.
page 362 note f There is a drawing of this Seal in the Cottonian MS. Julius C. VII. where it is said to have been attached to a deed in the 45th Edw. III. 1371.
page 362 note g From a cast of the original in the Archives du Royaume, Paris.
page 363 note h It is said in the Harl. MS. 304, f. 12, that “the Ostrich feather, silver, and pen gold, is the King's. The Ostrich feather, pen, and all silver, is the Prince's. The Ostrich feather, gold, the pen ermine, is the Duke of Lancaster's. The Ostrich feather, silver, and pen gobonné, is the Duke of Somerset's.”
page 363 note i “Item lego precarissimo filio meo Regi supradicto lectum meum de velvet rubrum novum operatum in broderia cum pennis Ostric' argent' et cum capitibus Leopardorum de auro, cum ramis et foliis argenteis.” Nichols's Royal Wills, p. 78.
page 363 note k “Item jeo devise a la suisdit aultier du Seynt Poule mon graunt lyt de drap' d'ore, le champ piers poudres des roses d'or myses sur pipes d'or, et en chescun pipe deux plums d'Ostrich blankes.” Nichols's Royal Wills, p. 149.
page 363 note l Sandford's Genealogical History, p. 244.
page 363 note m Engraved in Willement's Heraldic Notices of Canterbury Cathedral, but more accurately in the Excerpta Cantiana, by the Rev. Thomas Streatfeild, F.S.A.
page 364 note n See some remarks on a Swan as the Badge of the Earls of Hereford in the Archæologia, vol. xxi. p. 196.
page 364 note o Engraved in Sandford's Genealogical History, p. 125.
page 364 note p Harleian MS. 1319; Archæologia, vol. xx. p. 30.
page 364 note q Sandford, p. 190.
page 364 note r Roll marked W.N. 1302, at Carlton Ride.
page 364 note s A fragment at Carlton Ride.
page 365 note t Cotton. MS. Julius C. VII. f. 238, on the authority of the Register of the Abbey of Newburgh. After stating the grant of the Dukedom of Norfolk to Thomas Earl of Nottingham, Earl Marshal: “Et dedit eidem Thome ad portandum in sigillo et vexillo suis Arma Sancti Edwardi; Idcirco arma bipartita portavit, viz. Sancti Edwardi et Domini Marescalli Angliæ, cum duabus pennis strutionis erectis.” See an engraving of his Seal in Vincent's Discoverie of Errors in Brooke's Catalogue of Nobility, p. 389, where two large Feathers encircle the Crest, and three Shields, one large containing the Arms of Edward the Confessor impaling those of Thomas of Brotherton, viz. England with a label of three points, between two escutcheons, one of the Arms of Moubray, the other also of the Arms of Moubray or Segrave, viz. a Lion rampant.
page 365 note u The Chronica Tripartita is printed in the Appendix to Gough's History of Pleshy. Vide Gentleman's Magazine, N. S. vol. xvii. p. 480.
page 365 note x Archæologia, vol. xxix. p. 387.
page 365 note y Sandford, p. 211.
page 365 note z Seal affixed to a Charter in the British Museum, (marked Addit. Charter, No. 5829) dated at Lempster on the 31st July, 23 Ric. II. 1399,.wherein he is described as “Henry Due de Lancastre, Conte de Derby, de Nycole, de Leycestre, de Herford, et de Northampton, Seneschal d'Angleterre.”
page 366 note a From a drawing in a MS. in the College of Arms, obligingly communicated by Sir Charles George Young, Garter.
page 366 note b Roll marked T. G. 5068, now in the Repository at Carlton Ride.
page 366 note c Sandford, p. 239.
page 366 note d Engraved in the Surtees Society's volume on “The Priory of Finchale,” p. 163.
page 366 note e Engraved in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xcv. p. 11 and p. 497.
page 366 note f Sandford, p. 239.
page 367 note g Cotton. MS. Julius, B. 1. printed in the Chronicle of London, pp. 168, 9.
page 367 note h This Wardrobe Account, for which I am indebted to Thomas Duffus Hardy, Esq. contains so many curious entries, that it will be given in the Appendix, No. III.
page 367 note i Harleian MS. No. 6163.
page 367 note j Remains, Ed. 1605, p. 163.
page 367 note k Roll at Carlton Ride.
page 367 note l Sandford, p. 240.
page 367 note m Annals, p. 423.
page 367 note n Cotton. MS. Julius C. VII. f. 147.
page 367 note o Engraved in “The Priory of Finchale,” p. 162.
page 368 note p Sandford, p. 240.
page 368 note q ibid. p. 306.
page 368 note r MS. Lansdowne 874, f. 115; copied in The Topographer, Feb. 1843, p. 59.
page 368 note s Sandford, p. 240.
page 368 note t ibid. p. 352.
page 368 note u “Item je devise a ma tresamée compaignée Philippe mon lit de plumes et leopars ove l'apparaill' mes tapitz blanks et rouges au gartiers, lokers, et faucons, mon lit de vert embroude ove une compass,” &c. Nichols's Royal Wills, p. 219.
page 368 note v See a sketch of his Seal in the 13 Hen. IV. and 2 Hen. V. in the Cotton. MS. Julius C. VII. f. 166 and 176.
page 368 note w See their Seals in Sandford, p. 232, and in the 23rd and 28th Hen. VI. in the Cotton. MS. Julius C. VII. f. 177.
page 368 note x In the Wardrobe Accounts of this Monarch, in 1480, is an entry of the delivery to Hastings Pursuivant of “ten Ostrich Feathers, each of which cost ten shillings” (p. 119), but in what way they were to be used does not appear; probably, however, as an ornament of dresses. In the window of the Church of Netteswell in Essex, there were formerly, and which were apparently placed there in the early part of the reign of Edward the Fourth, some remarkable representations of the Ostrich Feather, namely, a border composed of five red and five blue Ostrich Feathers, having an escroll on each. From the information of Charles Winston, Esquire.
page 369 note y Engraved in the Archæologia, vol. xx. p. 579, where the Arms and Lions are erroneously stated to be those of England, and where the coronet is as erroneously called a “cap of maintenance!” The same Arms are enamelled on the hilt of the State Sword of the Earldom of Chester, which belonged to this Prince, and is now in the British Museum.
page 369 note z See a drawing made by Schnebbelie in 1789, in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries. From the information of Albert Way, Esq. Director of the Society.
page 369 note a MS. marked M. xi. f. 108, in the College of Arms, where he is styled “Hic Dien pour le Prince de Gales.”
page 369 note b Anstis, MSS. in the College of Arms, vol. iii. f. 201, from the information of Sir Charles George Young, Garter.
page 370 note c Archæologia, vol. xx. p. 579.
page 370 note d Sandford, p. 447.
page 371 note e Lansdowne MS. 874, f. 97.
page 371 note f Now in the possession of Albert Way, Esquire, Director S. A. From the information of Charles Winston, Esquire.
page 371 note g Attached to a Patent, dated 24th of November, 1 Ph. and Mar. 1554, in the British Museum, marked xxxij. 39.
page 371 note h Willement's Notices of Canterbury Cathedral, p. 49.
page 372 note i “Hoogh-moed, Hoo-moed, Hoogh-moe, digheyd, magnanimitas, fastus, arrogantia, elatio animi, sublatio animi, celsitas, animi magnitudo.” Etymologicum Teutonicæ Linguæ Cornelii Kiliani Dufflei, 4to. 1632.
page 372 note j Wardrobe Accounts, 37 & 38 Edw. III., at Carlton Ride, Roll marked “W. N. 749.” Vide Appendix No. IV.
page 373 note * pro clarret.
page 377 note * pro carnelt.