The introduction of armorial insignia in embroidered Vestments: on Robes: on Beds, etc.
No one who has had occasion to examine any series of old wills and inventories, especially those of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, can fail to have noticed what a large part was played by heraldry in the household effects of our forefathers. In the vestments and other ornaments of the chapel, the hallings, bankers, and like furniture of the hall, the hangings and curtains of the beds and bedchambers, the gold and silver vessels and utensils of the table, or in carpets and cushions and footstools, shields of arms, badges, mottoes, and quasi-heraldic devices of all sorts were as common as blackberries in autumn.
And the evidence of illuminated pictures and monumental effigies is equally strong in showing that heraldry was quite as much in vogue for personal adornment.
As a matter of fact heraldry had its very[Pg 320]
[Pg 321] origin in a system of devices to be worn on shields and banners and coats-of-arms to distinguish the wearer in battle, and from the coat-of-arms of the knight it was but a step to the armorial gown or mantle of his lady.
Fig. 188. Part of an embroidered altar frontal with a rebus at Baunton in Gloucestershire: date, late fifteenth century.
It would be somewhat tedious to extract from the authorities just cited, especially since they are easily accessible, every entry relating to an heraldic ornament or piece of furniture. But with regard to hangings and embroideries the case is somewhat different, inasmuch as numbers of ladies are engaged nowadays in stitch-work of every kind, amongst which heraldic embroidery ought certainly to have a place.
As might be expected, the inventories of Church stuffs furnish us with some of the earliest examples of heraldic embroideries, and often in sufficiently precise terms to enable us to realize what the things looked like.
Thus an inventory taken in 1315 of the ornaments at Christchurch, Canterbury, enumerates such things as a chasuble and five copes, the gift of Katharine Lovel, sewn with arms of divers persons; a white cope of the arms of the King of Scotland; a cope of Peter bishop of Exeter (ob. 1291) of baudekyn 'with biparted shields' (an early example); a cope of John of Alderby bishop of Lincoln, and another of Thomas Burton bishop of Exeter, of green cloth embroidered with shields; an albe with apparels of blue velvet embroidered with shields and fleurs-de-lis; two albes sewn with shields and black letters, and a third of red samite embroidered with shields and popinjays; an albe sewn with lozenges with the arms of the King of England and of Leybourne; an albe sewn with shields and embroidered with letters; an albe sewn with the arms of Northwood and Poynyngs in quadrangles; and an albe, stole, and fanon sewn with divers arms in lozenges with purple frets. The same inventory mentions a vestment of Philip King of France, made, quite properly, of blue cloth with fleurs-de-lis; and a number of vestments with orphreys of the arms of the King of England and of France.
The inventory of the vestry of Westminster Abbey taken in 1388 also contains some interesting heraldic ornaments, such as a frontal with the arms of England and France in red and blue velvet woven with golden leopards and fleurs-de-lis, from the burial of King Edward III; six murrey carpets woven with the new arms of the King of England and of the count of Hainault (in other words, the quartered shield adopted by Edward III in 1340, and the arms of his queen, Philippa of Hainault); four carpets of the arms of the earl of Pembroke; four carpets of red colour woven with white shields having three red fleurs-de-lis, of the gift of Richard Twyford, whose arms they were; five black carpets having in the corners shields of the arms of St. Peter and St. Edward; two green silk cloths sewn with the arms of England, Spain, and Queen Eleanor; a bed with a border with the arms of the King of Scotland; three new copes of a red colour of noble cloth of gold damask, with orphreys of black velvet embroidered with the letters T and A and swans of pearl, the gift of Thomas duke of Gloucester, whose wife was Eleanor Bohun, and her family badge a white swan; a cope of red velvet with gold leopards and a border of blue velvet woven with gold fleurs-de-lis, formerly the lord John of Eltham's, whose fine alabaster tomb in the abbey church has the same arms on his shield.
A St. Paul's inventory of 1402 also contains a few choice examples: a cope of red velvet with gold lions, and orphreys of the collars of the duke of Lancaster and a stag lying in the middle of each collar; a suit of blue cloth of gold powdered with gold crowns in each of which are fixed two ostrich feathers; six copes of red cloth of gold with blue orphreys with golden-hooded falcons and the arms of Queen Anne of Bohemia; three albes and amices of linen cloth with orphreys of red velvet powdered and worked with little angels and the arms of England, given by Queen Isabel; three albes and amices with apparels of red cloth of gold powdered with divers white letters of S and with golden leopards, given by John of Gaunt; two great cushions of silk cloth of blue colour with a white cross throughout, and in each quarter of the cross the golden head of a lion.
The secular documents carry on the story.
Some quite noteworthy items may be found in the account of the expenses of the great wardrobe of King Edward III (1345-48-9): for making a bed of blue taffata for the King powdered with garters containing this word hony soit q mal y pense; for making a jupe of blue taffata for the King's body with Garters and buckles and pendants of silver-gilt; for making 40 clouds for divers of the King's garments, embroidered with gold, silver, and silk, with an E in the middle of gold, garnished with stars throughout the field; for making six pennons for trumpets and clarions against Christmas Day of sindon beaten with the King's arms quarterly; for making of a bed of red worsted given to the lord King by Thomas de Colley powdered with silver bottles having tawny bands and curtains of sindon beaten with white bottles; for making a harness for the lord David King of Scotland of 'blu' velvet with a pale of red velvet and within the pale aforesaid a white rose; for making a harness of white bokeram for the King stencilled with silver, namely, a tunic and shield wrought with the King's word hay hay the wythe swan; by godes soule I am thy man and a crupper, etc. stencilled with silver; for making a doublet for the King of white linen cloth having about the sleeves and bottom a border of green long cloth wrought with clouds and vines of gold and with the King's word it. is. as. it. is.
In 1380 Edmund Mortimer earl of March leaves 'our great bed of black satin embroidered with white lions (the badge of the house of March) and gold roses with scutcheons of the arms of Mortimer and Ulster'; and in 1385 Joan princess of Wales leaves to King Richard her son 'my new bed of red velvet embroidered with ostrich feathers and leopards' heads of gold with branches and leaves issuing from their mouths.'
In 1389 William Pakington archdeacon of Canterbury leaves 'my halling of red with a shield of the King's arms in the midst and with mine own arms in the corners'; and in 1391 Margaret, the wife of Sir William Aldeburgh, leaves (i) a red halling with a border of blue with the arms of Baliol and Aldeburgh, (ii) a red bed embroidered with a tree and recumbent lion and the arms of Aldeburgh and Tillzolf, and (iii) a green bed embroidered with griffins and the arms of Aldeburgh.
The inventory of Thomas of Woodstock duke of Gloucester, taken in 1397, also contains some interesting items: a white halling (or set of hangings for a hall) consisting of a dosser and four costers worked with the arms of King Edward (his father) and his sons with borders paly of red and black powdered with Bohun swans and the arms of Hereford; a great bed of gold, that is to say, a coverlet, tester, and selour of fine blue satin worked with gold Garters, and three curtains of tartryn beaten with Garters to match; and a large bed of white satin embroidered in the midst with the arms of the duke of Gloucester, with his helm, in Cyprus gold.
A number of other items in the list are also more or less heraldic: a bed of black baudekyn powdered with white roses; a large old bed of green tartryn embroidered with gold griffins; twelve pieces of tapestry carpet, blue with white roses in the corners and divers arms; a large bed of blue baudekyn embroidered with silver owls and gold fleurs-de-lis; fifteen pieces of tapestry for two rooms of red worsted embroidered with blue Garters of worsted with helms and arms of divers sorts; three curtains of white tartryn with green popinjays; a green bed of double samite with a blue pale (stripe) of chamlet embroidered with a pot of gold filled with divers flowers of silver; an old bed of blue worsted embroidered with a stag of yellow worsted; a red bed of worsted embroidered with a crowned lion and two griffins and chaplets and roses; a bed of blue worsted embroidered with a white eagle; a coverlet and tester of red worsted embroidered with a white lion couching under a tree; a single gown of blue cloth of gold of Cyprus powdered with gold stags; and a single gown of red cloth of gold of Cyprus with mermaids.
In 1381 William lord Latimer leaves 'an entire vestment or suit of red velvet embroidered with a cross of mine arms,' and in 1397 Sir Ralph Hastings bequeathed 'a vestment of red cloth of gold with orphreys before and behind ensigned with maunches and with colours of mine arms,' which were a red maunch or sleeve on a gold ground.
Among the chapel stuff of Henry Bowet archbishop of York, in 1423, were a sudary or veil of white cloth with the arms of the duke of Lancaster on the ends, and two costers or curtains of red embroidered with great white roses and the arms of St. Peter (the crossed keys).
In 1437 Helen Welles of York bequeathed a blue tester with a couched stag and the reason Auxilium meum a Domino.
In 1448 Thomas Morton, a canon of York, left a halling with two costers of green and red say paled with the arms of archbishop Bowet; and in 1449 the inventory of Dan John Clerk, a York chaplain, mentions two covers of red say having the arms of Dan Richard Scrope and the keys of St. Peter worked upon them.
To the examples worked with letters may be added a bed with a carpet of red and green with crowned M's, left about 1440 by a Beverley mason, who also had another bed with a carpet of blue and green with Katharine wheels; a vestment left in 1467, by Robert Est, a chantry priest in York minster, of green worsted having on the back two crowned letters, namely, R and E; and a bequest in 1520 by Thomas duke of Norfolk of 'our great hangede bedde palyd with cloth of golde whyte damask and black velvet, and browdered with these two letters T. A.,' being the initials of himself and his wife.
There is of course nothing to hinder at the present day the principles embodied in the foregoing examples, which could easily be extended ad infinitum, from being carried out in the same delightful way; and a small exercise of ingenuity would soon devise a like treatment of one's own arms, or the use of a favourite device or flower, or the setting out of the family word, reason, or motto.
The medieval passion for striped, paned, or checkered hangings might also be revived with advantage, and the mention in 1391 of 'a bed of white and murrey unded' shows that waved lines were as tolerable as straight.
