CHAPTER VI

CRESTS AND CROWNS, CAPS OF ESTATE, AND WREATHS

Crests within Crowns; Nature and treatment of Crowns; Caps of Estate: Their possible origin and introduction into Heraldry; The colour of Caps; The placing of Crests upon Caps; Wreaths or Torses; Their Colour; Crests and Mottoes; Use of Crests by Bishops; The ensigning of Arms with Mitres, Cardinals' and Doctors' Hats, and Caps of Estate.

The treatment of the crest varies. In the earliest examples it is set directly upon the mantled helm (fig. 77 and pls. XIV A and XVII B), to which it was actually attached by wires through holes on top. But from the first large numbers of crests were fixed, or rose as it were, from within a crown or coronet encircling the helm, or stood upon a cap or hat of estate that surmounted it. (See figs. 65, 67, 72, 73, 74, 75, and pls. XIII E and F, XVII A, XXI, XXII, XXVII A, etc.)

The crown was merely ornamental, and had no reference to the dignity of the wearer, but was used alike heraldically by prince and peer, knight and esquire, and the same may be said of the cap of estate.

Crowns were anciently formed of a number of leaves or fleurons set upright upon the band, sometimes with lesser leaves or jewels between them; the bands too were often jewelled. But in practice only three (fig. 78), or sometimes five, principal leaves are shown when the crown is drawn in profile (fig. 83).

Beyond the fact that the thing was a crown, there was no strict rule as to the design, which varied according to the taste of the artist. Two examples among the early stall-plates at Windsor, those of Hugh Stafford lord Bourchier (fig. 79 and pl. XVI) and Richard lord Grey of Codnor (both _c._ 1421), illustrate this in a pretty way (fig. 80). In both cases the plate after being finished has been cut up, partly reversed, and in part re-engraved; not because anything was wrong with the heraldry, but to make the crested helms face the other way. These have accordingly been turned over, but in cutting them afresh the engraver has slightly varied the designs of the crests and of the crowns with which each is encircled, without however in any way altering their heraldic character. In the earliest existing plates the crested helms are all drawn turned towards the high altar, consequently those on the north side of the quire face heraldically towards the sinister. The two plates just noted, and at least one other, have been transferred from one side of the quire to the other.

One of the first instances of a crown about a crest is on the seal of William Montagu earl of Salisbury, 1337 (pl. XII).

Crowns were not by any means always of gold or silver, and quite a number of pre-Tudor stall-plates have them enamelled red, and in two cases blue.

These heraldic crowns must not be confounded with the coronets, as they are now called, worn of different patterns by peers and peeresses according to their degree; some reference to these will be made later.

The cap of estate is generally depicted in English heraldic art as a high crowned conical hat or cap with flattened top, and a broad brim lined with ermine. The brim is usually turned up high in front, but gradually lessens along the sides towards the back, where the brim extends horizontally to its full width.

The cap of estate first appears, surmounted by his leopard crest, on the head of King Edward III in the great seal made for him in February 1339-40 on his assumption of the title of King of France. Whether the cap has any connexion with the assumption of the king's new title it is difficult to say, but its more common name of 'cap of maintenance' would acquire a significant meaning could such connexion be proved. It is however more probable that the cap was worn by the king for his dignity of duke of Normandy and of Aquitaine, and it was long the custom for representatives of those duchies to take part in coronation processions wearing robes and caps of estate. According to the _Little Device_ for the coronation of Henry VII, there were to ride before the king in the procession from the Tower 'ij Squiers for the kinges bodie bearing in baudrick wise twoo mantells furred w^t Ermyns, wearing twoo hattes of Estate of Crymsen clothe of golde beked on, beks turnyd upp behinde, and furred also w^t Ermyns in reprecentacion of the kinges twoo duchesses of Gyen and Normandie.'[6]

[6] L. G. Wickham Legg, _English Coronation Records_ (Westminster, 1901), 223.

Although the cap may at first have been restricted to the king, it was certainly used by the sons of Edward III, and may be seen of like form and fashion upon the seals of Edward as prince of Wales (1343), of John of Gaunt as duke of Lancaster (1362) and of Edmund of Langley as duke of York (pl. XXI), and of Thomas of Woodstock as duke of Gloucester in 1385. It was no doubt in each case given by personal investiture by the Sovereign, but only to those who were made dukes.

In heraldry, however, the cap of estate was used after 1350 by many who were not only dukes who had been invested with it, but by earls and barons who had not been so invested, and even by mere knights (pl. XIII F).

It would be as rash to argue from this that such persons were all entitled to wear for dignity the cap of estate as it would be to insist that the equally common use of a crown round the base of a crest entitled every knight or baron on whose seal it occurs to wear a coronet.

The colour of the cap of estate was almost invariably red, with a lining of ermine, but in two of the early stall-plates it is blue. The crest is generally placed directly upon it, but representations of two-legged or four-legged creatures often stand upon the brim with their feet on either side of the flat-topped cap (figs. 112, 138). It is hardly necessary to say that the crested cap is always placed upon the helm, with the mantling issuing from under it.

It is a common practice nowadays, quite wrongly, to represent crests apart from the helm, and as standing upon a twisted bar, or wreath as it is called. A little research will show that this bar represents the twisting together of two or three differently coloured stuffs, and fixing the wreath so formed round the base of the crest to mask its junction with the top of a helm. Once invented it came into common use, and crests of all kinds were fixed within it.

When seen sideways the rounded top of the helm causes the crest to appear as if standing upon the wreath, and this has no doubt given rise to the present malpractice.

The Rev. C. Boutell in his smaller _English Heraldry_ quotes the Hastings brass at Elsing, of the year 1347, as the earliest instance of a wreath about a crest (fig. 81). But this brass is probably French, and in English work the wreath does not come into being much before the close of the fourteenth century, and was not regularly used until about 1450.

The wreath or torse, as it was also called, from being a twist, was usually of two colours, derived from the principal metal and colour of the arms; but the fifteenth century stall-plates show many variations from this rule. Thus Lewis lord Bourchier (_c._ 1421) has a torse of blue, gold, and black, and John earl of Tankerville (_c._ 1421) one of green, red, and white. John lord Bourchier (_c._ 1421) and Henry lord Bourchier (_c._ 1452) both have black and green torses. Richard Wydville lord Rivers (_c._ 1450) has the crest issuing from a green torse, crested with a crown of holly leaves. Thomas lord Stanley (_c._ 1459) has a torse of gold and blue with red spots or jewels between, and Sir William Chamberlayne (_c._ 1461) a red and blue torse.

The modern practice is that the twists of a torse shall be only six in number; but in old heraldry there was no such rule, and any number from four may be found, whatever would look best. In the Harsick brass (fig. 82) there are eleven twists.

Crests occasionally had mottoes or 'words' associated with them, quite apart from the ordinary 'word' or 'reason' of the family or individual. Thus the ermine bush of feathers that formed the crest of Sir Simon Felbrigge is accompanied on his stall-plate (_c._ 1421) by a scroll lettered ~Sanz muer~ (fig. 83), and on that of John lord Scrope (el. 1461) the crest, which is likewise a bush of feathers, has above it the 'reason' ~autre qz-elle~. Two of the fine seals of Richard Nevill earl of Salisbury (1428-60) have behind his demi-griffin crest a scroll lettered apparently ~ma~ [_or_ ~do~] ~ple[s]ier~ (pls. XVII A and XXII B), and the seal of John Talbot earl of Shrewsbury, as marshal of France (1445), has a scroll with his 'word' issuing from the mouth of his lion crest (pl. XVII B).

From what has been said above as to the ancient association of helm and crest, it follows that the present fashion of representing the crest by itself, apart from the helm to which it was always attached, is entirely wrong. It at once renders the crest meaningless: in appearance it forthwith becomes insignificant; and attempts to treat it artistically generally end in failure.

Let crests be shown as crests, properly set upon practicable helms, and with competent mantlings treated with all the freedom that they are capable of.

It may here be noted that it has not been customary, nor is it logically correct, for ladies and other non-combatant persons, such as the ministers of the Church, to use crests; arms they have ever been allowed to bear. Examples, however, of the breach of the rule as to crests even by bishops are afforded by several of their privy seals. Thus Henry le Despenser bishop of Norwich (1370-1406) has his differenced shield of arms surmounted by a mantled helm upon which a mitre, with a griffin's head and wings issuing therefrom, is placed as a crest (fig. 84); and Alexander Nevill archbishop of York (1374) shows his shield hanging below a crowned helm surmounted by the bull's head crest of his house and supported by two griffins.

William Courtenay, as archbishop of Canterbury (1381-96), similarly displays a shield of his arms, ensigned by a helm surmounted by a cap of estate with a dolphin on top. A helm crested with a lovely bunch of columbines is also carved with his arms above the tomb of James Goldwell bishop of Norwich (_ob._ 1498-9) in his cathedral church.

Robert Nevill on his privy seal as bishop of Durham (1438-57) surmounts his shield with a beautiful labelled mitre, from which issues a bull's head with a scroll lettered ~en grace affie~.

Many of the bishops of Durham, on their great seals in chancery, in virtue of their secular palatinate jurisdiction, are represented as riding in complete armour with helms on their heads. The first to be so represented was Thomas Hatfield (1345), who wears a large crowned helm surmounted by a mitre, from which issues a bush of feathers. John Fordham (1381) also surmounts his crowned helm with a mitre, on which is perched a bird. Walter Skirlaw (1388) and Thomas Langley (1406) set within the crowns crests without mitres; in one case the bust of an angel, in the other a bush of feathers. Robert Nevill (1438) surmounts his crowned helm with a mitre, from which issues a bull's head, as on his privy seal above noted. Cuthbert Tunstall (1530) has a mitre alone upon his helm.

The usual practice in displaying a bishop's arms has been, for a long time, to ensign them simply with his own official headgear in the shape of a mitre, and the same custom prevailed with regard to the arms of mitred abbots and priors. Robert Nevill's privy seal is an early example.

Cardinals ensigned their shields with the tasselled hat of their order, as may be seen on the seal-of-arms of Henry Beaufort bishop of Winchester (1405), and in a carving of his arms in Southwark cathedral church. A cardinal's hat is displayed, with his rebus and sundry royal badges, on the arch about the cenotaph of John Morton archbishop of Canterbury and cardinal in the undercroft of his cathedral church.

Doctors also sometimes surmounted their arms with the round cap pertaining to their dignity.

On the monument at St. Albans of Humphrey duke of Gloucester (_ob._ 1446) his arms are ensigned alternately by his mantled and crested helm, and by a large cap of estate encircled by a crown or coronet. Jasper duke of Bedford (1485) on his seal likewise surmounts his arms with a cap of estate encircled by a delicate crown.

There is not any necessity at the present day to represent any crown or coronet with the cap of estate within it.