pennon are introduced; the former contains the arms of France and England quarterly, and the latter is charged with ostrich feathers. Richard, however, adopted the supposed arms of his patron saint, St. Edward, and bore them per pale with his own on the monument of Sir Simon Felbrigge, K. G. in Cromer church in Norfolk, who was standard-bearer to that monarch, the knight is pourtrayed with his hands clasped over his breast, having a banner in the bend of his right arm, with the coat of St. Edward impaling those of France and England quarterly'.

The beautifully illuminated copies of Froissart's Chronicle in the British Museum present much information on the subject. In the drawing of a fleet, with French and English knights under the Duke of Bourbon, proceeding against Barbary, in the top of the largest vessel is a man-at-arms, holding a banner of France, modern; and the top itself is painted with the arms of France. Two trumpeters sit in the stern, and a banner of the same arms is suspended to each of the instruments. This custom was a universal one, and many examples might be adduced; but it is perhaps sufficient to state, that in the picture of the proclamation of a truce between England and France, the person reading it is seated on horseback: he is supported on each side by a man who is also mounted; the one on the right holds a trumpet erect over his shoulder, from which flows a banner of the arms of France, modern, whilst to the trumpet of the person on the left hand a similar banner of the arms of England only, "Gules three lions passant gardant Or," is affixed.

At the battle of Agincourt, the Duke of Brabant, who arrived on the field towards the close of the conflict, is said by St. Remy to have taken one of the banners from his trumpeters, and cutting a hole in the middle, made a surcoat of arms of it; and to which circumstance Shakespeare thus alludes:

"I will a banner from a trumpet take,

And use it for my haste."

Chaucer, too, notices banners being suspended to trumpets : "On every trump hanging a brode bannere

Of fine tartarium, full richly bete,

Every trumpet his lordis armes bere +."

In the centre of the vessel in the painting just mentioned is a red pennon charged with a gold estoil, and a semee of scrolls: in the prow a small blue pennon is placed; and the sides of the ship are covered with shields of arms, which, it may be supposed,

1 Engraved in Anstis's Order of the Garter, vol. ii.
2 Froissart, vol. iv. chap. xviii. Harl. MSS. 4379.
3 History of the Battle of Agincourt, p. ccxviii. note.
Floure and the Leaf, 1. 211.

belonged to the individuals on board, though the principal personages are depicted holding them in their hands. All the other ships have blue or red pennons on their masts, and one of them has two banners of France, ancient, with a bend Gules, in the stern: another has two banners similarly placed, Gules a chevron between three - Or, the charge being indistinct. Whether this banner was intended to represent any particular personage's arms, or arose from the fancy of the artist, is uncertain: a third vessel carries a banner of the arms of Barre. In another. illumination of the expedition of Thomas of Woodstock to assist the Duke of Brittany, three English vessels appear, filled with men-at-arms. The largest has a man holding the banner of St. George in the bow, and a man blowing a trumpet is seated beside him, whilst another trumpeter appears in the stern. The royal banner is borne in the centre of the ship; and, as in other instances, a similar one is suspended to each of the trumpets. In one of the smaller vessels a man-at-arms holds a pennon of St. George, which has a swallow tail; and in the other a banner of St. George and of the royal arms, with a label of five points Argent are introduced: the same arms are depicted on the shield of the chief personage on board the largest ship1.

The paintings in the copy of Rous's "Roll of the Earls of Warwick" in the British Museum, which are generally supposed to have been executed in the fifteenth century, though there are some grounds for considering them the productions of a later period, contain a ship with her sail charged with the arms of Beauchamp and Newburgh quarterly. At her main-mast is a long streamer containing the cross of St. George in the upper part, then a bear and ragged staff, the cognizance of the house of Warwick; and the remainder is covered with ragged staffs. That such was the streamer used on board the earl's ship is fully proved by a bill for the banners, pennons, &c. painted for the Earl of Warwick, in July, 1437, which will be found in a subsequent page.

Whilst alluding to the ensigns borne on board vessels, it may be observed, that on all nobles of the reigns of Edward III., Henry IV., V., and VI., a pennon of St. George, without a swallow tail, appears on the stern of the ship; and on an angel of Edward IV. a banner with the letter is placed in the stern: on the Rose Real of Henry VI. in the stern of the ship is a banner with a demi-dragon, and in the bow one charged with the letter . The seal of John Holland, Earl of Huntingdon, as Lord

1 Royal MSS. 18 E. I. Froissart, vol. ii. chap. 50.

2 Cotton MSS. Julius, E. IV. f. 205. See also f. f. 213. 218.

High Admiral in the reign of Henry the Fifth, is still more deserving of attention. On the mast of the ship is a swallowtailed pennon, with the cross of St. George in the upper part: in the bow is a much larger swallow-tailed pennon of St. George; and in the stern is a banner, party per pale dancette, which was evidently intended for the ancient coat of Holland, namely, per pale dancette, Or and Gules. The arms of the earl are depicted on the sail; and were it not that one of the illuminations in the MS. which has been cited, has the sail of a ship covered with a representation of the sun, it would be at once considered that sails were never ornamented in that manner.

In the painting in the meeting-room of the Society of Antiquaries of the voyage of Henry the Eighth from Dover to Calais in 1520, the only banners or pennons which appear are those of St. George, with the exception of one or two of the royal arms. The pennon is swallow-tailed, which still continues to be the form of the regular pendant supplied to His Majesty's ships, though it is now formed of three stripes, blue, white, and red, with the ensign of St. George in the part nearest the staff; but which, however, is seldom used, and a very long narrow streamer with St. George's cross in the upper part, and the remainder either red, or white, or blue, as the colour of the ensign may be, and which depends upon the squadron to which the admiral under whose orders she is placed belongs, is generally borne instead. It has been just noticed, that in one of the illuminations of the reign of Henry the Sixth, the sides, or what is now called the bulwarks of a ship, are covered with shields; and it was probably from the custom of suspending them in that manner that the royal vessel, in the picture of Henry the Eighth's embarkation, has her bulwarks painted with the king's badges, and other heraldic devices.

The only deductions respecting the banners borne at sea to be made from the illuminations referred to, are, that a banner of the royal arms of the country to which the squadron belonged was held by a man at arms, probably the standard-bearer, in the main top of the principal ship; and that the different leaders also displayed their banners in the vessel on board of which they had embarked.

Another illumination of one of the MS. copies of Froissart's Chronicles in the British Museum represents an army besieging a town in Africa, in which the soldiers are drawn up in ranks, with several banners, placed at equal distances, and having a number of men between each. Near a tent a banner of the arms of France, with a label of three points Gules occurs; but the

1 Engraved in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxvii. p. 549. 2 See Froissart, vol. iv. chap. 18-20.

only remarkable ensign is a blue pennon charged with the word Aycamch in gold. In the painting of the re-embarkation of the same army, a vessel is placed close to the shore, with a gangboard for people to go on board of her, upon which a person in gold armour appears: he is preceded by his banner-bearer, and at each end of the vessel a man is blowing a trumpet: to that in the bow the arms of Barre are suspended, and to the other those of France ancient, with a bend Gules, which resemble the charge on the shield of the knight in gold armour. Wherever the king or other personage entitled to have a standard-bearer went, that officer always accompanied his lord with his banner, as appears from several illuminations; especially in that of the meeting of John Ball and Wat Tyler, where King Richard is drawn at a distance from his army, and the royal banner is placed close to him. The rebels are on one occasion depicted with a banner of England and a pennon of St. George, whilst the royal forces have two banners, one of St. George and one of England; but on another, the only standards among Richard's followers are three pennons, two, Gules with a gold dragon, or more probably an animal solely drawn from the artist's imagination; a pennon of St. George; and a red riband, resembling a garter, suspended to a lance.

In the representation of the progress of the Duke of Burgundy, the banner of his arms is borne immediately after him; but he is preceded by two trumpeters, each of whom has a similar banner suspended from his trumpet. At a little distance is a pennon, quarterly of France and Burgundy, with a swallow tail, the upper part being red with gold spots, and the lower part white with blue spots: in the rear is another pennon, merely per fess blue and gold, ornamented with scrolls of gold. The Duke himself holds a baton in his right hand. These pennons were commonly used; for in the painting of the King of France setting out against the Duke of Brittany, his Majesty is preceded by a man on horseback bearing a swallow-tailed pennon, the first part France ancient; and each of the tails composed of three stripes-red, white, and green.

At coronations, banners were also used. In the drawing of that of Charles VI. of France2, a banner of France, ancient, is borne by a man in armour, apparently a knight, on each side of the throne; and in that of the coronation of Henry, son of John king of Castile, on the king's left hand are two unarmed men, the one holding a banner of Castile and Leon quarterly, the other a blue pennon, charged with three kings' heads, the banner of the three kings of Cologne; whilst on his majesty's right

Froissart.

2 Froissart, vol. ii. chap. lx. 3 Froissart, vol. iv. chap. xxiv.

hand a man, also unarmed, holds a shield with the arms of Castile and Leon; another, a crowned helmet; a third, a sword, &c.

Heralds too, when despatched on missions, appear in the fifteenth century to have carried a banner of their sovereign's arms, an example of which will be found in Villemen's "Monumens Français Inédit.” Banners were likewise placed on tents, of which many instances occur in the illuminations that have been cited, as well as in one in the copy of Rous's "Roll of the Earls of Warwick" in the British Museum'; and to which custom Lydgate thus alludes:

"And there they pyght there tentys a down
That were embroudyd with armys gay:
First, the kynges tente with the crown,

And all othere lordes in good aray."

Other banners besides those which have been mentioned were also borne in the field in the fifteenth century. In the picture of the combat between the people of Ypres and Count Louis, their lord, when the former were defeated by the Bastard of Flanders, though the Bastard has only one banner, Or, a lion rampant Sable, the Ypres and Gantois have the following: 1st, Sable, a lion rampant Argent; 2nd, in the rear, Gules, a cross couped Vaire, on a chief Argent a cross couped Gules issuing from the field; and three pennons, 1st, Gules, an animal resembling a dragon, Or; 2nd, Gules; 3d, Sable, the word Ypres Argent. A doubt may, however, be entertained with respect to pennons charged with the name of the country or province to which those who were assembled under it belonged; for it is possible that such pennons were inserted by the artist merely to show the different parties in the field'. But, besides national and personal banners, banners of trades or companies were carried in armies at the period under discussion; several instances of which occur in the illuminations of the copies of Froissart in the Museum. On one occasion we find, 1st, a banner Azure a chevron, the upper line of which is invected, between a hammer, trowel, and plumb, Or; 2nd, Or, a similar chevron between an axe and two pair of compasses; 3rd, Azure, a pair of shears open, Or; and in the painting of the battle between Philip d'Artevel and the Flemings and the king of France, banners charged with boots and shoes, drinking vessels, &c. occur.

1 Cottonian MSS., Julius, E. iv. f. 219.

2 Froissart, vol. ii. chap. xxxvii.—xl.

3 Paillot, in his Vrai et Parfaite Science des Armories, gives an example of a pennon being inscribed with the word Dijon; hence the anticipated objection is perhaps unfounded.

Illumination to the Royal MS. 18, E. i.