STREAMER.-A streamer shall stand in the toppe of a shippe, or in the forecastle, and therein be putt no armes, but a mans conceit or device, and may be of the lengthe of twenty, thirty, forty, or sixty yardes, and it is slitte as well as a guydhome or standarde, and that may a gentleman or any other have or beare.

It is used to make the breadth of a banner less than the length; but there is no rule that holdeth therewith '.

THE SIZE OF STANDARDS, BANNERS, AND GUYDONS, BANNERELLS AND PENNONS, SETT DOWNE BY THE CONSTABLE AND MARSHALL.

The Standard to be sett before the Kings pavillion or tente, and not to be borne in battayle, to be in lengthe eleven yards.

The Kinges Standard to be borne, in lengthe eight or nine yards. A Dukes Standard to be borne, and to be in lengthe seven yards di'. A Marquesse Standard to be in length six yards di'.

An Earles Standard to be in lengthe six yards.

A Viscounts Standard to be in length five yards di'.

A Barons Standard to be in length five yards.

A Banneretts Standard to be in lengthe four yards di'.

A Knights Standard to be in length four yards.

Everie Standard and Guydon to have in the cheife the crosse of St. George, the beast or crest with his devyse and word, and to be slitt at the end.

A Guidon to be in lengthe two yards and a half, or three.

A Pennon of Armes round att the end, and to be in length two yardes.

The Kinges Banner to be in lengthe two yards di', and in bredthe two yards.

A Banner of a Knight of the Garter to be sett up at Wyndeser, two yardes, slete two yards, and one yard and three quarters broade. A Banneroll to be in length one ell, in breath one yard?."

tent pitched on the owner's side of the lists." Archæologia, vol. xx. p. 508. In the description of Banners, &c. in the text, the charges on the Pencils are said to contain the cross of St. George and the crest or motto of the bearer; and it is also to be observed, that in none of the illuminations referred to in this article are Pennons or Pensills to be found charged in the manner stated by Dr. Meyrick on the authority of Rous. Those mentioned by that accurate antiquary were probably solely used at jousts or tournaments. Avowry meant an individual's tutelar or protecting saint. Sir Thomas Wyndham says, in his will, in 1521," and specially to myn accustomed advourrys I call and crye, St. John Evangelist, St. George, St. Thomas of Canterbury, St. Margaret, St. Katherine, and St. Barbara, humbly beseche ym," &c. Testamenta Vetusta, p. 581; and Thomas Trethurffe bequeaths in 1528, "to St. Martin his avowre," &c. Ibid. p. 644. If Sir Thomas Wyndham honoured all his avowries by introducing the picture of each of them on his pensell, there could be little room for any other charge.

1 Harleian MSS. 2358.

2 Lansdowne MSS. 255, f. 431.

Such facts having been stated as an attentive examination of the most likely sources of information present on the usage of Banners in the field and navy from the eleventh to the sixteenth century, this paper will be concluded by a short notice of the banners carried at funerals in the same period.

They usually consisted of banners of the arms of the individual and of the families to which he was allied; but upon some occasions ecclesiastical banners were displayed. In 1388, John Lord Montacute, brother of the Earl of Salisbury, ordered in his will that no painting should be placed about his hearse, excepting one banner of the arms of England, two charged with those of Montacute, and two with the arms of Monthermer 1. The cause of his selecting a banner of the arms of England merits more attention than at first sight it would appear to deserve, because it strongly corroborates an opinion which the arms on a curious coffer 2, that originally belonged to Mary de St. Paul, Countess of Pembroke, who died about 1377, and an examination of numerous early seals, has produced; namely, that it was customary in the fourteenth century for those who were either descended from, or nearly connected by marriage to, the royal family, to use the royal arms on the same seal, or in some other way in conjunction with their own. Lord Montacute's alliance to the blood royal was through his wife Margaret, the daughter and heiress of Thomas Baron Monthermer, whose mother was Joan Plantagenet, Countess of Hereford and Gloucester, daughter of king Edward the First. Guichard d'Angle, Earl of Huntingdon, in 1380; and Isabel, Countess of Suffolk, in 1416, forbad any banners to be borne at their funerals but Richard, Earl of Salisbury, in 1458, ordered, that at his interment there be banners, standards, and other accoutrements, according as was usual for a person of his degree." At the ceremony of exposing the body of Richard the Second in St. Paul's cathedral, in March, 1400, four banners were affixed to the carriage or bier that supported it; of which two contained the arms of St. George, and the other two the arms of St. Edward the Confessor. In 1542, Sir Gilbert Talbot, of Grafton, desired that four banners should be carried at his funeral, one of the Trinity, one of the Annunciation of our Lady, one of

Testamenta Vetusta, vol. i. p. 124.

Now in the possession of George Pocock, Esq. of Lincoln's Inn Fields.

• Testamenta Vetusta, pp. 109. 194.

• Ibid. p. 287. 5 MS. Ambassades, p. 168. Quoted in the Archæologia, vol. xx. p. 221, note r. It is deserving of remark, that in the representation of this scene in an illumination in a copy of Froissart in the Harleian MSS. 4380, escutcheons of his arms, surmounted by the crown, appear affixed to long flambeaux round the hearse.

St. John the Evangelist, and one of St. Anthony; and Sir David Owen, who died in the same year, ordered by his will, dated in 1529, that his body should be buried" after the degree of a banneret," that is, "with helmet and sword, his coat armour, his banner, his standard, his pendant, and set over a banner of the Holy Trinity, one of our Lady, and another of St. George, borne after the order of a man of his degree; and that the same should be placed over his tomb in the priory of Essebourne."

During the reigns of Edward the Sixth, Mary, and Elizabeth, and in still more recent times, equal if not greater care was observed that the proper banners, &c. should be carried at the funerals of persons of rank; and it was not until about the period of the Revolution that the custom of having these marks of honour superintended by an Officer at Arms, fell into comparative desuetude. Indeed, so completely is this subject now neglected, that at the funeral of the heir presumptive to the throne, a few months since, the banners and other armorial ensigns borne at the ceremony were incorrect, if not absurd; and the laws of arms were violated in a manner which betrayed the most consummate ignorance: the natural consequence, however, of intrusting the arrangement of them to a clerk in the Lord Chamberlain's department. As these anomalies were fully exposed in a periodical publication a few weeks afterwards, it is not necessary to do more than allude to the circumstance3.

The preceding remarks have been extended to a much greater length than was expected; but, as was observed at the commencement, it is not pretended that they contain all which can be said on the subject. Many other sources of information than those which have been consulted probably exist, though it has not occurred to the writer to refer to them. This essay must, moreover, possess all the imperfections which necessarily attend a first effort to throw light upon an obscure, though interesting object of historical inquiry; but those who are most competent to judge of the difficulty of collecting scattered facts, and the time, labour, and research which such investigations consume, will applaud the little which is done, rather than complain that all which could be wished has not been effected.

118

ORIGINAL LETTERS.

Of the immense number of ORIGINAL LETTERS that exist in public and private libraries, there are many which, though of great interest, are either of too isolated a nature to have been used by historians and biographers, or have escaped their attention: nor have many of them yet found a place in collections of similar documents. To print the most valuable of such as are inedited, with illustrative notes, forms one part of our plan; and if we are sometimes mistaken in the belief that an article given in our pages is for the first time published, we must hope for that indulgence which those who are best acquainted with the extreme difficulty of ascertaining whether a particular letter has been before published will be the most ready to bestow. In some cases, however, articles of this kind, if of importance, will be purposely introduced from printed books; because numerous royal and other letters have from time to time been added in appendixes to volumes of a nature so wholly unconnected with the objects to which they relate, that they are no less unknown than if they had remained in manuscript; as an example of which the practice of the indefatigable Hearne may be cited. Thus, it is our intention to bring interesting documents to the notice of the public wherever they may be found; and although those which are inedited will be preferred, we shall not confine ourselves to MSS., when they occur in publications where they would never be sought. This remark applies merely to detached letters; for "Collections" of them will be reviewed from time to time among the criticisms of other works of a retrospective nature.

The following letters are, it is believed, for the first time published; and each is of some interest. The first is from King Edward the Third, to William le Zouche, Archbishop of York, dated the 30th of July, 1346, informing him of his progress from the time of his landing in Normandy; and of the capture of Caen.

The invasion of France on that occasion is so well known to every historical reader, that it is not requisite to say much in illustration of the king's letter, which is chiefly valuable from its presenting a more detailed and accurate account of his proceedings than occurs in Froissart, or any other chronicler of the period, with the exception of Robert de Avesbury. In that writer's "Historia de Mirabilibus Gestis Edwardi Tertii," he has inserted a very curious letter relating to the same events; and of which a translation is here given, because it singularly corroborates his majesty's statements, and minutely describes many circumstances which are either passed over or merely alluded to in the royal

despatch. Edward's letter has been taken from a copy of the "Chronicle of Lanercost," in the British Museum, where it is prefaced by the following words: "In the month of July, 1346, Edward, the famous and illustrious king of England, undertook an expedition against the king of France, to recover his inheritance, due to him in right of his grandfather and uncle, and embarked at Portsmouth with a thousand five hundred ships, and a great multitude of fighting men. On the twelfth day of the same month he disembarked at Hogges, in Normandy, from which he went to the city of Caen, and having killed and taken a great multitude of knights and men-at-arms, he plundered it to the bare walls ;" and in the margin the chronicler adds, " the king's expedition is described in this letter." Froissart informs us, that Edward's army consisted of 4,000 men-at-arms, and 10,000 archers, besides the Welsh and Irish, who served on foot: he states that the king intended to land in Gascony; but, as the wind became adverse, he was persuaded by Sir Godfrey Harcourt to steer for Normandy. A few remarks from Froissart are inserted as notes to the letter which is translated from Robert de Avesbury; hence, it will only be observed, that on the 26th of the following August, Edward gained the battle of Cressy.

There are, it is presumed, other copies of his majesty's letter relative to the capture of Caen extant; and many instances occur of despatches being sent to bishops, as well as to the mayor of London, from Edward the Third, and the Black Prince, with accounts of the success of their forces'. The letter in Robert de Avesbury's "Historia" is very interesting, from the comparison which the writer draws between the different towns he mentions and those in England; from the account of Caen; and of the ships which were taken by the English fleet. The original is in French, and was reprinted by Mr. Johnes; but the translation here given has been compared with a contemporary MS. of the "Historia," in the Museum: such words as are of doubtful import, or admit of a different interpretation than that which has been here given to them, are inserted in the notes. In the quarto edition of Johnes's Froissart there is a plate representing the siege of Caen; but it does not appear in what manuscript the illumination from which it was engraved occurs.

KING EDWARD the Third to WILLIAM LE ZOUCH, ARCHBISHOP

OF YORK.

Edward par la grace de Dieu Roy Dengleterre et de France et seigneur Dirland, A Lonurable Pere en Dieu W. par la mesme grace

'Archæologia, vol. i. p. 213, and Illustrations of the "Chronicle of London," p. 202.

2 Harl. MS. 200, fol. 99.