Armorial bindings; Bookplates, English; Heraldry -- Great Britain
Concerning the Knights of the English Langue of the Order of St. John
of Jerusalem, Guillim says that they may wear "their Paternal coat
armour insigned with this cross on the chief of their Paternal Coat."
The cross he speaks of is, he says, that of Amadeus, Earl of Savoy
(Gu., a cross argent), who fought in company with the Knights of St.
John at the Siege of Acre in the thirteenth century, and, the Grand
Master being slain, put on his dress and demeaned himself so gallantly
that he was asked to allow the Order to adopt his coat-of-arms.
In the Charter of Incorporation of this Order granted by Queen
Victoria in 1888, it is ordained that "Knights of Justice may bear the
Arms of the Order, viz. Gules, a cross argent embellished alternately
in each of the principal angles with a Lion guardant and a Unicorn,
both passant or," as a chief on their coat-of-arms. The lion and the
unicorn were added to the then existing arms of the English Langue of
the Order by George IV.
Knights of other Orders and Knights Bachelors do not, as such, use any
augmentations on their shields.
Several forms of marks of cadency are given in the _Book of St.
Albans_, printed in the fifteenth century, and many more had been used
in mediæval times, but the manner of indicating cadency which has
lasted until the present day is the only one that it is necessary to
describe here.
In an old window at St. Mary's Church, Warwick, the six sons of the
Earl of Warwick, who died in the thirty-fourth year of Edward III., are
marked by the six following devices on their shields:--
[Illustration: 1st, a Label]
[Illustration: 2nd, a Crescent]
[Illustration: 3rd, a Mullet or spur rowel, sometimes pierced]
[Illustration: 4th, a Martlet]
[Illustration: 5th, an Annulet]
[Illustration: 6th, a Fleur-de-lys]
Gerard Legh in his _Accedens of Armory_ mentions three more such
marks:--
7th, a Rose. 8th, a Cross moline. 9th, a double Quatrefoil.
The first six are often met with, but the last three very rarely.
The Royal Family all use labels as cadency marks, distinguished by
charges upon them, or by the number of points, differences which are
all specially granted, the eldest son always wearing a plain silver
label of three points.
English coronets seem to have followed a definite line of development,
but they were not actually settled as to their respective designs until
the time of Charles II., at whose coronation all the ranks of the
Peerage carried their respective coronets exactly in their present
form.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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