First among these pictorial mementoes should be noticed the well-known cognizance of the Prince of Wales, the Ostrich Feathers, the popular origin of which is known to every schoolboy. Whether the King of Bohemia fell by the trenchant blade of the Black Prince himself, or by that of some knight or 'squier of lowe degree,' it would now be useless to inquire; and whether the feathers and the mottoes, =Ich Dien= and =Houmout=, signifying respectively in old German, 'I serve,' and 'A haughty spirit,' had any relation to that event is altogether a matter of dubiety. It has been shown by Mr. J. G. Nichols[199] that the King of Bohemia used (not ostrich feathers, but) a pair of vulture's wings as a crest. It further appears that the _badge_ of the Black Prince was _a single feather_, while, on his tomb at Canterbury, the _three_ feathers are represented singly upon a shield, the quill of each being attached to a scroll, with the motto ICH . DIENE. The popular version of the story, however, is somewhat supported by the fact that an ostrich, collared and chained, with a nail in his beak, was a badge of the Bohemian monarchs; and Mr. Nichols suggests that the feathers may probably have been adopted by Edward as a trophy of his victory. Randle Holme deduces the three ostrich feathers from a totally different source, and asserts that they were the ensign of the princes of Wales during the independence of that country, prior to the invasion of the English. After this event, (he adds) the eldest sons of the kings of England, as princes of Wales, continued the badge ensigned with a coronet, with the motto, 'Ich Dien,' I serve; to express the sentiment that, although of paramount dignity in that country, they still owed allegiance to the crown of England.[200] It is asserted by other authorities that a single ostrich feather was borne as a badge by Edward III, by all the brothers and descendants of the Black Prince, and by Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, who was descended by the female line from Thomas de Brotherton, fifth son of Edward I. In the Harl. MS. 304, we are told that, "=The ostrich fether, sylver, and pen gold, is the King's. The ostrich fether, pen and all sylver, is the Prince's. The ostrich fether, gold, y{e} pen ermyne, is the Duk of Lancaster's. The ostrich fether, sylver, and pen gobone, is the Duk of Somersett's.="