[Illustration: FIG. 87. Fetterlock-and-falcon badge of the house of York, from Henry VII's chapel at Westminster.]
[Illustration: FIG. 88. Crowned rose and portcullis from King's college chapel at Cambridge.]
When badges first came into use in this country is uncertain, but after the middle of the fourteenth century they abound. They are foreshadowed by the free treatment of earlier decorative heraldry, such as the little leopards on the footgear and pillows of King Henry III's gilt-latten effigy at Westminster, and the plate with its lozengy diaper of leopards on which it lies; also the lozengy diaper of castles and lions which covers the metal plate whereon lies the effigy of Queen Eleanor of Castile.
Many badges, too, originated in devices borrowed from various sources and arranged about the shield on seals, as in figs. 89 and 90, which are only two out of a number of such appended to the Barons' Letter.
[Illustration: FIG. 89. Seal of Robert de Clifford, with arms surrounded by rings in allusion to his mother Isabel Vipont.]
[Illustration: FIG. 90. Seal of Robert de Toni as CHEVALER AU CING with the arms encircled by swans and talbots.]
The famous white swan badge of the Bohuns (fig. 91) is found perched upon the shield in the seal of Humphrey Bohun earl of Hereford and Essex, 1298 (pl. XIX B). Later on its neck was encircled by a crown for a collar, with a chain attached, and in this form it appears on the seals of Thomas of Woodstock, who married Eleanor Bohun (fig. 86), and on that lady's brass at Westminster. It was also borne by the sons and descendants of King Henry IV by his wife Mary Bohun.
[Illustration: FIG. 91. Seal of Oliver Bohun with swans about the shield.]
B Humphrey de Bohun earl of Hereford and Essex, constable of England, 1298.
The gilt-latten effigies of Richard II (fig. 92) and Anne of Bohemia have their dresses pounced all over with badges, such as the white hart, the sun-burst, and the broom sprigs on that of the king, and the ostrich and a peculiar knot on that of the queen. In 1380 Edmund Mortimer earl of March left a bequest of 'our large bed of black satin embroidered with white lions and gold roses, with scocheons of the arms of Mortimer and Ulster,' and in 1385 Joan princess of Wales bequeathed to her son the King (Richard II) 'my new bed of red velvet embroidered with ostrich feathers of silver and leopards' heads of gold with boughs and leaves issuing from their mouths.' In 1397, Sir Ralph Hastings, whose arms were a red maunch or sleeve on a gold ground, and his crest a bull's head, left bequests of a silver bason and laver 'stamped with a bull's head (_cum capite tauri_), a vestment of red cloth of gold with orfreys before and behind worked with maunches (_cum maunches_) and with the colours of mine arms,' and six salts stamped with maunches. In 1388 John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster mentions in his will 'my great bed of cloth of gold, the field powdered with roses of gold set upon pipes of gold, and in each pipe two white ostrich feathers,' also 'my new vestment of cloth of gold the field red worked with gold falcons.' Two falcons holding hanging locks in their beaks are also shown on one of the duke's seals (pl. XXI A). In 1400 Thomas Beauchamp earl of Warwick left a bed of silk embroidered with 'bears of mine arms'; and in 1415 John lord le Scrope mentions in his will documents sealed _cum signato meo de Crabb_, and in a codicil made in 1453 he bequeaths 'j fayre pile of coppis conteyning xij coppis of gilt, with crabbis in ye myddes, and two coveryngis to thame with crabb.' In the north of England a crab is often called a scrap, whence its assumption by the Scropes.