[ANSTHRLD] Helms in SCA achievements

[Tim McDaniel]

On Thu, 27 Feb 2003, BOWERMAN, MATTHEW S. (JSC-DV1) (USA)
<matthew.s.bowerman1 at jsc.nasa.gov> wrote:
> Ok, I asked you that question so I could ask you this one.  In period a
> squire would have the interior of his helm painted red on his achievement,

Friar's _A Dictionary of Heraldry_ says (s.v. Esquire) only "In
armory, an esquire's helmet is steel and has a closed visor".
Brooke-Little's _An Heraldic Alphabet_ says the same, plus "facing
dexter".  Bedingfeld and Gwynn-Jones, _Heraldry_, says the same.

> In period the primary tincture, and the metal were used for the
> Torse and Mantle, the metal being used on the lining of the mantle,
> and the torse being divided into only six parts, the metal starting
> at the left as you look at it.

That happens not to be the case, at least in England.  Peter
Gwynn-Jones, _The Art of Heraldry: Origins, Symbols and Designs_,
p. 100, says

    During the Middle Ages this stylised cloth or mantle placed over
    the helm had been treated in a variety of tinctures and forms.
    Some mantling were sprinkled with badges and otherws were an
    extension of the crest and so composed of fur or feathers.  By the
    end of the Middle Ages mantling was largely standardised in the
    national tinctures of red and white, as found with the red cross
    of St George set on its white field.  The vast majority of
    mantlings remained in these tinctures until the mid-seventeenth
    century, when there was a sudden shift to the use of the principal
    colour and principal metal taken from the arms.

Some illustrations of Wriothesley grants (early 16th C) are on pp. 96
and 98, and more on 100 and 101 (1493, early 1500s).

Torse twists:
   four twists: 15 cases
   five twists: 1
   six twists: 13
Six-twists mostly occur on helms, but three occur on the top of the
shield. ... ah, Hervey grants (ca. 1558), p. 103, all have six twists
directly on the shield.

Colors are not necessarily the principal tinctures.  Of the 36 shields
shown there in color, in 9 cases the torse has a tincture that's not
even on the shield, and in several more one of the tinctures is found
only on tertiaries.  The unmatched tincture is almost always azure.
That tends to be for the earlier Wriothesley grants.

You're right on one thing: the torses all have the metal on the left.
So in England in 1500-1550, at least, that seems to have been the
convention.

Back to mantling ... Bedingfeld and Gwynn-Jones say "usually the first
metal and first tincture of the blazon", not "always" and not
"primary".

Friar has the most thorough description.

    [possible origin as a sunshade in the Crusades]  The current
    convention that the mantling should be depicted with the lighter
    coloured material on the _inside_ may appear to contradict this
    theory until it is noted that the convention is a relatively
    recent one.

    ... Mantlings of specific tinctures, unrelated to either arms or
    crest, were often used by succeeding generations and different
    branches of the same family, suggesting that the choice of
    tinctures was not entirely arbitrary.  However, the diversity of
    practice in the medieval period suggests also that the mantling
    possessed no single prescribed armorial function, and that it was
    adopted simply for purposed not provide for by other components of
    the coat of arms.  For example, it may be that the red and ermine
    mantling which predominate in the Plantagenet Garter stall plates
    at St George's Chapel [in] Windsor, were adopted when a ceremonial
    chapeau was not compatible with an existing crest, or as an
    indication that the bearer was considered to be above the
    sumptuary laws of the period.  Other mantlings are charged with
    badges and may have been composed of the livery colours with with
    they were associated.  Others are semy of charges from the arms or
    even charges with the arms themselves. ...

    Often a variety of colours was chosen, the mantling on either side
    the helm being of the tinctures of subsidiary quarterings, even
    when these were not depicted in the accompanying arms.

    Thus, during the Middle Ages, armigers appear to have selected the
    most appropriate mantling from a range of recognized options, the
    only common rationale being the enhancement of armorial display.
    In the second half of the sixteenth century the majority of
    mantlings exemplified in patents of arms were Gules doubled
    Argent, irrespective of the colours of the shield or crest.  This
    practice may have been an attempt by the kings of arms to
    regularize the situation ...  From the end of the eighteenth
    century the principal metal and colour of the arms were used for
    this pourpose (i.e. those first mentioned in the blazon), and this
    continues to be the practice in Scotland, where only peers may
    vary their mantlings by the use of gules and ermine.

Brooke-Little states

    A study of the early stall plates of the Knights of the Garter
    shows that the colour of the mantling was usually, although not
    invariably, the principal colour in the arms; it was not, however,
    lined with the principal metal.  ... Under the early Tudor heralds
    the colours of the mantling were fairly capricious ... [from the
    1550s they did red-and-white] until the end of the eighteenth
    century.  ... Today ... A gold mantling doubled ermine is reserved
    for the Crown and royal princes and a mantling lined with ermine
    is granted only to peers.

Daniel de Lincolia
--
Tim McDaniel (home); Reply-To: tmcd at panix.com; work is tmcd at us.ibm.com.