Cadency in the Matter of Britain
Since the inception of my interest in heraldry, I have been interested in brisures. I have, in some sense, tried to contribute to the field through my webpage, The Law of Arms in Mediaeval England and The Philosophical Basis of Difference, which contrasts the SCA's methods of counting difference to mediaeval cadency practices. I have turned now to a study of a selection of mediaeval coats of arms, the bearers of which should be familiar to all: the characters of the Matter of Britain-the story of King Arthur.
Coats of arms were invented at the same time as the legends of Arthur became popular outside of Wales, Cornwall, and Britanny. Naturally, the poets of the day, many of them heralds, attributed coats of arms to the Arthurian heroes. Originally, the coats of arms were attributed at the poet's individual fancy. However, according to Michel Pastoureau, coats of arms became definitely affixed to the characters by the fifteenth century. At the same time, the characters' family trees also firmly took root.
The goal of this page is to examine the use of brisures in the Arthurian coats of arms. I hope that I will be able to discover more about brisures in a mediaeval context, which, among other things, will enable the heralds in the SCA to refine the Rules for Submission. The major reference for this webpage is Michel Pastoureau's Armorial des Chevaliers de la Table Ronde, which, in turn, is based upon several mediaeval armorials. Note: the knights' names in this page are taken, when possible, from Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, as this is the version with which most Americans are familiar. Any names not found in Malory were left in Pastoureau's French.
A careful perusal of Pastoureau's armorial turned up five large clearly recognized families whose members regularly appear in the major Arthurian texts. They are:
There are also smaller families which are worthy of note: those of Balin and Balan, Tristram de Liones, Guiron le Courtois, and Breunor le Chevalier sans Peur. Each of these families will be laid out by generation as follows:
The house of Orkney is the largest of the families I examined. Its members, especially Sir Gawaine, are among the oldest characters in the Matter of Britain, and are in-laws of King Arthur.
Perhaps the most useful set out of the house of Orkney are King Lot and his sons, since they are the best known of the family. Clearly, overall charges and peripheral charges were the preferred brisures. Also notable is the disregard for the law of tincture. In general, overall charges in real coats of arms are metals if the fields are colors, and vice-versa. Aside from Lot's lot, few conclusions can be drawn from the house of Orkney.
The next largest family in the Matter of Britain is that of Benwick. The characters of this house, like the house of Listeneise, really come to the fore after the legend of the Sangreal is absorbed by the Matter of Britain. In fact, most of the Matter of Britain after the quest for the Sangreal is the story of the feud of the house of Benwick and the house of Orkney.
The house of Benwick also provides some interesting examples of brisures, most notably the use of geratting, a change of field, a label, and an overall charge. Sir Galahad's coat of arms breaks from that of his house, because his shield came to him as a miracle, not by gift of his father. Also notable is the re-use of certain charges for geratting, despite the fact that this resulted in identical coats of arms.
The next largest family is the house of Listeneise. This too, is a family of the Sangreal. In fact, they seem to be cousins of King Pellam of Listeneise, the healing of whom features as a subordinate quest in that of the Sangreal. However, King Pellam wasn't mentioned in Pastoureau's armorial. The house of Listeneise also has a running feud with the house of Orkney, and Sir Launcelot and Sir Lamorak de Galis develop a friendship in Le Morte d'Arthur.
Somehow, it would have worked out better if Sir Tor and Sir Percivale were the only sons of King Pellinore, since they clearly took their father's coat of arms and changed the tincture of the charges or of both the field and the charges. As it is, it seems as if two of Pellinore's legitimate sons differenced their uncle's coat of arms by geratting it. Where Sir Guivret comes from is unknown-his father is not mentioned.
Oddly enough, the house of Pendragon is not one of the largest, although it has the most famous knight of all: Arthur, king of the Britons. Arthur is, however, the uncle in blood to a few other knights, as shall be seen below.
The Arthur-Carados relationship is clear, but the second generation and beyond are clear evidence of a generation gap of cavernous proportions in the house of Pendragon.
The house of Babylon's appearance should come as no surprise. Mediaeval people thought that Saladin was one of the greatest knights of his time. Certainly, the Crusaders, residents of Outremer and the Iberian Peninsula, and the members of the holy orders of knighthood would have known the Moors to be doughty and honorable opponents. Naturally, then, fictional Moorish knights would be like other knights in fiction and bear coats of arms.
Sir Arphasar aside, the house of Babylon uses tincture change as a brisure.
The brothers Sir Balin le Savage and Sir Balan feature in the prelude of the quest for the Sangreal, as Balin was the one who delivered the Dolorous Stroke to King Pellam of Listeneise. Balin's sword eventually became Sir Galahad's sword. Also, the tomb of Sir Lanceor, one of Balin's victims, was the site for a combat between Sir Launcelot and Sir Tristram. Sir Balan bears Argent a boar passant Sable and Sir Balin le Savage bears Argent a boar passant Sable in chief three estoiles Azure. The addition of secondary charges is a recognized form of brisure.
The other notable families are unusual for one thing: the patriarch bears a field-only coat of arms, and the field is a single tincture. The children add a charge to the field as a brisure between themselves and their father. Amongst themselves, a change in the tincture of the charge serves as a brisure.
The best known family where this was done is the family of Sir Tristram de Liones. Sir Tristram's father, King Meliodas of Liones, is a major figure in his own right. Jean Froissart, who wrote the major reference work on the early years of the Hundred Years War, the Chroniques, also wrote a book in which King Meliodas is the main character. King Meliodas bears Vert. His son, Sir Tristram has been depicted as bearing a variety of coats of arms, but by the time the references Pastoureau used were written, it was agreed among heralds, artists, and writers that Sir Tristram bears Vert, a lion rampant Or. Sir Tristram has a cousin, Sir Alisander le Orphelin, who bears Vert a lion rampant Argent.
One of Sir Tristram's travelling companions is Sir Dinadan. Sir Dinadan's father, Sir Breunor le Chevalier sans Peur, bears Argent. Sir Dinadan himself bears Argent a lion rampant Sable. His brother, Sir Breunor le Noire, also called Sir La Cote Male Taile, bears Argent a lion rampant chequy Sable and Gules.
The romance of Guiron le Courtois never entered the Arthurian literary corpus of the English-speaking world. Nevertheless, the romance was popular on the Continent. Sir Guiron le Courtois bears Or. His son, Sir Calinan, bears Or a wyvern Gules.
The conclusions I have been able to draw from this brief examination are, I am afraid, not many. Clearly, such familiar brisures as the use of overall, peripheral, and secondary charges, geratting, and tincture changes are present among the knights of Arthurian fiction. None of them use charges on charges, which was a popular brisure in other contexts. This may be explained by the fact that these coats of arms were usually small parts of a small painting-an illumination in a book-and such small details wouldn't have been as easy to notice, nor as easy to draw, as these other brisures.
However, many of the more obscure knights used coats of arms that were, it seems, completely unrelated to the coat of arms of the more prominent knights to whom they were supposedly related. It is hard to say how this came about; in the real world, it was fairly common for lesser people to adopt coats of arms similar to greater people, in order to increase their prestige. Another unusual practice was the devisal of field-only coats of arms for the fathers of prominent characters like Sir Dinadan and Sir Tristram after their sons had coats of arms with charged fields ascribed to them, as opposed to the other practice of the father bearing the same coat of arms as the son.