Dunstable Swan Jewel
Encyclopedia
The Dunstable Swan Jewel is a gold and enamel
brooch in the form of a swan
made in England or France in about 1400 and now in the British Museum
. It was excavated in 1965 on the site of Dunstable Friary
, and is presumed to have been intended as a livery badge given by an important figure to his supporters; the most likely candidate is probably the future Henry V of England
, who was Prince of Wales
from 1399.
The jewel is a rare medieval example of the then recently developed and fashionable white opaque enamel used in en ronde bosse to almost totally encase an underlying gold form. It is invariably compared to the white hart
badges worn by King Richard II
and the angels surrounding the Virgin Mary in the painted Wilton Diptych of around the same date, where the chains hang freely down.
The jewel is formed as a standing or walking mute swan
"gorged" with a gold collar in the form of a royal crown with six fleur-de-lys tines. There is a gold chain terminating in a ring attached to the crown, and the swan has a pin and catch on its right side for fastening the brooch to clothes or a hat. The swan is 3.2 cm high and 2.5 cm wide, and the length of the chain is 8.2 cm. The swan's body is in white enamel, its eyes are of black enamel, which also once covered the legs and feet, where only traces now remain. Tiny fragments of pink or red enamel remain on the beak.
, otherwise only known from inventories and representations in paintings. These were badges in various forms made for a leading figure bearing his personal device, and given to others who would demonstrate by wearing them that they were in some way his employees, retainer
s, allies or supporters. They were especially common in England in the age of "bastard feudalism
" from the mid-fourteenth century until about the end of the fifteenth century, a period of intense factional conflict which saw the deposition of Richard II and the Wars of the Roses
.
A lavish badge like the jewel would only have been worn by the person whose device was represented, members of his family or important supporters, and possibly servants who were in regular very close contact with him. However the jewel lacks the ultimate luxury of being set with gems, for example ruby eyes, like the gems on the lion pendants worn by Sir John Donne
and his wife in their portraits by Hans Memling
, now in the National Gallery, London
, and several examples listed on the 1397 treasure roll of Richard II. In the Wilton Diptych, Richard's own badge has pearls on the antler tips, which the angels' badges lack. The white hart in the badge on the Treasury Roll, which the painted one may have copied, had pearls and sat on a grass bed made of emeralds, and a hart badge of Richard's inventoried in the possession of Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy
in 1435 was set with 22 pearls, two spinel
s, two sapphire
s, a ruby and a huge diamond.
Cheaper forms of badge were more widely distributed, sometimes very freely indeed, rather as modern political campaign buttons and tee-shirts are, though as in some modern countries wearing the wrong badge in the wrong place could lead to personal danger. In 1483 King Richard III
ordered 13,000 fustian
(cloth) badges with his emblem of a boar
for the investiture of his son Edward
as Prince of Wales, a huge number given the population at the time. Other grades of boar badges that have survived are in lead, silver, and gilded copper high relief, the last found at Richard's home of Middleham Castle
in Yorkshire, and very likely worn by one of his household when he was Duke of Gloucester
. The British Museum also has a flat lead swan badge with low relief, typical of the cheap metal badges which were similar to the pilgrim badge
s that were also common in the period.
In 1377, during a period when the young Richard's uncle John of Gaunt as Regent was highly unpopular in London, one of his more than 200 retainers, Sir John Swinton, unwisely rode through London wearing Gaunt's badge on a livery collar
(an innovation of Gaunt's, probably the Collar of Esses). The mob attacked him, pulling him off his horse and the badge off him, and he had to be rescued by the mayor from suffering serious harm. Over twenty years later, after Gaunt's son Henry IV
had deposed Richard, one of Richard's servants was imprisoned by Henry for continuing to wear Richard's livery badge. Many of the large number of badges of various liveries recovered from the Thames in London were perhaps discarded hurriedly by retainers who found themselves impoliticly dressed at various times.
Apparently beginning relatively harmlessly under Edward III
in a context of tournament
s and courtly celebrations, by the reign of his son Richard II the badges had become seen as a social menace, and were "one of the most protracted controversies of Richard's reign", as they were used to denote the small private armies of retainers kept by lords, largely for the purpose of enforcing their lord's will on the less powerful in his area. Though they were surely a symptom rather than a cause of both local baronial bullying and the disputes between the king and his uncles and other lords, Parliament repeatedly tried to curb the use of livery badges. The issuing of badges by lords was attacked in the Parliament of 1384, and in 1388 they made the startling request that "all liveries called badges [signes], as well of our lord the king as of other lords ... shall be abolished", because "those who wear them are flown with such insolent arrogance that they do not shrink from practising with reckless effrontery various kinds of extortion in the surrounding countryside ... and it is certainly the boldness inspired by these badges that makes them unafraid to do these things". Richard offered to give up his own badges, to the delight of the House of Commons of England
, but the House of Lords
refused to give up theirs, and the matter was put off. In 1390 it was ordered that no one below the rank of banneret should issue badges, and no one below the rank of esquire
wear them. The issue was apparently quiet for a few years, but from 1397 Richard issued increasingly large numbers of badges to retainers who misbehaved (his "Cheshire archers" being especially notorious), and in the Parliament of 1399, after his deposition, several of his leading supporters were forbidden from issuing "badges of signs" again, and a statute was passed allowing only the king (now Henry IV) to issue badges, and only to those ranking as esquires and above, who were only to wear them in his presence. In the end it took a determined campaign by Henry VII
to largely stamp out the use of livery badges by others than the king, and reduce them to things normally worn only by household servants.
's opera Lohengrin
. A group of Old French
chansons de geste called the Crusade cycle
had associated the legend with the ancestors of Godfrey of Bouillon
(d. 1100), the hero of the First Crusade
. Although Godfrey had no legitimate issue, his family had many descendants among the aristocracy of Europe, many of whom made use of the swan in their heraldry
or as a para-heraldic emblem
. In England these included the important de Bohun
family, and after the marriage in 1380 of Mary de Bohun
(d. 1394) to the future King Henry IV of England
, the swan became adopted by the House of Lancaster
, who continued to use it for over a century. The swan with the crown and chain is especially associated with Lancastrian use; it echoes the crown and chain of Richard II's white hart, which he began to use as a livery badge from 1390. As well as several of his own white hart badges, Richard's treasure roll of 1397 also includes a swan badge with a gold chain, perhaps presented by one of his enemies mentioned above: "Item, a gold swan enamelled white with a little gold chain hanging around the neck, weighing 2 oz., value, 46s. 8d". He declared to Parliament that he had exchanged liveries with his uncles as a sign of amity at various moments of reconciliation.
After Henry seized the throne in 1399, the use of the swan emblem was transferred to his son, the future Henry V, who was made Prince of Wales at his father's coronation, and whose tomb in Westminster Abbey
includes swans. It was also used by his grandson Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales before his death in the Battle of Tewkesbury
in 1471. In 1459 Edward's mother Margaret of Anjou
insisted that he give swan livery badges to "all the gentlemen of Cheshire
"; the type and number are unknown.
It was also used by other families; the swan was the crest of the Beauchamp
Earls of Warwick, leading supporters of the Lancastrian faction under Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick
(d. 1401). Eleanor de Bohun
, Mary's sister, had in 1376 also married into the Plantagenet royal family, in the person of King Edward III of England's youngest son, Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester
(d. 1397), another prominent Lancastrian supporter, and the swan badge was used by his Stafford
descendants. Mary and Eleanor were co-heiresses to huge Bohun estates, and disputes over the settlement of these continued until late into the next century, when most of their descendants had been killed in the Wars of the Roses, perhaps encouraging the continued assertion of Bohun ancestry. Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
, a descendant of the Beauchamps, Eleanor de Bohun and Thomas of Woodstock, and John of Gaunt, used the swan with crown and chain as his own badge. He was certainly active in trying to get the Bohun lands, and may well have also plotted to seize the throne, for which he was executed in 1483 by Richard III.
, the Valois
prince who commissioned two of the most spectacular medieval works featuring white enamel en ronde bosse, the Holy Thorn Reliquary
, also in the British Museum, and the Goldenes Rössl. He has been considered as a possible commissioner of the jewel, in which case it would almost certainly have been made in Paris, and might have made its way to England after being presented. This might also have been the case if it was commissioned by an English person, especially a royal one. However there are records of London goldsmiths producing white enamel works for the court, and a reliquary with many figures in white ronde bosse enamel and now in the Louvre
may have been made in London. Other small jewels have survived in England which may have been made in London, either by native goldsmiths or the foreign ones known to have worked there.
No more precise date for the jewel than "around 1400" is given by experts; this might have a wider range than many works as style is not much help in dating here. Given the royal collar of the swan, the marriage of the future Henry IV to Mary de Bohun probably provides the earliest possible date. A date after Henry IV seized the throne in 1399 -- when his son would have been using the badge -- is perhaps more likely. The difficult technique of adding elements in further colours was not perfected until about 1400, in Paris. Fixing a terminus ante quem is more difficult, but white enamel en ronde bosse became less fashionable after about the 1430s. Moreover, there was no Prince of Wales between 1413, when Henry V succeeded to the throne, and 1454.
, where the ancient roads of Watling Street
and the Icknield Way
cross some thirty miles north of London, was frequently visited by the medieval elite. Apart from travellers passing through, tournaments were held there at least until the 1340s, and Lancastrian armies used it as a base in 1459 and 1461. The jewel was found in an excavation of the friary, in what seemed to be a deposit of rubble dating from the destruction of the buildings after the Dissolution of the Monasteries
. It would appear to have been above ground until that point. However, it must have been overlooked -- the scrap value of the gold itself would have prevented it from being merely discarded. After its excavation, the jewel was bought by the British Museum in 1966 for £5,000, of which £666 was a grant from the Art Fund (then NACF); other contributions were made by the Pilgrim Trust
and the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths
. It is on display in Room 40.
Vitreous enamel
Vitreous enamel, also porcelain enamel in U.S. English, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between 750 and 850 °C...
brooch in the form of a swan
Swan
Swans, genus Cygnus, are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae...
made in England or France in about 1400 and now in the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. It was excavated in 1965 on the site of Dunstable Friary
Dunstable Friary
Dunstable Friary was a Dominican friary in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England. It was located to the west of the Watling Street, between the present-day High Street South and the road that is called Friary Field....
, and is presumed to have been intended as a livery badge given by an important figure to his supporters; the most likely candidate is probably the future Henry V of England
Henry V of England
Henry V was King of England from 1413 until his death at the age of 35 in 1422. He was the second monarch belonging to the House of Lancaster....
, who was Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
from 1399.
The jewel is a rare medieval example of the then recently developed and fashionable white opaque enamel used in en ronde bosse to almost totally encase an underlying gold form. It is invariably compared to the white hart
White Hart
The White Hart was the personal emblem and livery of Richard II, who derived it from the arms of his mother, Joan "The Fair Maid of Kent", heiress of Edmund of Woodstock...
badges worn by King Richard II
Richard II of England
Richard II was King of England, a member of the House of Plantagenet and the last of its main-line kings. He ruled from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. Richard was a son of Edward, the Black Prince, and was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III...
and the angels surrounding the Virgin Mary in the painted Wilton Diptych of around the same date, where the chains hang freely down.
The jewel is formed as a standing or walking mute swan
Mute Swan
The Mute Swan is a species of swan, and thus a member of the duck, goose and swan family Anatidae. It is native to much of Europe and Asia, and the far north of Africa. It is also an introduced species in North America, Australasia and southern Africa. The name 'mute' derives from it being less...
"gorged" with a gold collar in the form of a royal crown with six fleur-de-lys tines. There is a gold chain terminating in a ring attached to the crown, and the swan has a pin and catch on its right side for fastening the brooch to clothes or a hat. The swan is 3.2 cm high and 2.5 cm wide, and the length of the chain is 8.2 cm. The swan's body is in white enamel, its eyes are of black enamel, which also once covered the legs and feet, where only traces now remain. Tiny fragments of pink or red enamel remain on the beak.
Livery badges
The jewel is a unique survival of the most expensive form of livery badgeHeraldic badge
A heraldic badge is an emblem or personal device worn as a badge to indicate allegiance to or the property of an individual or family. Medieval forms are usually called a livery badge, and also a cognizance...
, otherwise only known from inventories and representations in paintings. These were badges in various forms made for a leading figure bearing his personal device, and given to others who would demonstrate by wearing them that they were in some way his employees, retainer
Retainer
Retainer may refer to:* Retainer , a person, especially a soldier, in the service of a lord in the late Middle Ages** Retainer sacrifice, the sacrifice of a human servant* Retainer...
s, allies or supporters. They were especially common in England in the age of "bastard feudalism
Bastard feudalism
Bastard feudalism is a term that has been used to describe feudalism in the Late Middle Ages, primarily in England. Its main characteristic is military, political, legal, or domestic service in return for money, office, and/or influence...
" from the mid-fourteenth century until about the end of the fifteenth century, a period of intense factional conflict which saw the deposition of Richard II and the Wars of the Roses
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the houses of Lancaster and York...
.
A lavish badge like the jewel would only have been worn by the person whose device was represented, members of his family or important supporters, and possibly servants who were in regular very close contact with him. However the jewel lacks the ultimate luxury of being set with gems, for example ruby eyes, like the gems on the lion pendants worn by Sir John Donne
Sir John Donne
Sir John Donne was a Welsh courtier, diplomat and soldier, a notable figure of the Yorkist party. In the 1470s he commissioned the Donne Triptych, an triptych altarpiece by Hans Memling now in the National Gallery, London. It contains portraits of him, his wife Elizabeth and a daughter...
and his wife in their portraits by Hans Memling
Hans Memling
Hans Memling was a German-born Early Netherlandish painter.-Life and works:Born in Seligenstadt, near Frankfurt in the Middle Rhein region, it is believed that Memling served his apprenticeship at Mainz or Cologne, and later worked in the Netherlands under Rogier van der Weyden...
, now in the National Gallery, London
National Gallery, London
The National Gallery is an art museum on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The gallery is an exempt charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media...
, and several examples listed on the 1397 treasure roll of Richard II. In the Wilton Diptych, Richard's own badge has pearls on the antler tips, which the angels' badges lack. The white hart in the badge on the Treasury Roll, which the painted one may have copied, had pearls and sat on a grass bed made of emeralds, and a hart badge of Richard's inventoried in the possession of Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy
Duchy of Burgundy
The Duchy of Burgundy , was heir to an ancient and prestigious reputation and a large division of the lands of the Second Kingdom of Burgundy and in its own right was one of the geographically larger ducal territories in the emergence of Early Modern Europe from Medieval Europe.Even in that...
in 1435 was set with 22 pearls, two spinel
Spinel
Spinel is the magnesium aluminium member of the larger spinel group of minerals. It has the formula MgAl2O4. Balas ruby is an old name for a rose-tinted variety.-Spinel group:...
s, two sapphire
Sapphire
Sapphire is a gemstone variety of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide , when it is a color other than red or dark pink; in which case the gem would instead be called a ruby, considered to be a different gemstone. Trace amounts of other elements such as iron, titanium, or chromium can give...
s, a ruby and a huge diamond.
Cheaper forms of badge were more widely distributed, sometimes very freely indeed, rather as modern political campaign buttons and tee-shirts are, though as in some modern countries wearing the wrong badge in the wrong place could lead to personal danger. In 1483 King Richard III
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
ordered 13,000 fustian
Fustian
Fustian is a term for a variety of heavy woven, mostly cotton fabrics, chiefly prepared for menswear. It is also used to refer to pompous, inflated or pretentious writing or speech, from at least the time of Shakespeare...
(cloth) badges with his emblem of a boar
Boar
Wild boar, also wild pig, is a species of the pig genus Sus, part of the biological family Suidae. The species includes many subspecies. It is the wild ancestor of the domestic pig, an animal with which it freely hybridises...
for the investiture of his son Edward
Edward of Middleham, Prince of Wales
Edward of Middleham, 1st Earl of Salisbury , was the only son of King Richard III of England and his wife Anne Neville. He was Richard's only legitimate child and died aged 11....
as Prince of Wales, a huge number given the population at the time. Other grades of boar badges that have survived are in lead, silver, and gilded copper high relief, the last found at Richard's home of Middleham Castle
Middleham Castle
Middleham Castle in Wensleydale, in the county of North Yorkshire, was built by Robert Fitzrandolph, 3rd Lord of Middleham and Spennithorne, commencing in 1190. It was built near the site of an earlier motte and bailey castle...
in Yorkshire, and very likely worn by one of his household when he was Duke of Gloucester
Duke of Gloucester
Duke of Gloucester is a British royal title , often conferred on one of the sons of the reigning monarch. The first four creations were in the Peerage of England, the next in the Peerage of Great Britain, and the last in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; this current creation carries with it the...
. The British Museum also has a flat lead swan badge with low relief, typical of the cheap metal badges which were similar to the pilgrim badge
Pilgrim badge
A pilgrim badge is a badge typically made of base metal such as lead alloy or pewter from the medieval period worn by Roman Catholic pilgrims who had travelled to sites of Christian pilgrimage, such as in England Canterbury Cathedral, the site of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket...
s that were also common in the period.
Livery collar
A livery collar or chain of office is a collar or heavy chain, usually of gold, worn as insignia of office or a mark of fealty or other association in Europe from the Middle Ages onwards....
(an innovation of Gaunt's, probably the Collar of Esses). The mob attacked him, pulling him off his horse and the badge off him, and he had to be rescued by the mayor from suffering serious harm. Over twenty years later, after Gaunt's son Henry IV
Henry IV of England
Henry IV was King of England and Lord of Ireland . He was the ninth King of England of the House of Plantagenet and also asserted his grandfather's claim to the title King of France. He was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, hence his other name, Henry Bolingbroke...
had deposed Richard, one of Richard's servants was imprisoned by Henry for continuing to wear Richard's livery badge. Many of the large number of badges of various liveries recovered from the Thames in London were perhaps discarded hurriedly by retainers who found themselves impoliticly dressed at various times.
Apparently beginning relatively harmlessly under Edward III
Edward III of England
Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...
in a context of tournament
Tournament
A tournament is a competition involving a relatively large number of competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:...
s and courtly celebrations, by the reign of his son Richard II the badges had become seen as a social menace, and were "one of the most protracted controversies of Richard's reign", as they were used to denote the small private armies of retainers kept by lords, largely for the purpose of enforcing their lord's will on the less powerful in his area. Though they were surely a symptom rather than a cause of both local baronial bullying and the disputes between the king and his uncles and other lords, Parliament repeatedly tried to curb the use of livery badges. The issuing of badges by lords was attacked in the Parliament of 1384, and in 1388 they made the startling request that "all liveries called badges [signes], as well of our lord the king as of other lords ... shall be abolished", because "those who wear them are flown with such insolent arrogance that they do not shrink from practising with reckless effrontery various kinds of extortion in the surrounding countryside ... and it is certainly the boldness inspired by these badges that makes them unafraid to do these things". Richard offered to give up his own badges, to the delight of the House of Commons of England
House of Commons of England
The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...
, but the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
refused to give up theirs, and the matter was put off. In 1390 it was ordered that no one below the rank of banneret should issue badges, and no one below the rank of esquire
Esquire
Esquire is a term of West European origin . Depending on the country, the term has different meanings...
wear them. The issue was apparently quiet for a few years, but from 1397 Richard issued increasingly large numbers of badges to retainers who misbehaved (his "Cheshire archers" being especially notorious), and in the Parliament of 1399, after his deposition, several of his leading supporters were forbidden from issuing "badges of signs" again, and a statute was passed allowing only the king (now Henry IV) to issue badges, and only to those ranking as esquires and above, who were only to wear them in his presence. In the end it took a determined campaign by Henry VII
Henry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
to largely stamp out the use of livery badges by others than the king, and reduce them to things normally worn only by household servants.
The swan as a badge
The widespread use of the swan as a badge largely derives from the legend of the Swan Knight, today most familiar from Richard WagnerRichard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's opera Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
. A group of Old French
Old French
Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...
chansons de geste called the Crusade cycle
Crusade cycle
The Crusade cycle is an Old French cycle of chansons de geste concerning the First Crusade and its aftermath.-History:The cycle contains a number of initially unrelated texts, collated into interconnected narratives by later redactors...
had associated the legend with the ancestors of Godfrey of Bouillon
Godfrey of Bouillon
Godfrey of Bouillon was a medieval Frankish knight who was one of the leaders of the First Crusade from 1096 until his death. He was the Lord of Bouillon, from which he took his byname, from 1076 and the Duke of Lower Lorraine from 1087...
(d. 1100), the hero of the First Crusade
First Crusade
The First Crusade was a military expedition by Western Christianity to regain the Holy Lands taken in the Muslim conquest of the Levant, ultimately resulting in the recapture of Jerusalem...
. Although Godfrey had no legitimate issue, his family had many descendants among the aristocracy of Europe, many of whom made use of the swan in their heraldry
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
or as a para-heraldic emblem
Emblem
An emblem is a pictorial image, abstract or representational, that epitomizes a concept — e.g., a moral truth, or an allegory — or that represents a person, such as a king or saint.-Distinction: emblem and symbol:...
. In England these included the important de Bohun
Bohun
-The Anglo-Norman Bohun family:* Eleanor de Bohun elder sister and co-heiress of Mary de Bohun* Henry de Bohun, 1st Earl of Hereford , a Norman-English nobleman...
family, and after the marriage in 1380 of Mary de Bohun
Mary de Bohun
Mary de Bohun was the first wife of King Henry IV of England and the mother of King Henry V. Mary was never queen, as she died before her husband came to the throne.-Early life:...
(d. 1394) to the future King Henry IV of England
Henry IV of England
Henry IV was King of England and Lord of Ireland . He was the ninth King of England of the House of Plantagenet and also asserted his grandfather's claim to the title King of France. He was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, hence his other name, Henry Bolingbroke...
, the swan became adopted by the House of Lancaster
House of Lancaster
The House of Lancaster was a branch of the royal House of Plantagenet. It was one of the opposing factions involved in the Wars of the Roses, an intermittent civil war which affected England and Wales during the 15th century...
, who continued to use it for over a century. The swan with the crown and chain is especially associated with Lancastrian use; it echoes the crown and chain of Richard II's white hart, which he began to use as a livery badge from 1390. As well as several of his own white hart badges, Richard's treasure roll of 1397 also includes a swan badge with a gold chain, perhaps presented by one of his enemies mentioned above: "Item, a gold swan enamelled white with a little gold chain hanging around the neck, weighing 2 oz., value, 46s. 8d". He declared to Parliament that he had exchanged liveries with his uncles as a sign of amity at various moments of reconciliation.
After Henry seized the throne in 1399, the use of the swan emblem was transferred to his son, the future Henry V, who was made Prince of Wales at his father's coronation, and whose tomb in Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
includes swans. It was also used by his grandson Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales before his death in the Battle of Tewkesbury
Battle of Tewkesbury
The Battle of Tewkesbury, which took place on 4 May 1471, was one of the decisive battles of the Wars of the Roses. The forces loyal to the House of Lancaster were completely defeated by those of the rival House of York under their monarch, King Edward IV...
in 1471. In 1459 Edward's mother Margaret of Anjou
Margaret of Anjou
Margaret of Anjou was the wife of King Henry VI of England. As such, she was Queen consort of England from 1445 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471; and Queen consort of France from 1445 to 1453...
insisted that he give swan livery badges to "all the gentlemen of Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
"; the type and number are unknown.
It was also used by other families; the swan was the crest of the Beauchamp
Beauchamp
- Surname :* Alphonse de Beauchamp, French historian* Anne de Beauchamp, 15th Countess of Warwick * Bianca Beauchamp, Canadian fetish model* Christine Beauchamp, case study patient...
Earls of Warwick, leading supporters of the Lancastrian faction under Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick
Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick
Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick, KG was an English medieval nobleman, and one of the primary opponents of Richard II.- Birth and Marriage:...
(d. 1401). Eleanor de Bohun
Eleanor de Bohun
Eleanor de Bohun was the elder daughter and co-heiress with her sister Mary de Bohun, of their father Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford. Her mother was Lady Joan Fitzalan, daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel and his second wife Eleanor of Lancaster.-Marriage:In 1376 she...
, Mary's sister, had in 1376 also married into the Plantagenet royal family, in the person of King Edward III of England's youngest son, Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester
Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester
Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Buckingham, 1st Earl of Essex, Duke of Aumale, KG was the thirteenth and youngest child of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault...
(d. 1397), another prominent Lancastrian supporter, and the swan badge was used by his Stafford
Baron Stafford
The title Baron Stafford, referring to Stafford, has been created several times in the Peerage of England. In the 14th century, the barons of the 1st creation were made earls. Those of the fifth creation, in the century became first viscounts and then earls....
descendants. Mary and Eleanor were co-heiresses to huge Bohun estates, and disputes over the settlement of these continued until late into the next century, when most of their descendants had been killed in the Wars of the Roses, perhaps encouraging the continued assertion of Bohun ancestry. Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, KG played a major role in Richard III of England's rise and fall. He is also one of the primary suspects in the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower...
, a descendant of the Beauchamps, Eleanor de Bohun and Thomas of Woodstock, and John of Gaunt, used the swan with crown and chain as his own badge. He was certainly active in trying to get the Bohun lands, and may well have also plotted to seize the throne, for which he was executed in 1483 by Richard III.
Place and date of manufacture
Another user of swan insignia around 1400 was John, Duke of BerryJohn, Duke of Berry
John of Valois or John the Magnificent was Duke of Berry and Auvergne and Count of Poitiers and Montpensier. He was the third son of King John II of France and Bonne of Luxemburg; his brothers were King Charles V of France, Duke Louis I of Anjou and Duke Philip the Bold of Burgundy...
, the Valois
Valois
Valois is a district, in the city of Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Canada. It was once a separate village, many years ago, but was then merged with Pointe-Claire....
prince who commissioned two of the most spectacular medieval works featuring white enamel en ronde bosse, the Holy Thorn Reliquary
Holy Thorn Reliquary
The Holy Thorn Reliquary was probably created in the 1390s in Paris for John, Duke of Berry, to house a relic of the Crown of Thorns. The reliquary was bequeathed to the British Museum in 1898 by Ferdinand de Rothschild as part of the Waddesdon Bequest...
, also in the British Museum, and the Goldenes Rössl. He has been considered as a possible commissioner of the jewel, in which case it would almost certainly have been made in Paris, and might have made its way to England after being presented. This might also have been the case if it was commissioned by an English person, especially a royal one. However there are records of London goldsmiths producing white enamel works for the court, and a reliquary with many figures in white ronde bosse enamel and now in the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
may have been made in London. Other small jewels have survived in England which may have been made in London, either by native goldsmiths or the foreign ones known to have worked there.
No more precise date for the jewel than "around 1400" is given by experts; this might have a wider range than many works as style is not much help in dating here. Given the royal collar of the swan, the marriage of the future Henry IV to Mary de Bohun probably provides the earliest possible date. A date after Henry IV seized the throne in 1399 -- when his son would have been using the badge -- is perhaps more likely. The difficult technique of adding elements in further colours was not perfected until about 1400, in Paris. Fixing a terminus ante quem is more difficult, but white enamel en ronde bosse became less fashionable after about the 1430s. Moreover, there was no Prince of Wales between 1413, when Henry V succeeded to the throne, and 1454.
History
DunstableDunstable
Dunstable is a market town and civil parish located in Bedfordshire, England. It lies on the eastward tail spurs of the Chiltern Hills, 30 miles north of London. These geographical features form several steep chalk escarpments most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north.-Etymology:In...
, where the ancient roads of Watling Street
Watling Street
Watling Street is the name given to an ancient trackway in England and Wales that was first used by the Britons mainly between the modern cities of Canterbury and St Albans. The Romans later paved the route, part of which is identified on the Antonine Itinerary as Iter III: "Item a Londinio ad...
and the Icknield Way
Icknield Way
The Icknield Way is an ancient trackway in southern England. It follows the chalk escarpment that includes the Berkshire Downs and Chiltern Hills.-Background:...
cross some thirty miles north of London, was frequently visited by the medieval elite. Apart from travellers passing through, tournaments were held there at least until the 1340s, and Lancastrian armies used it as a base in 1459 and 1461. The jewel was found in an excavation of the friary, in what seemed to be a deposit of rubble dating from the destruction of the buildings after the Dissolution of the Monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
. It would appear to have been above ground until that point. However, it must have been overlooked -- the scrap value of the gold itself would have prevented it from being merely discarded. After its excavation, the jewel was bought by the British Museum in 1966 for £5,000, of which £666 was a grant from the Art Fund (then NACF); other contributions were made by the Pilgrim Trust
Pilgrim Trust
The Pilgrim Trust is a London-based charitable trust. It was founded in 1930 by a two million pound grant by Edward Harkness, an American philanthropist. The trust's first secretary was former civil servant, Thomas Jones....
and the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths
Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths
The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Company, which has origins in the twelfth century, received a Royal Charter in 1327. It ranks fifth in the order of precedence of Livery Companies. Its motto is Justitia Virtutum Regina, Latin for Justice...
. It is on display in Room 40.
Further reading
- Cherry, John. "The Dunstable Swan Jewel", Journal of the British Archaeological Association, XXXII, 1969
- Evans, Vivienne (ed). The Dunstable Swan Jewel, Dunstable Museum Trust, 1982
- Gordon, D. Making and meaning: The Wilton Diptych, London: National Gallery, 1993
- Wagner, A. R.Anthony WagnerSir Anthony Richard Wagner, KCB, KCVO, FSA was a long-serving officer of arms at the College of Arms in London. He served as Garter Principal King of Arms before retiring to the post of Clarenceux King of Arms...
"The Swan Badge and the Swan Knight", Archaeologia, 97, 1959