The designs shown here may therefore be described as representative until the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII.
King Edward III
King Edward III was the first English King who is supposed to have used Supporters: On the dexter side a Lion guardant or, crowned of the last; and on the sinister, a Falcon argent, membered Or. These are almost certainly attributive and, as we have seen in a previous Blog, may have derived from Edward's Third Seal where Lions no longer lie at the King's feet, as was the fashion also on tombs, but became larger and more significant on each side of his Throne. The practice of Supporters would not come along for at least another generation. |
King Richard II
King Richard's arms appear on the north front of Westminster Hall. At the base of the Shield rests the Royal Badge of the white Hart, a young Stag, collared and chained. This device is derived from the personal Badge of his mother Joan of Kent. The same device was also used by her son, from her first husband; Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent. In this same decoration the Shield is surrounded by two angels, however these are emblems of piety, rather than heraldic figures. Another example lies in St Olave's Church, Hart Street in the City of London. This depicts Richard's Arms impaled with those of his patron saint, Edward the Confessor. Here the Shield is supported this time by two Harts, collared and chained in gold. |
King Henry IV and King Henry V
King Henry IV was supposed to have his Shield supported to the dexter by an Antelope argent, ducally collared and armed or and on the sinister, by a Swan argent. However no remaining monuments have been found that support conclusive proof that these devices were used as such. The Swan is derived from the Badge of the de Bohun family, a descendant of which, Mary de Bohun, was Henry's first wife. It is likely that these may have been used only as Badges and not as supporters at all. The heraldic antelope appears also to have derived from the Bohun family. Henry IV's seal as Duke of Lancaster makes use again of Ostrich Feathers around which is twisted a Ribbon bearing the word Sovereyne. However, these again fill the gap rather than act as Supporters. |
Henry V's wife is supposed to have been the first Queen of England to use Supporters. But again, Catherine of Valois's two Antelopes, both gorged with a Coronet around their necks and chained together, appear on her seal at the bottom of her Shield.
King Henry VI
King Henry VI's Arms appear on the ceiling of the southern aisle of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle and on the upper part of the inner gateway of Eton College, and are supported by two Antelopes. Possibly the first English King to be systematically shown to use Supporters, we have to take into consideration that, though started by Henry VI, these buildings were not completed during his reign. So, the representation of his Arms in decoration may come from a later date when Supporters had become more a part of heraldic science. And so this claim remains a little uncertain. Both buildings also attribute a crowned Lion and Antelope, and also an Antelope and a spotted Panther to Henry VI. So, take your choice! |
King Edward IV
King Edward IV's Arms are purported to use white Lions, rampant guardant Argent, their tails passing between their legs and over their backs. These were alleged to be the Supporters used by the Mortimers, Earls of March and Edward as Earl of March, although there is no hard evidence. Achievements of Edward's Arms that we know today were again erected after his death. A black Bull is sometimes incorporated as a supporter, which was a device of Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, the second son of Edward III. The House of York was descended from him through Richard, 3rd Duke of York and Anne de Mortimer. A white Hart was also alleged to have been used, possibly to show that Edward was the legitimate successor to King Richard II. |
King Edward V
The short-lived monarch shares his supporters with his father: the white Lion and the white Hart. The white Hart was evidently derived from the arms of Richard II, who in 1387 declared Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, Edward IV's maternal great-grandfather, his lawful heir to the Crown. A painting of the Edward V's arms is found in St George's Chapel, beside the tomb of Oliver King, Bishop of Exeter. It shows dexter a Lion argent and sinister a Hind argent. Both W. H. St John Hope and Professor E. W. Tristram have dated the painting to 1480/95 and whilst the boy King may not have lived let alone reigned long enough to use them, the attribution by a contemporary artist seems to show they were considered appropriate Supporters. |
King Richard III
King Richard III used most prominently two white Boars as his Supporters. Even before his ascension to the Throne the white boar was used as a Badge, The Boar is thought either to come from the Badge of the 'Honour (or Estate) of Windsor' or to be a pun on Ebor (a contraction of Eboracum, the Latin for York), as Richard was the son of the Duke of York and was therefore called Richard of York before being created Duke of Gloucester. Also in his service was a Pursuivant called 'Blanc Sanglier'. The Boar was used extensively by Richard as a personal and a livery Badge for his servants, advisors and soldiers on tunics, chains of office and banners especially at battle during the War of the Roses. Richard was also satirically referred to at the time as a 'hogge'. |
King Henry VII
King Henry VII used as his Supporters a red Dragon and a white Greyhound. The red Dragon is traditionally the symbol of Cadwaladr, King of Gwynedd from whom Henry claimed descent. However, the Dragon itself was long borne by various English kings on their standards, such as Henry III, Edward I and Edward III, and even back to Anglo Saxon times. The Dragon here is gules garnished and armed or. The white Greyhound may have been a device from the House of York, assumed as a Supporter by Henry in right of his wife, who derived it from her grandmother's family of Neville. At other times the Greyhound has been attributed to the House of Beaufort, the Lancastrian family of Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufort, rather than York. |
King Henry VIII
Henry VIII took on his father's Supporters, at a time when these were starting to become an integral part of a heraldic Achievement and no longer an extension of Badges or decoration on seals. Thus, the royal Supporters began to represent the Sovereign as the national head of state rather than any one monarch in particular. Henry VIII's Supporters started off as the red Welsh Dragon and the white Greyhound. This showed the Plantagenet descent of the King and the continuity of the royal lineage, reinforcing the legitimacy of the Tudor Dynasty. Sometime halfway through his reign, Henry dropped the Greyhound, swapped the red Dragon over to replace it, and introduced the gold, crowned Lion as the main 'English' Supporter. |
Apart from Queen Mary I's inclusion of her husband Philip's Spanish Eagle when he was proclaimed de jure King of England and the profuse use of gold by Queen Elizabeth I to change the Dragon from its traditional red (both of which are covered in their personal Blog entries) the Supporters of England remained the same until the introduction of the Scottish Unicorn in 1603.