Part 30 (1/2)

Birds of course play a large and prominent part in heraldry. Those which have been impressed into the service of heraldic emblazonment comprise almost every species known to the zoological world.

Though the earliest rolls of arms give us instances of various other birds, the bird which makes the most prominent appearance is the _Eagle_, and in all early representations this will invariably be found ”displayed.” A double-headed eagle displayed, from a Byzantine silk of the tenth century, is ill.u.s.trated by Mr. Eve in his ”Decorative Heraldry,” so that it is evident that neither the eagle displayed nor the double-headed eagle originated with the science of armory, which appropriated them ready-made, together with their symbolism. An eagle displayed as a symbolical device was certainly in use by Charlemagne.

It may perhaps here be advantageous to treat of the artistic development of the eagle displayed. Of this, of course, the earliest prototype is the Roman eagle of the Caesars, and it will be to English eyes, accustomed to our conventional spread-eagle, doubtless rather startling to observe that the German type of the eagle, which follows the Roman disposition of the wings (which so many of our heraldic artists at the present day appear inclined to adopt either in the accepted German or in a slightly modified form as an eagle displayed) is certainly not a true displayed eagle according to our English ideas and requirements, inasmuch as the wings are inverted. It should be observed that in German heraldry it is simply termed an eagle, and not an eagle displayed. Considering, however, its very close resemblance to our eagle displayed, and also its very artistic appearance, there is every excuse for its employment in this country, and I for one should be sorry to observe its slowly increasing favour checked in this country. It is quite possible, however, to transfer the salient and striking points of beauty to the more orthodox position of the wings. The eagle (compared with the lion and the ordinaries) had no such predominance in early British heraldry that it enjoyed in Continental armory, and therefore it may be better to trace the artistic development of the German eagle. {234}

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the eagle appears with the head raised and the beak closed. The _sachsen_ (bones of the wings) are rolled up at the ends like a snail, and the pinions (like the talons) take a vertical downward direction. The tail, composed of a number of stiff feathers, frequently issues from a k.n.o.b or ball. Compare Fig. 440 herewith.

With the end of the fourteenth century the head straightens itself, the beak opens and the tongue becomes visible. The rolling up of the wing-bones gradually disappears, and the claws form an acute angle with the direction of the body; and at this period the claws occasionally receive the ”hose”

covering the upper part of the leg. The feathers of the tail spread out sicklewise (Fig. 441).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 440.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 441.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 442.]

The fifteenth century shows the eagle with _sachsen_ forming a half circle, the pinions spread out and radiating therefrom, and the claws more at a right angle (Fig. 442). The sixteenth century draws the eagle in a more ferocious aspect, and depicts it in as ornamental and ornate a manner as possible.

From Konrad Grunenberg's _Wappenbuch_ (Constance, 1483) is reproduced the s.h.i.+eld (Fig. 443) with the boldly sketched _Adlerflugel mit Schwerthand_ (eagle's wing with the sword hand), the supposed arms of the Duke of Calabria.

Quite in the same style is the eagle of Tyrol on a corporate flag of the Society of the Schwazer Bergbute (Fig. 444), which belongs to the last quarter of the fifteenth century. This is reproduced from the impression in the Bavarian National Museum given in Hefner-Alteneck's ”Book of Costumes.”

A modern German eagle drawn by H. G. Strohl is shown in Fig. 445. The ill.u.s.tration is of the arms of the Prussian province of Brandenburg.

The double eagle has, of course, undergone a somewhat similar development.

The double eagle occurs in the East as well as in the West in very early times. Since about 1335 the double eagle has appeared sporadically as a symbol of the Roman-German Empire, and under the Emperor Sigismund (d.

1447) became the settled armorial device of the Roman Empire. King Sigismund, before his coronation as Emperor, bore the single-headed eagle.

{235}

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 443.--Arms of Duke of Calabria.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 444.--Eagle of Tyrol.]

It may perhaps be as well to point out, with the exception of the two positions ”displayed” (Fig. 451) and ”close” (Fig. 446), very little if any agreement at all exists amongst authorities either as to the terms to be employed or as to the position intended for the wings when a given term is used in a blazon. Practically every other single position is simply blazoned ”rising,” this term being employed without any additional distinctive terms of variation in official blazons and emblazonments. Nor can one obtain any certain information from a reference to the real eagle, for the result of careful observation would seem to show that in the first stroke of the wings, when rising from the ground, the wings pa.s.s through every position from the wide outstretched form, which I term ”rising with wings elevated and displayed” (Fig. 450), to a position practically ”close.” As a consequence, therefore, no one form can be said to be more correct than any other, either from the point of view of nature or from the point of view of ancient precedent. This state of affairs is eminently unsatisfactory, because in these days of necessary differentiation no heraldic artist of any appreciable knowledge or ability has claimed the liberty (which certainly has not been officially conceded) to depict an eagle rising with wings elevated and displayed, when it has been granted with the wings in the position addorsed and inverted. Such a liberty when the wings happen to be charged, as they so frequently are in modern English crests, must clearly be an impossibility. {236}

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 445.--Arms of the Prussian Province of Brandenburg.

(From Strohl's _Deutsche Wappenrolle_.)]

Until some agreement has been arrived at, I can only recommend my readers to follow the same plan which I have long adopted in blazoning arms of which the official blazon has not been available to me. That is, to use the term ”rising,” followed by the necessary description of the position of the wings (Figs. 447-450). This obviates both mistake and uncertainty.

Originally with us, as still in Germany, an eagle was always displayed, and in the days when coats of arms were few in number and simple in character the artist may well have been permitted to draw an eagle as he chose, providing it was an eagle. But arms and their elaboration in the last four hundred years have made this impossible. It is foolish to overlook this, and idle in the face of existing facts to attempt to revert to former ways.

Although now the English eagle displayed has the tip of its wings pointed upwards (Fig. 451), and the contrary needs now to be mentioned in the blazon (Fig. 452), this even with us was not so in the beginning. A reference to Figs. 453 and 454 will show how the eagle was formerly depicted.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 446.--Eagle close.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 447.--Eagle rising, wings elevated and addorsed.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 448.--Eagle rising, wings addorsed and inverted.]