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THE HERALDRY OF THE DE BOHUN EARLS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2020

Lucia Diaz Pascual
Lucia Diaz Pascual*
Affiliation:
Baronsmead Road, LondonSW13 9RR, UK. Email: ldp1399@gmail.com
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Abstract

This paper analyses the evidence relating to the heraldry used by the patriarchs of the de Bohun family (1066–1373) as preserved in seal impressions, rolls of arms, manuscripts, wills, inventories and personal objects held in private collections. It traces the development of the family’s coat of arms, as well as the adoption and use by the de Bohun earls of various heraldic symbols (such as the swan, the trefoil, the leopard and the wyvern) to serve as a reminder of the family’s glorious ancestry and its many royal and noble marital alliances. By analysing the unique heraldry adopted by each de Bohun earl, this paper concludes that the family’s noble identity evolved over several generations and that the choice of heraldic symbols by each earl was highly individual, providing a unique insight into their sense of identity and personal values, as well as their desire to ensure family memory.

Keywords

Medieval historysigillographyheraldrylineage and identitynobility
Type
Research paper
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 100 , September 2020 , pp. 141 - 164
Copyright
© The Society of Antiquaries of London, 2020

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References

Bibliography

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College of Arms 1970. Heralds’ Commemorative Exhibition 1484–1934 held at the College of Arms: enlarged and illustrated catalogue, Tabard Press, LondonGoogle Scholar
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Ellis, R H 1981. Catalogue of Seals of the Public Record Office: personal seals, 2 vols, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, LondonGoogle Scholar
Gibbs, V (ed) 1910–59. The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland and Great Britain, 13 vols in 14, St Catherine Press, LondonGoogle Scholar
Gransden, A 1982. Historical Writing in England, 2 vols, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NYGoogle Scholar
Halphen, L and Poupardin, R (eds) 1913. Chroniques des comtes d’Anjou et des seigneurs d’Amboise, ParisGoogle Scholar
Harvey, P D A and McGuinness, A (eds) 1996. A Guide to British Medieval Seals, British Library, LondonGoogle Scholar
Jaffray, R 2010. The Two Knights of the Swan, Lohengrin and Helyas, 2nd edn, General Books, Memphis, TennGoogle Scholar
Loyd, L C and Stenton, D M (eds) 1950. Sir Christopher Hatton’s Book of Seals, Clarendon Press, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Matthew, H C G and Harrison, B (eds) 2004. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 60 vols, Oxford University Press, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Nichols, J (ed) 1780. A Collection of all the Wills now known to be Extant of the Kings and Queens of England, Nichols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Peirce, I 2002. Swords of the Viking Age, Boydell Press, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Planché, J R 1871. ‘The genealogy and armorial bearings of the earls of Hereford’, J Brit Archaeol Ass, 6, 179–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PRO 1891–. Calendar of Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, LondonGoogle Scholar
Purey-Cust, A P 1910. The Collar of SS: a history and a conjecture, Richard Jackson, LeedsGoogle Scholar
Sandford, F 1707. A Genealogical History of the Kings and Queens of England, LondonGoogle Scholar
Sandler, L F 1985. ‘A note on the illuminators of the Bohun manuscripts’, Speculum, 60, 364–72Google Scholar
Sandler, L F 2008. ‘An early fourteenth-century English breviary at Longleat’, in Studies in Manuscript Illumination 1200–1400, Pindar Press, LondonGoogle Scholar
Sandler, L F 2014. Illuminators and Patrons in Fourteenth-Century England: the Psalter and Hours of Humphrey de Bohun and the manuscripts of the de Bohun family, British Library, LondonGoogle Scholar
Scott, W W 2004. ‘William I [known as William the Lion] (c 1142–1214)’, in Matthew and Harrison 2004, lix, 57–64, online edn <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/29452>(accessed 4 Feb 2020)CrossRef(accessed+4+Feb+2020)>Google Scholar
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Siddons, M 2009. Heraldic Badges in England and Wales, 4 vols, Boydell Press, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Sinclair, A (ed) 2003. The Beauchamp Pageant, Richard III and Yorkist History Trust, DoningtonGoogle Scholar
Stow, J 1908. A Survey of London, 2 vols, Clarendon Press, OxfordGoogle Scholar
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Vincent, N 2015. ‘Feature of the month: a Magna Carta relic in Pennsylvania: Henry de Bohun, earl of Hereford, and the heraldry of Runnymede’, The Magna Carta Project, <http://magnacartaresearch.org/read/feature_of_the_month/Apr_2015_2> (accessed 4 Feb 2020)+(accessed+4+Feb+2020)>Google Scholar
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Wagner, A R 1959. ‘The Swan badge and the Swan Knight’, Archaeologia, 97, 127–45Google Scholar
Walden, H 1984. Some Feudal Lords and their Seals, 2nd edn, Redwood Burn Limited, TrowbridgeGoogle Scholar
Walker, D 1957. ‘Miles of Gloucester, earl of Hereford’, Trans Brist Glos Archaeol Soc, 86, 66–84Google Scholar
Walker, D 2004. ‘Gloucester, Miles of, earl of Hereford (d. 1143)’, in Matthew and Harrison 2004, xxii, 481–3, online edn updated 2012 <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/10820>(accessed 4 Feb 2020)CrossRef(accessed+4+Feb+2020)>Google Scholar
Ward, J 2008. ‘The wheel of fortune and the de Bohun family in the early fourteenth century’, Trans Essex Soc Archaeol Hist, 39, 162–71Google Scholar
Waugh, S L 2004. ‘Bohun, Humphrey de, third earl of Hereford and eighth earl of Essex (c 1249–1298)’, in Matthew and Harrison 2004, vi, 443–4, online edn <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/2776>(accessed 4 Feb 2020)CrossRef(accessed+4+Feb+2020)>Google Scholar
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Woodcock, T (ed) 1992–2014. Dictionary of British Arms, 4 vols, Society of Antiquaries, LondonGoogle Scholar
Wright, T (ed) 1864. The Roll of Arms of the Princes, Barons, and Knights who Attended King Edward I to the Siege of Caerlaverock in 1300, John Camden Hotten, LondonGoogle Scholar
Ailes, A 1990. ‘Heraldry in twelfth-century England: the evidence’, in D Williams (ed), England in the Twelfth Century: proceedings of the 1988 Harlaxton symposium, 1–16, Boydell Press, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Barber, R 1978. Edward, Prince of Wales and Aquitaine: a biography of the Black Prince, Allen Lane, LondonGoogle Scholar
Bigelow, M M 1896. ‘The Bohun wills’, Am Hist Rev, 1, 414–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birch, W G 1887–90. Catalogue of Seals in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 6 vols, William Clowes, LondonGoogle Scholar
Blair, C H Hunter 1943. ‘Armorials upon English seals from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries’, Archaeologia, 89, 1–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brault, G (ed) 1997. Rolls of Arms Edward I (1272–1307), 2 vols, Boydell Press, LondonGoogle Scholar
Brown, C, Davies, G and Michael, M A (eds) 2016. English Medieval Embroidery: Opus Anglicanum, Yale University Press, New Haven, ConnGoogle Scholar
Christie’s 2014. Catalogue Out of the Ordinary, Christie’s, LondonGoogle Scholar
College of Arms 1970. Heralds’ Commemorative Exhibition 1484–1934 held at the College of Arms: enlarged and illustrated catalogue, Tabard Press, LondonGoogle Scholar
Crouch, D 2004. ‘Roger [Roger fitz Miles], earl of Hereford (d. 1155)’, in Matthew and Harrison 2004, xlvii, 526–9, online edn <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/47203> (accessed 4 Feb 2020)CrossRef+(accessed+4+Feb+2020)>Google Scholar
Dennison, L 1988. ‘The stylistic sources, dating and development of the Bohun workshop’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of LondonGoogle Scholar
Dennison, L 2003. ‘British Library, Egerton MS 3277: a fourteenth-century Psalter-Hours and the question of Bohun family ownership’, in Eales, R and Tyas, S (eds), Family and Dynasty in Late Medieval England: proceedings of the 1997 Harlaxton symposium, 122–55, Shaun Tyas, DoningtonGoogle Scholar
Diaz Pascual, L 2017. ‘The de Bohun dynasty: power, identity and piety 1066–1399’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of LondonGoogle Scholar
Dillon, Viscount and Hope, W St John 1897. ‘Inventory of the goods and chattels belonging to Thomas, duke of Gloucester, and seized in his castle at Pleshey, co. Essex, 21 Richard II (1397); with their values, as shown in the escheator’s accounts’, Archaeol J, 54 [1897], 275–308, <https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-1132-1/dissemination/pdf/054/054_275_308.pdf>(accessed 4 Feb 2020)(accessed+4+Feb+2020)>Google Scholar
Dugdale, W 1977. The Baronage of England, 2 vols, Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim, NYGoogle Scholar
Ellis, R H 1981. Catalogue of Seals of the Public Record Office: personal seals, 2 vols, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, LondonGoogle Scholar
Gibbs, V (ed) 1910–59. The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland and Great Britain, 13 vols in 14, St Catherine Press, LondonGoogle Scholar
Gransden, A 1982. Historical Writing in England, 2 vols, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NYGoogle Scholar
Halphen, L and Poupardin, R (eds) 1913. Chroniques des comtes d’Anjou et des seigneurs d’Amboise, ParisGoogle Scholar
Harvey, P D A and McGuinness, A (eds) 1996. A Guide to British Medieval Seals, British Library, LondonGoogle Scholar
Jaffray, R 2010. The Two Knights of the Swan, Lohengrin and Helyas, 2nd edn, General Books, Memphis, TennGoogle Scholar
Loyd, L C and Stenton, D M (eds) 1950. Sir Christopher Hatton’s Book of Seals, Clarendon Press, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Matthew, H C G and Harrison, B (eds) 2004. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 60 vols, Oxford University Press, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Nichols, J (ed) 1780. A Collection of all the Wills now known to be Extant of the Kings and Queens of England, Nichols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Peirce, I 2002. Swords of the Viking Age, Boydell Press, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Planché, J R 1871. ‘The genealogy and armorial bearings of the earls of Hereford’, J Brit Archaeol Ass, 6, 179–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PRO 1891–. Calendar of Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, LondonGoogle Scholar
Purey-Cust, A P 1910. The Collar of SS: a history and a conjecture, Richard Jackson, LeedsGoogle Scholar
Sandford, F 1707. A Genealogical History of the Kings and Queens of England, LondonGoogle Scholar
Sandler, L F 1985. ‘A note on the illuminators of the Bohun manuscripts’, Speculum, 60, 364–72Google Scholar
Sandler, L F 2008. ‘An early fourteenth-century English breviary at Longleat’, in Studies in Manuscript Illumination 1200–1400, Pindar Press, LondonGoogle Scholar
Sandler, L F 2014. Illuminators and Patrons in Fourteenth-Century England: the Psalter and Hours of Humphrey de Bohun and the manuscripts of the de Bohun family, British Library, LondonGoogle Scholar
Scott, W W 2004. ‘William I [known as William the Lion] (c 1142–1214)’, in Matthew and Harrison 2004, lix, 57–64, online edn <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/29452>(accessed 4 Feb 2020)CrossRef(accessed+4+Feb+2020)>Google Scholar
Scott-Giles, C W 1950. Boutell’s Heraldry, Frederick Warne, LondonGoogle Scholar
Siddons, M 2009. Heraldic Badges in England and Wales, 4 vols, Boydell Press, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Sinclair, A (ed) 2003. The Beauchamp Pageant, Richard III and Yorkist History Trust, DoningtonGoogle Scholar
Stow, J 1908. A Survey of London, 2 vols, Clarendon Press, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Stringer, K 2004. ‘David, earl of Huntingdon and lord of Garioch (1152–1219)’, in Matthew and Harrison 2004, xv, 284–5, online edn https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/49365 (accessed 4 Feb 2020)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tremlett, T D, Stanford, H and Wagner, A (eds) 1967. Aspilogia, Volume 2. Rolls of Arms of Henry III (the Matthew Paris shields c 1244–59), Society of Antiquaries, LondonGoogle Scholar
Turner, T H 1846. ‘The will of Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford and Essex, with extracts from the inventory of his effects: 1319–1322’, Archaeol J, 2, 339–49Google Scholar
Vincent, N 2015. ‘Feature of the month: a Magna Carta relic in Pennsylvania: Henry de Bohun, earl of Hereford, and the heraldry of Runnymede’, The Magna Carta Project, <http://magnacartaresearch.org/read/feature_of_the_month/Apr_2015_2> (accessed 4 Feb 2020)+(accessed+4+Feb+2020)>Google Scholar
Wagner, A R 1956. Heralds and Heraldry in the Middle Ages, 2nd edn, Oxford University Press, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Wagner, A R 1959. ‘The Swan badge and the Swan Knight’, Archaeologia, 97, 127–45Google Scholar
Walden, H 1984. Some Feudal Lords and their Seals, 2nd edn, Redwood Burn Limited, TrowbridgeGoogle Scholar
Walker, D 1957. ‘Miles of Gloucester, earl of Hereford’, Trans Brist Glos Archaeol Soc, 86, 66–84Google Scholar
Walker, D 2004. ‘Gloucester, Miles of, earl of Hereford (d. 1143)’, in Matthew and Harrison 2004, xxii, 481–3, online edn updated 2012 <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/10820>(accessed 4 Feb 2020)CrossRef(accessed+4+Feb+2020)>Google Scholar
Ward, J 2008. ‘The wheel of fortune and the de Bohun family in the early fourteenth century’, Trans Essex Soc Archaeol Hist, 39, 162–71Google Scholar
Waugh, S L 2004. ‘Bohun, Humphrey de, third earl of Hereford and eighth earl of Essex (c 1249–1298)’, in Matthew and Harrison 2004, vi, 443–4, online edn <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/2776>(accessed 4 Feb 2020)CrossRef(accessed+4+Feb+2020)>Google Scholar
West, F J 2004. ‘Geoffrey fitz Peter, fourth earl of Essex (d. 1213)’, in Matthew and Harrison 2004, xxi, 772–3, online edn updated 2008 <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/9626>(accessed 4 Feb 2020)CrossRef(accessed+4+Feb+2020)>Google Scholar
White, G 2004. ‘Bohun, Humphrey de (b. before 1144, d. 1181)’, in Matthew and Harrison 2004, vi, 442, online edn updated 2012 <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/2774>(accessed 4 Feb 2020)CrossRef(accessed+4+Feb+2020)>Google Scholar
Woodcock, T (ed) 1992–2014. Dictionary of British Arms, 4 vols, Society of Antiquaries, LondonGoogle Scholar
Wright, T (ed) 1864. The Roll of Arms of the Princes, Barons, and Knights who Attended King Edward I to the Siege of Caerlaverock in 1300, John Camden Hotten, LondonGoogle Scholar
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