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The Hamaide or Humet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Extract

Well might Gailliard rate the hamaide among difficult charges, nor have later armorists done much to dissipate the fog, rather the reverse. The problem is threefold. What is the meaning of the word ? How should the charge be represented in armory? And how should the term be used in blazoning? Those are the three aspects under which the charge will be considered in this essay, looking first to medieval sources, then to the later French writers, and lastly to English heraldry.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1952

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References

page 52 note 1 Gailliard, Cornelius, Le Blason des Armes suivi de l'Armorial… de Flandre, edited by van Malderghem, JeanBrussels, 1866, p. 50Google Scholar. Gailliard was Flanders king of arms, wrote Le Blason in 1557, and died in 1563.

page 52 note 2 Edited by Adam-Even, Paul in Archives heraldiques suisses, vol. lxiii, 1949.Google Scholar

page 52 note 3 Chronicles, ed. Luce, , iii, 101.Google Scholar

page 52 note 4 e.g. Grandmaison, , Dictionnaire héraldique, 1852, s.v. ‘Hameide’, col. 463.Google Scholar

page 52 note 5 Laboureur, Claude Le, Discours de I'origine des armes, Lyon, 1658, p. 238.Google Scholar

page 52 note 6 e.g. Le Veritable Art du blason, Lyon, 1659, p. 415.Google Scholar

page 52 note 7 Traité de blason, 1863, p. 281Google Scholar. Cf. Nouveau traiti des armoiries, 1887, p. 347Google Scholar.

page 53 note 1 Nouvelle méthode raisonnie du blason, 1701, p. 192.Google Scholar

page 53 note 2 Gheusi, P. B., Le Blason, 1933, p. 108Google Scholar. His earlier book, Le Blason héraldique, 1892, p. 57Google Scholar, does not explain the word.

page 53 note 3 Dictionnaire hiraldique par M. G. d. I. T.…, Paris, 1774, p. 225.Google Scholar

page 53 note 4 The variations of this name are puzzling, Auberchicourt is now the accepted form in France, The following are a few of its many disguises: Abriscourt, Amberticourt, Aubercicourt, Auberti court, Aubrecicourt, Dabrichecourt, Dabrigecourt, Dabscourt, Dambrycourt, Dapiscorte, Daubes court, de Raigecourt, van Dobbiscoert, Dobres court, Draubichecourt, Sabriche Court. The village is some 12 kilometres from Douai.

page 53 note 5 Bergmanns roll 387, 447; Munich MS. Codex iconographicus 265, painted in 1562. It was published in facsimile in 1919 at Brussels and Paris as Armorial de Flandre du XVIe siécle, with introduction by Paul Bergmanns. See also Gailliard, , op. cit., pp. 45Google Scholar and 66 of the Armorial.

page 53 note 6 A facsimile edition with hand-painted lithographs was published by Victor Bouton in four volumes, Paris and Brussels, 1881–6, as Wapenboek ou Armorial de 1334 á 1372 … par Gelre hiraut d'armes. A copy is in the British Museum. The date should be 1369–1400.

page 53 note 7 A collection of arms, mainly of Flemish patricians, dating from the last quarter of the 14th century. It is interpolated in several manuscripts of the Armorial d'Urfé, notably in MS. 259 of the Dupuy collection in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.

page 53 note 8 Gevaert, Emile, L'Héraldique, Brussels and Paris, 1923, p. 199.Google Scholar

page 54 note 1 Demay, , Inventaire des Sceaux de la Flandre, Paris, 1873, nos. 5116,436.Google Scholar

page 54 note 2 For particulars of this and other French armorials cited herein see Adam, Paul, ‘Catalogue des Armoriaux francais imprimes’, in Nouvelle Revue Heraldique, 1941, pp. 19 seqGoogle Scholar.

page 54 note 3 , Douët-d'Arcq, Inventaire …des Sceaux de l'Empire, 3 vols., Paris, 1863-1868, no. 2524.Google Scholar

page 54 note 4 Penes Count Chandon de Briailles.

page 54 note 5 College of Arms MS. 2nd L. 12, see Wagner, A. R., Catalogue of English Medieval Rolls of Arms, p. 66 (Bruce Roll)Google Scholar.

page 54 note 6 Bibl. Nat., Paris, MS. 5229. This appears to be Luxembourg Herald's working notebook. In addition to the armorial it contains tractates on nobility and blazon and an account of the funeral of Jean de Luxembourg, sieur de Ville, in 1508. Some of the tractates are signed ‘Luxembourg le heraut’, and it was apparently he who marshalled Jean de Luxembourg's funeral.

page 54 note 7 Brit. Mus., MS. Egerton 1908.

page 55 note 1 Bibl. Nat., Paris, MS. fr. 32753, fo. 148.

page 55 note 2 Birch's Catalogue, nos. 9156, 9220.

page 55 note 3 Chronicles, ed. de Lettenhove, Kervyn, Brussels 1867-1877, v, 437; vi, 170Google Scholar; xi, 384. Shakespeare Head edition, 1927, 1. ij, 338, 401.

page 55 note 4 Ibid, xiv, 136. It will be noticed that Froissart says two hamaides in one case and three in the other, It will also be noticed that he counts the hamaides from the base upwards. Lord Berners's translation stops short at ‘partie golde and ermyne’, but the marginal shield in the Shakespeare Head edition (n. iij, 793) gives the correct coat.

page 55 note 5 Demay, , op. cit., no. 1001.Google Scholar

page 55 note 6 Renaix was the la Hamaide war-cry. The town is a few miles north-west of Lahamaide.

page 55 note 7 Douët-d'Arcq, no. 3981.

page 56 note 1 Armorial General, Gouda, 1864Google Scholar; Berlin, 1934.

page 56 note 2 de Renesse, Th., Dictionnaire des figures heraldiques, Brussels, 1892, etc., vol. v, p. 695.Google Scholar

page 56 note 3 Die allgemeine Wappenwissenschaft, Bonn, 1849, p. 132.Google Scholar

page 56 note 4 See Archaeologia, xciii, 133, n. 2. The manuscript is slightly earlier than Gelre.

page 56 note 5 Ancien Armorial équestre de la Toison d'Or et de I'Europe au 15e siécle (c. 1450), edited by Larchey, Loredan, Paris, 1890, pl. cxi, p. 252.Google Scholar

page 56 note 6 , Douet-d'Arcq, op. cit., no. 11206Google Scholar. We have to thank Miss Beryl Thompson for calling our attention to this seal.

page 56 note 7 De Raadt, vol. iii, pl. 202.

page 56 note 8 British Museum seal lxxxv, 56; Birch's Cata-logue, no. 9220.

page 58 note 1 Hope, W. H. St. John, The Stall Plates of the Order of the Garter 1348–1483, 1901, pl. vGoogle Scholar. Although Sir Sanchet was one of the Founder Knights the plate was only made in 1421.

page 58 note 2 De Raadt, pl. 16, fig. 440, at the end of vol. ii.

page 58 note 3 British Museum seal lxxxv, 12; Birch, no. 9156. Illustrated by Hope, , op. et loc. cit.Google Scholar from a cast in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries.

page 58 note 4 Galbreath, D. L., Manuel du Blason, Lausanne and Lyons, 1942, p. 95Google Scholar, cf. note 1, p. 324.

page 58 note 5 Hope, , op. cit., p. 17.Google Scholar

page 58 note 6 College of Arms MS. C 24, fo. 198. The arms are wrongly drawn in the Harleian Society's edition, The Visitation of London 1633–33 (vol. xvii), p. 42.

page 58 note 7 Most of the Armorial de Berry was printed by Vallet de Viriville in blason as Armorial de France, Angleterre … compose vers 1450 far Gilles le Bouvier dit Berry …, Paris, 1866Google Scholar. The Tournoi de Compiègne was printed by Behaut de Dornon as ‘La Noblesse hennuyere au tournoi de Compiégne’, in Annales du Cercle Archéologique du Mons, vol. xxii.

page 58 note 8 For these and other English rolls cited herein see Wagner, A. R., A Catalogue of English Medieval Rolls of Arms, Soc. Ant. and Harl. Soc, 1950Google Scholar.

page 58 note 9 We take this opportunity to thank the members of the College of Arms for the facilities so generously afforded us to consult these and many other manuscripts in their library.

page 59 note 1 Bibl. Nat., Paris, MS. 5229, fo. 148.

page 59 note 2 Scohier, Jean, L'Estat et comfortement des Armes, Brussels, 1597Google Scholar, Paris, 1630, etc., p. 22; de Galway, Alph O'Kelly, Dictionnaire de la science du Blason, Bergerac, 1901, p. 287Google Scholar; Geliot, Louvan, L'Indice armorial, Paris, 1635, p. 217Google Scholar; Palliot, Pierre, La Fraye et Parfaite Science des Armoiries, Paris, 1660Google Scholar (facsimile edition 1895), p. 368; Colombiere, Marc Vulson de la, La Science hiròique, Paris, 1644, p. 168Google Scholar; Segoing, Charles, Mercure Armorial, Paris, 1648, p. 94Google Scholar, and Armorial Universel, Paris, 1654, pls. 7Google Scholar and 43; Magny, Vicomte de, La Science du Blason, Paris, 1860, p. cxxGoogle Scholar.

page 60 note 1 de La Roque, G. A., Methode royale du Blason, Paris, 1671, p. 163Google Scholar; Archives heraldiques suisses, 1936, p. 9Google Scholar.

page 60 note 2 Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, MS. 5229, end of the 15th century.

page 61 note 1 See e.g. Foras, , Le Blason, 1883Google Scholar; Forrer, Veyrin-, Pricis d'hiraldique, Paris, 1951, p. 46Google Scholar.

page 61 note 2 Le Blason des Armoiries, 1579, p. 20, etc.Google Scholar

page 61 note 3 e.g. in the collections of Luxembourg Herald above mentioned.

page 61 note 4 Nicholai Uptoni de Studio Militari Libri Quaiuor, ed. Bysshe, Edward, London, 1654, p. 248Google Scholar. Bysshe engraved the hamaides as fig. 8, but a 15th-century manuscript in the College of Arms draws them as fig. 7.

page 62 note 1 Jones, E. J., Medieval Heraldry, Cardiff, 1943, p. 196Google Scholar. The illustration, pl. XXIII, resembles fig. 8.

page 62 note 2 Jones, , op. cit., p. 219Google Scholar. British Museum MS. Add. 34648, f. 6v, draws the ‘humettes’ as fig. 8.

page 62 note 3 The Ashmolean tract (Bodleian MS. Ashm. Rolls 4); the Bradfer-Lawrence tract (MS. penes Mr. H.L. Bradfer-Lawrence, F.S.A.); the Heralds' Tract (MS. penes Coll. Arm.); and the Loutfut poem, a little tract in Scots verse copied, if not composed, by Adam Loutfut, Kintyre Pursuivant, in 1494 and printed by the Early English Text Society, Extra Series, no. 8, 1869, pp. 93 seq. The other tracts have not yet been printed.

page 62 note 4 Brit. Mus. MS. Harl. 2259, f. 152. ‘Sengylle’ may be translated respectively.

page 62 note 5 The Academy of Armory, Chester, 1688, Book I, cap. iv, p. 39, no. 114.Google Scholar

page 62 note 6 MS. I 20, known as ‘Ancient rules of Blazon’. This includes not only the Flemish hamaide, but also such purely Norman charges as the étincelle, angevine or angemme, and rats.

page 62 note 7 Workes of Armorie, 1572, Book III, fo. 14v.

page 62 note 8 A Display of Heraldry, sec. 4, ch. 9; 1st edition, 1611, p. 213; 2nd edition, 1632, p. 309.

page 62 note 9 Op. cit. 1, ix, p. 34, nos. 63, 64.

page 62 note 10 Boyer, Abel, The Great Theater of Honour, 1729, pp. 41, 210, 211.Google Scholar

page 63 note 1 Introductio ad Latinam Blasoniam, 1682, p. 2Google Scholar. Gibbon's remarks are summarized in the dictionary added at the very end of the 1724 edition of , Guillim'sHeraldry, see p. 2, s.v. ‘Bar’Google Scholar.

page 63 note 2 Legh, Gerard, The Accedence of Armorie, 1562Google Scholar; Bossewell, , op. cit., p. 120vGoogle Scholar, with drawing as fig. 4; Wyrley, William, Poem on Sir John Chandos appended to his True Use of Armorie, London, 1592, p. 86Google Scholar; Holme, , op. cit., 1, ix, 34Google Scholar.

page 63 note 3 Ferne, John, The Blazon of Gentrie, 1586, p. 172Google Scholar. Morgan, Sylvanus, The Sphere of Gentry, 1661, ii, v, 47.Google Scholar Morgan uses ‘fess humet’ and ‘fess couped’ as synonymous and draws this with the ends cut square.

page 63 note 4 The Analysis of Honour, 1673, pp. 219, 220.Google Scholar

page 63 note 5 Op. et loc. cit. The word ‘carnelle’ seems to be otherwise unknown. We can only suggest that it is a corruption at once in form and in meaning of the French cannele, grooved. In architecture that corresponds closely to the heraldic ‘engrailed’, but Palliot and later armorists turned it inside out and made it equivalent to the modern English ‘invecked’ or ‘invected’.

page 64 note 1 College of Arms MS. D 13, fo. 121.

page 64 note 2 College of Arms MSS. G 11, fo. 74 and H 12, fo. 47.

page 64 note 3 College of Arms MS. 1 H 7, fo. 46 d.

page 62 note 4 In many of these the hamaides are either between or charged with some objects. Only Amarle and Stokes are in Thomas Wall's Book of Arms, the latter being blazoned: ‘Ermyns thre humettz sable on every humet foure whet eyres of gold.’