Page 397 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

Heraldic Knots 391

with a badge. Retainers and armed followers used the badge of their feudal
lord on their livery and banners; local inns displayed the badge; all to indicate
allegiance to a faction. The period of greatest popularity of badges coincided
with civil unrest, from the 14th to the 16th centuries. Indeed, in the 14th and
15th centuries, the common people were more familiar with household badges
than with armorial bearings [13]. The use of badges greatly diminished in the
late 16th century, so that by the Victorian age, armigers used their crests in-
stead of badges on servants' buttons etc. However, in 1906 the English College
of Arms started granting badges again, and encourages their use.
Anyone at all who so wishes may adopt a device as a badge, provided
it is not already protected by copyright or trademark laws, or by a grant of
arms to someone else. Recognised heraldic badges are sometimes used (with
permission) as badges of local regiments, or they may be incorporated into the
arms of local municipal bodies, colleges or corporations [13].
Badges were often poorly recorded; it did not help that some people had
many badges. For example, the Earl of Stafford of 1720 had eighteen [16]; all
were enclosed in a circle of Stafford Knots (74), though only one badge was
the Stafford Knot itself. The total number of badges is unknown. A few are
knots (Figs. 6 and 7), or at least arrangements of cordage, and they form
the greatest use of specific knots, not just decorative devices of variable form,
in heraldry, which I will now discuss. In some depictions, crossings vary, as
elsewhere in heraldry, but I have not mentioned these.

N:i

68 69 70 7, 72 73
Fig. 6. Some Knots as Badges

The Bowen Knot consists of four loops or bows in a continuous length of
cord [7][13]; it may appear in several forms, such as (68, 69).
The Lacy Knot consists of two Bowen Knots interlaced, with usually
[7][13] a central loop of cord (70). I have also seen it (71) without the central
loop [12][24]. It first appears on the seal of Roger de Lasci (1179-1211) [7],
and a slight variant in that of Robert de Laci (died 1193) [21]. It has appeared
as a charge of a recent creation, Baronet Lacy, in 1921 [8].
The Heneage Knot [7] [13] [16] reduces to a Figure Eight Knot (72). It was
used by Sir Thomas Heneage, Vice-Chancellor to Queen Elizabeth I in the late
16th century [21].
The Suffolk Knot (73) is one of the rarer knots [20]; it is similar to the