The Handbook to English Heraldry Part 13

_Cinque-foil._ A flower or leaf of five foils: No. 227.

_Civic Crown._ A wreath of oak-leaves and acorns.

_Clarenceux._ See _Herald_.

_Clarion._ An ancient musical instrument, a badge, apparently, of the DE CLARES. By some this charge is supposed to represent a _lance-rest_, and is sometimes so blazoned: No. 228, which shows two varieties of form.

_Clechee._ A variety of the heraldic Cross: No. 105.

_Close._ With closed wings.

_Closet._ A Diminutive of the Bar, one half its width.

_Clouee._ Fastened with Nails, and showing the Nail-heads: No. 150.

_Coat Armour._ True armorial or heraldic bearings, duly granted or inherited, and rightly borne: so ent.i.tled, from having been depicted by warriors of the Middle Ages upon their _surcoats_, worn by them over their armour.

_Coat of Arms._ A complete armorial composition, properly what would be charged upon a s.h.i.+eld or Banner, but often used as an alternative for _Achievement_, _q.v._

_c.o.c.katrice._ A fabulous creature, represented in No. 229.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 229.--c.o.c.katrice.]

_Collar._ One of the insignia of Orders of Knighthood, worn about the neck. Also any ornament or distinction worn in the same manner. Knights occasionally wore collars charged with their own badge. In addition to their badges of the Red and White Rose, examples exist showing that adherents of the rival houses of York and Lancaster sometimes wore collars, the former formed of alternate _Suns and Roses_, No. 230; and the latter, of the letter S continually repeated, No. 231. No certain origin has been discovered for the Lancastrian "Collar of S.," but it has been suggested that it represents the word SOVERAYGNE, the motto of HENRY IV. No. 230 is from the Bra.s.s to HENRY BOURCHIER, K.G., Earl of Ess.e.x, at Little Easton, Suffolk, A.D. 1483; and No. 231 from the Bra.s.s to Lord CAMOYS, K.G., at Trotton, Suss.e.x, A.D. 1424.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 230.--A Collar of York.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 231.--A Collar of Lancaster.]

_College of Arms_, or _Heralds' College_. (See _Herald_.)

_Colour._ See Chapter V., page 41. The term "_Colours_" is applied to Flags, particularly to those of infantry regiments, and to such as are displayed at sea. (See Chapter XVII.)

_Combatant._ Two lions, or other animals of prey, rampant and face to face.

_Compartment._ In Scottish Heraldry, "a kind of carved panel, of no fixed form, placed below the escutcheon, bearing the supporters, and usually inscribed with a motto or the name and designation of the owner." --_Seton._ Other objects placed below the s.h.i.+eld are met with under this description.

_Componee_, _Compony_, or _Gobony_. A single row of small squares alternately of two tinctures or furs: No. 66. (See _Counter Componee_.)

_Complement, In her._ Applied to the moon when full.

_Compound Quartering._ The quartering of a quarter, or division of a quartered Coat-of-Arms. (See page 34.)

_Compound Arms._ Arms formed from the combination of the bearings of two or more distinct coats, to produce a single compound coat.

_Conjoined in Lure._ Two wings united, their tips in base.

_Contoise._ A flowing scarf, worn attached to the helm before 1350. Two examples occur in effigies in Exeter Cathedral, and another in Westminster Abbey.

_Contournee._ Facing to the sinister.

_Cornish Chough._ A bird like a crow, black, with red beak and legs.

_Coronet._ An ensign of rank worn upon the head, in use in England from about the middle of the fourteenth century, but without any distinctive tokens of gradations of rank until a later period. In modern times English Coronets have enclosed a velvet cap with a bullion ta.s.sel. This cap originated in the cap of estate worn by Peers. (See _Prince_, _Duke_, _Marquess_, _Earl_, _Viscount_, and _Baron_.)

_Cotise._ A diminutive of the Bend or other Ordinary, being one-fourth of their width. _Cotised_. When a Bend or Chevron is placed between two Cotises, or when a Fesse or Bar is placed between two Barrulets. Nos.

114, 115.

_Couchant._ In repose. No. 177.

_Couchee._ Said of a s.h.i.+eld when suspended from the sinister extremity of the chief, or when placed as if it were so suspended. No. 49.

_Count_, _Countess_. _Count_, in Latin "Comes," the same as Earl.

_Countess_, the wife of an Earl: she is "Right Honourable," and styled "My Lady": her coronet is the same as that of an Earl.

_Counter._ Reversed or opposite.

_Counter-changing._ See page 44, and Nos. 70, 126.

_Counter Componee._ Double _Componee_, or two conjoined rows of alternately tinctured squares. No. 67.

_Counter-Embattled._ A term in use for a fesse, bar, or chevron when embattled on both edges.

_Counter-seal._ Early seals were generally impressed on both sides; and the seals thus were produced from two dies or matrices. The two sides were severally called the _seal_ and the _counter-seal_, the latter being termed the _reverse_ of the compound composition. Every such double impression const.i.tuted a single seal. Both seal and counter-seal were sometimes used alone; and the counter-seal was regarded as a private seal, or _secretum_.

_Couped._ Cut off _smoothly_--the reverse of "erased."

_Couple-close._ Half a _chevronel_.

_Courant._ Running.

_Courtesy, t.i.tles of._ Nominal degrees of rank, conceded to, and borne by, the Eldest Sons of Dukes, Marquesses, and Earls, and other t.i.tles used by their younger children and all children of Viscounts and Barons.

_Coward_, _Cowed_. A term applied to an animal with its tail between its legs. No. 182.

_Crampet._ The decorated end of a sword-scabbard.

_Crancelin._ From the German _kranzlein_, "a small garland," applied to the chaplet that crosses the s.h.i.+eld of Saxony, No. 225: this charge is also blazoned as _a bend treflee vert_, _a bend archee coronettee_, or _a coronet extended in bend_: it is said to be an augmentation conferred, with the Dukedom of Saxony, on BERNHARD of Ascania, by the Emperor BARBAROSSA. The Emperor took from his head his own chaplet of rue, and threw it across the s.h.i.+eld of Duke Bernhard. This story is probably untrue.

_Crenellated._ Embattled.

_Crescent._ No. 166. In modern English cadency, the difference of the second son, or house.

_Cresset._ A beacon.

_Crest._ A figure or device originally worn upon a helm, and now generally represented above a s.h.i.+eld of arms. Crests at first were ensigns of high honour, and their use was restricted to a few persons of eminence: they were attached by a _wreath_, or _torse_, or by a _coronet_, to the helm or basinet; and sometimes a crest stood upon a cap of estate. Crests are still represented standing upon either a wreath, or a cap, or issuing from a coronet: but in our own Heraldry a _crest-coronet_ must always be carefully distinguished from those coronets that are insignia of princely and n.o.ble rank. Crests are not borne by ladies, a reigning Sovereign only excepted. (See _Panache_, _Rebus_, and Chapter XIV.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 232.--Crest Coronet.]