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Archiver > HERBARZ > 2003-08 > 1060206269


From: "Leon Stevens" <>
Subject: RE: Peacock Feathers
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2003 17:44:32 -0400


> Advanced as a tournament device <

Actually there are quite a few 14th-century Polish crests surviving in
foreign armorials and on some extant seals. The Wapenboek ("Armorial")
of Gelre shows Polish crests not seen later, and the same coats of arms
with, and minus crests. For example the Bogoryja coat of arms is
depicted in one place with no crest and in another with a complete
peacock perched upon the helmet (tail closed). (The Leliwa arms even
has a diminutive peacock sheaf spurting out of the top ray of the
crest's star). It is true that crests were intended for use in
tournaments as Neubecker explains. However it is not clear whether
medieval Poles understood their proper use, or to what extent they
really used them. A 1353 codex illustrating the Battle of Legnica shows
Polish knights charging into the fray wearing crests. Was the artist
mistaken or were the knights inappropriate? A relief in the church in
Stopnica and most remarkably a 1373 illustration in the bible of
Jaroslaw of Skotnik coincidentally portray not only the Bogoryja arms,
but the actual hardware used to attach the crest to the helmet. So
although the crest repeats the charge, at least in the case of certain
Bogoryja warriors, it seems to have been a real crest. Not all repeated
crest symbols are armorial defaults (although many or most no doubt
are). The medieval vaulted gothic ceiling of the "Hall of the Hetmans"
in a Cracow mansion displays crests of 7 Polish provinces, although no
knight would have worn such crests into battle or at tournaments. They
would have worn their clan's symbols. So those ceiling crests surely
never existed in 3 dimensions on anyone's head.


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