(Livery Collars of the 14th and 15thC) by Cathy T
‘Livery’ derives from the French liverée meaning dispensed or handed over and in medieval times it was a uniform worn by a servant denoting his lord’s colours and emblems. In turn, a lord could be awarded a livery collar by his king for good service or heroic deeds. And of course, the king would have his own livery collar, those huge metal necklaces you see hanging on the chest.
The oldest recorded collar existed in the 14thC. In 1378 Charles V of France granted his Chamberlain, Geoffrey de Belleville (and in Lions and Lilies, his friend and councillor, Gillet de Bellegarde) the collar of Cosse de Geneste or Broomcod. This collar was later accepted and worn by three English kings. Charles V’s son, Charles VI, sent one to King Richard II (the Black Prince’s son), and his three uncles, John of Gaunt, Thomas of Woodstock and Edmund of Langley.
Charles V granted his ‘genet’ badges more widely, but only about twenty collars were presented each year and it created a pseudo-chivalric order. Although no such order is formally recorded, it must have provided a bonding of Charles’ most privileged acquaintances.
The collar, Cosse de Geneste, is a chain of couples of broom cods which are the pods or husk of the broom plant known as ‘planta genisa’, linked by jewels. This plant was used by Count Geoffrey of Anjou who, by wearing a sprig of yellow broom blossom—planta genista— in his hat and helmet, became known as Geoffrey Plantagenet, ‘genêt’ being the French word for planta genista. Thus the name was formed for the Plantagenet dynasty.
The collar can been seen, worn around the neck of King Richard II in the Wilton Diptych – ‘diptych’ as an art term being a piece of artwork that consists of two pieces or panels, often hinged like a book, and ‘Wilton’ for the ‘Wilton House’ near Salisbury, where it was housed between 1705 and 1929. (It is now in the National Gallery, London.) The panels were Baltic oak set in frames of the same material. Richard can be seen wearing his collar, the pendant of which is a white hart (mature stag), Richard’s own device. The artist of the diptych remains unknown.
The angels accompanying the Virgin in the second panel also wear Richard’s livery badge. The same collar was worn by his cousin, Henry IV (Henry Bolingbroke), on the way to his crowning.
During the sitting of the Parliament of England in 1394 the complaints of Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel, against Richard II are recorded, one of his grievances being that the king had been wearing the livery collar of his uncle John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and that people of the king’s following wore the same livery. To which the king answered that soon after the return from Spain (in 1389) of the duke, his uncle, he himself took the collar from his uncle’s neck, and put it on his own, which the king would wear and use for a sign of the good and whole-hearted love between them, even as he wore the liveries of his other uncles.
But the Cosse de Geneste was not the only livery collar of the time. Another famous design existed, even before the one Charles V of France used, and it belonged to John of Gaunt.
This was the collar know as ‘The Collar of Esses’
This famous livery collar, which has never passed out of use, takes many forms, its Esses being sometimes linked together chain-wise, and sometimes, in early examples, as the ornamental bosses of a garter-shaped strap-collar. The oldest effigy bearing it is that in Spratton church of Sir John Swinford, who died in 1371. Swinford was a follower of John of Gaunt.
Sir John Swinford died on the Feast of St. Stephen (26th December) 1371. His memorial is the intricately carved alabaster tomb now in the chancel of St. Andrew’s Church. The whole tomb was originally brightly coloured with traces of paint still to be seen around the coat of arms.
He is believed to have fought together with the Black Prince and the Duke of Lancaster in the French wars and can be seen here as wearing the Lancaster Collar of Esses.
Many explanations are given as to the origin of these letters, but none has as yet been established for sure. I think the one I like most is that when the Duchess of Lancaster, Blanche Plantagenet, died on the twelfth of September 1368 at Tutbury Castle, her last words to her loving husband, John of Gaunt, were ‘Souveyne vous de moi’ (Remember me), the ‘S’ of the collar representing the ‘Souveyne.’
Livery collars of the king of France, of Queen Anne and of the dukes of York and Lancaster are recorded amongst the royal plate and jewels which in the first year of Henry IV’s reign had come into the king’s hands.
The inventory shows that Queen Anne’s collar was made up of sprigs of rosemary garnished with pearls. The York collar had falcons and fetterlocks, and the Lancaster collar was doubtless that collar of Esses.
During the reigns of Henry IV, his son, Henry V, and grandson Henry VI, the collar of Esses was a royal badge of the Lancastrian house and party, the white swan, as in the Dunstable Swan Jewel, usually being its pendant.
The Dunstable Swan jewel/badge excavated in 1965 from the Dunstable Friary and now residing in the British Museum.
The jewel is formed as a standing or walking mute swan “gorged” with a gold collar in the form of a royal crown with six fleur-de-lys tines. There is a gold chain terminating in a ring attached to the crown, and the swan has a pin and catch on its right side for fastening the brooch to clothes or a hat.
In 1377, when the young Richard II’s highly unpopular uncle, John of Gaunt, was Regent, one of his more than 200 retainers, Sir John Swinton, unwisely rode through London wearing Gaunt’s badge on a livery collar (probably the Collar of Esses).The mob attacked him, pulling him off his horse and tore the badge off him. He had to be rescued by the mayor from suffering serious harm.
The awarded collars usually consisted of the necklace which bore the emblems of the giver and the pendant or drop would be the insignia of the receiver, thus many variations were made. A monumental brass at Mildenhall shows a knight whose badge of a dog or wolf circled by a crown hangs from a collar with edges suggesting a pruned bough or the ragged staff. (no picture located)
Thomas of Markenfield (d. 1398) Ripon Cathedral has an unusual collar of park palings with a badge of a hart in a park.
Chest tomb of Thomas de Berkeley ( 5th Baron of Berkeley d. 1417) and his wife. The tomb had a monumental brass on the lid. (Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Wotton-on-edge, UK)
Close up of the brass. Sir Thomas has a collar set with mermaids, the Berkeley family heraldic badge.
And of course, the Order of the Garter had its own collar. Below is a 14th or 15thC version still used today.
The Collar of the Most Noble Order of the Garter is a chain of pure gold. The chain is composed of enamel plaques depicting the famous blue garter with the Order’s motto, Honi soit qui mal y pense (“Shame on he who thinks ill of it”), surrounding a rose which is separated by gold knots. Different collars may have slightly varying forms of the plaques and knots.
Suspended from the Collar in the front is the Great George, a figurine depicting St. George slaying a dragon from atop his horse. Garter insignia also includes a ‘Lesser George,’ which is a badge worn at the hip on the famous blue sash. All ‘Great Georges’ are not the same; some are enamelled, others are bejewelled. The Queen usually wears the Marlborough Great George, which she wore for her coronation in 1953. It is covered in diamonds, enamel, and gold, and was made for George IV, copied from a Great George worn by the 1st Duke of Marlborough, hence the name.
Another famous livery collar still in existence today is the Order of the Golden Fleece, established on 10th January, 1430 by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy (grandson to Lions and Lilies, Philip the Bold) to celebrate his marriage to Isabella of Portugal.
It was restricted to a limited number of knights, initially 24 but increased to 30 in 1433, the first king of arms being Jean Le Fèvre de Saint-Remy. The order received further privileges unusual to any order of knighthood: the sovereign undertook to consult the order before going to war; all disputes between the knights were to be settled by the order; at each chapter the deeds of each knight were held in review, and punishments and admonitions were dealt out to offenders.
The Duke’s choice of the Golden Fleece of Colchis as the symbol of a Christian order caused some controversy, not so much because of its pagan context but because the feats of Jason himself, was not without causes of reproach. In order for him to carry off the Fleece of Colchis, he was willing to commit perjury. Not really the look you want for a chivalric order!
Originating in Greek mythology, the Golden Fleece was from the golden-woolled, winged ram Chrysomallos, that rescued Phrixus and brought him to Colchis, where Phrixus then sacrificed it to Zeus! Phrixus gave the fleece to King Aeëtes who hung it on a tree in a sacred grove whence Jason and the Argonauts stole it with the help of Aeëtes’ daughter. The fleece is a symbol of authority and kingship. Is that why he chose it?
The collar also had a B for Burgundy and the motto Pretium Laborum Non Vile (No Mean Reward for Labours) and Philip’s motto Non Aliud (“I will have no other”) on the back. In a wonderful series of books ‘Catherine’ by French author, Juliette Benzoni., (recently re-released along with a seventh book never before published in English, many thanks to a wonderful lady in Switzerland!) Philip of Burgundy chooses the Golden Fleece as a tribute to his lost love—a mistress with golden hair— in the hope of her return and his motto was his message to her.
Hang on a minute! Call me stare-crazy from all this research but doesn’t he remind you of someone? Another Charles?
Charles the Bold had only one child, a girl, Mary of Burgundy who married Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor. In turn, they had a son, Philip I of Castile also known as Philip the Handsome, and his son was Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. This branch of Philip the Bold (younger brother to the Black Prince) were all inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece. These paintings show excellent examples of the collar.
The Golden Fleece, and particularly the Spanish branch of the order, has been referred to as the most prestigious and historic order of chivalry in the world. The necklaces are the property of the Order, to which they must be returned on the death of each knight.
Each collar is fully coated in gold and is estimated to be worth around €50,000 as of 2018. Current knights of the order include Queen Elizabeth II, Emperor Akihito of Japan, former Tsar Simeon of Bulgaria, and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. More recently, Princess Leonora of Spain became the fourth female to receive the order.
In 2018, on his 50th birthday His Majesty King Felipe VI of Spain imposed the Necklace of the distinguished Order of the Golden Fleece on the Princess of Asturias Leonor at the royal palace of Madrid. It’s nice to know there are still some traditions that have lasted from the medieval times!
Small apology to readers:- I did indicate in our newsletter that I would be writing about the ‘Dog of Montargis’ and other hunting animals this blog but time ran out to research as we’ve been working on our Advent Calendar. It will appear in 2022.
As there will be no blog in December, we would like to wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Catherine A Wilson co-writes with Catherine T Wilson (no relation). Their first book, The Lily and the Lion, was based upon their true-life accidental meeting and resulting friendship. All four books in their ‘Lions and Lilies’ series have won first place prizes in the Chatelaine/Chaucer Awards in the US and in 2019, The Traitor’s Noose won the Grand Prize Chaucer Award.
The Lily and the Lion – 1st Place Chanticleer Chatelaine Award – 2014
The Order of the Lily – 1st Place Chanticleer Chatelaine Award – 2015
The Gilded Crown – 1st Place Chanticleer Chaucer Award – 2016
The Traitor’s Noose – Grand Prize WINNER Chanticleer Chaucer Award – 2017
Lions and Lilies 