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Home > About the Library > Collections > Medieval Manuscripts > The Edward IV Roll

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The Banners and Shields of the Edward IV Roll The large opening image of the manuscript shows Edward on a horse with elaborate heraldic trappings -- the royal arms of England quartered with those of Castile and Leon, with a central shield showing the imagined arms of Brutus, founder of England. This image is repeated in one of the last banners of the scroll. Two additional shields are shown on either side of Edward IV's head -- France, left, and Castile/Leon, right. Below the introductory image and text are two columns showing a total of 54 banners and shields, at the left and right margins of the manuscript.

The banners are overwhelmingly those of individuals or families from whom Edward was descended or, in the case of legendary figures, from whom Edward claimed descent. They present Edward's rich family heritage, especially his connection to the legendary founders of Britain, in a visual format that would have been very compelling to its original audience.

I am indebted to Geoffrey Wheeler and especially to P.W. Hammond for research and advice on the identification of some of this heraldic material. Additional information is based on a 1641 survey of the stained glass at Fotheringhay Church, a Yorkist family seat, by the herald and antiquarian Dugdale.

Left		Right
	1: Banner St. George, the patron saint of England. Taken by Edward III as the patron saint of the Order of the Garter, widely seen as a fourteenth-century recreation of King Arthur's Round Table.		1: Banner The inscription indicates that these are the attributed arms of the East Saxon king Sebbi. Bede tells that before his death Sebbi saw a vision in which three men in shining garments -- probably representing the Trinity -- visited him to tell him he would die in three days, without pain. Trinitarian imagery figures in other Yorkist propaganda.
	2: Banner Attributed arms, Brutus and Pandrasus. Brutus, legendary founder of Britain, is said to have married the daughter of Pandrasus, a king of Greece. The attributed arms of Brutus -- three gold crowns on a blue field -- are shown impaling those of Pandrasus		2: Banner Duchy of Cornwall. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, the duke of Cornwall was one of King Arthur's most trusted supporters. Since 1337, the Duchy of Cornwall has been held by the heir apparent.
	3: Banner Banner of the Verdon family. The Verdons were distant ancestors of Edward IV. and, by marriage, to one of Edward's most important supporters, the Earl of Warwick ("the Kingmaker").		3: Banner An early version of the coat of arms of the Clares. In 1189 the legendary William the Marshal married Isabel de Clare, sole heiress of Richard Strongbow de Clare, earl of Pembroke. The makers of this manuscript have telescoped the relationship into a direct link from William the Marshal to Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, son of Edward III.
	4: Banner Badelsmere. Edward IV had a share in the barony of Badelsmere in right of his descent from the Badelsmeres.		4: Banner An early coat used by the Lacy family.
	5: Banner The inscription above this banner reads "Leycester" but the arms are those of the Quincys.		5: Banner Holland earls of Kent. Edmund of Langley, first Duke of York, was married to Joan, daughter of Thomas Holland, second earl of Kent. Additionally, John Neville, half-brother to Edward's mother, married Elizabeth, sister and coheiress of Edmund Holland, fourth earl of Kent.
	6: Banner Edmund, duke of York, lost his life at the battle of Agincourt in 1415 and is buried in Fotheringhay Church, where Edward IV's father expected to create a family mausoleum.		6: Banner The arms of Mortimer impaling those of the dukes of Normandy. These arms may be a fifteenth-century conceit symbolizing the union of the Norman with important Welsh lines.
	7: Banner Warenne Earls of Surrey. Extinct in the male line since 1347, the Warenne earldom was assumed by Richard Fitzalan in right of his wife. His grand-daughter, Joan, was Edmund Langley's second wife.		7: Banner Earls of Chester. A title always held with the Principality of Wales.
	8: Banner Llewelyn ap Gruffyd, Prince of Wales. The Yorkists thought of themselves as the successors of the old Welsh princes.		8: Banner Brecknock. The mother of Edmund, first lord Mortimore of Wigmore, was Maude de Braose, Lord of Brecon (Brecknock).
	9: Banner Princes of Powis, an important Welsh principality.		9: Banner Richard earl of Cambridge, Edward IV's grandfather, executed in 1415 for his role in the Southampton plot against Henry V's life on the eve of the English invasion of France.
	10: Banner The inscription reads "Domini Hibernie" (Lords of Ireland) but the arms of Ireland at the time were azure three crowns in pale or. The harp did not come into use as part of Ireland's arms until the sixteenth century, although it has appeared in earlier manuscripts as a sort of crest. See also 18R.		10: Banner This banner is currently unidentified. It is possible that it is an erroneous representation of the arms of the Holy Roman Empire -- (or an eagle displayed sable) -- to indicate Edward IV's descent from Frederic II of Hohenstaufen.
	11: Banner Arms of Edmund Crouchback, earl of Lancaster, son of Henry III. When Henry IV usurped the throne from Richard II there was some claim that Edmund was actually the elder son but was passed over because of his deformity -- and that Henry IV was the rightful heir of Edmund Crouchback. This genealogy "restores" Edmund to his "rightful" place as the fourth son in pointed repudiation to this claim.		11: Banner The coat used by one of the early earls of Northampton. It is a differenced form of the usual Bohun coat (see 24L).
	12: Banner Cinque Ports. Originally constituted as five ports in the eleventh century but consisting of a larger number by the fifteenth, the Cinque Ports formed an arc across southeastern England. The Cinque Ports bore the responsibility of defending post-Conquest England from a European invasion prior to the establishment of the royal navy in 1497. Edward created his cousin and supporter Richard Neville, earl of Warwick, Warden of the Cinque Ports about the time this manuscript was created.		12: Banner Staple of Calais. The port of Calais plays an important role in Edward's accession to the throne, having harbored him and his supporters in 1459-60. A contemporary manuscript pairs an image of Moses floating in his basket with one of Edward and his supporters sailing for Calais, suggesting that the one event foreshadowed the other.
	13: Banner The attributed arms of Brutus, the legendary founder of Britain. These have appeared (2L) impaling those of his father-in-law Pandrasus.		13: Banner The inscription indicates that these are the arms of King Ethelbert, but these are not the usual arms attributed to him..
	14: Shield Princes of Wales. In the complex iconography of this manuscript, this shield may carry a double meaning: a reference to Edward as eldest son of the legitimate king (echoing the relationship of the Black Prince to Edward III), and a reference to the Welsh heritage of the Yorkists through the Mortimer line.		14: Shield Cadwaladr, the last of the British princes in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain.
	15: Banner King Arthur. This is an unusual version of these attributed arms, which normally carry an ordinary cross and not a cross flory.		15: Banner Arthur has been associated with two sets of attributed arms; this one carries the inscription "Arthuri melitissimi" above it.
	16: Shield Another version of the arms of the Duchy of Cornwall. See 2R.		16: Shield Dukes of Normandy. This is one of the seven principal lines of descent indicated by half-portraits in the manuscript.
	17: Banner King Oswald This seventh century Northumbrian king was renowned for both his piety and his military prowess. His head, together with the body of St. Cuthbert, are now buried behind the high altar at Durham Cathedral.		17: Banner This banner is currently unidentified.
	18: Shield Dukes of Aquitaine. This is one of the seven principal lines of descent indicated by half-portraits in the manuscript.		18: Shield Inscription identifies this as "Lords of Ireland." Ireland was important to the Yorkists in two respects. Edward's father Richard, duke of York served as Lieutenant of Ireland under Henry VI and sought refuge there just months before his death in battle. Additionally, Roger Mortimer, fourth earl of March, served as Lieutenant of Ireland and was Richard II's heir-apparent until Mortimer's death in 1398.
	19: Banner The inscription appears to say "Ed... pacifici," which would suggest Edgar the Pacific (reigned 959-975). The arms, however appear to be those attributed to Edward, son of King Alfred.		19: Banner The inscription identifies these as the arms of Constantine, emperor of Rome, who in the middle ages was believed to have been descended from Brutus. Constantine's vision of the chi-ro in the sky before battle resulted in his conversion to Christianity and was the first step in Roman acceptance of Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire.
	20: Shield Possibly Richard, duke of Normandy. The inscription identifies it as Richard, the duke without fear (sine timor). His daughter was the mother of Edward the Confessor (see 23L)		20: Shield Ralph, earl of Mortimer. In 1406 Edward's grandfather, Richard earl of Cambridge, married Anne, sister and coheiress of Edmund Mortimer, fifth earl of March. Edward's claim to descent from the second son of Edward III flows from this marriage. The marriage of Ralph Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore to the daughter of the Welsh prince Llewellyn the Great in the early thirteenth century is the source of the Yorkist link to Brutus, Cadwaladr, and Arthur.
	21: Banner St. Edmund the Martyr. This East Anglian king was killed by Danish invaders in 870 while defending his subjects. After his death his head was miraculously restored to his decapitated body. [more]		21: Banner The inscription clearly labels this as Ethelred, but this is also identical to 19L. In neither case does the inscription appear to match any arms attributed to Ethelred.
	22: Shield De Burgh - Earls of Ulster. Lionel of Antwerp married Elizabeth (Isabella) de Burgh, Countess of Ulster. In 1425 on the death of his mother's brother, Edward's father Richard, duke of York succeeded to the title of Earl of Ulster. (See 22R)		22: Shield De Clare and earls of Gloucester. Edward could trace his pedigree back to the De Clare earls of Gloucester through Lionel of Antwerp's wife, Elizabeth de Burgh as well as through the FitzAlans.
	23: Banner St. Edward the Confessor, whose English/Norman mixed parentage made him sympathetic to Norman interests, to the dismay of some of his English subjects. After his death in 1066 the struggle for the succession culminated in the Norman Conquest. Richard II was particularly devoted to the memory of this saint, as were the first two dukes of York, whose collegiate chapel at Fotheringhay was named the College of the Annunciation and St. Edward the Confessor. [More]		23: Banner St. Louis (King Louis IX). This king, a contemporary of England's Henry III, combined piety, success as a crusader, and keen negotiating skills. He was widely respected by his contemporaries and canonized soon after his death. [More]
	24: Shield The De Bohun earls of Hereford. Mary de Bohun, younger daughter and coheiress of Humphrey earl of Hereford, Essex and Northampton, was Henry IV's first wife.		24: Shield De Geneville. Jeanne de Geneville, wife of Roger Mortimer, first earl of March, who led the revolt against Edward II. After Edward's deposition and murder, Roger Mortimer and his mistress, Isabella of France, ruled England in right of the young Edward III, but he was ultimately tried and executed for his part in Edward II's overthrow.
	25: Banner The inscription identifies this as William the Conqueror. The usual coat for the Norman kings only had two lions; legend had it that the third was added to the coat of England when Henry II married Eleanor of Aquitaine whose coat had a single lion passant (see 18L). [more]		25: Banner Castile and Leon. Like his predecessors, Edward IV claimed the throne of these kingdoms.
	26: Shield De Braose (Brewse). Lords of Brecon, ancestors of the Mortimers. See 8R.		26: Shield The inscription says "Hampton" but the connection to Edward IV's pedigree, real or imagined, remains to be identified.
	27: Final Banner Royal arms of England quartered with arms of Castile and Leon, with central shield bearing imagined arms of Brutus. This standard is held by the White Lion of March, a personal badge of Edward IV.		27: Final Banner The royal arms of England. It is probably not an accident that this standard is held by the White Hart, the best-known personal badge of Richard II.