ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1331 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1331 ************************************ From: "Brian M. Scott" 1 Nov 1998 Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You asked about the suitability of three black three-leaf clovers on a white background as 16th-century English arms. The heraldic name for the three-leaf clover is 'a trefoil slipped'. In heraldry it has three leaves, which are round or slightly pointed, and a stem, or 'slip', which is usually pointed and slightly wavy. (Since this slip is always present, the blazon is usually shortened to 'a trefoil'.) The clubs in an ordinary deck of playing cards would be good, period trefoils if their 'stems' were slightly longer and wavy and came to a point. The version with heart-shaped leaves, often called a shamrock, that is a familiar accompaniment to St. Patrick's Day does not seem to have been used in our period. We have found no examples of it, and one source says that the shamrock did not take on national significance in Ireland until the end of the 17th century. [1] The trefoil is a very old charge in French and English armory. In the French Bigot Roll, which dates to about 1254 and is one of the oldest rolls of arms of which we have a copy, there is already a coat consisting of three gold trefoils on a red field. [2] We didn't find any examples quite that early in England, but by 1340 a Thomas de Sleford was using a seal showing a coat with a chevron between three trefoils, and we have many examples of the charge thereafter. [3] The entire coat of arms is blazoned 'Argent, three trefoils sable'. This blazon implies that the trefoils are arranged in a triangle with two at the top and one below, i.e., one in (but not squeezed into!) each corner of a heater shield. This so-called default arrangement is by far the most common arrangement in period armory, but others are possible: Lined up vertically down the centre of the shield: 'Argent, in pale three trefoils sable'. Lined up horizontally across the centre of the shield: 'Argent, in fess three trefoils sable'. Lined up diagonally across the shield from upper left to lower right as you face the shield: 'Argent, in bend three trefoils sable'. (In this design the trefoils should be rotated 45 degrees counterclockwise, so that their slips point toward the lower right and their topmost leaves point toward the upper left.) Lined up horizontally across the top of the shield: 'Argent, in chief three trefoils sable'. All of these would be quite suitable in 16th century England, above all the version with the trefoils in their default arrangement. Indeed, it is so authentic that it is actually found as the arms of someone named Champion in a collection of arms compiled in the 16th century. [4, 5] Arual Corbenedictum, Rolandus Carra, Zenobia Naphtali filia, and Margareta filia Dubsithi also contributed to this letter. We hope that it has been useful and that you won't hesitate to write again if you have further questions. For the Academy, Talanus flauus 1 November 1998 ===== References and Notes: [1] O/ Coma/in, Michea/l. The Poolbeg Book of Irish Heraldry (Swords, Ireland: Poolbeg Press Ltd., 1991); p. 110. [2] Brault, Gerard J. Eight Thirteenth-Century Rolls of Arms in French and Anglo-Norman Blazon (University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1973); Bigot Roll, Nr. 295. [3] Woodcock, Thomas, Janet Grant, & Ian Graham. Dictionary of British Arms, vol II (The Society of Antiquaries of London, 1996), p. 345. [4] Papworth, J.W. Papworth's Ordinary of British Armorials (Bath: Five Barrows, 1977), p. 865. [5] This is not a bar to using these arms if they appeal to you. Indeed, the same coat has been used by at least one other family even in England. [4] Society custom generally frowns on using well-known real-world coats because it is jarring to those who are familiar with the armory. Some Society folk object to using even obscure real-world armory like this coat, but many others see no harm in it whatsoever, and the SCA College of Arms protects only real-world armory that is either itself well-known or associated with important persons or places. In the end it is an individual decision.