ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1331
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1331
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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

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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.