heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

INTRODUCTION. 55
The ostrich plume was adopted by Edward III. as a badge, and carried
by all the Plantagenets. The motto does not belong to the feathers, but
to the title of Prince of Wales.
When Edward I. killed Llewellyn, the last independent Prince of
Wales, and hanged his brother David of Snowdon, whom he had taken
captive at Shrewsbury, he annexed the Principality to the English Crown,
made his infant son prince, but gave him the Welsh " motto, Eich dyn,"
your man, which he was to bear, to remind himself and the people that he
was not an independent, but a suzerain Prince to England.
Three single feathers, their quills passing through scrolls with the
motto, appear on shields on the tomb of the Black Prince at Canterbury,
and as such we know them at the present day. All the sons of Edward III.
used the ostrich feather as a badge, differenced in various ways. On the
tomb of Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VIII., at Worcester Cathedral,
three feathers, united, are thrust through one scroll. Prince Henry, eldest
son of James I., thrust the three feathers through his prince's coronet in
place of the scroll, as the ensign of the Prince of Wales.
Edmond Langley (first
Duke of York, fifth son of Edward III.) adopted
the falcon, a white falcon
having been the device of
his grandmother, Isabella
de Valois, daughter of
Philip IV. King of France,
from whom also his father
Edward derived his claim
to quarter the fleurs-de-lis
of France in his arms, and ..
his claims to the French
Crown. The hawk upon
the fist was a mark of
great nobility. Harold, in
the Bayeux tapestry, is
thus depicted. So sacred
was the bird esteemed,
that we find it
prohibited
in the ancient laws for
any one to give his hawk
or his sword as part of
his ransom. To the falcon
Edward added the fetterlock,
which was symbolical of his caution. "Hie, haec, hoc taceatis," he
said to his sons ; when they asked its
meaning Be silent and quiet, as God