Heraldry help

Does anyone know the signifgance of a label on a coat of arms?

Richard at Barnet had "a label of three points ermine each charged with a
canton gules" while Clarence's was "three points argent".

They wore the royal arms of England and France quartered. Were the labels to
simply signify they were royal brothers?

What did they mean exactly? Anyone?
Thanks in anticipation
Paul

--- In , "P.T.Bale"
<paultrevor@b...> wrote:
> Does anyone know the signifgance of a label on a coat of arms?
>
> Richard at Barnet had "a label of three points ermine each charged
with a
> canton gules" while Clarence's was "three points argent".
>
> They wore the royal arms of England and France quartered. Were the
labels to
> simply signify they were royal brothers?
>
> What did they mean exactly? Anyone?
> Thanks in anticipation
> Paul

I'm no expert on heraldry, Paul, and you may well get a better answer
than this, but basically the label was a differencer - although a
family had a coat of arms, the various members of same would have to
have something to distinguish their arms from those of other family
members.

The label is that bar with tags ('points') hanging down from it, like
upside-down crenellations, that you see across coats of arms, usually
near the top. Labels were used by eldest sons to distinguish their
arms from their fathers'.
Here Clarence, as Edward's next brother, seems to be using the eldest
son version of the royal arms, with just the plain white label with
three points. Richard, as the younger brother, had further
distinguishing features: black ermine-tail patterns on the white
label (ermine singular means black ermines on white background -
ermines plural is vice versa). I'm not sure what is meant by "each
charged with a canton gules" as what I understand by a canton is a
square in the corner of the shield - typically used to distinguish
cadet branches of a family. However, these sound as if they were even
smaller things placed on each point of the label.

I have two sources giving the Duke of York's arms which disagree, but
which are interesting in this context. Both agree that he used France
modern and England over all a label, but my notes from the R III Soc
study weekend on heraldry in 1998 say that the label was of three
points each charged with three torteaux (red roundels), whilst
something I have noted down as "Royal Heraldry book" says the label
was "argent with 1 canton gules".

A good website for heraldry I have just found is
www.baronage.co.uk/jag-ht/jag001.html

I hope that works.

Marie

Paul:
They wore the royal arms of England and France quartered. Were the labels to simply signify they were royal brothers?

What did they mean exactly? Anyone?

Ann:
The heraldic rule is that only the king is allowed to use the undifferenced (original) royal arms, and that anyone else must use a "difference." Edward, George, and Richard were entitled to use a Differenced version of the royal arms because of their descent in the direct male line from Edward III.

The standard difference for the eldest son and heir is a plain label of three points -- the present Prince of Wales uses it today. The heir's eldest son -- IIRC -- uses a label of five points. Other labels may have charges representing special interests or concerns or perhaps one's maternal relatives' heraldic possessions.

Boutell's HERALDRY, if you can find a copy to consult in a local library, discusses Label usage at length and makes the point that while differences are more or less standardized for arms-bearing families, arms as used by junior members of the royal family are apt to vary wildly from any theories applicable to others.

L.P.H.,

Ann
axsc@...
http://mzbworks.home.att.net/ann.htm

Feudalism: when it's your Count that votes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~