Unregistered Badges of the Eastern Baronage

As mentioned in my recent post of baronial banners, House Runnymede is an association of the landed nobles of the East Kingdom, formed in an era when the baronage felt they might need to coordinate their efforts in response to royal overreach.

In years gone by, a badge was proposed for Runnymede, although it was never registered with the College of Arms. The insignia combines symbols of the House’s common greeting — tilting one’s coronet as you pass a fellow member — with its primary activity — gathering for informal conversation over drinks.

A corresponding association was also proposed for the court baronage, although this idea never really took root. Its name pays heed to the idea, commonplace in medieval bestiaries, that the martlet spent its entire life in flight, never landing.

This association made it suited as a cadency mark for fourth sons in English heraldry, as land holdings would be split among older siblings, leaving the fourth son landless — and thus also as a symbol for the non-landed baronage.

I’m not sure a formal badge was ever proposed for House Martlet, and so the one I have sketched here is purely speculative.

My sincere thanks to Steffan ap Kennydd and Jeanne de Robin for preserving this history and sharing it in response to my question this spring.