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Decorations Taken from Other Sources: Oxford

The strong resemblance between this badge and that of the Earl of Oxford, who bore a silver mullet, or spur, was the cause of a most disastrous defeat for the House of York. The battle was one between the Earl of Warwick, who supported the kingly rights of Henry VI. to the English crown, and Edward IV., who strove to make good his claim to the sovereignty of England. The Earl of DECORATIONS TAKEN FROM OTHER SOURCES.

Oxford, by his impetuous valor, had turned the success of the day in Warwick's favor. This was inspiring news to Warwick, and, eager to close the fray with a complete rout of the foe, he hurried with his men to join his victorious ally. But the light was treacherous; it was one of those days, so common to the English climate when fog and drizzling rain thicken the atmosphere and distort all objects. The followers of the opposing sides wore conspicuously on their arms the badges of the leaders that they followed, and through the mists the star of Oxford was magnified until, coming suddenly upon his allies, Warwick and his followers were terrified with the belief that the hosts of Edward were around them. The star to them was the rose-en-soleil. In the terror inspired by such a delusion, they fell upon the seeming foe, who, recognizing Warwick's "Bear and Ragged Staff," cried, "Treason! Treason, we are all betrayed," and forsook the field. Warwick's great form was stretched, dabbled with gore, upon the battleground, and Edward IV. was victor. This star of Oxford, which for many years was a prominent decoration on the shield belonging to the De Veres, is traced back to the old Crusader days: - Earl De la Vere. "In the year of our Lord 1098," saith our authority, "Corborant, Admiral to Soudan in Persia, was fought with at Antioch, and discomfited by the Christians. The night coming on in the chase of this battle, and waxing dark, the Christians being four miles from Antioch, God, willing the safety of the Christians, showed a white star, or mullet, of five points, on the Christian host, which to every man's sight did light, and arrest upon the standard of Aubrey de Vere, there shining excessively." This mullet was afterwards used by his descendants as a badge. Then the lilies! - see how the ancient shield of France blossoms like the tomb of Mary, so rich is it not only with the fleur-de-lys, but with the legends connected with it.

As the rose is dear to English hearts, so is the lily beloved by the French. They boast of a supernatural origin to the device, that formerly powdered their national coat-of-arms, affirming it to have been sent from Heaven with the Sainte Ampoule, or Holy Oil, kept and used at Rheims for the coronation of their kings. The supposed heavenly significance of the flower is this, "They toil not, neither do they spin," - which, translated into broad and ungallant English, is to intimate that the crown of France would never be worn either by the ignoble or by woman!

The angel who brought it carried it to Clovis to seal a contract made by him with the Heavenly Powers on the eve of a great battle near Cologne, when he swore a solemn oath that, should success be his, from that time forth the Christian faith should become his own. The day was his, and, true to his vow, there, surrounded by the dead and dying, with the shout of the victorious troops and the moaning of the wounded filling the air with tumult, he received the Lily, which for so many centuries has been the pride of France. The shield, from being powdered with the blossoms, was in the time of Charles VI. reduced to displaying only three. Notwithstanding this pretty France. tale, it is possible, at least to the practical English mind of the present day, to believe that, Clovis being the original form of DECORATIONS TAKEN FROM OTHER SOURCES.

Louis, the flower resembling it in name was adopted. Such names were always so exceedingly popular that one English family named Botreux, though fortunate in having a coat-of-arms, decided that, Botreux signifying in Welsh a frog, it would be better to change their escutcheon, which was composed of the simple lines with which we are familiar, to a coat upon which three frogs should be displayed.