Re: Cologne exhibition: 3 Magi

41
Huck wrote,
A frieze in Avignon, which is dated to 1336, shall show Swedish heraldry with 3 crowns. Possibly it was arranged for a council in 1337.

Image
I assume that your source for this image is https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-thre ... -of-Sweden, the reply by Marcus Gustafsson. He says that this image is "From Gozzoburg, showing Sweden." He gives no date. There are actually four crowns in the image, the fourth above the other three, as though suggesting that the fourth crown rules over the other three. That would suggest three former kingdoms supplanted by a fourth.

About the frieze in Avignon, he says, "I have not got a picture, but the three crowns are also shown for Sweden on a frieze in the Papal palace in Avignon." In other words, the picture you posted is not of anything in Avignon, but rather of something in Gozzoburg. It would be nice to find a picture of the frieze in Avignon, to see how many crowns it has.

Gustafsson argues that the three crowns in Sweden of 1275 would not have represented Sweden, Norway, and Scania (part of Denmark) then:
The seal of Magnus Ladulås appears in an age where it is difficult to see what the three kingdoms should otherwise be. In traditional Swedish history, there was only a rex Gothorum, and a rex Sueonum, so we would have to guess about what an eventual third kingdom would be, (if they are kingdoms.)
If so, it remains possible that they represented the three Holy Kings, whose alleged bodies arrived in Koln in 1164. But why would the symbol have traveled north, sometime between 1164 and 1275, to be part of a royal seal? Perhaps at some point before 1164 there were three kingdoms that merged. Or they represented something else, and when Sweden was Christianized they decided to reinterpret them as the Three Holy Kings and removed the fourth crown? That was a usual strategy of the Church: not to destroy places and things of pagan significance, but give them new meaning. I notice that the first archbishopric in Sweden was in precisely 1164 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian ... candinavia). The same reasoning holds for Arthur's 3 crowns, where the three kingdoms of England, Wales, and Scotland seem to me probable for the initial meaning, but that wouldn't have prevented other people from giving the crowns a different interpretation.

For further pictures and discussion, the most intelligent website I find (using Gozzoburg as a search term) is at http://www.hubert-herald.nl/Sverige3.htm. It says:
The arms with the three crowns may be of the Swedish Riksrådet, in the time between the ousting of King Waldemar in 1275 and the election of Magnus Ladulås in 1276.

There were three main officials of that body, apparently. This web-page also gives various predecessor symbols, including pagan ones, and does fit Arthur and the Three Holy Kings into the mix. It also says that Magnus Ladulås only had 2 crowns in his seal, in its second telling of the tale (perhaps by a second author?).

Re: Cologne exhibition: 3 Magi

42
Thanks for the interpretation with the frieze, I didn't recognize that.

Cologne and England had excellent trading connections and these became part of the Hanse system. The Cologne merchants had some territory in London.

https://www.thehistoryoflondon.co.uk/th ... steelyard/
... Merchants from Germanic towns, then known as ‘Easterlings’, had already been granted privileges in London by around 1000AD during the reign of King Aethelred II ... Most of those trading in London were from Cologne, while those from Lübeck and Hamburg traded with East Coast ports. In the 12th century the Cologners were primarily importing metal goods from Cologne and the Meuse Valley, as well as Rhine wine. It was probably the Germanic merchants who introduced new methods of weighing to London: official weights of the mid-13th century were known as ‘steelyard weights’ .... In 1157 the men of Cologne purchased a hall at Dowgate from Danish merchants and in the Liber Albus book of London regulations, compiled in 1419, it was still being referred to as the ‘Hall of the Danes’. At the same time as their purchase they were given protection by Henry II, a sign of their importance ... During the famines of the mid-13th century the Cologners were able to import grain, and this led to additional privileges being granted by Henry III ....
... and more in the article ...
and also here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steelyard

It's very easy to present some ideas, how Cologne merchants might have manipulated the iconography of the Worthie King Arthur ...

********************

Mike, you wrote
I notice that the first archbishopric in Sweden was in precisely 1164 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian ... candinavia). The same reasoning holds for Arthur's 3 crowns, where the three kingdoms of England, Wales, and Scotland seem to me probable for the initial meaning, but that wouldn't have prevented other people from giving the crowns a different interpretation.
This "precisely 1164" is a rather good observation ....

Stefan, first archbishop in Sweden ....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_(a ... f_Uppsala) ...
... got the position in 1164 from ....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Alexander_III .... foe of Barbarossa
Pope Alexander III (c. 1100/1105 – 30 August 1181), born Roland (Italian: Rolando), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 September 1159 until his death in 1181. A native of Siena, Alexander became pope after a contested election, but had to spend much of his pontificate outside Rome while several rivals, supported by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, claimed the papacy. Alexander rejected Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos' offer to end the East–West Schism, sanctioned the Northern Crusades, and held the Third Council of the Lateran. The city of Alessandria in Piedmont is named after him.
Octavian, pope Victor IV
On 7 September 1159, Alexander III was chosen to succeed Adrian IV as pope. A minority of the cardinals, however, elected the cardinal priest Octavian, who assumed the name of Victor IV and became the German Emperor's antipope. The situation was critical for Alexander III, because according to many chronicles of the time (perhaps exaggerating), Barbarossa's antipope received the approval of most of the kingdoms of Europe, with the exception of the kingdoms of Portugal, Sicily, Aragon and Castile. However, in 1161, King Géza II of Hungary signed an agreement and recognised Alexander III as the rightful pope and declared that the supreme spiritual leader was the only one who could exercise the rite of investiture.[9] This meant that Alexander's legitimacy was gaining strength, as soon proved by the fact that other monarchs, such as the king of France and King Henry II of England, recognized his authority. Because of imperial strength in Italy, Alexander was forced to reside outside Rome for a large part of his pontificate.[4] When news reached him of the death of Victor in 1164, he openly wept, and scolded the cardinals in his company for rejoicing at the end of the rival antipope.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipope_ ... 1159–1164)
During the years 1162–1165 Alexander lived in France, and from 1163 the pope exerted himself to gain more of Germany for his cause.
... for instance to install an archbishop in Uppsala
Death
All uncertainty came to an end on 20 April 1164. That day, while travelling with Rainald of Dassel, Victor IV died at Lucca. When Pope Alexander III learned of the death of his rival, he wept, and reprimanded his cardinals when they showed inappropriate delight.[2] The clergy of the Lucca Cathedral and San Frediano would not allow Victor IV buried there because of his excommunication. Therefore, he was buried in a local monastery. When miracles were reported at his tomb, it was destroyed by order of Pope Gregory VIII in December 1187.[14][15] Victor's successor was Paschal III.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipope_Paschal_III
The new pope was established at Viterbo and successfully prevented Alexander from reaching Rome. However, he was soon driven from Rome, leading to the return of Alexander III in 1165.[2]: 247 
In order to gain more support from Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, Paschal canonized Charlemagne in a magnificent celebration at Aachen in 1165. Paschal soon lost the support of Burgundy, but the emperor crushed opposition in Germany, and gained the cooperation of Henry II of England.
Concerned over rumours that Alexander III was about to enter into an alliance with the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I,[2]: 248  in October 1166, Frederick embarked on his fourth Italian campaign, hoping as well to secure the claim of Paschal III and the imperial coronation of his wife, Beatrice. In 1167, Frederick began besieging Ancona, which had acknowledged the authority of Manuel I.[2]: 249  Meanwhile, his forces achieved a great victory over the Romans at the Battle of Monte Porzio.[2]: 250  Heartened by this victory, Frederick lifted the siege of Ancona and hurried to Rome. Supported by Frederick's imperial army, Paschal was enthroned at St Peter's on 22 July 1167, and Alexander III became a fugitive. On the following 30 July, Frederick received a second coronation from Paschal III.[2]: 250  Two days later, Paschal crowned Beatrice empress.[3] Unfortunately, Frederick's campaign was halted by the sudden outbreak of an epidemic (malaria or the plague), which threatened to destroy the Imperial army and drove the emperor back to Germany.[2]: 251 [a] Without the support of the Emperor, Paschal was able to hold only the quarter on the right bank of the Tiber where he died of cancer on 20 September 1168. He was succeeded by Antipope Callixtus III.
The Catholic Church has never recognized Charlemagne's canonization
Well, it's probably interesting to study the details. The Swedish persons in the discussion take it as a valid idea, that the 3 Holy Kings somehow caused the three crowns in the Swedish flag.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Cologne exhibition: 3 Magi

43
Nice post. I want to comment on just one thing. Huck wrote,
It's very easy to present some ideas, how Cologne merchants might have manipulated the iconography of the Worthie King Arthur ...
Well, yes, very easy. But the "9 Worthies" is of French origin. Wikipedia says:
They were first described in the early fourteenth century, by Jacques de Longuyon in his Voeux du Paon (1312)
De Longuyon includes Arthur, but does not mention his arms or shield (Cedric E. Pickford "The Three Crowns of King Arthur," Yorkshire Archeological Journal vol. 38 (1955), p. 374 (https://archive.org/details/YAJ0381955/ ... 4/mode/2up). However, it is reasonable that elaborations including the coat of arms would have started in France, or at least French-speaking places, where the cult of Arthur already flourished, thanks to Chretien de Troyes' Arthurian writings of 1170-1180. In 1336, Pickford writes (same page), there was a pageant celebrating the 9 worthies in Arras (in the below camp means field and or means gold; I do not know what guelle means; from Pickford's explanation, it would seem to mean "red"; the closest I find is "gueule", meaning "snout" or "gullet"):
A text describing the pageant at Arras has survived, and we read:
1’An mil.ccc.xxxvj.
Roy Artus, Cordelier Poulet, bourgeois de Compiengne, qui porta pour la journee d’or a iij camp de guelle. Et ses droites armes sont d’or a ung cordelier tenant unes patenostres.2
The word camp poses a problem, for here it makes very little sense. Paul Meyer suggests couronnes as a possible alternative reading, providing that red crowns could be allowed. He adds that normally Arthur’s arms are blue with three gold crowns. It is clear that the text is corrupt at this point, and perhaps the scribe intended to convey the idea of three gold crowns on a red field, a shield which Arthur sometimes bears.
Then later (p. 376) Pickford points to a dated manuscript of the Old French Vulgate Cycle of Arthurian Romances, that is, the Estoire del Saint Graal, the Estoire de Merlin, the Lancelot, the Queste del Saint Graal and the Mort Artu
On his shoulder Arthur bears a shield on which are two golden crowns, and he wears a third one on his head.2 The miniature illustrates the famous passage in which we are told how, when Excalibur was thrown into the lake, an arm rose up and brandished it thrice before taking it beneath the surface of the waters.3 This particular miniature was painted shortly after 1316, the date on a miniature in an earlier part of the manuscript, and doubtless the date of the manuscript itself.
On p. 377 Pickford mentions one other early ms., the Spiegel Historiael, "early fourteenth century," now in The Hague.

In Geoffroy of Monmouth's account, 1137, Arthur's arms were of the Virgin Mary. If so, the Three Holy Kings are a logical next step, even in England. Pickford does not himself make such a connection. The most he will say, only as a hypothesis, is that the three crowns motif may have originated with Edward I, who died in 1307 and continually associated himself with the Arthur of legend. The evidence is the appearance of the three crowns in the seal of Kingston-upon-Hull, which Edward purchased from the monks of Mieux in 1293, according to the monks' annals, although the first evidence of the seal itself is not until 1336 (p. 378). Pickford adds that the title Voeux du Paon (Vows of the Peacock), where the 9 worthies are first mentioned, may have been inspired by the "oath on two swans" that Edward and his knights took in 1306 prior to setting off to deal with Robert the Bruce in Scotland (p. 379). Edward had conquered Wales in 1284, received there "the crown of Arthur," and in 1301 to the Pope asserted sovereignty over Scotland, citing various things in Geoffroy's history (ibid.). As I say, if a Virgin Mary shield was there, it doesn't take much imagination to turn it into 3 crowns, for the 3 Holy Kings as well as the 3 lands of Edward.

Finally, in regard to Koln, there is also the question of when the statues of the 9 worthies were done. Pickford says mid-fourteenth century. The building itself, according to Wikipedia, was done in 1330. But that doesn't mean the statues were. It is all quite vague, unfortunately, but Koln does not seem to me the most likely place for Arthur to have first acquired that shield.

Re: Cologne exhibition: 3 Magi

44
These are coins from after 1474, when Cologne got the allowance from the emperor to produce coins after the war around the city Neuss. .... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Neuss

https://www.coingallery.de/Koeln/b_1474.htm
Image


The three coin elements present the 3 Holy Kings Caspar (Moon with star), Melchior (black man) and Balthasar with six stars.
At the right side of the following coin the 3 elements are united
Image


**************

We had the 3 arms of the Holy Kings already in this thread ... at post #8 in 2014 at November 24.


Once - a longer time ago - we talked about connections between 3 holy kings, the 3 theological virtues, the 3 heraldic feathers of the Medici and about the 3 Tarot cards Sun, Moon and Star.
A part of this discussion, which likely was expanded by more than one thread, was this here in late 2013 in November ...

http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=983

I remember, that I opened the "speculation", that the cards Sun, Moon and Star might have meant representatives of the 3 kings. I was then inspired by the observation, that one of the kings was black (at least occasionally) and he might have been easily understood as "night" or "moon".
Now, as part of my Cologne exhibition researches, I got another catalog from another Cologne exhibition about the 3 Holy Kings made in 1982.

This catalog reports heraldic devices for the 3 Holy Kings, at least used in the region of Cologne, and presents two pictures, one from an armorial text in c. 1370 by Herold Gelre (Herold from Geldern), another a woodcut from 1492 presenting city heraldic in Botho, Sachsenchronik, printed in Mainz by Peter Schöffler.

The first picture (from c. 1370) ...
Image
That's the page (from c. 1370). The 3 Kings are in the upper right, at the left middle there's the black cross of the archbishop in Cologne. The detail of the 3 Kings ...
Image
The second shield is two dark to recognize something (but it are 6 stars, I've read; at the other picture it are 9 stars). At the helmet there's a Star (of Bethlehem; or a Sun ?).
The first shield "with Moon and a Star or Sun" (the text identifies it as Star, but Sun seems not impossible) has a bearded man for his helmet.
The 3rd shield favors a moorish person, which is repeated at the helmet.

At the other picture we see 5 shields at top, which repeat the other shield designs in slight modification, below the black cross for the arch bishop and as the 5th sign three crowns (for the 3 holy kings) and below 11 flames for the 11.000 virgins, which accompanied the English princess (from the Bretagne) St. Ursula, who died in Cologne by an attack of the huns (Attila wanted to marry her, but she refused; so she had to die). When Cologne expanded the city walls at begin of 12th century from 1 qkm to 4 qkm (then one of the largest cities in Europe), they detected a Frankish burial place, and a wise woman from Köln-Deutz recognized the first 11 corpses as the 11 virgins of Ursulas. But then they found some more and it was clear, that one had to correct the myth of St. Ursula and it became 11.000 virgins. And Cologne had a lot of relics, which they could sell to other places. And so the St. Ursula cult spread.
Image
The oldest known 3 crowns (of the Holy kings) as city heraldic appeared on a church window of the Cologne cathedral between 1304-1316. Impresa for Ursula (the ermine flag) are known from 1475 on the city shield, later the 11 flames (at the city shield of the 1492 picture I recognize 14 of them; btw., the building crane at an unfinished tower in the right background of the picture, that's the tower of the Cologne Dom and the crane stood there till c. 1840 to remember, that the cathedral wasn't finished).

Back to the Holy 3 Kings. The theory exists, that the shields of the 3 Kings were designed by a heraldic painter of he Cologne Dreikönigsbruderschaft (Fraternitas trium Regum) with members, which belonged to the clergy or were knights. The designer knew the flags of Africa and the Orient and just took a choice of three objects.

Well, it's not that difficult to paint a star or a moon like this in its rudimentary quality and also a moorish person also can't be so difficult, especially as one of the kings was already often designed as a colored man. And on the other hand I would think, that somebody had simply own ideas. It's not so difficult to have own ideas.

This I found in an anonymous work of c. 1380 called "Codex von den Ersten", also "Codex Seffgen".
http://digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de/co ... fo/1076284
fol. 41
Image
The first has gotten a crown for the man with beard on its helmet. The second has changed the helmet from one star to many, and for the third one has to assume, that the moorish person with flag was too difficult to paint.

Interesting is, that in this text with 42 folios the kings are arranged together with the 9 heroes (9 worthies) at the end of the text (Fol. 41-42) in the manner, that first the 3 Christian kings appear, then the 3 holy kings, then the Pagan heroes and then Jewish heroes (the writing is difficult, I'm not sure, if all 9 are the same figures as usual).
Image
Image


The position at the end likely means in the intention of the book designer, that this 12 were considered as the most noble men, which ever lived on earth. And Cologne had 3 of them, at least as bones.
**************

Claes Heinenzoon (Gelre, Beyeren)
https://www.heraldik-wiki.de/wiki/Claes_Heinenzoon
https://perspectivia.net/servlets/MCRFi ... endien.pdf
Aus dem Beginn des 15. Jahrhunderts stammen zwei historiographische Kompilationen aus der Feder des Claes Heynenzoon, Herold unter dem Namen Gelre
und später Beyeren. Neben seinem berühmten Wappenbuch trug er unter anderem eine Weltchronik und eine Geschichte Hollands zusammen (Footnote 135). Auch von ihm sind zahlreiche Ehrenreden überliefert, die sich ebenfalls nicht nur der Memoria der teils schon lange verstorbenen Ritter widmeten, sondern der nachkommenden Ritterschaft zugleich Vorbilder für ein ehrenvolles und würdiges Leben aufzeigen wollten.

135 Vgl. VERBIJ-SCHILLINGS, Beeldvorming in Holland. Zum Wappenbuch vgl. ADAM-EVEN u.a. (Hg.), L’armorial universel, sowie dessen Faksimile-Ausgabe Gelre B.R. Ms 15652–56.
Huck
http://trionfi.com