Bohun swan

The Bohun swan was a heraldic badge used originally in England by the mediaeval noble family of de Bohun, Earls of Hereford, and Earls of Essex.

The widespread use of the swan as a badge derives from the legend of the Swan Knight, today most familiar from Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin. The Crusade cycle, a group of Old French chansons de geste, had associated the legend with the ancestors of Godfrey of Bouillon (d. 1100), King of Jerusalem and the hero of the First Crusade. Godfrey had no legitimate progeny, but his wider family had many descendants among the aristocracy of Europe, many of whom after his death made use of the swan as a heraldic emblem. In England such a family was that of de Bohun, Earls of Hereford and Earls of Essex.

Surviving examples of usage of the Bohun swan by the de Bohun family include:

Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford, 6th Earl of Essex, 2nd Earl of Northampton, KG (1341–1373) died without male issue leaving as his co-heiresses two daughters:

Following the extinction of the Senior male line of the de Bohun family the Bohun swan badge was used by descendants of the two heiresses: by the royal House of Lancaster descended from Mary de Bohun and by the Stafford family descended from [Eleanor de Bohun and by the Junior Branch by a female Heiress in late 14th Century.

After the marriage in 1380 of Mary de Bohun (d. 1394) to the Lancastrian Henry Bolingbroke, the future King Henry IV (1399–1413), the swan was adopted by the royal House of Lancaster, which continued to use it for over a century. The swan gorged and chained with a crown or is especially associated with Lancastrian use and echoes the white hart similarly gorged and chained used by King Richard II (1377–1399), deposed by Henry Bolingbroke, which he began to use as a livery badge from 1390. Richard II's treasure roll of 1397 includes, together with several of his own white hart badges, a swan badge with a gold chain, perhaps presented by one of his Lancastrian enemies mentioned above: "Item, a gold swan enamelled white with a little gold chain hanging around the neck, weighing 2 oz., value, 46s. 8d". He declared to Parliament that he had exchanged liveries with his uncles as a sign of amity at various moments of reconciliation.

...
Wikipedia