THE ARMORIAL ENSIGNS OF JERUSALEM, 
Exhibited in the vignette above, were appointed by the chiefs of the first Crusade, after 
the capture of the city on July 15th, 1099, to be borne by the Christian king then elected. 
The device upon the shield was an adaptation of that used for the same metropolis 
three centuries before, as it was wrought upon the banner sent by Thomas the Patriarch, 
with other relics, to Charlemagne before his coronation, in the year 800. This Gonfanon, 
or Standard of Jerusalem, consisted of a square piece of white silk, to be displayed in the 
usual manner of a church-ensign, and on the banner was wrought a cross-potent, between 
four smaller plain crosses, all red, to signify the five wounds of our Lord. On assigning 
these arms to Godfrey of Bouillon and his successors, the leaders of the Crusade changed 
the colour of the crosses to gold; advisedly disregarding the well-known heraldic rule, if 
indeed it existed at the period, that colour shall not be placed upon colour, nor metal 
upon metal. An old manuscript, cited by Andre Favine, states the reason to be, that 
Godfrey should have arms given to him differing from the common rule of others; “ to the 
end that when any should see them, thinking them to he false, they should he moved to 
make inquiry wherefore so noble a king should hear those arms, and thus become further 
