Attributed Arms of St. Thomas Becket

St. Thomas Becket (1120-1170) lived and died before the age of heraldry and bore no coat of arms during his lifetime. As such, his arms are said to be attributed. In heraldry-speak, his arms are described as “argent, three choughs proper, two and one”, that is, three naturalistically colored red-billed choughs on a silver (or white) field arranged with two birds on the top row and one on the bottom. The arms appear earliest c. 1400 on a monumental scale on the ceiling of one of the bays of Canterbury Cathedral’s cloisters. + At first glance, the Cornish chough seems an odd choice for the blazon of St. Thomas’s attributed coat of arms. St. Thomas was Norman not Cornish and a Londoner not a denizen of Cornwall. + There are two plausible explanations: canting and legend. Canting arms are visual plays on words, usually puns on the bearer’s name. Canting arms were immensely popular with the Normans. In Norman French, the word ‘bequet’ refers to ‘a small bird’, like the chough. In fact, the words becket and chough are often used interchangeably. According to legend, a crow flew into Canterbury Cathedral as Becket lay dying. The crow walked through and pecked about in the gore turning its legs and beak red. The red beak and red legs are what distinguished the Cornish chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) from other members of the crow family (Corvidae), and especially from the Alpine chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus). It should be noted that a similar origin tale for the chough’s appearance occurs in Arthurian legend. + There are no specific plants or flowers associated with St. Thomas in the same way that the leaves and flowers of the ash tree are associated with St. Etheldreda (q.v.). We have chosen to embellish our heraldry items for St. Thomas with Canterbury Bells for reasons that should be obvious even though the flowers were not introduced into England until 1597 and used to be called Coventry Bells. Canterbury Bells (Campanula medium) have elegant, bell-shaped blooms in pink, rose, lavender, blue, or white. In the language of flowers, they stand for gratitude, acknowledgment, and obligation. + Feast of St. Thomas Becket: December 29