Sixteenth Company

The Union throughout. In the centre the royal badge of King Henry the Fourth, viz. on a mount vert a swan, with wings expanded, argent, beaked and legged, gules, ducally gorged, and chain reflexed over the back, or, ensigned with the imperial crown. In the dexter canton the number of the company inscribed in Roman characters, gold.

The swan argent was the badge of Humphrey, earl of Hereford. His daughter became wife to Henry the Fourth, who thus inherited the earldom, and then assumed for a badge the swan argent, crowned.

Seventeenth Company

The Union throughout. In the centre the badge of Queen Anne of Boleyn, second wife of Henry the Eighth, viz. a falcon, wings elevated, argent, crowned, and holding in the dexter talon a scepter, or, standing on the trunk of a tree eradicated; from the dexter side thereof sprouting a bunch of white and red roses, barbed and seeded proper, ensigned with the imperial crown. In the dexter canton the number of the company inscribed in Roman characters, gold.

This badge belonged to Elizabeth of England. In addition to a phoenix, she bore a white falcon crowned, holding a scepter, and standing on the stock or root of a tree (badge of Edward the Third), between two growing bunches of white and red roses, emblematical of her descent from Edward the Third through the two Houses of York and Lancaster. This badge, without the scepter, was first given by King Henry the Eighth to Elizabeth's mother, Anne of Boleyn, when Marchioness of Pembroke. It was then crowned with the coronet of a marquis, but Elizabeth altered it and used it, with an allusion to herself, "Vivat prudentia regnans."