employed one and commonly displayed it, along with or in place of their cri de guerre, as
part of their armorial achievement, usually below the shield. In some cases, the motto
actually alluded to the figures on the shield of arms whose basic design was common to
the whole lineage: thus, the Sustenant lilia turres of the Simiane family of Provence,
whose arms were semé of lilies and towers. In addition to, or in place of, such familial
mottoes, many nobles adopted one or more personal mottoes, some for short periods and
some for life. The most famous personal mottoes of this period are those of the four
Valois dukes of Burgundy, who bore respectively Moult me tarde, Je le tiens, Aultre
n’aray, and Je l’ay emprins. In general, the use of mottoes before 1500 closely paralleled
the use of both badges and devices. Together, badges, mottoes, and devices formed a
loosely structured system of cognizances, which, because of its close association with the
traditional heraldic system centered on the arms and crest, is now described as
“paraheraldic.”
D’A.Jonathan D.Boulton
[See also: ARMS (HERALDIC); LIVERY, BADGES, AND COLORS]
Boulton, D’A.J.D. “Insignia of Power: The Use of Heraldic and Paraheraldic Devices by Italian
Princes, c. 1350–1500.” In Art and Politics in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Italy, ed.
Charles M.Rosenberg. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990. [Includes a
taxonomy of badges and devices.]
Pastoureau, Michel. Traité d’héraldique. Paris: Picard, 1979.
MOULINS
. Moulins (Allier) originated in the late 10th century as a small settlement of millers who
served the needs of the nearby village of Yzeure. Because of its strategic location on the
Allier River and at the intersection of Roman roads, Moulins became a favored seat of the
lords, later dukes, of Bourbon. An early 15th-century belfry, the Jacquemart, and a
concentration of imposing houses in half-timber work and stone testify to the prosperity
enjoyed by the town during the heyday of the dukes of Bourbon, from the late 14th
century to the early 16th. Portions of the ducal château also survive, including the late
14th-century donjon and the Italianate corps-de-logis added under Pierre II and Anne of
Beaujeu ca. 1500.
The collegiate church of Notre-Dame, erected with ducal sponsorship on the site of an
earlier chapel, is the city’s major monument of the late Middle Ages. Built between 1474
and the early 16th century, it consists of a restrained two-story elevation that may be
related distantly to contemporary Parisian architecture. However, Notre-Dame’s chief
glories are the stained-glass windows of the
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