Baucent

Baucent (bauceant, baussant, etc.) was the name of the war flag (vexillum belli) used by the Knights Templar in the 12th and 13th centuries. 13th-century sources show it as a white gonfanon with a black chief (argent a chief sable).[1] Jacques de Vitry, writing in the 1220s, mentions the gonfanon baucent and explains that the black and white colours symbolise the Templar's ferocity towards their enemies and their kindness towards their friends.[2] It appears that later in the 13th century, the red cross of the Templar could be added to the banner. In a damaged fresco of the late 13th century in the Templar church of San Bevignate, Perugia, a Templar banner is depicted with the upper half in white and the lower half in black, with the red cross patty attached to the white field. The same fresco also shows a shield and horse-covers in the same design.

The emblem of the Templars, two knights seated on a single horse, shown alongside the Beauséant; miniature from the Chronica of Matthew Paris (c. 1250–1259).
Fragment of the fresco at San Bevignate (c. 1290) showing the gonfanon with a red cross patty.

The name baucent (also spelled bausent, bauceant, baussant, beausseant, beauséant etc.[3]) in origin is the Old French term for a piebald horse.[4] The name was later approximated to the French bien-séant, meaning "decorous, becoming". The name was also used as a battle cry by the Templars, À moi, beau sire ! Beauséant à la rescousse ! (French for "To me, good sire ! Beauséant to the rescue").[3]

According to the statutes of the order as edited by Münter (1794), each squadron (eschielle) of the order had its own banner. In battle, the banner-bearer was obliged to avoid direct contact with the enemy, and between five and ten brothers were specifically charged with guarding the banner. If any brother were to find himself separated from his banner, he was obliged to try to reach the nearest Christian banner in the field. No brother was permitted, on pain of expulsion from the order, to leave the field of battle as long as at least one banner of the order was still flying. If all of the Templars' banners had been lost, the men were expected to flock to the nearest banner of the Hospitallers, or any other Christian banner still flying. Only after the last Christian banner had fallen were they permitted to think about saving their own lives.[5]

After the dissolution of the order, the Freemasons adopted the banner.[6] It has also been noted that, according to a medieval legend, Alexander the Great was said to have had a similar banner with miraculous powers.[7]

See also

References
  1. "the Knights Templar [...] carried white shields with red crosses but [their] sacred banner, Beauséant, was white with a black chief" "Flags and standards", Colum Hourihane (ed.), The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture, Volume 1 (2012), p. 514.
  2. ed. F. Moschi (1596), p. 118: vexillum bipartitum ex albo & nigro, quod nominant bauceant, praevium habentes: eo quod Christi amicis candidi sunt, & benigni: nigri autem & terribiles inimicis. ; trans. Aubrey Stewart, The history of Jerusalem, A.D. 1180, Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society (1896), p. 52.: "They were lions in war, and gentle as lambs at home; in the field they were fierce soldiers, in church they were like hermits and monks; they were harsh and savage to the enemies of Christ, but kindly and gracious to Christians. They had a black and white banner, which they called Bauceant, borne before them, signifying that they are fair and kindly to their friends, but black and terrible to their enemies." c.f. Archibald Barrington, A Familiar Introduction to Heraldry (1848), p. 121.
  3. D. H. Wolf, Internationales Templerlexikon (2015), 130f.
  4. Frédéric Godefroy, Dictionnaire de l'ancien et moyen français (1881), s.v. BAUCENT; BAUCENC, Dictionnaire du Moyen Français; BAUCENC, Dictionnaire Électronique de Chrétien de Troyes. The word is believed to be derived from Latin balteus "belt, girdle", via balc plus addition of an adjectival suffix.
    • Konrad Schottmüller, Der Untergang des Templer-ordens: Mit urkundlichen und kritischen Beiträgen (1887), 74–78, citing Friedrich Münter, Statutenbuch des Ordens der Tempelherren (1794).
  6. Albert Mackey, Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (1873), s.v. "Beauseant".
  7. Gustav Weil, Biblische legenden der muselmänner, English translation 1863, p. 70: "Alexander was the lord of light and darkness, when he went out with his army the light was before him, and behind him was the darkness, so that he was secure against all ambuscades; and by means of a miraculous white and black standard he had also the power to transform the clearest day into midnight and darkness, or black night into noonday, just as he unfurled the one or the other. Thus he was unconquerable, since he rendered his troops invisible at his pleasure, and came down suddenly upon his foes. Might there not have been some connection between the mythical white and black standard of Alexander and the Beauseant of the Templars? We know that the latter were familiar with Oriental symbolism."
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