True blue: the connection between colour and loyalty in the later Middle Ages

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article examines the relationship between the colour blue and the virtue of loyalty during the later Middle Ages. While it may not have been a colour with powerful symbolic resonances earlier in the medieval epoch, blue came to be regarded as increasingly prestigious as the period progressed. References to its association with loyalty and its concomitant virtues appear on the Continent and found their way to England. After briefly outlining the significance of blue in the medieval period, the paper examines this connection between colour and virtue in literature, heraldic treatises and works of art, arguing that it became generally accepted, although not all agreed on the association.