FERT, motto of the House of Savoy: four letters for the elevation of the soul...

Originally, the word "FERT" would be the motto of the Order of the Collar, created in 1364 (1) by the Count of Savoy Amédée VI (1334-1343-1383); order which, since the new statutes granted by Duke Charles III (1486-1504-1553), on September 11, 1518, is called Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation. This order of chivalry brings to the House of Savoy two new emblems:

– The badge (2) of the knot (lake of love or Savoy knot);
– The word “FERT”.

Both symbolize the sworn faith of the fifteen knights (then twenty from 1518) who make up the order, as well as the indissoluble friendship that unites them. The lake of love was perhaps a personal emblem of Amédée VI, known as the Green Count. It is a loosened and stylized knot such that, when one pulls on the two ends, it tightens ever more, becoming unbreakable. This Savoy knot can be used in one or more copies, constitute a sown field (on seals, on tapestries, etc.), take various forms, including that of a twisted cross. Used in three copies, as on the pendant of the collar of the Order of the Annunciation, it evokes the Holy Trinity.

However, as we shall see later, it is possible that the Savoy knot was already in use by the Count of Piedmont, Thomas II of Savoy (1199-1259), according to the explanations given by Samuel Guichenon in his Genealogical History of the Royal House of Savoy (1660). From the creation of the Order of the Collar, the lac d'amour, like the motto "FERT", tends to function on three levels:
‍
– Personnel: the sovereign;
– Dynastic: the House of Savoy;
– Institutional: the Order of the Collar.

The motto "FERT", for its part, would seem to appear around the year 1392, according to Professor André Palluel-Guillard: "FERT is the motto of the Order of the Annunciation, in fact it appeared around 1392 and still remains quite incomprehensible: It has been made the Latin anagram of the expression "His valor defended Rhodes" in reference to the expedition of Amédée V on this island in the 3th century, but could it not also be "We are bound by alliance and religion" or as was suggested at the beginning of the XNUMXth century "The woman will be your ruin", unless more simply it means "Let him (or her) bear" or even more frankly (according to Guichenon) "Strike, enter, break everything". The mystery remains. "(XNUMX)

However, over the course of history, the real meaning of this word has been supplanted by fanciful interpretations since the end of the 1249th century, with the belief that these four letters could be an acronym. From this acronym, the Latin expression "Fortitudo Eius Rhodum Tenuit" was constructed, translating as: "His valour defended Rhodes"; "His strength preserved Rhodes"; "By his courage, he became master of Rhodes". This refers to the heroic behaviour of Count Amadeus V the Great (1285-1323-1315) at the siege of Rhodes in 1315, freeing it from the Ottoman yoke. Amadeus V was not present in Rhodes during this siege... which did not take place. Unless it is rather a reference to the conquest of the island of Nisyros, in XNUMX, by the Knights of Rhodes (whom we now know as the Knights of Malta).

In any case, Amadeus V did not take part in this feat of arms. Or again: "Fœdere Et Religione Tenemur", which translates as: "We are bound by alliance and religion"; "We are bound by the word given to faith"; "Peace and religion hold us united". We also know the expression: "Fides Est Regni Tutela", meaning: "Faith is the protection of the kingdom" or "Faith is the protector of the country". Mocking the weakness of certain sovereigns in the face of the great power of their wives, after the first Sabaudian apogee during the long reign of Amadeus VIII (1391-1440), evil tongues, at the beginning of the XNUMXth century, endeavored to divert this chivalric motto into a nasty, inelegant and discourteous little phrase: "Femina Erit Ruina Tua".

The obvious meaning of this pamphleteering statement will not have escaped anyone: "The woman will cause your ruin." Very humbly, the historian Samuel Guichenon (1607-1664), after having demonstrated the absurdity of certain theses attempting to give an explanation for these four letters, concludes simply with these few words: "Thus our princes adopted the FERT for their motto, which everyone will interpret as they please, because I admit my ignorance in this […]" Firstly, on page 111, chapter XIII of the first book of his Genealogical History of the Royal House of Savoy (4), while he briefly presents the orders of chivalry of the Sabaudian dynasty, Samuel Guichenon firmly rejects the thesis of André Favyn (5): [The Order] "of the Annonciade is the institution of Amé VI nicknamed the Green Count, and not Amé II as modern authors have written. From the beginning it was called the Order of the Collar, because the Collar was made like that of a Laurel, in which Favin was strangely mistaken, who says that it was originally called the Military Order of the Lakes of Love, presupposing that the cause of such a noble institution had been some love affair, as was believed of the Orders of the Golden Fleece and the Garter. It is on this bad basis that the same writer has put forward that Count Vert, having received from a friend a bracelet of hair braided and tied into love knots, established this Order in memory of this favor, and that the four letters of the motto FERT which is in the necklace, interlaced with love knots, mean STRIKE ENTER BREAK EVERYTHING, a motto proper to a lover: but far from Count Vert having the thought of creating an Order for such a light thing,(6) on the contrary, he had only piety as his goal, and the particular devotion he had to the Holy Virgin, and to the Carthusian order, of which no other proof is needed than the foundation of the Chartreuse de Pierre-Châtel in Bugey; by which it is stated that there would be fifteen Carthusians in this house, to say mass there every day, in honor of the fifteen joys of the Virgin and for the salvation of the fifteen knights of his Order.

Secondly, about thirty pages further on (pp. 140, 141 & 142) in chapter XV entitled "Of the Arms, these seals, holders, crest, cry, motto and coins of the Royal House of Savoy", Samuel Guichenon also rejects the reference to this non-existent siege of Rhode of 1315 which we have already spoken about above. Just as he rejects any reference in this motto to a so-called humiliating homage of the Marquis of Saluces(7) to Count Amadeus VI (1343-1383), briefly returning to the "ridiculous" explanation - in his own words - of Favyn: "There remains the motto of this Royal House, which consists of this word FERT or these four letters FERT whose invention our historians and all foreigners attribute to Count Ame the Great(8), in memory of the capture of Rhodes, what they derive from these four letters written with this punctuation, FERT in such a way that each letter signifies a word FORTITUDO EIUS RHODUM TENUIT, others make the author of this motto the Green Count, because of the shameful collar that he made the Marquis of Saluces wear, when he received homage from him, as if he had wanted to say FERT, he wears. Favin, who believed that the institution of the Order of the Collar of Savoy, since called the Annunciation, came from a love affair, interpreted these four letters of FERT according to his own fancy and said that they mean, STRIKE, ENTER, BREAK, ALL, as we have already noted.

Finally, Samuel Guichenon continues his study by explaining that the appearance of the motto FERT would not date from the reign of Amadeus VI nor that of his grandfather Count Amadeus V. According to him, besides the fact that this motto would have been used by one of the brothers of Amadeus V, namely Louis I (1250-1302), Baron of Vaud, it could already date from the middle – or even the first half – of the 1199th century: Thomas II (1259-1235) Count of Piedmont (1259-9),(1301) father of Louis Baron of Vaud and Amadeus V Count of Savoy, used the motto FERT and the lake of love, writes Guichenon: "Now, as Favin's explanation, which we have refuted, is ridiculous, also the other two do not fit with the chronology; because to show that this motto is neither the invention of Count Vert, nor of Count Amé the Great, Louis of Savoy, Baron of Vaud, who died in the year 10, already bore the same motto FERT without punctuation, as we learn from his coins, which Monsieur Quartery(XNUMX), apostolic protonotary and canon of the churches of Sion and Saint Maurice in Chablais, since very worthy abbot and lord of Saint Maurice, a very curious personage, showed us, and of whom I have recovered some, and moreover in the tomb of Thomas of Savoy II of the name, Count of Maurienne and Piedmont, father of Amé the Great, who is buried in the cathedral church of Aosta, there is a dog at his feet, which has a collar, on which is the motto FERT in Gothic letters, without punctuation or separation of letters: which teaches us that it was only one word, and this that it was said that Amé the Great took this motto, because of the conquest of Rhodes, is a fable.

Indeed, I have in my power an old copper coin of the same Count Thomas, which was sent to me from Dauphiné by Mr. Chorier(11), from whom all of France awaits this beautiful and curious story of Dauphiné, where on one side is the leaning shield of Savoy, with the cross and the crest of a winged lion's muzzle surmounted by a peacock's feather, with these two letters on one side TS, which mean THOMAS and on the other HI which means HUMBERTI, that is to say, FILIUS, in the fashion of the Greeks, who always added to the names of children, that of their fathers. On the reverse of this coin, there are two lakes of Love, and the word FERT in the middle. "I still have a silver coin from Peter of Savoy before he was called to the crown of Savoy, in which there is the motto FERT on the reverse, in Gothic characters. "From which it clearly follows that this word FERT is the ancient motto of the Royal House of Savoy; but it is difficult to give a certain interpretation; Petra-Sancta(12) had promised it to us, and forgot it. […] Thus our princes adopted FERT for their motto, which everyone will interpret as they please, for I confess my ignorance in this […]" In our time, the medievalist and heraldist Michel Pastoureau writes that "this word simply represents the present indicative of the [Latin] verb "ferre" in the third person singular, and that it must be understood in relation to the Order of the Collar.

FERT is the word common to the fifteen knights; each wears (fert) the collar of the order. It would probably be futile to look further. This does not prevent the interpretations proposed in the 1364th or 2013th centuries from being true historical documents on the mentalities and erudition of the 213th and XNUMXth centuries. This word is therefore not an acronym, it would be anachronistic in the middle of the XNUMXth century. " Professor André Palluel-Guillard wanted, for his part, to give a more chivalrous dimension to this last interpretation of Michel Pastoureau by writing that this conjugation of the verb "ferre" would in fact mean "that he supports", thus implying that each of the knights in the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation supports his fate. For his part, the medievalist Matthieu de La Corbière, gives a particularly interesting explanation of this motto "FERT". According to him, this word would not relate to the knights of the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation, nor to their collar of the order, as proposed by A. Palluel-Guillard and M. Pastoureau, but would refer to the very one to whom the order has paid homage since its foundation in XNUMX: the Holy Virgin. In his novel entitled "The Conquest of Mount Maudit" (Ed. Le Vieil Annecy, Chavanod, XNUMX), signed under his pen name Henri Alfray, Matthieu de la Corbière writes on page XNUMX: "[…] and the motto "Fert", to say that the Virgin carries the child Jesus, as announced by the archangel Gabriel."