ABSTRACT
In social and financial terms the family came a very long way in a short space of time by turning the ‘fortwne of the werld’ into ‘fortune in worldys worschyppe’. In common with many nobles, John de la Pole used more than one badge to denote his ownership of property and personal affinity. One of these was the Suffolk knot but the other was a ‘Lyon of gold the Kewe forched’. To limit the problem through specification to one, albeit major, example of the practice would have been to minimize its magnitude and possibly alienate those of the audience unaffected by the Suffolk regime. An identification of Madam Regent was suggested by Smart in his work on the sources of Wisdom that makes an even closer connection with the Suffolks. There is nothing that offers the kind of specific detail in costume that made possible the identification of the Suffolks with the dance of maintenance.
