In the collections of Mansion House museum, next to the Guildhall, is a richly decorated fifteenth-century sword. It once belonged to Sigismund, King of Hungary, Germany and Bohemia, and Holy Roman Emperor (1433-1437).
The scabbard has six silver dragons, curled with their tails around their necks, the symbol of his Societas Draconica, or ‘Order of the Dragon’. The sword was given to the City of York in 1439 by a local benefactor who had acquired it from the Chapel of St George at Windsor Castle.
In 1396 King Richard II granted to the Lord Mayors of York the right to have a sword and mace carried before them on all official occasions, to symbolise the mayor’s power and authority. This was an important step in York’s historic claim to be the ‘capital of the north’ in England. The city had up to four ceremonial swords, of which Sigismund’s became the highest-ranking.
To this day the mayor’s sword-bearer also wears a red ‘Cap of Maintenance’, symbolising the allegiance of the city to the Crown. The oldest surviving cap in Mansion House dates to 1580, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, while the current cap was given to the city in 2012 by Queen Elizabeth II.
