Medieval Collar

The livery collar, which has never passed out of use, takes many forms, its Esses being sometimes linked together chainwise, and sometimes, in early examples, as the ornamental bosses of a garter-shaped strap-collar. The oldest survival bearing it is that in Spratton church of Sir John Swynford who died in 1371. Many explanations are given of the origin of these letters, but none has as yet been established. During the reigns of Henry IV, his son and grandson the collar of Esses was a royal badge of the Lancastrian house and party.

The kings of the house of York and their chief followers wore the Yorkist collar of suns and roses. 

Collars of various devices are worn by the knights of some of the European orders of Knighthood,  The custom was begun by Phillip III, Duke of Burgundy, who gave his knights badges of a golden fleece hung from a collar of flints, steels and sparks. Louis XI of France in 1469, gave the knights collars of scallop shells linked on a chain for the Order of St. Michael