History of Heraldry

History of Heraldry

Decoration of Shields | Qualifications of an Armiger | Time Table | Organization | Record Keeping

Decoration of Shields

Some historians claim that the use of decoration of shields and surcoats evolved from the need to identify knights in battle (when covered head to toe in armor). However, Friar and Ferguson [1983, p. 10] claim this theory is of doubtful validity; they state that "common sense suggests that the mud and debris of warfare would quickly obliterate the battered surfaces of shields, rendering them unrecognizable." Their alternative theory is that this practice evolved from tournaments.
The heralds organized the tournament activities.

tourney -- more stylized form in which two teams of knights fought on horseback according to agreed rules
the tilt and barriers -- opponents were separated by a stout wooden barrier; the tilt was the part on horseback; after unhorsed participants fought on foot, with sword and pike, across the wooden barrier

"Tournaments began in eleventh-century France, as a form of training for battle, later becoming sporting entertainments and, ultimately, occasions of pageantry and ceremony" [ibid, p.32]. By the thirteenth century, tournaments had become more organized and professional jousters travelled throughout Europe seeking and offering challenges. Admission to the tournament was established as the prerogative of the knightly class. Heralds were advisors and emissaries and were responsible for arranging the tournaments. The heralds acquired an expertise which was peculiarly their own. They were concerned with the ordering and reordering of the personal devices used at tournaments and in warfare. Since they exercised this expertise it became known as "heraldry" [ibid, p.26].
Participation, both in the tournament itself and in the attendant festivities, was enormously expensive. "Pride in the status of armiger that such a privilege implied, and its manifestation in the richly emblazoned trappings of the tournament, was undoubtedly of greater significance in the development of heraldry than was its application in the field of battle" [ibid].

Qualifications of an Armiger

Armiger = the bearer of a Coat of Arms (see Bow'n Archery Dictionary)

Confirmation

direct, legitimate, male-line descent from an armigerous ancestor (i.e., from one who had borne arms from "time immemorial")

or Grant

applied for petition to the Earl Marshal, or otherwise granted from a lawful authority (by sovereign or by the King at Arms)
perceived to be a 'gentleman' (a knight)
'eminent men' (including women and corporate bodies)

Heraldry Time Table

1066 - "time immemorial" specified by the Court of Chivalry [no regulation for early tournaments]
1276 - earliest known reference to "a King of Heralds North of Trent"
1292 - a Statute of Arms for Tournaments required that swords should be blunted and that clubs and maces should not be used, because of injuries and deaths
1327 - Establishment of the High Court of Chivalry, Court of the Constable and Marshal
1419 - Henry V imposed rigid legal regulations on the use of arms
1484 - College of Arms established by Richard III (contains the High Court of Chivalry)

Formally incorporated
Officers of Arms in Ordinary (13 heralds)
Used a house named Coldharbour in the parish of All Hallows the Less in the City of London

Henry VII's Act of Resumption

College records and manuscripts were transferred to the home of John Wrythe, Garter King of Arms

1504 - dispersed among various officers of arms

Chapter house of the Black Friars adapted as headquarters

1521 - Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham and Constable of England executed

Earl Marshal and the Hereditary Marshal of England

1530 - Clarenceus King of Arms removed unlawful arms and started the "visitations"

Heralds sent into the shires to verify arms
Arms were either listed or denied

1555 - College of Arms re-incorporated (July)

The Kings, Heralds and Pursuivants of the Corporation of the Office of Arms, London
Received the Derby House, near St. Paul's Cathedral, as residence

1558 - Beginning of the reign of Elizabeth I
1568 - First Irish visitations
1580 - Major visitation
1620 - Major visitation
1666 - Major visitation
1666 - Derby House destroyed in the Great Fire, but records and manuscripts were saved
1671 - Obtained 'new letters patent' from Charles II to rebuild on the old site (Dec)
1737 - High Court of Chivalry set the last case (until 1954)

Organization: Office of Arms

Officers of Arms in Ordinary

Act as heraldic and genealogical consultants (charge fees), members of the Royal Household (salaries of the sovereign)
Three Kings of Arms - authority to grant armorial bearings subject to the approval of the Earl Marshal (England and Wales)

Garter
Clarenceux
Norroy and Ulster (N. Ireland)

Six Heralds

Chester
Lancaster
Richmond
Somerset
Windsor
York

Four Pursuivants

Rouge Dragon
Bluemantle
Portcullis
Rouge Croix

Officers of Arms in Extraordinary

Not members of a body corporate, but assist in state or other occasions
Heralds

Arundel
Beaumont
Maltravers
Norfork
Surrey
Wales
New Zealand

Pursuivant

Fitzaleu (?)

Record Keeping (Ordinaries and Rolls)

Armorials = reference works
Ordinary = an heraldic work of reference which lists the descriptions (blazons) of shields alphabetically by the charges they contain

Roll of Arms = any collection of heraldry (350 surviving European medieval rolls of arms, with 130 being English)

categorized by notation:

painted
tricked (drawn in outline with colors indicated by abbreviations (lines and symbols)
blazoned (listed in written form)

categorized by type:

Occasional Rolls = rolls related to events (e.g., expeditions, tournaments, or sieges)
Institutional Rolls = rolls associated with foundations and religious and chivalric orders
Regional Rolls = rolls which list the armigers in a particular administrative area (e.g., a county/shire)
Illustrative Rolls = roles which illustrate stories or chronicles
General Rolls = combination of other types

Decoration of Shields | Qualifications of an Armiger | Time Table | Organization | Record Keeping

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�1994-2007 Gregory M. Bowen