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Heralds' Visitations part 3


Heralds' visitationsA Pursuivant, or more correctly a pursuivant of arms, is a junior officer of arms. Most pursuivants are a attached to the official heraldic authorities.There are  four Pursuivants; Rouge Croix, Blue Mantle, Rouge Dragon and Portcullis. Of the four Pursuivants, Rouge Croix probably derives his title from the red cross of St. George. He was instituted by Henry V. Henry V and Edward III have both been credited with the creation of the Blue Mantle. , the origin of the name coming from the description of the royal arms of France, azure semee de lis ( blue background with a sprinkling of lilies or fleur de lis). Edward III assumed the arms of France in right of his mother as heiress to the French throne. He placed them in the first and fourth quarters of his shield, having precedence over England, and this position was maintained for 460 years until the reign of George III (1800). Henry VII created rouge Dragon and Portcullis, The latter being named after the portcullis badge used by Henry. A portcullis is a gate to a Medieval Castle. Roge Dragon is an allusion to the dragon device used by the Welsh princes from whom the new King derived his lineage. 

 

The charter of King Richard III which incorporated the College of Arms in 1484 assigned for the use of the Heralds a building called Cold Harbour, formerly called Poultney’s Inn, in the parish of All Saints the Little in the City of London. When Richard fell at the battle of Bosworth in 1485, the heralds lost their chief, the Duke of Norfolk being killed also. The grant of Cold Harbour was declared void, and it was not until the Heralds obtained a new charter from Edward VI reaffirming their privileges that they were granted a property called Derby House situated in the parish of St. Benedict and St. Peter within the City of London. Derby House was destroyed  in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and until the College of Arms was rebuilt, the Heralds had temporary rooms in Whitehall and later in the palace at Westminster. The new college was finished in 1683. Thus the College of Arms has for over three centuries continued to occupy a site which has come to be dominated more and more by the buildings of modern commerce. The College of Arms along with the ancient city churches forms one of the few relics of the old City of London.

The coronation of Edward III

                                           THE CORONATION OF EDWARD III

 


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