With the creation of the College of Arms and it’s consolidation in London under the eye of successive monarchs, the college went from strength to strength. It was from this strengthened and revived College of Arms that the Heralds went out to hold the Heralds’ Visitations in the 16th and 17th centuries. What exactly were these Visitations? They were a new departure in the recording of arms, for they combined almost from the start the recording of pedigrees with that of arms, and the Heralds acquired a genealogical function which they have kept to the present day. The Visitations were a continuation of the old Rolls of Arms and a new form of recording armorial matters. They were also crucially...
A 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...
The head of the College of Arms is the Duke of Norfolk by virtue of his hereditary office of Earl Marshal. This office has been in the family of Howard, of which the Duke is the head, since 1677. An Act of Parliament made this hereditary function after the Howard family had held the Marshalship intermittently since 1483. Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk is pictured to the right.Under the Duke are three kings of Arms – Garter, Clarenceux, and Norroy; six Heralds – Windsor, Chester, Lancaster, Richmond, Somerset and York; four Pursuivants or followers, the lowest of the Heralds who were originally attendants upon the Heralds as they in their turn were upon the nobility and the Sovereign. The...
One of the first European instances of Sovereigns attempting to gain control of Heraldry occurred in England in 1418, when Henry V, about to set out for France issued a writ to various sheriff’s of counties in his domain. The translation of this writ from Latin is as follows.“ Whereas as we are informed of diverse men , who on our journeys heretofore made, assumed, unto themselves arms and coats of arms called coat armour, in cases where neither they nor their ancestors in times gone by used such arms and coats of arms, and proposed to make use of them in our present journey, now, God willing, just about to be made; and although the Almighty distributes his favours...
The Sovereign of Britain is known as the Fountain of Honour, dispensing titles and honours at his or her pleasure. The King or Queen alone has the power to dispense these honours. This concept is not found throughout Europe. In Poland for example the representatives of the great families always contested very strongly the power of the Crown to create titles. In Poland a kind of aristocratic anarchy or self government prevailed. The nobles prided themselves on being noble from the beginning, as if they were descended from aristocratic cavemen, and they therefore refused to accept any new nobility created by the king. New nobles could only come in through adoption gradually through generations. Now in England titles were at...
