Another very interesting early heraldic roll dates from the reign of Edward II ( 1284 - 1387 ), and is known as The Great Parliamentary or Bannerets Roll dating from about 1312. It contains the names and arms of 1,120 people. The roll is divided by county. One of the most fascinating of all of the rolls is that of The Siege of Caerlaverock. It is written in Norman French, the language of Heraldry, and relates to the siege and capture within 36 hours of a small castle in Dumfriesshire, Scotland in the year 1300 during the July campaign of that year by King Edward I. The author of the roll describes in great detail the arms of those present...
The first of the English “Rolls of Arms” date to about 60 years after the reign of Richard the Lionheart ( 1189 – 1199). Before there was anything resembling a Herald’s college in England or elsewhere in Europe, collections of arms had been written down in various forms, sometimes by heralds who were interested in making such collections, sometimes by scribes and recorders who found their rolls useful in aiding their memories at jousting tournaments and other official gatherings of nobles and knights.England is especially rich in these early rolls, it was a Scotsman, J. Storer Clouston, who wrote “ The good fortune of England in preserving so much of her past is nowhere more conspicuous than in her great...
