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 institution of Somerset Herald is ascribed to Henry VIII, in honor of his son Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset; the office of Richmond Herald occurs in the reign of Edward IV (1461 - 1470). Various other titles have been borne by English heralds from time to time and from different circumstances connected to the Sovereigns. For example Guienne King of Arms, an office held by Sir Payne Roet, a native of Hainaut, Belgium, whose daughter Katherine Swynford (the name of her first husband) became the mistress and eventual wife of John of Gaunt ( pictured left ), the “time-honored Lancaster” of Shakespeare and the mother of several children from one of whom descended the Tudor dynasty. This...
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...
