During the Tudor and early Stuart periods in England, there was a lot of activity in the field of Heraldry. As we have previously seen, many of the Heralds’ Visitations were ignored or not fully attended. Despite this the Heralds did succeed in making many people take out grants of Coats of Arms, and also register pedigrees. This activity was brought to an untimely halt by the abdication of James II from the throne in 1688 and by the failure of the Court of Chivalry to sit after 1735.As no Visitations took place and the Court of Chivalry did not sit after this time, the Heralds were placed in a position where no one was obliged to come to them.In...
As noted previously Coats of Arms played a large part in the tombs of the deceased in the Middle Ages. Another instance of this particular usage can be found on the brasses on the floor of many churches and cathedrals. In the medieval and early modern periods in particular, monumental brasses and incised slabs were popular forms of monuments or memorials used to cover the tombs of those buried inside churches. An incised slab is a flat memorial with an effigy of the deceased, a cross or Coat of Arms, with epitaph, cut directly into the stone; they originated before the Norman Conquest. A monumental brass, by contrast, is engraved on sheets of metal inlaid in matrices cut into the...
The use of Coats of Arms on ladies gowns showed the way to a more peaceful and less warlike role for Heraldry. Heraldic emblems came to signify ownership in Tudor times. Just as the retainers of the medieval lords wore their lords’ badges on their jerkins, so in more modern times the footmen and servants wore livery, the latter in the principal colors of the Coats of Arms of the employer, and the Arms themselves or the badge were often shown on the buttons of the servants. Coats of arms in this period were also evident on clothes and other personal possessions such as Jewelry, silver, china, and household tiles. Today many examples of Heraldry exist on silver, many containing...
Heraldry played a very important part in marking the last resting place of the deceased from an early date. In the church at Boxgrove near Chichester in Sussex southern England can be seen numerous instances of the Coats of Arms of medieval persons who are entombed there. In Chichester Cathedral itself there are many other examples of Heraldry, including the tomb of Bishop Robert Sherburne, image above, indeed it would be hard to find a church or cathedral dating prior to 1800 where no arms appear. At Speldurst in Kent, the burial place of the great Waller family there is a collective memorial to the Wallers with their Coats of Arms, showing the shield in miniature hanging from the walnut...
When the two methods used by the English Heralds to control arms, the Visitations and the Court of Chivalry, had been removed there existed no means of controlling arms for 219 years in England and Wales. The ordinary Courts of law had no recognition of Coats of Arms except in what was known as “ names and arms clauses”. These were clauses in a will whereby the person that died willed that the beneficiary should take the name and the Coat of Arms of the deceased as one of the conditions of inheriting his estate. The Probate Court then dealt with the matter and required the person to comply with the deceased wishes as a matter of interpreting and carrying...
