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...
Heraldry is an art as well as a science and this is partly the reason that it has survived from the Middle Ages when the use of body armor to which it owed its origin began to decline The other factor in keeping Heraldry alive has been its significance in identifying one’s class. Because only the richest and most powerful persons used arms it soon became the mark of the “best people” and so Coats of Arms acquired a significance far beyond their merely utilitarian use in war as ensigns. The beauty of the form and the colors used in Heraldry attracts many who have no knowledge of the subject. Very early on, , the use of shields, crests and...
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...
The Court of Chivalry became very unpopular, and in 1521 the virtual abolition of the office of High Constable struck a blow at its jurisdiction. In that year Cardinal Wolsey, the powerful minister of Henry VIII, brought about the trial, condemnation and execution of the High Constable, the Duke of Buckingham. Wolsey was of humble origin, the son of a butcher in the town of Ipswich. He hated Buckingham and caused his ruin. When the Emperor Charles V heard of this event he exclaimed “ A butcher’s cur has pulled down the finest buck in England.” After 1521 no High Constable was appointed, except on the day of a Coronation of a King or Queen. The disappearance of the High...
