658 



HERALD 



HERALDRY 



docia about 575 A. p. In 610 he headed a revolt 

 against the tyrant Phocas, slew him, and ascended 

 his throne. At this time the empire was in great 

 straits : the Avars threatened it on the north-west, 

 and the Persians invaded its frontiers from the 

 Euxine to Egypt. The armies of Khosrau 

 (Chosroes) II. captured Damascus in 613, and in 

 the following year Jerusalem, from which they 

 carried off the sacred cross ; then Syria and Egypt 

 were conquered, and the whole of Asia Minor to the 

 gates of Chalcedon, over against Constantinople. 

 At length Heraclius bestirred himself, and, having 

 in 620 concluded a treaty with the Avars, set about 

 disciplining an army. Two years later he took the 

 field against his eastern enemy, and in a series 

 of most brilliant campaigns utterly routed the 

 generals of Persia several times in battle, won 

 back his lost provinces, shut up Khosrau II. within 

 the walls of his strong capital of Ctesiphon ( 628 ), 

 and compelled him to restore the true cross, which 

 Heraclius solemnly carried back to Jerusalem in 

 629. Two years later a new and more formidable 

 enemy appeared in the south-east viz. the fol- 

 lowers of Mohammed, who speedily won from the 

 Christian emperor nearly all that he had gained 

 from the Persians, the people of Asia Minor alone 

 opposing any resistance to their impetuous enthu- 

 siasm of conquest. Meanwhile Heraclius, strange 

 to say, wasted his time within his palace at 

 Constantinople in inexplicable inactivity, partly 

 in reprehensible self-indulgence, partly in theologi- 

 cal disputes. He died in 641, leaving the throne 

 to his son, Constantine III. See Drapeyron, 

 L'Empereur Heraclius ( 1869). 



Herald (Old HighGer. hariold i.e. hari-wald, 

 'army strength '), an officer who was in early times 

 the messenger of war and peace between sovereigns, 

 and of defiance and courtesy between knights, his 

 office also including the superintendence of jousts 

 and tournaments, and the regulation of public cere- 

 monials. When the bearing of coat-armour came 

 to be reduced to a system its supervision became 

 in France, England, Scotland, and some other 

 countries one of the functions of the herald. A 

 herald was generally attached to every order of 

 knighthood. Heralds had their attendants, called 

 pursuivants, who were presumed to be learning the 

 duties of a herald. Both had official titles ; and 

 often not only sovereigns, but the greater nobles, 

 had their heralds and pursuivants. English records 

 and chronicles of the 14th and 15th centuries 

 contain allusions to York, Windsor, Chester, 

 Lancaster, Arundel, Clarencieux, Leopard, and 

 other heralds, and to Falcon, Portcullis, Antelope, 

 and other pursuivants ; and in Scottish records of 

 the same date the heralds mentioned include Lyon, 

 Rothesay, Marchmont, Snowdoun, Hay, and 

 Albany, and the pursuivants Carrick, Diligence, 

 Unicorn. In France, England, Scotland, Burgundy, 

 and some other countries the chief of the heralds 

 acquired the title of King -of -arms, and had more 

 or less a judicial power of regulating the bearing of 

 coat-armour. The office of Montjoie roi d'armes in 

 France is as old as the 13th century. In England 

 in the reign of Edward III. there were two kings-of- 

 arms Norroy and Surroy the jurisdiction of the 

 one being to the north, the other to the south of the 

 Trent. The designation Surroy was changed by 

 Henry V. to Clarencieux. And the same king 

 instituted a new king-of-arms called Garter, who 

 was to be connected with the order so called, and 

 to be principal king-of-arms of England. In Scot- 

 tish records mention first occurs of Lyon King-of- 

 arms (who took his title from the lion in the royal 

 shield) in the beginning of the loth century. The 

 title of Ulster King-of-arms was created in the 

 reign of Edward VI. ; but there existed an Ireland 

 King-of-arms at an earlier date. Certain fees were 



secured to the English kings-of-arms and heralds 

 in connection with public ceremonials and creations 

 of peers in 1408; and in 1483 Richard III. incor- 

 porated them into a collegiate body, known as the- 

 Heralds' College, or College of Arms, presided over 

 by the Earl Marshal (whose office is hereditary in 

 the family of the Duke of Norfolk ), the other officers- 

 including Garter, principal king-of-arms, with 

 Clarencieux and Norroy under him, besides six 

 heralds, named Chester, Windsor, Lancaster, Rich- 

 mond, York, and Somerset, and four pursuivants, 

 Bluemantle, Portcullis, Rouge Dragon, and Rouge 

 Croix. A residence was at first granted to the 

 heralds, called Cold-harbour or Pulteney's Inn, in. 

 the parish of All Saints ; and in 1554 Queen Mary 

 gave them a building opposite St Bennets, which 

 was rebuilt after the great fire of 1666, and is still 

 the official residence of the officers of arms and 

 depository of their archives. Heralds extraordin- 

 ary are sometimes appointed by the crown, who are 

 not members of the Heralds' College. 



The College of Arms has no jurisdiction out of 

 England. Functions similar to those which the 

 English kings-of-arms exercise under the Earl 

 Marshal are discharged by Lyon King-of-arms in, 

 Scotland, and Ulster King-of-arms in Ireland, 

 directly under the crown. There are under Lyon 

 three heralds, Rothesay, Marchmont, and Albany, 

 and three pursuivants, Unicorn, Bute, and Albany ; 

 their duties are chiefly connected with public cere- 

 monials and royal proclamations. Lyon's armorial 

 functions are exercised alone, as judge in the Lyon 

 Court, where, however, the clerk of court or his 

 deputy is sometimes a herald. 



A tabard with the royal arms embroidered on 

 both sides of it has long been the official dress of 

 heralds and pursuivants. The tabards of the kings- 

 of-arms are richer in material. The insignia of the 

 latter also include a croAvn, a baton or sceptre, and 

 a chain with a medal or badge attached to it. 



Heraldry is in its original and more compre- 

 hensive sense the knowledge of the whole multi- 

 farious duties of a Herald (q.v. ); in the more- 

 restricted signification in which the term is used by 

 most modern writers, and that assigned to it in the 

 present article, it is a knowledge of the laws 

 that regulate armorial insignia i.e. the devices 

 that appear on shields, with their attendant 

 crests, supporters, and badges. After occupying 

 for ages the attention of the learned, and forming 

 an important branch of a princely education, this 

 study fell for a time into neglect and disrepute, and. 

 was abandoned to coach-painters and undertakers, 

 a degradation owing in part to the endless tissue 

 of follies and mystifications with which it had 

 been interwoven. Modern criticism has rescued 

 heraldry from these pedantries and absurdities^ 

 and imparted to it a new interest as a valuable 

 aid to historical investigations. 



Instances occur in remote times of nations, tribes, 

 and individuals distinguishing themselves by par- 

 ticular emblems or ensigns e.g. the standards of 

 the twelve tribes of Israel, of the Egyptians and 

 Assyrians, and the Roman eagle and cohort ensigns. 

 Figures, symbolical and ornamental, singularly like 

 some of those of heraldry, are found mixed with 

 other emblems in Egypt, China, India, Japan, on 

 Etruscan vases, and on Greek coins ; and shields 

 decorated with devices are described by both Homer 

 and ^Eschylus. Yet there is exhaustive negative 

 evidence that nothing that can be properly called 

 armorial devices were used either on shields or 

 banners before the middle of the 12th century. The 

 shields of the French knights in the first crusade 

 presented a plain face of solid metal, nor is there 

 any certain evidence of armorial bearings having 

 been in use in the second crusade, 1147 A.D. The 

 representation of the Norman invasion and conquest 



