661 



HERALDS' COLLEGE. 



HERALDRY. 



(502 



A collar of SS was then put about his neck, one S being argent, or 

 silver, the other sable, or black, alternately, and when he was named, 

 the prince himself poured the wine and water on his head, and after 

 the oath was administered gave him the cup as before ; whereupon the 

 herald cried, "A largess." The kings of arms were created and 

 solemnly crowned by the sovereigns themselves, and distinguished from 

 the heralds by richer tabards, the embroidery being on velvet instead 

 of satin, gilt collars of SS, and coronets composed of a plain circle of 

 gold surmounted by sixteen strawberry leaves, eight of which are 

 higher than the rest. 



Modern heralds of all classes in the British dominions are now with 

 some few exceptions, made and appointed by the hereditary earl 

 marshal, and their functions and privileges are much abridged and 

 disregarded. The present number in England is fourteen, namely: 

 four kings of arms Garter, Clarenceux, Norroy, and Bath ; the second 

 and third being provincial kings, Clarenceux having power over all 

 parts of England south of the Trent, and Norroy over all parts north 

 of it. The fourth is specially attached to the Order of the Bath, and 

 is not a member of the College of Arms. Six heralds Somerset, 

 Chester, Windsor, Richmond, Lancaster, and York ; and four pur- 

 suivants Rouge Dragon, Portcullis, Blue Mantle, and Rouge Croix. 

 In Scotland there is one king at arms named Lyon ; and in Ireland 

 one, named Ulster. There is also a king of arms of the order of St. 

 Michael and St. George in the Ionian Islands. To these regular officers 

 are sometimes added, by command of the king to the earl marshal, a 

 herald or pursuivant extraordinary. Such were the heralds Arundel, 

 Norfolk, and Mowbray; and on the occasion of the funeral of the 

 late King William IV., Mr. Albert Woods, now Lancaster herald, son 

 of Sir W. Woods, then Clarenceux king of arms, was created pursuivant 

 extraordinary. 



HERALDS' COLLEGE, or COLLEGE OF ARMS, a corporation 

 founded by Richard III. in the 6rst year of his reign by a charter dated 

 the 2nd of March, 1483, in which he gives to the principal officers of 

 the corporation a house called Colde Arbor, in the parish of All Hallows 

 the Less, London. In the first year of the reign of Henry VII. this 

 house was seized into the king's hands under the Act of Resumption 

 as the personal property of John Writhe, then garter king of arms ; 

 and during the reign of that king and of his successor Henry VIII. the 

 heralds made several unsuccessful attempts by petition to obtain a 

 restoration of it, or the grant of some other building for their general 

 use. King Edward VI., in the third year of his reign, by a charter 

 dated June 4th, confirmed to them all their ancient privileges ; and 

 Philip and Mary, by charter of the 18th of July, 1554, re-incorporated 

 them, and granted to them Derby House, then occupying the site of 

 the present college on Benet's Hill, near St. Paul's Churchyard. The 

 nM building was destroyed in the great fire of London; but all the 

 id, &c., were fortunately saved, and removed to the palace 

 in \\\.-t!j.iiiater, where the heralds held their chapters, &e., until the 

 college was rebuilt. The corporation consists of three kings of arms, 

 Garter, Clarenceux, and Norroy (Bath not being a member), six 

 heralds, and four pursuivants. [HEKALD.[ The arms of the college 

 are argent, a cross gules between four doves rising azure. Crest, on 

 a ducal coronet, Or, a dove rising azure. Supporters, two lions ram- 

 pant gardant argent, ducally gorged Or. There is a heralds' college 

 in Scotland, composed of Lyon king of arms, six heralds, and six 

 pur-uivants. 



HERALDRY, the art of arranging and explaining in proper terms 

 all that appertains to the bearing of coats of arms, badges, and other 

 hereditary or assumed marks of honour; also the science of mar- 

 shalling processions and conducting the ceremonies of coronations, 

 instalments, creations of peers, funerals, marriages, and all other public 

 solemnities. 



The origin of heraldry, in the first and most commonly understood 

 senae, hag been attributed by the general consent of all rational writers 

 on the subject, to the necessity for distinguishing by some outward 

 sign, amidst the confusion of battle, the principal leaders during the 

 expedition* for the recovery of the Holy Land. But nothing is abso- 

 lutely known concerning it beyond the fact that the middle of the 

 12th century is the earliest period to which the bearing of heraldic 

 'l>erly so called, can be traced, and the commencement of 

 the 13th, the time about which they became hereditary. 



The earliest mil of arms of which we have any notice a of the reign 

 of Henry III.; and the reign of Edward I. presents us with the earliest 

 heraldic document extant. The famous roll of Caerlaveroch, a poem in 

 old Norman French, rehearses the names and armorial ensigns of all 

 the barons, knights, Ac., who attended Edward I. at the siege of Caer- 

 Uveroch Castle in 1300. [BANNER.] Heraldry is therein first presented 

 is a science. The principal rules and terms of the art were then 

 in existence, and from about that time the latter are continually found 

 in the fabliaux aud romances of France and England. 



The oldest writer on heraldry whose work has descended to us is 

 Nicholas Upton, whose treatise ' De Militari Officio ' was composed in 

 the reign of Henry V., and translated in that of his successor by 

 Juliana Barnes [BKK.NKKS, in Biou. Div.], in the work known as the 

 " Boke of St. Alban's." As Upton quotes no earlier authorities, his 

 definitions and explanations can only be looked upon as assertions 

 made nearly three hundred years after the origin of the practice, and, 

 consequently, to be believed or not, according to the discretion of the 



eader. In the reign of Richard III. the English heralds were incorpo- 

 rated and the College of Arms founded ; and in the following century a 

 swarm of writers arose both in France and England, each contradicting 

 the other, and wasting a world of learning and research in the most 

 absurd and idle controversies. 



On the decline of chivalry the study of heraldry became gradually 

 neglected, and the art, which had formed for centuries a portion of the 

 education of princes, and occupied the attention of some of the most 

 earned men in Europe, was abandoned to the coach-painter and the 

 undertaker, while kings of arms and pursuivants were looked upon as 

 mere appendages of state pageantry, their office ridiculed, and their 

 authority defied. 



That the pedantic nonsense of such writers as Morgan, Feme, Mac- 

 kenzie, &c., contributed to these results, there can be little doubt. A 

 taste for the critical study of antiquities generally is now, however, 

 reviving throughout Europe, and the use of heraldry as a key to 

 aistory and biography is daily becoming more and more acknow- 

 ledged. 



The rules of heraldry, as now practised at the College of Arms, are, 

 as we have before remarked, comparatively modern, and vary in some 

 points from those observed in France and Germany. 



According to the received authorities, there are ten classes of arms, 

 namely : 



1. Arms of Dominion, being those which sovereigns bear as annexed 

 to the territories they govern. 



2. Of Pretetttion, those borne by sovereigns who are not in possession 

 of the dominions to which such arms belong, but who claim or pretend 

 to have a right to such possession ; as, for instance, the kings of 

 England from Edward III. to George III. quartered the arms of 

 France. 



3. Arms of Community, being those of bishoprics, cities, universities, 

 academies, and other bodies corporate. 



4. Of Assumption, such as are assumed by a man of his proper right 

 without the grant of his sovereign, or of a king at arms ; as, for instance, 

 when a man of any degree whatsoever has taken prisoner in lawful war 

 any gentleman, nobleman, or prince, he may bear the arms of that 

 prisoner, and transmit them to his heirs for ever. 



5. Arms of Patronage, such as governors of provinces, lords of 

 manors, patrons of benefices, &c., add to their family arms, as a token 

 of their superiority, rights, and jurisdiction. 



6. Arms of Succession, borne by those who inherit certain estates, 

 manors, &c., either by will, entail, or donation. 



7. Arms of Alliance, such as the issue of heiresses take up to show 

 their maternal descent. 



8. Anna of Adoption, borne by a stranger in blood, with the special 

 permission of the sovereign, applied for in order to fulfil the will of the 

 testator who may bequeath certain moneys or estates on condition of 

 the party's assuming his name and arms. 



9. Anns of Contention, augmentations granted by the sovereign of 

 part of his own ensigns or regalia to such persons as he pleases to 

 honour therewith. 



1 0. Arms Paternal and Hereditary, such as are transmitted from the 

 first possessor to his son, grandson, great-grandson, &c. ; thereby form- 

 ing complete and perfect nobility. The son being a gentleman of 

 second coat-armour, the grandson a gentleman of blood, and the great- 

 grandson a gentleman of ancestry. 



These several sorts of arms are displayed on shields, or escutcheons, 

 and on banners, the ground of either being called the field, and the 

 figures borne upon it the ordinaries and charges. 



The shield, or escutcheon, contains cer- ^ . 



tain points or locations, namely, A, B, c, 

 the chief: A being the dexter or right- 

 hand chief, B the precise middle chief , and 

 c the sinister or left-hand chief. D is the 

 honour point ; E the fess point, being the 

 exact middle of the shield ; F the nombril 

 or navel point ; o, H, I, the dexter, middle, 

 and sinister base points. 



The colours of the escutcheon, or of its ordinaries and charges, are 

 five : 



Red (the heraldic name of which is) . . Gules. 



Blue ... Azure. 



Black . . Sable. 



Green ... Vert. 



Purple . Purpure. 



To which must be added, or rather prefixed, yellow and white, which 

 being ordinarily represented by gold and silver, are called metals, aud 

 named by heralds, after the French, Or aud Argent. 



There are also two other colours recognised by heralds, but rarely 

 seen in English coats of arms, namely, orange, called Tenne, and a dark 

 blood-red inclining to purpls, called Sanguine, or Murreii, from inul- 



