HERALDRY MINT

The Law of Arms

By the 15th century, heralds had become the acknowledged experts in everything associated with arms, and from that time the study and “noble science of arms” because known as heraldry. As with all matters of heraldry, the law of arms has varied widely depending on time and place, and medieval writers differed in their opinions concerning who should and should not bear arms. Some contested that only those of noble stock had such a right, while others suggested that anyone should be able to assume them. The matter continues to be debated among heraldists, though most governments now take little interest in it, apart from enshrining somewhere in law their people’s right to adopt arms at will, and for those who have done so to protect their arms in the same manner as a surname.

The term “herald” seems to have its origins in the Old German word beerwald, suggesting a caller or proclaimer to the army. Certainly, early references to heralds in French medieval romances seem to suggest they shared a common ancestry with the minstrels and messengers of noble households. Other 12th- and 13th-century writers refer to freelance individuals who followed the newly fashionable sport of tourneying across Europe, employed to cry out the names of knights and recount their lineage and acts of prowess.

Heralds took an interest in matters armorial. At tournaments, and in battle, the heralds needed to recognize and memorize the arms of the participants, and for this purpose they compiled pictorial rolls of armorial bearings. Rolls of arms were initially actual rolls of parchment or vellum, but the term also came to be used to describe armorial records in book form. Some rolls, known as “ordinaries:, were classified by all the different devices, or charges, that could be placed on a shield.

By the late 14th century the herald had advanced to become a permanent fixture in the households of royalty and they major nobility – to help in organizing tournaments or to act as a personal emissary. While lesser nobles might have only one herald, the households of ruling dukes, princes and kings were more likely to contain a formal heraldic staff headed by a king of arms, the highest ranking officer of arms. “Pursuivants” (literally “follower”) were apprentice heralds.

On the medieval battlefield, where strategy and tactics look second place to precedence among the nobility, the heralds were attached to the retinue of the marshal who led the army, and assisted him in marshalling the forces on the battlefield, in camp and on the match.

Since medieval times, officers of arms have been divided into three ranks: kings of arms, heralds and pursuivants. In England, the officer of state responsible for overall control of matters heraldic and ceremonial is the Earl Marshal of England, the Duke of Norfolk, in whose family the office is hereditary.

Like their late medieval forebears, heralds today are concerned on a daily basis with the granting of arms, both to individuals and to corporate bodies. They are also often consulted for their expertise in historical matters, from pedigrees to providing providing background material for television documentaries or films. More formally, they act as assistants and advisors to the Earl Marshal at great state occasions such as the coronation of the sovereign, or the state opening of Parliament. In addition to the officers employed on a full time, or “ordinary”, basis, there are others who, through their own merit, are singled out by the Earl Marshal to be “extraordinary” pursuivants or heralds. They are honorary heralds who exercise ceremonial duties on an occasional basis. The extraordinary officers hold titles taken from the various peerages held by the Earl Marshal.