Historical Notices of the College of Arms.
[Illustration: (Arms of the College.)[252]]
"Their consequence was great in the court, in the camp, and, still
more than either, in the council; as negociators they had great
influence; they were conspicuous for judgment, experience, learning,
and elegance; they gained honour whenever they were
employed."--_Noble._
We have seen, in a former chapter, that at an early period the sovereign
and his greater nobles retained in their respective establishments certain
officers called heralds, whose duties have been slightly alluded to. In
the present chapter the reader will find a hasty sketch of the history of
these functionaries in their incorporated capacity as a =College of Arms=.
The College of Arms, or, as it is often called, the "Heralds' College,"
owes its origin as a corporation to a monarch who has the misfortune to
occupy a very unenviable place in the scroll of fame; to a man whose
abilities and judgment would have received all due honour from posterity
had they been coupled with the attributes of justice and benevolence, and
attended with a better claim to the sceptre of these realms. But, whatever
may be said of Richard III as an usurper, a murderer, and a tyrant,
impartial justice awards to him the credit of a wise and masterly
execution of the duties of the regal office. Many of the regulations in
the state adopted by him and continued by his successors bear the impress
of a mind of no despicable order. One of his earliest acts was the
foundation of this college. "Personally brave, and nurtured from his
infancy in the use of the sword, he was more especially ambitious of
preserving the hereditary dignity and superior claims of the =White Rose=.
He supported, at his own charge, Richard Champneys, Falcon herald, whom
upon his accession he created Gloucester king of arms, and at whose
instance he was further induced to grant to the body of heralds immunities
of great importance."[253] His letters patent for this purpose bear date
March 2d, 1483, the first year of his reign. The heraldic body, as
originally constituted, consisted of twelve of the most approved heralds,
for whose habitation he assigned a messuage in the parish of All Saints in
London, called Pulteney's Inn, or Cold Harbore.[254] As usual with every
fraternity of those times, the newly-constituted college had a chaplain,
whose stipend was fixed at L20 per annum. The 'right fair and stately
house,' as it is termed by Stowe, was first presided over by Sir John
Wriothesley, or Wrythe, whose arms were assumed by the body, and are still
perpetuated on their corporate seal. For the better performance of the
duties of the heralds, the kingdom was divided into two provinces, over
each of which presided a king of arms. The title of the officer who
regulated all heraldric affairs south of the river Trent was _Clarenceux_,
and that of him who exercised jurisdiction northward of it, _Norroy_. From
this statement it must not be inferred that kings of arms had not
previously existed, for there were a _Norroy_ and a _Surroy_[255] (q. d.
'northern king' and 'southern king,') as early as the reign of Edward III;
although their duties were not so well defined nor their authority so
great as both became after the incorporation of the college. Over both
these, as principal of the establishment, was appointed _Garter_, king of
arms, an office instituted by King Henry V, and so called from his
official connexion with the order of knighthood bearing that designation.
Next in point of dignity to the provincial kings, stood several _heralds_
bearing peculiar titles, and the third rank was composed of pursuivants,
or students, who could not be admitted into the superior offices until
they had passed some years of probationary study and practice in the
duties of their vocation. These three degrees, it is scarcely necessary to
state, still exist in the corporation. From a very early period Garter
exercised, and still continues to exercise, a concurrent jurisdiction with
the two Provincial Kings of Arms in the grant of Armorial Ensigns, but he
had many exclusive privileges; as the right of ordering all funerals of
peers of the realm, the two archbishops, the bishop of Winchester, and
knights of the Garter; he only could grant arms to these individuals; he
was consequently a person of no inconsiderable importance.
The duties of the officers of arms at this period consisted in attending
all ceremonials incident to the king and the nobility, such as
coronations, creations, the displaying of banners on the field of battle
or in the lists, public festivities and processions, the solemnization of
baptisms, marriages, and funerals, the enthronization of prelates,
proclamations, and royal journeys or progresses. The importance of the
presence of heralds at royal funerals of a somewhat later date, is shown
in the two following extracts:[256]
"And incontinent all the heraudes did off their cote-armour, and did hange
them upon the rayles of the herse, _cryinge lamentably_ in French, 'The
noble king Henry the seaveneth is dead;' and as soon as they had so done,
everie heraude putt on his cote-armure againe, and cried with a loude
voyce, 'Vive le noble Henry le viijth.'"
At the interment of Prince Arthur, 1502:
"At every Kurie elyeson an officer of arms with a high voyce said for
Prince Arthure's soule and all Christian soules, Pater-noster.... His
officer of arms, _sore weeping_, toke off his coate of armes, and cast it
along over the cheaste right lamentablie."[257]
The fees demanded on the occasions before recited were considerable, but
the officers of arms had another source of revenue, namely, the largesses
or rewards for proclaiming the styles and titles of the nobility. These
were optional, and generally corresponded to the rank and opulence of the
donors. "On Newe-yeares-day," [1486], says Leland, "the king, being in a
riche gowne, dynede in his chamber, and gave to his officers of armes
vi_l._ of his Largesse, wher he was cryed in his style accustomede. Also
the quene gave to the same officers XL_s._ and she was cried in her style.
At the same time my lady the kyngs moder gave XX_s._ and she was cried
Largesse iij tymes. De hault, puissaunt, et excellent Princesse, la mer du
Roy notre souveraigne, countesse de Richemonde et de Derbye, Largesse.
Item, the Duc of Bedeforde gave XL_s._ and he was cried, Largesse de hault
et puissaunt prince, frere et uncle des Roys, duc de Bedeforde, et counte
de Penbroke, Largesse. Item, my lady his wiff gave xiij_s._ iiij_d._ and
she was cried, Largesse de hault et puissaunt princesse, duchesse de
Bedeforde et de Bokingham, countesse de Penbrok, Stafford, Harford, et de
Northampton, et dame de Breknok, Largesse. Item, the Reverende Fader in
God the Lorde John Fox, Bishop of Excester, privy seale, gave XX_s._ Item,
th' Erle of Aroundell gave X_s._, and he was cried, Largesse de noble et
puissaunt seigneur le counte d'Aroundell, et seigneur de Maltravers. Item,
th' Erle of Oxinforde gave xx_s._ and he was cryede, Largesse de noble et
puissaunt le Counte d'Oxinforde, Marquis de Develyn, Vicount de Bulbik,
et Seigneur de Scales, Graunde Chamberlayn, et Admirall d'Angleter,
Largesse. Item, my lady his wiff XX_s._ and she was cried, Largesse de
noble et puissaunt Dame la Countesse d'Oxinford, Marquise de Develyn,
Vicountesse de Bulbik, et Dame de Scales, &c. &c."
Another perquisite of the heraldic corps were great quantities of the rich
stuffs, such as velvet, tissue, and cloth of gold, used as the furniture
of great public ceremonials. The following are some of the fees claimed by
the officers on state occasions, as recorded in one of the Ashmolean MSS.
"At the coronacion of the Kinge of England c{_l._}[258], appareled in
scarlet.
"At the displaying of the King's banner in any campe ... c markes.
"At the displaying of a Duke's banner, L20.
"At a Marquis's, 20 markes.
"At an Earle's, x{_l._}, &c. &c.
"The Kinge marrying a wife L50, _with the giftes of the King's and
Queen's uppermost garments_!
"At the birth of the King's eldest son, 100 markes; at the birth of
other younger children, L20.
"The King being at any syge (siege) with the crowne on his head, L5.
"The wages due to the officers of armes when they go owt of the land:
"Garter 8_s._ a day: every of the other kings 7_s._: every herald
4_s._: every pursuivant 2_s._: and theyr ordinary expences."
To return to the thread of our history: at the death of Richard III,[259]
all his public acts were declared null and void, as those of an usurper,
and the heraldic body, in common with others, fell under the censure of
Henry. Driven from their stately mansion of Cold-Harbour, they betook
themselves to the conventual house of Rounceval, near Charing Cross, which
had been a cell to the priory of Rouncevaulx, in Navarre, and suppressed
with the rest of the alien priories by the jealous policy of Henry V. Here
they remained for many years, though only by sufferance, for Edward VI
granted the site to Sir Thomas Cawarden.
It must not be imagined that the heralds were created merely for the
purpose of acting as puppets in the pageantry of the court and the camp:
they had other and more useful functions to perform. The genealogies of
noble and gentle families were intrusted to their keeping, and thus
titular honours and territorial possessions were safely conveyed to lawful
heirs, when, in the absence of proper officers, and a recognized
depository for documents, much confusion might have been produced by
disputed claims. The ecclesiastics had formerly been the chief
conservators of genealogical facts, but at the dissolution of the
monasteries by Henry VIII, the documents containing them were scattered to
the winds. Hence it became necessary to adopt some more general and better
regulated means of collecting and transmitting to posterity the materials
of genealogy, and out of this necessity sprang those 'progresses' of the
kings of arms and heralds through the various counties, called
VISITATIONS. Some faint traces of these visitations occur, it is true,
before the Reformation, and even before the incorporation of the heralds,
namely, as early as 1412; but it was not until 1528 that they were
systematically attended to.[260] After the latter date they were continued
about once in every generation, or at intervals varying between
twenty-five and forty years. The officers, under the warrant of the
earl-marshal, were bound to make inquisitions respecting the pedigree of
every family claiming the honour of gentry, and to enter the names,
titles, places of abode, &c. in a book. Many such books, between the date
just referred to and the year 1687, are now existing in the College of
Arms, while many copies of them, and a few of the originals, are in the
British Museum and in private collections. To most of the pedigrees thus
entered were attached the family arms, which received the confirmation of
the 'kings' when satisfactory evidence of the bearer's right to them could
be adduced.[261] When a family from any circumstance did not bear arms, a
coat was readily granted by the kings, who received fees proportioned to
the rank of the parties; for example:
A bishop paid L10.
A dean L6 13_s._ 4_d._
A gentleman of 100 marks per annum, in land, L6 13_s._ 4_d._
A gentleman of inferior revenue L6.
The passion for emblazoning the arms of the nobility and gentry upon
glass, in the windows of churches and halls, imposed considerable
employment, and brought no small emolument, to the officers of arms, who
undertook to marshal and arrange them, as well as often to draw up short
pedigrees of such families, which were set forth in the gloomy chancel or
the sombre hall of the long-descended patron or lord of the mansion,
exemplified with the shield rich in quarterings.[262]
Henry VIII was a great admirer of the "pomp and circumstance" of chivalry.
During his reign the College was in high estimation and full employment.
At home and abroad he was constantly attended by his heralds, some of whom
were often despatched to foreign courts, to assist in negociations, to
declare war, to accompany armies, to summon garrisons, to deliver the
ensign of the order of St. George (the Garter) to foreign potentates, to
attend banquets, jousts, and tournaments, and to serve upon every great
occasion of state. "There was nothing performed," says Noble,[263] "of a
public nature, but what the heralds were employed in."
The history of this reign teems with curious anecdotes touching the
dignity and prerogatives of the heralds. So great was the regard
entertained by the 'bluff' monarch for the officers of arms, that he
treated even those of foreign sovereigns, who came to his court to deliver
hostile messages, with all the courtesy inculcated by the laws of
chivalry, and even gave them bountiful largesses. For example, when in
1513 'Lord Lyon, King at Arms,' came to him at Tours upon an errand of a
very disagreeable character from the Scottish court, his majesty sent
Garter with him to his tent, commanding him to give him 'good cheer;' and
when his reply to the message was framed he dismissed him courteously,
with a gift of one hundred angels.[264] Although the persons of the
heralds, in their ambassadorial capacity, were generally regarded as
sacred, they sometimes received very rough treatment from desperate
enemies. On one occasion, Ponde, Somerset herald, going to Scotland with a
message to James V, was slain in his tabard--a violation of the laws of
honour which was only compensated by the death of the bailiff of Lowth and
two others, who were publicly executed at Tyburn in the summer of 1543.
"It is singular," says Noble, "that in this reign it was usual to give to
pieces of ordnance the same names as those appropriated to the members of
the college; names, we must presume, dear to the sovereign and cherished
by the people."[265]
At the Field of the Cloth of Gold, in 1520, the heraldic corporation
attended in magnificent array. It then consisted of the following members:
KINGS. Garter, Clarenceux, Norroy.
HERALDS. Windsor, Richmond, York, Lancaster, Carlisle, Montorgueil,
Somerset.
PURSUIVANTS IN ORDINARY. Rouge-Cross, Blue-Mantle, Portcullis, and
Rouge-Dragon.
PURSUIVANTS EXTRAORDINARY. Calais, Risebank, Guisnes; and Hampnes.
These four took their titles from places in France within the English
pale.
The armorial bearings devised in this reign had little of the chaste
simplicity of those of an earlier date. Those coats which contain a great
variety of charges may be generally referred to this period, and they are
familiarly styled '_Henry-the-Eighth_ coats.' Such arms have been
humorously compared to "garrisons, _well stocked_ with fish, flesh, and
fowl."[266]
Edward VI bestowed upon the heralds many additional immunities and
privileges; and Mary, his successor, by charter dated 1554, granted them
Derby House for the purpose of depositing their rolls and other records.
Elizabeth inherited from her father the spirit of chivalry, and its
concomitant fondness for pageantry. Hence she necessarily patronized the
officers of arms. In this reign the quarrels which for some time
previously had been hatching between various members of the body touching
their individual rights, broke out with great virulence. "Their
accusations against each other," Noble remarks, "would fill a volume."
Broke, or Brokesmouth, York Herald, whose animosities against the great
and justly venerated Camden have given to his name a celebrity which it
does not deserve, was foremost amongst the litigants.[267]
A new order of gentry had sprung up in the two or three preceding reigns,
some of whom had enriched themselves by commercial enterprise, while
others had acquired broad lands at the dissolution of the monasteries.
These _novi homines_ were very ambitious of heraldric honours, and
accordingly made numerous applications for grants of arms. Cooke,
Clarenceux, granted upwards of five hundred coats, and the two Dethicks
twice that number in this reign. Great pains were taken by the sovereign
to preserve inviolate the rights of the college; yet notwithstanding there
were some adventurers who, for the sake of lucre, devised arms and forged
pedigrees for persons of mean family, to the no small umbrage of the
antient gentry, and the pecuniary loss of the corporation. One W. Dawkeyns
compiled nearly a hundred of these spurious genealogies for families in
Essex, Herts, and Cambridgeshire, an offence for which he was visited with
the pillory; but though he stood "earless on high," he seems to have been
"unabashed;" for after an interval of twenty years he was found 'at his
olde trickes againe,' and again fell under the lash of the earl-marshal.
The warrant for his second apprehension is dated Dec. 31st, 1597.
James I advanced the regular salaries of the heralds, and indirectly
promoted their interests, further, by a lavish distribution of new titular
honours. In this reign occurs an instance of the antient custom of
degrading a knight. Sir Frances Michel having been convicted of grievous
exactions was sentenced, in 1621, to a 'degradation of honour.' Being
brought by the sheriff of London to Westminster-Hall, in the presence of
the commissioners who then executed the office of earl-marshal and the
kings of arms, the sentence of parliament was openly read by Philipot, a
pursuivant, when the servants of the marshall hacked off his spurs, broke
his sword over his head, and threw away the pieces, and the first
commissioner proclaimed with uplifted voice, that he was "=no longer
knight, but a scoundrel-knave=!"
The disputes in the College concerning the duties and prerogatives of its
members, and their jealousies respecting preferments continued unabated.
Broke (or Brokesmouth), York, and Treswell, Somerset, carried their
effrontery so far as to defy the authority of their superiors in office,
for which offence, added to contempt of the earl-marshal, they were
committed to prison. The house was 'divided against itself,' and
consequently could not 'stand,' at least in the respect and estimation of
the public. Francis Thynne, a herald of the period, speaks of the poverty
of the College as compared with its antient condition; complains that 'the
heralds are not esteemed,' and that 'every one withdraweth his favour from
them;' and prays the superior powers to repair their 'ruined state.'
Of Charles I it has been truly said, that he was not more arbitrary in
his government than several of his predecessors had been. His mistake was,
that he did not march with the times, but wished, amid the increased
enlightenment of the 17th century, to exercise the monarchical
prerogatives of the middle ages. Most of the acts which led to his
downfall were not greater violations of the fundamental principles of the
constitution than had been committed by earlier monarchs; but the time was
now come when they could no longer be tolerated by a free and generous
nation. In relation to heraldic usages Charles only copied the acts of
former sovereigns; yet they added not a little to his unpopularity. One of
his commissions directed to the provincial kings of arms, authorized them
to visit all churches, mansions, public halls, and other places, to
inspect any arms, cognizances, or crests, set up therein; and, if found
faulty in regard of proof, to pull down and deface the same. It further
empowered them to reprove, control, and _make infamous, by proclamation at
courts of assize_, all persons who had without sufficient warrant assumed
the title of esquire or gentleman; to forbid the use of velvet palls at
the funerals of persons of insufficient rank; and to prevent any painter,
glazier, engraver, or mason, from representing any armorial ensigns,
except under their sanction and direction. All delinquents were to be
cited into the earl-marshal's Court of Chivalry, an institution almost as
arbitrary and unconstitutional as the court of Star-Chamber itself.
Nothing perhaps, as Noble observes, injured the Heralds' College more than
this shameful tribunal, which proceeded to fine and imprisonment for mere
words spoken against the gentility of the plaintiff. "Had it only decided
upon what usually ends in duels it would have been a most praiseworthy
institution." But it went further, and its severity became deservedly
odious to the nation. Mr. Hyde (afterwards Lord Clarendon) deprecated its
insolence and said, "the youngest man remembered the beginning of it, and
he hoped the oldest might see the end of it."--"A citizen of good
quality," said he, "a merchant, was by that court ruined in his estate and
his body imprisoned, _for calling a swan a goose_!"
It is needless to say that the Court of Chivalry was swept away along with
other grievances of a like nature in the revolution which succeeded. It
was revived, however, at the restoration of Charles II, and continued,
though rather feebly, to execute its functions until the year 1732. Some
of its proceedings, as recited by Dallaway, are very curious. I give an
abstract of a case or two.
29th May, 1598. The earl-marshal, assisted by several peers and knights,
held a court of chivalry to decide on a quarrel between Anthony Felton,
Esq., and Edmund Withepool, Esq. It appears that a dispute had occurred
between these two gentlemen at the town of Ipswich, when Withepool so far
forgot himself as to bastinado the other, for which the latter summoned
him into this court. The decree of the earl-marshal was that Withepool
should confess to his prosecutor "that he knew him to be a gentleman
unfitt to be stroken," and promise that he would hereafter maintain Mr.
Felton's reputation against all slanderous persons. The delinquent
submitted to this judgment, and the proceedings were at an end. Pity it is
that a similar court of honour, voluntarily supported, should not now
exist for the purpose of settling those quarrels among the aristocracy,
which are generally adjudicated by the stupid, illegal, and wicked ordeal
of the bullet.[268] Let it form part of every gentleman's code of honour
to bow to the decision of a tribunal so constituted, and duelling--that
purest relic of mediaeval barbarism, which has descended to our time--would
be numbered among the absurdities of the past.
1638. Fowke contra Barnfield. Walter Fowke of Ganston, co. Stafford,
prosecuted Richard Barnfield of Wolverhampton for a libel, for that he had
said 'that complainant was never a soldier or captain before the Isle of
Rhe voyage, when he was made a captain, and afterwards ran away; and that
he dared the said W. F. to go to a fencing-school to fight it out with
him, &c.' The decree of the court was, that Barnfield should make
submission, find security for his good behaviour towards Fowke, and pay a
fine of L10 to the king, L10 to the complainant, and 20 marks costs; and,
in default, be committed to prison.
The assumption of the arms of a family, by persons bearing the same name,
though unauthorized by family connexion, brought many causes into this
court.
West, Lord Delawarr, against West. A man who had been a famous wrestler,
and bore the sobriquet of 'Jack in the West,' acquiring a fortune by
keeping a public-house, assumed the regular surname of West, and the arms
of Lord Delawarr's family. In support of this double assumption he got
some venal member[269] of the College of Arms to furnish him with a
pedigree, deducing his descent, through three or four generations, from
the fourth son of one of the Lords Delawarr. His son, who had been bred in
the Inns of Court, and was resident in Hampshire, presuming, upon the
strength of his pedigree, to take precedence of some of his neighbours,
they instigated Lord Delawarr to prosecute him in the Court of Honour. At
the hearing, the defendant produced his patent from the heralds; but,
unfortunately for his pretensions, an antient gentleman of the house of
West, who had been long abroad and was believed to be dead, and whom our
innkeeper's son had claimed as his father's father, returned at this
juncture to England, and 'dashed the whole business.'[270] The would-be
West was fined L500, and commanded 'never more to write himself
gentleman.'
On the breaking out of the civil wars the heralds espoused opposing
interests. The three kings of arms, with a few of their subordinates,
adhered to _their brother monarch_: the others sided with the Parliament.
When, in 1642, Charles was compelled to take up his residence at Oxford,
several of the officers of arms were in attendance upon him; and it
affords very high testimony of their respectability and learning that some
of them were admitted to the first distinctions the university could
bestow. The afterwards famous Dugdale (then Rouge-Croix) and Edmund
Walker, Chester, were created masters of arts, and Sir William le Neve,
Clarenceux, was admitted to the dignity of LL.D. In 1643 and 1644, George
Owen, York, John Philipot, Somerset, Sir John Borrough, Garter, and his
successor, Sir Henry St. George, were also honoured with the
last-mentioned degree.
It is singular that an institution so immediately connected with royalty
as was the College of Arms, should have been permitted to exist during the
Commonwealth; and still more so that while the republicans carried their
hatred to the very name of king so far as to alter the designation of the
_King's_ Bench, and to strike the word _kingdom_ out of their vocabulary,
that the principal functionaries of the College should have been allowed
to retain their antient titles of kings of arms. The royal arms, of
course, disappeared from the herald's tabard, though it does not very
clearly appear what was substituted; probably the state arms, namely, two
shields conjoined in fesse; dexter, the cross of St. George, and,
sinister, the Irish harp.[271]
Oliver Cromwell was, as Noble justly remarks, "a splendid prince, keeping
a most stately and magnificent court." Hence the heralds could by no means
be dispensed with. They attended at his proclamation, and on all
subsequent state occasions. The Protector's funeral was a pageant of more
than regal magnificence, and cost the extravagant sum of L28,000.[272]
But, notwithstanding the patronage of Cromwell, the College was far from
prosperous at this period, for the visitations were discontinued, and the
nobility and antient gentry, awaiting in moody silence the issue of the
system of government then in operation, paid little attention to
heraldric honours, which were disregarded by the nation at large, or, if
recognized at all, only to be associated (as they have too often since
been[273]) with the idea of an insolent and overbearing aristocracy.
The College of Arms, like all other public bodies, was put into very great
disorder by the return of the exiled Charles. Several of the officers who
had been ejected on account of their loyalty to his father were restored
to their former posts; those who had changed with the times were degraded
to the inferior offices; while those who had been appointed during the
Commonwealth and Protectorate were expelled. In Scotland the heralds were
restored to their former privileges. Sir Andrew Durham, created Lyon king
of arms in 1662, had, at his investment, a crown of gold placed upon his
head in full Parliament, and was harangued by the Chancellor and the Lord
Register on the duties and importance of the office conferred upon him.
The great fire of 1666 destroyed the buildings of the College of Arms; but
fortunately all the records and books were rescued from the flames and
deposited at Whitehall, whence they were afterwards removed to an
apartment in the palace at Westminster. The College was rebuilt some years
subsequently; a small portion of the necessary funds having been raised by
subscription; but by far the greater part was contributed by the officers
themselves.[274] At its completion in 1683 it was considered 'one of the
handsomest brick buildings in London.' The income of the heralds was, at
this time, little more than nominal; but they were principally persons of
good family, who possessed private property.
County Visitations were revived soon after the Restoration, but (with the
exception of those of Sir William Dugdale, which are amongst the best in
the College) they do not appear to have been conducted with so much
strictness as in former times; and at the Revolution of 1688 they were
entirely abandoned. During the intolerant proceedings against the
nonconformists under Charles II, the pursuivants were occasionally
employed in that disagreeable duty of their office from which they
originally borrowed their designation, (POURSUIVRE, Fr. v. a. to pursue),
that of bringing suspected persons up to London. Noble gives (from Calamy)
some instances of their being despatched to apprehend nonconformists in
Cheshire.
James II "affected great state, and was the last of our monarchs who kept
up the regal state in its full splendour."[275] The investiture of some
new officers of arms in this reign was probably more splendid than any
that had previously taken place. But all the benefits they received from
the sovereign were countervailed by his insisting upon their attending him
to the Catholic worship on all high days and holidays, a proceeding which
very much disgusted them.
Nothing of particular importance relating to the College occurs in the
reign of William and Mary, except the refusal of the usual commissions to
hold visitations, as a practice discordant with the spirit of the times.
Under the antient system, a broad line of demarcation had separated the
nobility and gentry from the common people; but gradually the commercial
interests of the nation introduced that intermediate rank recognized as
the middle classes of society, and these, by means of the wealth acquired
in merchandise and trade, often eclipsed in the elegancies of life many of
the antient gentry. Hence the Heraldic Visitations, had they been
continued to our times, would have necessarily led to much invidiousness
of distinction on the part of the heralds, and probably to much ill
feeling between the representatives of far-descended houses and the
upstarts of a day.
At the union with Scotland, temp. Anne, it was determined that Lyon, the
Scottish king of arms, should rank in dignity next after Garter, the
principal English king.[276]
The reign of George I presents us with two incidents deserving of notice.
The first is the ceremony of the degradation of the Duke of Ormond,
attainted of treason, from the order of the Garter, which was performed
with the usual ceremonials at Windsor, in 1716. The other I give in the
words of Noble:
"In the year 1727, an impostor, of the name of Robert Harman, pretending
to be a herald, was prosecuted for the offence by the College of Arms, at
the quarter-sessions for the county of Suffolk, held at Beccles, and being
convicted of the offence, was sentenced to be placed in the pillory in
several market-towns on public market-days, and afterwards to be
imprisoned and pay a fine, which sentence was accordingly executed,
proving that the impudent and designing were not to encroach upon the
rights of the College with impunity."[277]
When war with Spain was proclaimed in the thirteenth year of George II,
the proclamation was made in the metropolis by the officers of arms,
according to antient usage. They also attended at the trial of the three
Scottish rebel lords in Westminster-Hall, in 1746. Fourteen standards
taken from the adherents of the Pretender were publicly burnt at
Edinburgh, by the common hangman. "The prince's own standard was carried
by the executioner, each of the others by _chimney-sweepers_ (!) The
former was first committed to the flames, with three flourishes of the
trumpets, amidst repeated acclamations of a vast concourse of people. The
same was done with each of the other colours separately; the _heralds_
always proclaiming the names of the 'rebel traitors to whom they
belonged.'"[278]
"After the battle of Dettingen, fought in 1743, his Majesty revived the
order of Knights-Bannerets, the last of whom had been Sir John Smith,
created a banneret by Charles I at the battle of Edgehill, the first in
the fatal civil war. The form of treating them formerly was, the
candidate presented his standard or pennon to the sovereign or his
general, who cutting off the skirt or tail of it made it square, when it
was returned: hence they are sometimes called knights of the square
banner. They precede all knights, not of the Garter or Bath, of England,
and even baronets, being reputed next to the nobility after those
preceding orders."[279] They have the privilege of using supporters to
their arms; but, as the honour is not hereditary, their descendants cannot
claim it.
In 1732 an unsuccessful attempt was made to revive the Court of Chivalry.
The earl-marshal's deputy and his assistant lords and the officers of arms
being present, the king's advocate exhibited complaints, _First_, against
Mrs. Radburne, for using divers ensigns at the funeral of her husband not
pertaining to his condition; _secondly_, against the executors of a Mr.
Ladbrook for using, on a similar occasion, arms not legally belonging to
the defunct; and, _thirdly_, against Sir John Blunt, Bart. for assuming,
without right, the arms of the antient family of Blount of Sodington. This
gentleman had been a scrivener, and was one of the projectors of the
well-known South-Sea Scheme or 'Bubble,' which ended in the total ruin of
so many respectable families. But "the whole business was imprudently
begun, and unskilfully conducted; the lawyers who were consulted laughed
at it;"[280] and, though the court proceeded so far as to fine some of the
parties, it was unable to carry its decisions into effect; and we hear no
more of the Court of Chivalry.
It would be tedious, and beyond the design of the present hasty sketch, to
notice all the great occasions on which the heralds were in requisition
during the reigns of the three predecessors of her present Majesty. During
this period several members of the College have shed lustre on their
office, and on the antiquarian literature of England. These will come
under review in my next chapter; and it will only be necessary here to add
a few particulars relating to the present state of the College.
The building, which stands upon the site of the _Derby House_ before
referred to, is approached by an archway on St. Benet's Hill, and has a
sombre appearance perfectly in keeping with the purposes to which it is
devoted. It comprises the great hall, the library, consisting of two
rooms; the outer one of the time of Charles II, fitted with dark
carved-oak panels, and containing a beautifully executed chimney-piece,
said to be the work of Sibborn; the inner, a spacious and lofty octangular
apartment, recently erected and rendered fire-proof, for the safer
preservation of the records and more valuable documents; and besides these
rooms there are separate apartments appropriated to the use of the several
officers. The great hall, where the Courts of Chivalry were antiently
held, and where the 'Chapters' of the heralds still take place, remains
almost _in statu quo_, with its high-backed throne for the earl-marshal,
surrounded with balustrades, and retaining somewhat of the awe-striking
solemnity of the tribunal. The panelling has recently been decorated with
shields of the several lords and earls-marshal from the origin of that
office till the present time. The library, it is scarcely necessary to
state, contains a large and extremely valuable collection of original
visitation books, records of the arms and pedigrees of families, funeral
certificates of the nobility and gentry, antient tournament and other
rolls of great curiosity; the sword, dagger, and ring of King James IV, of
Scotland; and probably every work illustrative, in any degree, of heraldry
and genealogy, that has issued from the press of this country, together
with many foreign works on those subjects. Of the great value of this
inexhaustible mine of information the historian and the antiquary are well
aware, and there is scarcely any work in their respective departments that
has not received some addition from this library.
The following is a list of the Corporation of the College as it now
exists:
=Earl-Marshal= and Hereditary Marshal of England.
Henry-Charles, Duke of Norfolk, &c. &c. &c.
=Kings of Arms.=
GARTER. Sir Charles George Young, Knt., F.S.A.
CLARENCEUX. Joseph Hawker, Esq., F.S.A.
NORROY. Francis Martin, Esq., F.S.A.
=Heralds.=
SOMERSET. James Cathrow Disney, Esq.
CHESTER. Walter Aston Blount, Esq. Genealogist and Blanc-Coursier
Herald, of the Order of the Bath.
RICHMOND. James Pulman Esq., F.S.A. Registrar of the College of Arms,
and Yeoman-Usher of the Black Rod to the House of Lords.
WINDSOR. Robert Laurie, Esq.
LANCASTER. Albert William Woods, Esq. Gentleman-Usher of the Red Rod,
and Brunswick Herald of the Order of the Bath.
YORK. Edward Howard Gibbon, Esq., Secretary to the Earl-Marshal.
=Pursuivants.=
BLUEMANTLE. George Harrison Rogers Harrison, Esq., F.S.A.
ROUGE-DRAGON. Thomas William King, Esq., F.S.A.
ROUGE-CROIX. William Courthope, Esq.
PORTCULIS. George William Collen, Esq.
[Illustration]