Doing a Herald's Job in the Middle Ages

Serendipity can sometimes be a fascinating thing.

In this instance, a friend had emailed me a link to a discussion of a poem written after the battle of Crécy in 1346. The timing was very good, as I had just earlier that week read an account of the battle in a biography of King Edward III which is my current "book to read at bedtime." (I have another book that is breakfast and sometimes lunch fare, in addition to the books in my office which I am going through while researching for a couple of heraldry projects.)

While the poem, by Colins de Beaumont, who may have taken part in the battle, is framed as a dream vision in which allegorical figures lament the fallen soldiers, during which Nature, Largess, Loyalty, and Prowess recount great deeds and heroic deaths, he also covers some of the challenges of one of the duties of medieval heralds: to count and identify the noble dead.

The above is a painting of Edward III counting the dead at Crécy, something he probably did not personally do. (Though here you can almost see him as counting: "One thousand three hundred twenty-four, one thousand three hundred twenty-five, one thousand three hundred twenty-six, ....")

But the poet describes some of the challenges that the heralds would have faced in performing this duty:

Ah, Lord! I was so anguished
That I was seeing so many insignia there
And none that I could recognize,
Whether it were a little pennant or a standard,
A shield, a surcoat, or a pommel ornament:
All were dismantled and all were broken.

(ll.468-473)

You have to know that they really had their work cut out for them when it comes down to identifying the slain by the ornament on a sword pommel.

It's a great article that gives some insight into "The Poetry of Trauma: On the Crécy Dead" by Danièle Cybulskie. (There is also a link to a book which includes the first English translation of the entire poem, Michael Livingstone and Kelly DeVries' The Battle of Crécy: A Casebook, for those who might wish to learn more of this pivotal battle.)

You can find this article on the Medievalists.net website at http://www.medievalists.net/2016/06/04/the-poetry-of-trauma-on-the-crecy-dead/

Interview With an Extrarordinary Herald

In a May 2, 2016 article in the New Zealand Listener, Clare de Lore interviews Philip O'Shea, New Zealand Herald of Arms Extraordinary.

It's a great view of some of the work that Mr. O'Shea does as New Zealand Herald Extraordinary, as well as some insights into the person and personality of this man who represents the Queen and the College of Arms half a world and a hemisphere away from England.

You can find the full published interview on the website of the New Zealand Listener at http://www.listener.co.nz/culture/shelf-life/phillip-oshea-interview/

Tempest in a (Scottish) Teapot

In an April 18, 2015 article entitled "Call to arms over threat to Scottish club badges" on the website of The Scotsman, reporter Colin Telford "warns that many Scottish football emblems could actually be illegal."

It seems that last July, Airdrieonians Football Club received a letter from the Lord Lyon's Procurator Fiscal (a public prosecutor specially assigned to the Lyon Court) informing the club that its badge had been deemed to be "an heraldic device". This was the start of a chain of correspondence which ultimately required the club to sign an irrevocable undertaking that it would cease to use its badge from 1 September 2015.

But the real issue here is not just about Airdrie. The ruling also applies to the majority of Scotland's senior football clubs, as well as rugby clubs, golf clubs, schools and other such organisations.

In other words, there's a whole lot of sports clubs and organizations which have been using arms or arms-like logos which have not been registered with the Lyon Court's Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland, and are therefore technically being used illegally.

This has, of course, stirred up quite a bit of controversy, as well as comments from a number of individuals who have no knowledge nor understanding of the functions of the Lord Lyon King of Arms.  The number of comments to this article which speak of Scotland being a "democracy" (as if that has anything at all to do with the law as it stands in Scotland) or dragging that "pompous old windbag" (the Lord Lyon) "into the 18th century never mind the 21st."

There are, fortunately, a few cooler heads also involved in the discussions, who note that all of these clubs are "virtuous and well deserving" under the Lyon King of Arms 1672 Act, and that they "should take up the opportunity to be recognised as part of Scotland's proud heraldic tradition. "

It's an interesting article, giving some background of the controversy, the Lyon Court, and some of the rules that heraldry, or arms-like logos, must abide by in Scotland.  And, of course, the comments are an amusing mix, too.

You can find the complete article, and commentary, on the website of The Scotsman at http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/latest/call-to-arms-over-threat-to-scottish-club-badges-1-3746851

Heads Up! Exhibition Coming.

For those of you with an interest in heraldry, heralds, and Shakespeare, and especially if you live on (or can get to) the eastern coast of the United States, The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC is going to be having an exhibition this coming summer and fall entitled "Symbols of Honor: Heraldry and Family History in Shakespeare's England."

The exhibit will run from July 1 through October 26, 2014, and looks to be something of interest of heraldry enthusiasts.  The overview of this exhibit on the Folger's website describes it as follows:

Discover the colorful world of heralds and their rivals, all competing to profit from the craze for coats of arms that seized England during the reign of Elizabeth I. An ambitious world was full of newly wealthy and successful families, eager to display their success and status. Genealogy in its modern form also took off: ancestral research was vital to a rich heraldic display, and new ways were established for setting out family trees graphically.
In this show-the largest and most comprehensive of its kind ever mounted-you will see pedigrees and family trees, books explaining heraldry's complex rules, manuscripts illustrating actual coats of arms, and documents written by professional heralds seeking to regulate heraldic practise in a fast-changing society. Exceptional treasures include the original drafts of William Shakespeare's own coat of arms.

Then it (successfully) tries to pique our interest further by telling us to "Discover the colorful world of heralds and their rivals during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I."

The illustration above from the promotional materials for the exhibit is from one of those "manuscripts illustrating actual coats of arms," the "Alphabet or blazon of arms."

Unfortunately, as much as I'd like to see this exhibit, I'm not certain that I'll be able to make it there; I may be flying over the east coast later this summer, but flying over isn't the same as visiting, and while I am scheduled to give a presentation nearby, that's not until December, well after the exhibit has closed.  If you can make it, by all means do!  I may have to settle for buying a copy of the catalog when it becomes available.  (I'll start checking the Folger Library's website for it beginning in July.)

More information about this upcoming exhibit can be found on-line on the website of the Folger Shakespeare Library at http://www.folger.edu/wosummary.cfm?woid=878, or you can always contact them at Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 East Capitol Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003.

Help Wanted

There's a job opening as a herald if you have the right qualifications and apply for it.  The headline at Royal Central (http://www.royalcentral.co.uk/courtandsocial/the-queen-is-looking-for-a-new-lord-lyon-could-you-do-it-17876) pretty much said it all: "The Queen is looking for a new Lord Lyon."

David Sellars, the present Lord Lyon King of Arms of Scotland, is going to step down at the end of this December, after five years of holding the office.  So there's going to be a vacancy that you, perhaps, could fill.  It does, however, require knowledge of more than just heraldry, in that the Lord Lyon is the Judge of the Court of the Lord Lyon, which has jurisdiction over all heraldic matters in Scotland.  This is a real judicial court, and so a knowledge of the law would be extremely useful to have in this post.

The website at Scottish Courts gives a little more information about the necessary qualifications, as well as talking about some of the other functions of the office.

The site goes on to note that "Those interested in applying for the Office are invited to obtain an application form by contacting Jayne Milligan, Scottish Government, Civil Law and Legal System Division, 2W St Andrews House, Regent Road, Edinburgh, EH1 3DG, telephone 0131 244 3051, or by email at Jayne.milligan@scotland.gsi.gov.uk."

If you are interested in applying, though, you'd better hurry.  Completed applications must reach Ms. Milligan by October 31.

The full notice of this vacancy can be found on Scottish Courts at http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/news/all-news/2013/10/18/the-office-of-lord-lyon-king-of-arms-vacancy


On a completely different note about this announcement, why is it that every news story I've seen about it shows a photograph of some of the heralds from the College of Arms in London?

Yes, they're at some ceremony and bearing their batons and wearing their tabards, which is very colorful and all, but all of the tabards show the English quarterings of the Royal Arms (England, Scotland, Ireland, and England) rather than the Scottish quarterings of the tabards worn by the Scottish heralds (Scotland, England, Ireland, and Scotland).  Really, you'd think that if they were going to do a story about the Lord Lyon King of Arms of Scotland, they'd at least get a photo of one or more Scottish heralds to go with it, and not members of the English College of Arms, wouldn't you?

Herald in the News, Part 2

As a follow-up to my post yesterday about the death of Sir Peter Ll. Gwynn-Jones, former Garter Principal King of Arms, Lord Norton over on the Lords of the Blog web log has a post today (August 24) about some of his memories and impressions of Sir Peter (http://lordsoftheblog.net/2010/08/24/sir-peter-gwynn-jones/).  The comments on this post are also worth reading through, as several contain some other folks' impressions of him.  He was quite a character (and I mean that in the best sense possible), and will be missed by more people than just me.

“A New York Minute”

Wikipedia says that the term "a New York minute" "is an informal term used to mean a very short period of time. The term refers to the common perception that the people in New York City are hurried and impatient. Johnny Carson once described a New York Minute as being the time it takes ‘From the (traffic) lights to turn green, till the guy behind you starts honking his horn.’ During the late 1980s crime wave, David Letterman defined a New York Minute as the length of time it took to be mugged in New York City."

I was reading through a copy of Mr. Punch’s Book of Arms (which, as you can probably figure out from its title, is satire wrapped in the cloak of heraldry, attributing coats of arms to political and contemporary figures), and in the arms for "Viscount Stanley of the Congo" ran across the blazon (for the third quarter) of "a New York herald blowing a trumpet of his own in exultation over repeated columns of copy sensational to the last."

Anyway, the "a New York herald" - which theoretically could be a College of Arms-type herald but which could also be a newspaper, like The New York Herald - got me to thinking about two things. The first was the phrase "a New York minute", and wondering if a New York herald was considered somehow faster than other heralds. The second was heralds in what was the British colonies in America. There have been two heralds in the colonial period of what is now the United States that I can recall:

There was the Carolina Herald,* Laurence Cromp (appointed 1705, when he was also York Herald), who was to grant arms and crests to the landgraves and cassiques, colonial nobility of the low lands, of South Carolina. He does not seem to have actually granted any arms, though he may have had a hand in the design of the seal of the Lords Proprietor of the colony (below). Cromp died insolvent in 1715; no successor was appointed.

Another English herald in the Colonies was William Crowne (Rouge Dragon Pursuivant) who emigrated to America in 1657. He does not seem to have had any official duties here, and he resigned from the College of Arms a month after attending the coronation of Charles II. He did bring with him the Promptuarium Armorum, the book of arms of his predecessor as Rouge Dragon, William Smith. That book ended up for a time in the possession of the Gore family of Boston, Massachusetts, painters and designers of heraldic embroideries, as one of the three main sources for their own 18th Century book of arms, now commonly known as the Gore Roll.**

Alas, I do not find a "New York herald" other than the newspaper (published 1835 until 1924, when it merged with The New York Tribune).

* His full title was "President of the Court of Honor and Principal Herald of the whole Province of Carolina."

** A book about the Gore Roll, the most complete and accurate to date on its history and contents, has been written by David B. Appleton, and is available for sale at www.appletonstudios.com/BooksandGames.htm