The Curiosities of Heraldry Part 21

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 n.o.ble and gentle families were intrusted to their keeping, and thus t.i.tular honours and territorial possessions were safely conveyed to lawful heirs, when, in the absence of proper officers, and a recognized depository for doc.u.ments, 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 doc.u.ments 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, t.i.tles, 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 circ.u.mstance 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 10.

A dean 6 13_s._ 4_d._

A gentleman of 100 marks per annum, in land, 6 13_s._ 4_d._

A gentleman of inferior revenue 6.

The pa.s.sion for emblazoning the arms of the n.o.bility and gentry upon gla.s.s, 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 s.h.i.+eld rich in quarterings.[262]

Henry VIII was a great admirer of the "pomp and circ.u.mstance" 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 a.s.sist 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 n.o.ble,[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 amba.s.sadorial 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 n.o.ble, "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 t.i.tles 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," n.o.ble 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 Ess.e.x, Herts, and Cambridges.h.i.+re, 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 t.i.tular 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 const.i.tution 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 a.s.size_, all persons who had without sufficient warrant a.s.sumed the t.i.tle 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 inst.i.tution almost as arbitrary and unconst.i.tutional as the court of Star-Chamber itself.

Nothing perhaps, as n.o.ble 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 inst.i.tution." 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, a.s.sisted 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 const.i.tuted, 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 10 to the king, 10 to the complainant, and 20 marks costs; and, in default, be committed to prison.

The a.s.sumption 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, a.s.sumed the regular surname of West, and the arms of Lord Delawarr's family. In support of this double a.s.sumption 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 Hamps.h.i.+re, 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 500, 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 inst.i.tution 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 princ.i.p.al functionaries of the College should have been allowed to retain their antient t.i.tles of kings of arms. The royal arms, of course, disappeared from the herald's tabard, though it does not very clearly appear what was subst.i.tuted; probably the state arms, namely, two s.h.i.+elds conjoined in fesse; dexter, the cross of St. George, and, sinister, the Irish harp.[271]

Oliver Cromwell was, as n.o.ble 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 28,000.[272]

But, notwithstanding the patronage of Cromwell, the College was far from prosperous at this period, for the visitations were discontinued, and the n.o.bility 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 a.s.sociated (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 princ.i.p.ally 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. n.o.ble gives (from Calamy) some instances of their being despatched to apprehend nonconformists in Ches.h.i.+re.

James II "affected great state, and was the last of our monarchs who kept up the regal state in its full splendour."[275] The invest.i.ture 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 wors.h.i.+p 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 n.o.bility and gentry from the common people; but gradually the commercial interests of the nation introduced that intermediate rank recognized as the middle cla.s.ses 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 princ.i.p.al 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 n.o.ble:

"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 n.o.bility 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 a.s.sistant 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 a.s.suming, 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.