The Curiosities of Heraldry

by Mark Antony Lower

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.