HERALD, a term supposed to be derived from heer, an army, and healt, a champion.

The principal employment of heralds in early times was to demand redress of injuries from foreign powers, carry messages of amity or defiance, and proclaim war and peace; whence they came also to record and emblazon armorial bearings, and to marshal great public solemnities.

In the days of chivalry they were introduced into this island from France; and as in that country, and indeed also in Rome so likewise, both in England and Scotland they were in high repute. The chief of them was styled king of arms, and crowned at his installation to office by the sovereign himself; and as the sovereign and other lords had their armiger or armour-bearer, so every herald had his signifer or ancient, or, as he was called from the French, pursuivant, that is, follower or attendant.

In 1450 the heralds of England were by King Richard II. incorporated into a college like the collegium fecialium of Rome. The earl marshal of England is superior of the college, and has the right of appointing the members of whom it consists, namely, three kings at arms, six heralds at arms, and four pursuivants at arms. The hings are garter, clarencieux, and norroy; of whom garter, instituted and created by King Henry V. to attend on the order of the garter, is principal. His distinguishing colour is blue ; that of the “provincial kings,” as clarencieux and norroy are called, is purple. Clarencieux was ordained by King Edward IV., when, on attaining the dukedom of Clarence by the death of his brother, he made the herald which properly belonged to the Duke of Clarence a king of arms, with power to marshal and dispose of funerals, and other processions, throughout the realm of England on the south side of Trent, as the office of norroy is the like on the [7:11:242]north. The heralds are styled of York, Lancaster, Chester, Windsor, Richmond, and Somerset. They are esquires by creation, and rank according to seniority of appointment. For some time past the crown has occasionally issued a warrant to the earl marshal to create extraordinary heralds; but these receive no salary, which the king’s ordinary heralds and pursuivants at arms do. The pursuivants are now reckoned of a sort in the number of heralds, and commonly succeed in the place of heralds, as these die or are preferred. Their names are Blue-mantle, Rouge-croix, Rouge-dragon, and Portcullis. The meetings of the heralds’ college are termed chapters; and matters are determined therein by a majority of voices. The earl marshal sits in the midst of his court, attended sometimes by one or more of the judges. He has also belonging to his court a pursuivant messenger to serve his precepts, a crier, a doctor of the civil law, and the clerk or registrar, on either side of whom are placed the officers at arms to give their opinions when required.

In Scotland there is but one principal herald or king of arms. He is called Lyon from the cognisance of Scotland, as one of the signiferi or pursuivants is called Unicon from the supporters of. the shield; and, as early as the coronation of King Robert II. on the 27th of March 1371, we find lyon king of arms called in with his attending heralds by the lord marischal of Scotland, sworn, and crowned. (MS. Account of the Coronation, apud Chalmers, Caledonia, vol. i. p. 763, note.) Indeed it would seem that heralds are of greater antiquity in Scotland than in England; and it is not unlikely that norroy, the most ancient of the English kings of arms, had his origin in the wars of the borders. That the Scottish king of arms was at one time dependent on the marischal of Scotland, as the English heralds are on the marshal of England, there is clear circumstantial, though certainly, from the state of the records, no direct evidence. That dependence, however, did not continue, and lyon has long held his place by commission under the great seal, and been recognised as the head of the office of arms; nor is there any such rule acknowledged here as that established in the heralds’ college at London, that none can be a king of arms before he is a herald. Jurisdiction in arms, also, which was heretofore in all the heralds jointly, is now exercised only by the king of arms, who himself performs the duties of his place by deputies of his own appointment. This devolution of duty to a deputy may be traced up to about the year 1663, when lyon first obtained the style of lord lyon king of arms. The heralds are Rothesay, Ross, Snowdon, Marchmont,. Islay, and Albany. The pursuivants are Unicon, Ormond, Carrick, Bute, Dingwall, and Kintyre. The number of each thus appears to be six, as it has been for at least three hundred years past; but in the end of the fifteenth century there were but five each, including the lyon herald. They receive their commission from the lord lyon, usually for life; and the only duty they now perform is to attend at royal proclamations, coronations, and other great public solemnities. Attached to this department of the office of arms are now also six trumpeters, officers apparently of modern origin. The rnacers used likewise to be reckoned amongst the officers at arms, and in early times were placed after the pursuivants; but, from the institution of the Court of Session, they took precedence of them, and are now altogether detached from the heralds’ office, and wait only on the judges of the above court. They receive their commission from the crown, excepting one, which is hereditary, and executed by deputy. After the pursuivants are accordingly to be ranked the messengers at arms, of whom there is now, by statute 1587, c. 46, a certain number in every shire of the kingdom. They are admitted and removed by the lord lyon, and their duty is to execute the process and letters of the superior courts. The jurisdiction and authority of the Scottish king of arms is thus twofold; one over the officers at arms, in which respect he may not inaptly be regarded as in many respects at the head of the executive department of the law here; and the other in relation to bearings and ensigns armorial. The lord lyon also appoints a procurator fiscal to sue before him, a messenger to act as his macer, and a clerk and registrar.

Immemorial usage and the king’s concession of arms are the main pillars of the law of arms. They give the fundamental right to use ensigns armorial, and to have those ensigns matriculated in the heralds’ books. Where neither usage nor royal concession appears, the discretion of the college arises; and as the principles on which coat armour is awarded were never very clearly defined, it is not surprising that the power to purchase arms became the criterion of fitness to bear them; and that, as Bailey says, “In our days all are accounted gentlemen that have money, and if a man hath no coat of arms, the king of arms can sell him one.” The principles which regulate the heralds’ court at Edinburgh are stated in the Report of the Commission on Courts of Justice in Scotland, anno 1821. Under that commission Mr George Tait, advocate, late lyon-depute, was examined on oath, and being interrogated, according to what rules or ordinances cases respecting the grant of arms, or competition of claims between different parties, are determined, he deponed, that he was not aware of any record of precedents in cases of this nature, and he had not since his appointment had occasion to decide any formal or regular question of competition; but that the rules according to which he would form his opinion, and which he had observed in as far as he had been called to decide on claims presented, were those to be found in the acts of the Scottish parliament, 1592, c. 127, and 1672, c. 21, and the rules laid, down by Sir George Mackenzie, by Nisbet, and other writers on heraldry. And being interrogated, if there was any restriction observed with respect to the class or description of persons to whom a grant of arms would be allowed, he deponed that such grants were not refused in any case .where the person applying was respectable, which he understood to be conformable to the practice now observed in all other colleges of arms; but with regard to the right of bearing supporters, he conceived it to be competent to be granted only in a very few cases, which cases Mr Tait enumerated at length, but which, it is enough here to say, may be reduced to those in which the claim rests on the immemorial use of supporters by the claimant’s family, or on the claimant or his ancestor being either a peer of the realm, or else one of the ancient barones minores, or, lastly, on the king’s concession of supporters.

From the earl marshal of England an appeal lies to the king in council. The case was probably the same in Scotland, and both the language and context of the statutes above named imply that the lord lyon is, under his majesty, king and sovereign within the office of arms; but for some time past the Court of Session have treated his jurisdiction as subject to their review and control.

By the statutes imposing and regulating the assessed taxes, an annual duty of 12s. was made payable by every person using or wearing any armorial bearing or ensign, which duty is doubled if the party be liable in house-duty, and quadrupled if he be liable in the duty on a carriage.
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