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What Heraldry Means. - College of Arms: King-at-Arms

After the Earl Marshal rank the three Kings-at-Arms, the one belonging to England being styled "Garter King-at-Arms." His title was taken from the knightly Order of that name; the Scottish King-at-Arms is called Lord Lyon, deriving his name from the Scarlet Lyon of Scotland's shield; and Ireland's King-at-Arms owes his to Ulster, an important county of that name.

After these kings-at-arms we find the six heralds, and after these heralds the four pursuivants. These pursuivants all bear names of more or less interest; they are Blue Mantle, Rouge Croix, Portcullis, and Rouge Dragon. When Edward III. passed over the Channel to do homage to the King of France at Amiens for his dukedom of Guienne, he wore a robe of crimson velvet, on which the three leopards of England were embroidered in threads of gold and silver. But the French king wore blue, and afterwards, when Edward assumed the title of King of France, he arrayed himself in a robe and mantle of this color, and created a pursuivant, to whom he gave the name of Manteau Bleu, or Blue Mantle. The pursuivant Rouge Croix takes his name from the color and shape of the Cross of St. George. Portcullis was created as a pursuivant during the days of Henry the Seventh, to whom for certain family reasons the badge of Portcullis was particularly dear. As to Rouge Dragon, WHAT HERALDRY MEANS. we must look to good Queen Bess for the cognomen bestowed on him.

The object of this college when created was to keep track of all the coats-of-arms used by the various families in the kingdom, find out who was entitled to bear the arms which they displayed, and who were not. This was the more necessary as in those days the station and title of "gentleman" in France and Germany exempted the possessor from taxation, and in England gave the preference for certain military and civil employments. These heralds had the right, when meeting any vehicle bearing a coat-of-arms that belonged not to the owners, to have it stopped, while they publicly blotted out the stolen ornament. This it was their duty to do in so humiliating a way as to make the conscienceless upstart long for the mountains to fall upon him and the hills to cover him. The more thoroughly to sift out all such aspiring misdoers, "Visitations" were instituted, causing great anguish of mind amongst the wealthy parvenus who had been provoking the righteous souls of their noble neighbors by displaying arms which they were clamorously accused of having no right to wear. The results of these visitations were written down on long, thin slips of parchment, which were then rolled carefully up and stowed away. It was not thought necessary to make these investigations more frequently than at intervals of every thirty years, and, indeed, there were but three or four ever made. These rolls, therefore, so few in number, are highly valued by the ancient aristocracy of Great Britain, as by unrolling them they can prove their claim to belong to the "pedigreed" of the land. This college, crumbling as it now may seem, still sustains itself by means of the taxes which I have already told you they gather from the nobility and gentry, and from the purses of aspiring millionnaires. It was during the Wars of the Roses that Heraldry began to find herself no longer young. Later, when the Stuarts fell, and Cromwell, with his burly Roundheads, drove the plumed Cavaliers far into the background, there to await the sunnier days that might, perhaps, be theirs, this "Jewel of the Middle Ages" began to lose its lustre. During the lifetime of that unfortunate monarch of the House of Stuart, Charles the First, the harshness of the College of Heralds had created great dissatisfaction. One unlucky offender, whose crime consisted in calling some heraldic swan a goose, was hastily packed away into the common jail, and all his goods confiscated. Such insolence was not uncommon, and the high-handed proceedings could hardly be styled popular, and great was the discontent that began, for these and many other reasons, to be sown broadcast through the land. So greatly did heraldry suffer during the stormy period of the Commonwealth, that even after the Restoration she looked dyspeptic and thin. There was little inducement now for false heralds to present themselves in distant towns, offering for merely nominal sums to create perfect coats-of-arms for the wealthy common people, though during the reign of Elizabeth the allurements offered were so great that certain men, being found guilty of such practices, not only were willing to undergo the loss of their ears, which was the punishment awarded to such misdemeanors, but kept on in their evil practices until a long period of confinement in prison cured them of their unrighteous inclinations.