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Heraldry evolved in
12th-century Western Europe,
probably in response to the
growing difficulty of
recognising men in armour as
that armour became heavier and
more enveloping. At Hastings,
when a rumour spread among the
Normans that WILLIAM I (THE
CONQUEROR) had been killed, he
had only to tilt his helmet back
as he rode among them for all to
see that he was alive. Two
hundred years later such a feat
would have required considerable
exertion and the help of a
squire. Men in armour could by
now only distinguish one another
by devices on their shields or
on the surcoats worn over their
armour. Noblemen's devices were
used by their followers as
badges on their own shields and
coats, and in the feudal army
men were accustomed to muster
under the banner of their lord,
which was marked with his coat
of arms. Crests, which were also
distinguishing marks, came
later.
Heraldic devices became
hereditary as first the son then
the more remote descendants of
the original feudal lord
retained the original device so
as to guide their followers in
battle. The devices outlived the
use of armour, however, and by
the 17th century were being
widely used in non-military
ways. By now the granting and
use of coats of arms in England
had come under the supervision
of a body of heralds called the
College of Arms, which had been
set up under royal authority in
1483. In Scotland the Lord Lyon,
supervised the use of arms.
It is probable that arms were
not originally granted by anyone
but were assumed by various
persons as and when they
pleased. Thus from time to time
two or more people might be
using the same device. In the
Scrope-Grosvenor case in the
late 14th century, when Lord
Scrope (see BLG 1965) challenged
the right of Sir Robert
Grosvenor (see WESTMINSTER, D)
to use the same coat of arms
that he did himself, the
duplication was accidental.
Indeed there was a third person
mentioned as using those arms, a
Cornish knight called Carminow.
This celebrated case was only
finally settled by the King,
RICHARD II, who found for
Scrope. By now the Crown was
assuming jurisdiction over the
use of arms. A century later
this had become firmly
established, and since then it
has been heraldic law that arms
can only be borne in accordance
with the rules drawn up by the
heralds under royal authority;
unfortunately, the forum for
prosecuting illicit assumptions
of arms in England, the Court of
Chivalry, is obsolescent,
despite a brief revival in the
early 1950s. In Scotland the
Court of the Lord Lyon has more
teeth and still enforces laws
against the irregular or illicit
assumption of arms.
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