Martial Arts Of The World - Webs
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Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

Martial Arts Of The World - Webs Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

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A medieval trial by combat between two knights inside a fenced ring, ca. 1350. The victor would be deemed to have been vindicated by God. (Hulton Getty/Archive Photos) 164 Heralds be able to identify individual knights in tournaments gave them a special interest in the cognizances or “arms” whose use (on shields, pennons, and banners) was first adopted by princes in the 1130s and became general among ordinary knights in the period between ca. 1190 and ca. 1250. It is likely that heralds not only encouraged the use of such cognizances among those who took part in tournaments, but played an important role in designing them and in systematizing their use. In fact, there is reason to believe that “armory,” as this aspect of heraldry came to be called, was

largely the creation of heralds, who certainly provided it with its technical terminology. They also kept its records. Possibly from as early as 1250, and certainly from 1275, some English heralds prepared books or rolls of arms, collected from various sources, to assist them in remembering the hundreds of distinct but often similar arms they encountered in their work, and this practice soon spread to France and from there to other kingdoms of northern Europe. From ca. 1390 a growing number of heralds also wrote treatises on armory and the other aspects of heraldry, and from about 1450 these were aimed not only at apprentice heralds but at all members of the nobility and those who had hopes of working for them. From about 1480, heralds also began to invent new rules to govern the use of the various additional emblems of identity and insignia of rank, office, and honor that had come since about 1300 to be added to the shield of arms in the complex iconic sign eventually known as an “armorial achievement” in all its various forms: the “crest” of carved wood or boiled leather borne atop the helm in Germany from ca. 1250 and the rest of Latin Europe from ca. 1300–1330 as a supplementary symbol of personal identity, especially in tournaments; the headgear of dignity (crowns, coronets, miters, and so forth) that sometimes replaced the helm and its crest over the shield from about the same period; and the collars and other insignia of the Orders of the Garter, Golden Fleece, St. John of Jerusalem, and other knightly orders and aristocratic societies, both lay and religious, into which noblemen were admitted, which were displayed in conjunction with the shield of arms from ca. 1400. After about 1480, the heralds also brought within their expertise (and growing jurisdiction) most of the livery emblems that emerged in rivalry to armory in the later fourteenth century, and formed part of a still broader set of what are now called paraheraldic emblems. Most important of these were the livery colors, livery badge, livery device, and motto, used from the 1360s to as late as the 1550s to mark the household servants, soldiers, and political clients and allies of kings, princes, and great barons, and displayed both on livery uniforms and a variety of livery flags, all of which had a primarily military function. The livery banderoles, guidons, and standards, divided into bands of the livery colors and strewn with livery badges and mottoes, all supplemented, in the various nonfeudal companies, the more traditional armorial pennoncelles, pennons, and banners that were still used to indicate the presence of the lord or his chief deputy. As the existence of these various forms of flags indicates, armorial and paraheraldic emblems generally were closely associated with the role of the knight as warrior. This was true not only in the increasingly sanitized combats of the tournament and joust (which themselves frequently took on the outward form of a scene in a romance), but in the combats à l’outrance (to Heralds 165

A medieval trial by combat between two knights inside a fenced ring, ca. 1350. <strong>The</strong> victor would be deemed to have<br />

been vindicated by God. (Hulton Getty/Archive Photos)<br />

164 Heralds<br />

be able to identify individual knights in tournaments gave them a special<br />

interest in the cognizances or “arms” whose use (on shields, pennons, and<br />

banners) was first adopted by princes in the 1130s and became general<br />

among ordinary knights in the period between ca. 1190 and ca. 1250. It is<br />

likely that heralds not only encouraged the use of such cognizances among<br />

those who took part in tournaments, but played an important role in designing<br />

them and in systematizing their use. In fact, there is reason to believe<br />

that “armory,” as this aspect of heraldry came to be called, was

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