[MR] Wikipedia: Richard III Charters College of Arms

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends, Especially Heralds,

On this date in 1484, Richard III of England issued a charter formally
organizing the College of Arms.

According to Wikipedia, the formal name for the College of Arms is *Le
Garter regis armorum Anglicorum, regis armorum partium Australium, regis
armorum partium Borealium, regis armorum Wallæ et heraldorum, prosecutorum,
sive pursevandorum armorum. *This Latin mouthful translates to "the Garter
King of Arms of England, the King of Arms of the Southern parts, the King
of Arms of the Northern parts, the King of Arms of Wales, and all other
heralds and pursuivants of arms".

England had a unchartered heraldic body as early as 1420, but it was not
fully recognized by the Crown.

The College is one of two heraldic institutions in Great Britain. The
College takes care of heraldry for England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the
dwindling British overseas possessions, plus Australia and New Zealand.
Scottish heraldry is separately administered by the Court of the Lord Lyon
which was chartered in 1532. Since 1988 Canada has operated its own
independent heraldic office, the Canadian Heraldic Authority.

The College of Arms was rather badly treated by Henry VII, who deprived
them of their chapter house, Coldharbor, resulting in many records being
lost. In 1555 Queen Mary issued the College a new charter, granting them
Derby House for their headquarters. While there might be some polite
grousing about seniority, in terms of charters and continuous operation,
the Scottish Court of the Lord Lyon is generally acknowledged as the senior
heraldic body.

Wikipedia's article is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_of_Arms .

Scotland's Court of the Lord Lyon is discussed at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_of_the_Lord_Lyon .

For the truly curious, the Canadian Heraldic Authority is found at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Heraldic_Authority .

It might be a surprise, but the United States also has a heralic body, the
U.S. Army Institute of Heraldry, which serves all branches of the U.S.
government (sometimes with some really bad designs!):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Institute_of_Heraldry .

And now for a personal story. My service days were spent in the U.S. Coast
Guard as a photojournalist, two of my three assignments in Public Affairs
offices working directly for Admirals who were district commanders. At that
time, the Army institute had not yet been founded, so one day our office
was ordered by our Admiral to design a "patch" for our 11th Coast Guard
District (headquartered in Long Beach, California). My chief, a former ad
man and design whiz, and I (who had done a very small amount of heraldic
study) put our heads together and came up with a really nice design
featuring leaning a palm tree shading the number 11 before a setting sun.
Clean, easily recognizable, in short good modern heraldry. The admiral
looked at our draft, mumbled a bit as admirals often do, then suggested we
add a few of the district's missions, including an airplane, mabe a
helicopter too, some ships, oh, and something for marine safety . . . . on
and on. The chief and I silently cringed as the admiral wandered back to
his office. We quietly dropped the project, and the admiral never noticed.
Today the 11th District has this rather busy device:
https://www.uscg.mil/Portals/0/Atlantic%20Area/uscg_11_district.jpg?ver=2017-09-12-132632-527
. (Sigh!)

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆