HENRY VIII.

Acceded April 2, 1503;-Died January 28, 1546-7.

HENRY VIII. was a very splendid and magnificent monarch, whether we HEN. VIII. view him in the court, at the tournament, the mask, or in the camp, always appearing in the dignity and pomp of Majesty. The heralds, the appendages of royalty, were constantly in waiting, both at home and abroad, attending his person upon every occasion.

The College, at no time since its establishment, was in higher estimation, nor in fuller employment, than in this reign. Its members were sometimes dispatched to foreign courts to assist in negotiations, to declare war, accompanying armies, summoning garrisons, delivering messages to the generals who commanded the armies of the enemy, or in the more pleasing occupations of delivering the ensigns of the most noble order of. St. George, attending banquets, justs, and tournaments, or in adjusting the ceremonials when great personages visited each other, Henry's first wife, Catherine of Arragon, was crowned with him. A magnificent ceremony was ordained for her successful rival, Ann Boleyn, at which assisted the heralds. "After the two esquires of honor, representing the Dukes of Normandy and Acquitaine, rode the Lord-mayor of London, with his mace, and Garter in his coat of arms, which bare also his mace of "Westminster Hall. After them rode the Lord William Howard, with "his Marshall's rod, deputy to his brother the Duke of Norfolk, Marshal "of England, which was ambassador then in France; and on his right "hand rode Charles Duke of Suffolke, for that daie high Constable of Englande, bearing the warder of silver, appertaining to the office of con-stableship. And all the lords for the most part were clothed in crimson. "velvet, and all the Queene's servants or officers of armes in scarlet. Next before the Queene, rode her Chancellor, bare-headed. The serjeant and "officers at armes rode on both sides of the lordes; then came the Queene. "in a white litter, of white cloth of golde, not covered or vàiled," &c. None of the other wives of Henry were honored with a coronation.

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HEN. VIII.

There was nothing performed of a public nature, but what the heralds were employed in. When Henry assumed the title of Defender of the Faith, it was proclaimed in London by the heralds. They attended at the baptisms of the royal infants; and when his Majesty stood sponsor to Madame de Isabelle de France, the name was declared by the king, and heralds at arms, both of France and England, each wearing their tabards, adorned with the arms of their respective Sovereigns.

Henry had such a respect for the officers at arms, that he treated them with great regard; even such who came to him from foreign potentates with the most unpleasing messages, and amply rewarded them. Lion king at arms is an instance of this. In 1513, he came to Henry at Tours, and spoke some things of a very disagreeable nature; yet his Majesty sent Garter with him to his tent, commanding him to give his brother king at arms "good cheer;" and at his receiving written answers to the letters which he had brought, Henry gave him one hundred angels.

It was very requisite, that the officers at arms should keep most exactly to their orders, and perform all their duties conformable to the laws of arms; it was, therefore, customary at this time, and never more necessary, that they should receive certificates, or powers, signed by the Sovereign or his ministers, as warrants for what they did at other courts. It insured their own safety; for Henry was a boisterous prince, and the christian Sovereigns then often disgraced their characters, by a rude vehe-' mence, which at this time is never practised by one gentleman to another with impunity. There required great dexterity, and the nicest attention to etiquette, to make them acceptable to princes, to whom they brought the most distasteful messages. If they behaved with suitable decorum, honor and reward generally attended them: as a proof of this, Clarenceux was applauded and rewarded, whilst Guienne king at arms was disgraced, though they both went together to Spain, to give the "lie" to, and bid the Emperor Charles V. defiance, owing to the prudence of one, and the improper conduct of the other. Nor was Toison d'or, Burgundy king of arms, better treated, when he went from the Emperor to Francis I., and for the same reason; nor would the same Monarch, in 1544, receive Garter's hostile message, because of some informality: but the objection was made, not to the king at arms' conduct, but to that of his Sovereign.

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The heralds, though their persons were sacred, were sometimes in HEN. VIII. When the English were before great danger from desperate persons. Venloè, they sent, August 26, 1511, a herald, named Arthoys, to summon it to surrender, as the allies and assisters of Margaret, Duchess of Parma, the Governess of the Low Countries; but those "within would "not hear him, and even shot guns at him." This herald, I presume, was Artois, and belonged to the Duchess of Savoy, and not to the English. No doubt Henry highly resented this usage, against the law of arms and even of nations; for he took the most ample vengeance for the murder of one of his heralds in Scotland, as will be shewn in the life of Ratcliffe, Somerset. If, however, the heralds were sometimes in danger, they were generally respected, even by the most daring and abandoned. In the year 1536, one Aske, an inconsiderable person, collected a large company to restore the old superstitions: for that purpose, over-running the whole country, he obtained the city of York and the town of Hull, from whence he, and his partizans, went to Pontefract-Castle, whither the King sent Lancaster herald, with a proclamation from the Earl of Shrewsbury, his Majesty's lieutenant, requiring it to be read. Lancaster being introduced to the audacious traitor, who sat between the Archbishop of York and Lord d'Arcy, whom he retained prisoners, having demanded what the contents were, and highly disliking, forbad the herald to proclaim them; but he of fered no violence to his person, and even gave him a safe conduct to protect him, so long as he wore his tabard. This rebellion, the most formidable Henry ever experienced, was soon afterwards crushed, and the chiefs executed. I think it was in this reign that killing an herald, when upon duty, was adjudged treason.

Henry made some regulations, and gave the heralds some privileges. At the coronation of Ann Boleyn, the kings of arms wore a crown of copper gilt, which they did not take off until night: at the same time the countesses, says the late Lord Orford, only wore circles of gold. At all banquets, and it was a banquetting age, the kings, heralds, and pursuivants, had a “stage" appropriated to their use, at the right "end" of the table. At these times the kings at arms wore their crowns.

The annual fees payable to Garter, by such who were raised to the order of St. George, were ascertained in the fourteenth year of this reign. The habit of the principal king at arms was specified, and his Majesty appointed

HEN. VIII. appointed him lodgings in Windsor-Castle, which, by a decree of the chapter, are now, for ever, appropriated to that office. From this circumstance, that part of the castle in which they are, has obtained the name of "Garter's Tower."

Henry gave orders, that every king at arms should, at the charge of the Crown, keep within the court three servants and three horses; the six heralds, each one servant, and two horses; and the four pursuivants, each one horse the pursuivants extraordinary were not noticed. This regulation, however, was soon given up, and the officers lost a privilege that then seemed justly their due, considering how much the court was constantly changing their residence, and the frequent journies the officers were called upon to undertake on other accounts. His Majesty commanded none of the serjeants at arms, heralds, pursuivants, &c. to retain, or bring into the court, any boys, or "rascals:" this was in imitation of the order of Edward IV., which commanded "the rascals and hangers upon his court to be sought out, and avoided from every office, monthly."

The splendor of our nobility, even under Henry, may be judged of, by what the antiquary Martin has given in the History of Thetford, of the solemnity of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk's, funeral, in 1524, where attended Garter king, principal king at arms, Clarenceux, provincial king, with Carlisle and Richmond, heralds. Carlisle, at every dirge and service at the interment, “ desiring all to pray for the soul of "the right noble and mighty prince, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, Marshal "of England, and late treasurer of the same, councellor to the King our Sovereign Lord, and companion of the most noble order of the Garter." We may judge of the pomp and grandeur displayed, by the magnificent entertainment given on the day of the interment, consisting of four hundred messes, to partake of which were one thousand nine hundred persons, "liveries of black cloth, inwns and coats." wns and coats." At the mass of requiem had been distributed £200 to poor people, in pennies and two-pennies each. The whole charge of the funeral amounted to £1340, a prodigious sum at that period.

Bruges, Garter, in the petition he presented to Henry V., mentioned the indispensable qualifications of pursuivants previous 'to their admission into the heraldic body, insisting particularly, that they should be of reputable birth, competent erudition, and a virtuous conversation. Their age was

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to be at least twenty-five, before they were to be confirmed heralds: HEN. VIII. but Henry VIII. broke in upon these regulations, for some heralds, in his reign, were not so old when admitted, and probably some other requisites were dispensed with. These occasioned the superior officers of the College to petition the Duke of Suffolk, Earl Marshal, not to nominate any to be a pursuivant, except he was recommended to him as proper for the post, after having been duly examined in the chapter, The noviciate of a pursuivant was seven years, which formerly was never shortened, unless for very urgent reasons; but it has now been determined by the Court of King's Bench, that an herald may be made "per saltum,” without the preliminary appointment and service. Pursuivants still are only regarded as probationers, and have no seat in the chapter.

The dissolution of the monasteries led to the idea of the heraldic visitations; for the former had been the repositories of genealogical concerns. These county visitations were committed to the care of the provincial kings at arms, who associated with them some of the most skilful heralds. In the commissions they received, all persons were ordered to assist the members of the College in these researches, and at the same time, all painters were prohibited from setting forth arms. The early visitations are highly and deservedly valued. The heralds collected materials from the records of the religious foundations, which were just then broken up, where curious memorials, relative to their founders and benefactors, had been gratefully lodged. The commissions continued to be issued until the latter end of the last century, the latest being dated May 13, 1686, in the reign of James II., under which some returns were made so late as the year 1704. The passion for emblazoning the arms of the nobility upon glass, in the windows of cathedral and parochial churches, private chapels, and in the seats of our nobility and gentry, gave much employment, and considerable emolument to the provincial kings and their deputies, to martial and arrange, as well as often to draw up short pedigrees of such families, which were set forth in the gloomy chancel, or the sombre hall of the long descended patron or lord of the mansion, exemplified with the shield, rich in quarterings.

The plan Henry VII. laid, and his son fostered, to depress the great families, gave rise to a new body of gentry; these, with the higher order of clergy and merchants, sought, and were allowed the distinction of