| Since earliest times, men have sought
out feelings of acceptance and a need to belong. The hunters
and gatherers formed groups in order to survive and prosper.
As the population increased, members would branch out and
form new groups. |
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| With the advent of archeology, discoveries
were unearthed that showed groups would decorate and make
their pottery in unique ways from any other group. Historians
and archeologists have argued that these pottery shards are
in fact the first documented coats of arms. |
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| By the time of the rise of nations it
was a general custom to adopt some symbol by which they could
be distinguished from another. This custom reached its fullest
development by the Middle Ages. The carrying of personal armorial
insignia on shields and banners began widespread in feudal
times. A knight had his face covered with the visor from his
helmet and as such, had to be recognized at a distance. During
the Crusades these marks and colors were worn outside their
coat of mail on their surcoat and hence the expression "coat
of arms." |
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| Insignia were not hereditary
at first and knights were free to choose their own symbols,
as were wealthy individuals, families, towns, lordships, abbeys
and other groups who had gained the favor of the reigning
monarch. As confusion and duplication grew so did the complexity
of these symbols. What had started out as a simple form of
identification and pride had risen to a complex system of
inherited social status. The problem became so widespread
that in 1484 the Herald's College was established in Britain
to oversee all claims of subjects to armorial rights. No arms
were considered legal unless recorded in the College. |
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| Beginning in 1528, officers
of the Herald's College began making visitations throughout
the country. Their purpose was to find out which Coat of Arms
were in use and make a record of the genealogies of the families
using these arms. If there was a person who desired to use
arms, but could not prove a right of descent to them, they
could make a petition to the local Earl Marshall. If this
was granted then the Earl Marshall issued a warrant to the
officers of the College to grant arms to him. |
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| The genealogies collected
throughout these times are mostly still in existence today
as well as the continual granting of arms by the College.
And though the Herald's College was formed to handle Britain's
Coat of Arms; the use, pride and recording of special insignia
has been around as long as mankind. |
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