[ANSTHRLD] Armorial usurpation

[tmcd at panix.com]

<http://www.heraldry-scotland.co.uk/Lyoncourt.htm> explains about the
court of Lord Lyon.  I like the part about "The armorial offender in
Scotland is accordingly viewed with the same stern and unromantic
outlook which meets any other culprit caught evading national
taxation."

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The duties of the Court are divided into two broad categories: (a)
Establishing rights to arms and pedigrees ... (b) The penal and
semi-penal (State Revenue) jurisdiction is concerned with protecting
the rights both of private individuals and of the Crown in Scottish
armorial bearings, and over H.M. Messengers at Arms. This is regarded
as a matter of signal importance, for where persons or corporations
have paid fees to the Crown in return for the exclusive right to
armorial bearings, and a Scots coat of arms can belong to only one
person at a time, it is only proper that these rights should be
protected. Without such protection arms are indeed useless to anybody
or for anything. The misappropriation or unauthorised display of a
man's coat of arms is a "real injury" under the Common Law of
Scotland. Accordingly the registered owner of a Scots coat of arms may
obtain judicial interdict in Lyon Court against any person depicting
his arms against his wishes or to his prejudice. The Crown and the
public have also an interest, the former because in Scotland the fees
on registration of armorial bearings and pedigrees are payable to
H.M. Treasury, and the latter for prevention of fraud through improper
assumption of coats of arms because armorial bearings are legal
evidence which may be used in cases of succession and identity.

The Lyon Court, like other Courts in Scotland, has a public
Prosecutor, styled, like those of Scots Sheriff Courts, a
"Procurator-Fiscal". He raises proceedings, when necessary against
those who improperly usurp armorial bearings, and in view of the
financial interest of the Treasury, the Scots Courts of Appeal regard
the Fiscal's intervention as analogous to an Inland Revenue
prosecution. The armorial offender in Scotland is accordingly viewed
with the same stern and unromantic outlook which meets any other
culprit caught evading national taxation. Lyon Court has by Statute
1592, cap. 125, and 1672, cap. 47, full powers of fine and
imprisonment, and by 1669, cap. 95, Letters of Horning as well as, at
common law, power to erase unwarrantable arms, and to "dash them furth
of" stained-glass windows, break unwarrantable seals, and, where the
Fiscal or complainer moves for forfeiture, to grant warrant for
seizing movable goods and gear upon which arms are unwarrantably
represented. He may also interdict usurpers of arms.

Daniel de Lincolia
--
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com; tmcd at us.ibm.com is my work address