[ANSTHRLD] Heraldic Regalia

[Diane Rudin]

Lord Alden asked:

> 1. Where is the entitlement of who can wear the kingdom tabard defined?
> Kingdom Law?

Any competently-written real-world book on heraldry clearly defines the
difference between arms & badges.  This may be summed up as:  Arms means
"This is I" and badges mean "this is mine".

> 2. When functioning in an official capacity, are the kingdom officers
> (greater and lesser) of the College of Heralds not heralds of Ansteorra?
> 2b. If they are, why could they not wear the kingdom arms while doing so?
> 2c. If not, what should they wear?

Yes, they are, when they are acting in their royal capacity.  I would argue
that they are not heralds of Ansteorra, but heralds of the SCA, when they
are pushing SCA-wide name & armorial registration.  This is the problem with
trying to impose the real-world model completely on the SCA.  The English
College of Arms is headed by Garter who answers to the English sovereign.
The SCA College of Arms is headed by Laurel who answers to the Board of
Directors.  Therefore, every herald in Ansteorra is in a split-personality
position--answerable to both Crown & corporate.  Every baronial herald is in
even more dire straits--answerable to baron/ess, Crown, & corporate.

So, say a baronial herald comes to the event & works the consultation table,
heralds baronial court in the afternoon, and is drafted to herald royal
court in the evening.  What should he wear when?  When consulting, he's
really acting on behalf of the Society College of Arms, and should
display/wear that badge (the crossed trumpets); when heralding baronial
court (& when running around the hour before it collecting information for
baronial court) he wears the arms of the barony; when heralding royal court
(& when running around the hour before it collecting information for royal
court) he wears the arms of the Crown.

If he's collecting information for both courts at once, he should shoot
himself now, because he's going to get something written down wrong & flub
it in front of everybody.  :^)

> 3. Baronial heralds are the heralds of a B&B and could wear the arms of
the
> Barony, but what about the non-baronial groups?

I thought we'd already gone over this earlier this week.  They wear the arms
of the shire/canton/thing.  When appropriate to the circumstances.

> I've seen pictures (modern, granted) of heralds processing all wearing the
> arms of Great Britain, not just the head of the College of Arms (is there
> even a head of the English College?).

There are period illustrations of the same thing.

> Personally, I feel that the wearing
> of the kingdom arms should be extended to include the greater and lesser
> officers of the Ansteorran College of Heralds, when those members are
> functioning in the capacity of their office.  Now, I wouldn't expect
Bordure
> Herald to wear the tabard when he's at home typing up the LoI, but he
> probably would wear it if the CoH would ever process into court.

Chances of such a procession happening:  <1%.  We haven't been able to get
people interested in full Marches of Precedence of everyone present at the
event before court in over twenty years.  It took five minutes to process
everyone in, and ten-twenty minutes of court, after which everyone
complained  that court was too long.  I can't imagine being able to get all
the heralds together to do a march.

> Estencele
> Pursuivant could then wear the kingdom tabard 'askew' in the procession to
> reflect that that's the office of a pursuivant.  Just as the heralds of
yore
> probably only wore the tabards in times of high ceremony, and didn't
during
> their regular working hours, I don't see why our CoH members couldn't
follow
> suit.

Addressed above.

> We've pretty well established that a number of heralds are desirous of
> official garb, and it's been decided already what they can't wear.  So
what
> can/should they wear?

"A number of"?  Well, a couple of people.  We do need to arrive at a
solution, because there *are* people (albeit very few) who are asking for
this.  My recommendations should be clear from my comments.

As to the categories, I can say with a fair degree of certainty that those
with personal heraldic titles, of Herald or Herald Extraordinary level, are
not interested in this (tabards/collars/etc.) at all.

--Serena Lascelles, Magistra Laureae
Blanc Gryffon Herald