heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

INTRODUCTION. 39
down, but seemed to demand for many generations the consolidation of
those principles and the elaboration of those theories of which the
rudiments had been founded in
the East.
In England, during the reigns of Edward I. and Edward II., there
were incessant demands for men to fight against the French and the
Scotch; and then, from the reign of Edward III. to that of Henry VII.,
a period of more than 150 years, viz., from 1377 to 1485, were waged the
Wars of the Roses, that unhappy, cruel internecine strife which caused the
death of innumerable Englishmen embittered them against each other
into acts so savage and ruthless that they seem almost incredible, and
rendered the condition of the country
so unsettled from the constant
change of government swaying from one family to another, that any stable,
central authority was impossible
;
and it seems almost providential that
such a system as chivalry should have been established, which, expressed
by Heraldry, appealed to the higher instincts of honour and courage and
magnanimity, and therefore held those who differed diametrically on other
matters bound to a certain code of laws, and subservient to certain mutually
recognised principles, without which the deeds of those days, cruel as they
were, would have been far surpassed in ferocity and brutality.
And thus, Heraldry having become popularly adopted, was in due
course established, as matters became more settled, as a recognised department
of the national government. Of the practice of the Curia Militaris
(or Court of the Earl Marshal) in the early centuries, no satisfactory
documents have reached us, though
it may be presumed, says Dallaway,
that precedents of it were followed as scrupulously as the memory of man
or oral traditions could warrant. It was usually held within the verge of
the royal Court by the High Constable and Earl Marshal, who called to
their assistance as many of their peers as they thought expedient, and the
processes were conducted by the Heralds, Doctors of Civil Laws (who were
assessors by commission), and their inferior officers. Appeals were sometimes
made to the Court of Queen's Bench.
On January loth, 1386 (gih Richard this II.), duty was restricted to
the Earl Marshal alone ;
and Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham, was
invested with authority to preside as Earl Marshal in the Court of Chivalry.
The Earl Marshal is the highest great officer of State ;
and until the office
was made hereditary by Charles II. to Henry Lord Howard, and the heirs
male of his body lawfully begotten, it always passed from the King, and was
To him was given the privilege to bear
never held by tenure or serjeanty.
in his hand a gold truncheon enamelled with black at each end, having at
the upper end of it the King's arms engraven thereon, and at the lower
end his own arms. This Court still is the fountain of the Marshal law,
and grants coats armorial and supporters to the same to such as are duly