LYON KING OF ARMS.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 340, 22 January 1937, Page 3

LYON KING OF ARMS.

AN ANCIENT OFFICE. A Review Of This Heraldic Scottish Appointment. (By W.L.K.) The strange circumstances recorded this week of the death of Captain George "Swinton, Lyon King of Arms, who was found shot in his West End flat, London, brings to mind the position of this chief executive officer of the Heraldic Office, Edinburgh. The control of armorial bearings, very early in Great Britain became the sole prerogative of the Crown and we find the establishment of the Herald’s College in London, with jurisdiction over England and the Colonies, the Lyon Office in Scotland, supreme in all things armorial there, and the Ulster Office in Ireland.

We do not find any mention of heralds in Scotland until 1337, and in 1371 it is recorded that the Lyon and his heralds attended the Coronation of Robert the 11. at Holyrood. It is not, however, till 1388 that we find Lyon accorded the Royal style. In that year It was styled “Leoni regi Heraldorum.” There were many succeeding Lyons with nothing very striking to mark their reign until one Cumyn “Re Armorum,” who was appointed to deliver a charge citing the Earl of Angus to appear before the council regarding his marriage with Margaret Tudor, widow of James IV. Up to this time it must be confessed the Lyons were somewhat shadowy personages. Sir David Lyndsay stands out clear and distinct, the first of several distinguished holders of the office, because of his general eminence in letters. His fame as a poet and satirist, is even yet a household word among the peasantry of Scotland. What concerns us now, however, is the fact that he produced the first roll of Scottish Arms. It is not only the earliest but the most important of all Scottish rolls of Arms. It was published in 1542 and the Privy Council adopted it in 1630, and thus “Lyndsay’s Armorial’’ became the first official roll of Arms in Scotland.

! All of the succeeding Kings of Arms were zealous of their office and helped to clear up the myths that had gathered around a worthy science, until we come to our own day, when Sir James Balfour Paul, 1890-1926, held the position of Lyon, King of Arms and Secretary to the Order of the Thistle. Fof 36 years, he filled the Leonine Chair with marked ability, and enthusiasm, and under his guidance the art in Scottish Heraldry was brought to a high standard. He was a man of high culture, erudition and strongly marked archaelogical interests. He died in 1931.

. I have given a few of the holders of the office of Lyon, but it is of more importance to know duties that they have to perform. These are of a multivarious kind. To him is entrusted The. keeping of the

Register of all Arms and Bearings in Scotland. He grants new arms, “to all virtuous and well deserving persons,” who may apply for the same; it is his duty to matriculate the Arms of cadets whose family Arms are already on record; to confirm Arms to those who failed to register them prior to 1672; to record family pedigrees in the Register of Genealogies which is kept under his care; to give extracts from his registers and MSS marshalling State processions, etc. At one period the Lyon was crowned at his inauguration and vested with his tabard and baton of office. The ceremony was a very elaborate one. The crown was of gold and exactly similar to the Imperial Crown of Scotland save that it had no jewels. The other regalia of the Lyon consisted of tabard or sleeveless coat of velvet, having the royal Arms embroidered on back and front and on two small wings which fall over the arms, a gold collar of S.S., a badge with St. Andrew on one side and the Scottish Arms on the other, done in enamel and hung on a triple gold chain, and a baton of blue enamel with gold extremities. The baton was powdered with roses, thistles, shamrocks and fleur-de-lis, being one of the few pieces of British official regalia which are still adorned with the ancient ensigns of France. In addition to his strictly armorial appointment, the Lyon is also King of Arms of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle.

The late Captain Swinton has been Lyon King of Arms since 1927. Before that he was Albany Herald from 1923-26 and March Pursuivant of Arms.