What Is: a Herald

In modern times, royal heralds are often reduced to stock characters, wearing gaudy tabards, playing trumpets at Renaissance Fairs or making long-winded pronouncements in cartoons and movies.  In reality, they played a more important role in Medieval society, akin to modern ambassadors and diplomats.

 A herald, or more properly an officer of arms, were originally messengers employed by kings or other nobles to carry messages or make official announcements.  To signify their authority to represent their employer, they wore tabards of either their master's colors or emblems from his coat of arms.  As messengers and representatives, they would have had to have a knowledge of appropriate protocol and etiquette.  During tournaments, heralds acted as referees and police, making sure that the rules were followed and no disturbances broke out.  They were often in charge of arranging which knights fought on which side, or in which contest against each other.  To do this required an encyclopedic knowledge of the various badges and symbols used by each knight.  Heralds were also responsible for making sure that no knight displayed any badges or heraldic symbols to which he was no entitled.  This authority made heralds early arbiters on which marks and symbols belonged to which family, a science that came to be known as heraldry. 

Heralds played a vital role in Medieval battles.  A herald could be sent by one king to another to offer terms for peace, or to convey that a challenging king wished to fight rather than parley.  It's in this role that a French herald appears in Shakespeare's depiction of the prelude to Agincourt.  At the battle in 1415, French and English heralds observed the battle.  As the victor of the battle, it was Henry V's right to name the battle.  The king inquired the name of a nearby castle and a French herald let him know it was called Agincourt.  The name stuck and portions of the ruined castle survive to this day.  Heralds continued their ceremonial function through the Plantagenet and into the Tudor era.  As their profession evolved, ranks of heralds emerged.  The most senior heralds were known as Kings of Arms, often with an official designation, such as Garter King of Arms.  Lesser heralds or heralds in training were known as pursuivants, from a French word for follower.

In modern times, heralds still play a role in Royal ceremonies, insuring that appropriate protocol is followed.  It is Garter King of Arms who designs and issues new coats of arms for people deemed entitled to one, such as when the Middleton family became royals adjacent by Catherine's marriage to William.  Lord Lyon King of Arms performs a similar function in Scotland.