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Since earliest times, men have sought
out feelings of acceptance and a need to belong. The hunters
and gatherers formed groups in order to survive and prosper.
As the population increased, members would branch out and
form new groups.
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With the advent of archeology, discoveries
were unearthed that showed groups would decorate and make
their pottery in unique ways from any other group. Historians
and archeologists have argued that these pottery shards are
in fact the first documented coats of arms.
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By the time of the rise of nations it was
a general custom to adopt some symbol by which they could
be distinguished from another. This custom reached its fullest
development by the Middle Ages. The carrying of personal armorial
insignia on shields and banners began widespread in feudal
times. A knight had his face covered with the visor from his
helmet and as such, had to be recognized at a distance. During
the Crusades these marks and colors were worn outside their
coat of mail on their surcoat and hence the expression "coat
of arms."
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Insignia were not hereditary at first and
knights were free to choose their own symbols, as were wealthy
individuals, families, towns, lordships, abbeys and other
groups who had gained the favor of the reigning monarch. As
confusion and duplication grew so did the complexity of these
symbols. What had started out as a simple form of identification
and pride had risen to a complex system of inherited social
status. The problem became so widespread that in 1484 the
Herald's College was established in Britain to oversee all
claims of subjects to armorial rights. No arms were considered
legal unless recorded in the College.
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Beginning in 1528, officers of the Herald's
College began making visitations throughout the country. Their
purpose was to find out which Coat of Arms were in use and
make a record of the genealogies of the families using these
arms. If there was a person who desired to use arms, but could
not prove a right of descent to them, they could make a petition
to the local Earl Marshall. If this was granted then the Earl
Marshall issued a warrant to the officers of the College to
grant arms to him.
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The genealogies collected throughout these
times are mostly still in existence today as well as the continual
granting of arms by the College. And though the Herald's College
was formed to handle Britain's Coat of Arms; the use, pride
and recording of special insignia has been around as long
as mankind.
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