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book. Welcome to this episode of Gone Medieval from History Hit, I'm Matt Lewis. Heralds and

Heraldry were a central part of the colour and pageantry of the medieval world. Banners and

badges proclaimed allegiance much like a football shirt might do today. But how did this system

develop and what did it mean to have a coat of arms and to show those colours and images?

And delighted to be joined today by Peter O'Donohue, who is York Herald. Peter works at the

College of Arms and is something of an expert on Heralds and Heraldry being a Herald himself.

So thank you very much for joining us today, Peter.

Oh, you're very welcome. So in order to work out what we should talk about first, I might have

to ask a chicken and egg question here. So which comes first? Heralds or Heraldry?

I think Heralds come first because Heraldry is basically a description of what Heralds

get up to. So Heralds come first and we're talking about some time in the 12th, 13th century.

So it could have been a long time ago. The Heralds came along. This basically comes out of the

world of the tournament. So Heralds were officials who helped to organise tournaments and tournaments

with a great outdoor sport, the great elite activity of the age. I always liken them to powerboat

racing. So it was incredibly expensive. You had to be really rich to take part. It was the elite

sport. It was incredibly dangerous. People died all the time. You had to have special protective

equipment personally made to fit you and it was incredibly international. Like powerboat racing,

...