heraldry and heralds 341C. R. Bearzley and Edgar Prestage, 2 vols. (New York: B.
Franklin, 1963); J. H. Parry, Age of Exploration and Dis-
covery: Prince Henry and the Portuguese Navigators
(1394–1498) (Philadelphia: Westminster Press 1969);
Peter Russell, Prince Henry “the Navigator”: A Life(New
Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000).
Herakleios I (Heraclios) (ca. 575–641) Byzantine emperor
Born in Cappadocia about 575, Herakleios was appar-
ently of Armenian origin. His father, another Herakleios,
was an important general under Emperor Maurice (r.
582–602) and became the exarch or governor of northern
AFRICA. When the regime of an usurper, Phokas
(602–610), fell into chaos, factions in CONSTANTINOPLE
urged the elder Herakleios to seize the throne; he sent his
son instead. This rebellion succeeded in overthrowing
Phokas and made Herakleios emperor on October 5, 610.
Because of Phokas’s disastrous mismanagement,
Herakleios faced a seemingly impossible situation. The
SLAVSand the AVARShad overrun most of the Byzantine
provinces in the Balkans and threatened the empire’s
remaining European territories. The SASSANIANking of
Persia, Chosroes II (Khosrow, r. 590–628), began a war
of conquest against the empire’s eastern territories and
soon overran the rich provinces of SYRIA,PALESTINE,
and EGYPT. The empire’s military and financial resources
were nowhere near adequate to cope with all of these
threats, so the next few years were spent in preparation
for a counter offense. A precarious peace was purchased
at heavy expense from the Avars, and in 622 Herakleios
began his attacks to the east. Having personal command
of his troops in the field, over the next six years he
campaigned vigorously. In the meantime, the Avars and
the Slavs laid siege to Constantinople in 626, but the
city resisted successfully. His efforts gradually cleared
ANATOLIAof Persians, won the support of allies in the
Caucasus mountains, and even eventually took the war
into Persian territory in IRAQin 627. Peace was made
with the defeated Persians in 629. In 630, as a pilgrim,
he solemnly restored to JERUSALEMthe True Cross and
other Christian relics the Persians had carried off earlier
in the war.
However, Herakleios had tried vainly to end reli-
gious strife among the Christian factions with little suc-
cess. According to tradition, Herakleios began the
organization of BYZANTINEsystem of “themes” or mili-
tary provinces using local native forces backed up by the
imperial armies. This system was the basis of the
empire’s strength and survival for the next four cen-
turies. Herakleios also clarified a “Byzantine” or Greek
character more expressly in the empire in terms of the
Greek language and culture.
Before Herakleios could complete his work of reli-
gious reconciliation and reconstruction, the ARABS, under
the seemingly irresistible banner of ISLAM, assaulted and
captured the recently restored provinces. Burned out and
disillusioned, Herakleios died on February 11, 641. The
Arabs by then controlled SYRIA,ARMENIA, Mesopotamia,
and EGYPT. Nonetheless he had founded a dynasty that
through the sons of his first wife, Eudokia, directed the
BYZANTINE EMPIRE successfully through the following
perilous period of forced change and survival of the rest
of the seventh century.
Further reading: Geoffrey Regan, First Crusader:
Byzantium’s Holy Wars(Thrupp, England: Sutton, 2001);
Andreas N. Stratos, Byzantium in the Seventh Century,
trans. Marc Ogilvie-Grant (Amsterdam: Adolf M.
Hakkert, 1968).heraldry and heralds During the Middle Ages her-
aldry developed the interdisciplinary science of the study
and devising of armorial bearings or arms. Following the
rules of blazonry, the new style emblems used colors from
a defined set and made them proper to an individual, a
family, or a community. These clear rules, though few in
number, differentiated a European heraldic system from
other systems of emblems.
In the first half of the 12th century a need developed
for heraldry with the evolution of military equipment.
The new more complex helmets and haubeks made
knights unrecognizable in battle or in the newly popular
tournaments. Figures such as animals, plants, or geomet-
rical patterns in certain standard positions were painted
on bucklers and shields to facilitate recognition in battle
or contest. As European society became more complex
these practices extended from the knightly class to other
orders to give them an identity, eventually becoming
hereditary or traditional.
In the 13th century, the use of these emblems was
extended to women, the clergy, merchants, artisans, and
even peasants. Shortly thereafter they became common
to signify towns, trade or guild corporations, religious
communities, and governmental administrations. Such
armorial bearings were never limited to one social class,
and everyone could assume one as long as it was not that
of another, though England was always more fussy about
who actually could legitimately take on such emblems.
By the 15th century, they reflected identities of all kinds
of people and institutions as a system of signs with its
own language, syntax, and codes. Heralds were the
experts and announcers of these identities at tourna-
ments or other events. They were trained to recognize
the complex symbolism and attributes of emblems and
devices.
See alsoBARTOLO DA SASSOFERRATO; KNIGHTS AND
KNIGHTHOOD; NOBLES AND THE NOBILITY.
Further reading: Gerald L. Brault, Early Balzon:
Heraldic Terminology in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Cen-
turies (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972); N. Denholm-
Young, History and Heraldry, 1254 to 1310: A Study of the