this ideology by a word meaning “knightliness”: in Old and Middle
French, chevalerie,and in English, chivalry.Like some other comparable
ideologies, chivalry came to be served by an order of ministers who grew
up with it, became experts in all of its aspects, and converted it into a kind
of secular religion in rivalry with the Catholic Christianity that was offi-
cially practiced by all of its votaries.
The most general name given to the ministers of chivalry was “her-
ald,” a title of unknown origin first attested in France ca. 1170 (in the form
heralt) and soon adopted in most of the other languages of Latin Christen-
dom. It was first applied to men who specialized in matters associated with
the tournament, a type of knightly team sport invented in France ca. 1050,
and slowly converted between about 1180 and 1220 from a wild and dan-
gerous form of mock battle into a carefully regulated game that was set
within festivities designed to celebrate and promote the new ideology of
chivalry. In documents heralds were at first closely associated with min-
strels, and heraldie,or heraldry (as their craft came to be called), may
probably be seen as an offshoot of minstrelsy. During a tournament the
heralds present (at first quite numerous) announced the combatants as they
entered the field, heaped praise upon their past performances, and dis-
cussed their merits with fellow heralds and spectators while each combat
was in progress. Like minstrels, they were at first hired for the occasion,
and followed the tournament circuit along with the newly knighted
“youths” and other, older knights who found they could make a profit
from the sport. They were probably paid both by the organizers of the
tournament and by the knights whose deeds they praised—often in the
form of songs they composed, in the manner of minstrels.
By the early thirteenth century, the duties of heralds seem to have mul-
tiplied, and some, at least, had acquired a more steady form of employment
in the households of the princes who alone could afford to hold the
grandiose sort of tournament that had come to be fashionable. In any case
princes had begun to use them as messengers in matters related to tourna-
ments, and sent them forth with some regularity to proclaim tournaments
at various courts, royal and baronial, throughout France, the Holy Roman
Empire, and even the lands beyond these. Having delivered the challenge,
they returned with the replies of those challenged, and accompanied their
master to the place appointed for the combat. As tournaments were offi-
cially banned in England until 1194, it is unlikely that heralds were active
there before that date. In fact there is no mention of heralds in English
records before the accession of Edward I in 1272, but from at least that
date, and probably from 1194, English heralds carried out the same range
of functions as their Continental namesakes.
Heralds soon acquired several new areas of expertise. Their need to
Heralds 163