Editing High Court of Chivalry

{{Short description|English civil law court}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox high court
|court_name       = His Majesty's High Court of Chivalry
|image            = Courtroom of the Earl Marshall, Court of Chivalry, College of Arms, London.jpg
|imagesize        =
|caption          = Courtroom in October 2017
|established      =
|jurisdiction     = [[England and Wales]]
|location         =
|coordinates      =
|type             = Appointed by [[Earl Marshal]]
|authority        =
|appealsto        = [[Judicial Committee of the Privy Council]]
|terms            = One [[hereditary]], otherwise depends on the appointment
|positions        =
|chiefjudgetitle  = [[Earl Marshal]]
|chiefjudgename   = [[Duke of Norfolk]]
|termstart        = 1672 (current office granted by Letters Patent)
}}

'''His Majesty's High Court of Chivalry''' is a [[Civil law (legal system)|civil law]] (as opposed to common law) court in [[English and Welsh law]] with jurisdiction over matters of [[heraldry]]. The court has been in existence since the fourteenth century; however, it rarely sits.<ref name="THS001">{{cite web |url=http://www.theheraldrysociety.com/articles/college_of_arms/the_last_case_heard_in_the_high_court_of_chivalry.htm |title=A Brief Account of the Proceedings in the High Court of Chivalry on 21st December, 1954 |website=theheraldrysociety.com |publisher=The Heraldry Society | access-date=6 October 2016}}</ref> The sole judge is now the hereditary [[Earl Marshal]] of England, the [[Duke of Norfolk]], though if not a professional lawyer, he normally appoints a professional lawyer as his lieutenant or [[wiktionary:surrogate|surrogate]].<ref name="THS001"/>

In [[Scotland]], these types of cases are heard in the [[Court of the Lord Lyon]], which is a standing [[Private law|civil]] and [[criminal law|criminal court]], with its own judge – the [[Lord Lyon King of Arms]] and its own {{lang|la|[[procurator fiscal]]}} (public prosecutor) under the [[Courts of Scotland|Scottish legal system]].<ref name="Innes 7">Innes of Learney & Innes of Edingight, p.7</ref>

==History==
{{expand section|date=August 2018}}
[[File:Microcosm of London Plate 043 - Heralds' College.jpg|thumb|right|300px|A session of the Court of Chivalry being held in the [[College of Arms]], depicted in 1809.]]

The court was historically known as the ''Curia Militaris'', the ''Court of the Constable and the Marshal'', or the ''Earl Marshal's Court''.<ref>G. D. Squibb, ''The High Court of Chivalry: A Study of the Civil Law in England'', Oxford, 1959, pp.2–3; [http://heraldry.sca.org/laurel/lexarm.html The Law of Arms in Mediaeval England]</ref> The court was established some time prior to the late fourteenth century with jurisdiction over certain military matters, which came to include misuse of arms. It was instituted by Edward III, along with the Earl and other key personnel.

Since it was created in the fourteenth century, the court has always sat when required, except for the short time between 1634 and its temporary abolition by the [[Long_Parliament|Long Parliament in 1640]] when it sat on a regular basis. During this time, the court heard well over a thousand cases, of which evidence survives from 738 cases.<ref name="UOB001">{{cite web |url=http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/historycultures/departments/history/research/projects/court-of-chivalry/seventeenth-century/index.aspx |title=The High Court of Chivalry in the early seventeenth century |website=birmingham.ac.uk |publisher=University of Birmingham | access-date=6 October 2016}}</ref>

Its jurisdiction and powers were successively reduced by the common law courts to the point where, after 1737, the court ceased to be convened and was in time regarded as obsolete and no longer in existence. That understanding was authoritatively overturned, however, by a revival of the court in 1954, when the Earl Marshal appointed the then Lord Chief Justice to sit as his surrogate. The Lord Chief Justice Lord Goddard confirmed that the court retained both its existence and its powers, and ruled in favour of the suit before him.

==Sittings==
{{expand section|date=August 2018}}
The court was last convened in 1954<ref name="THS001"/> for the case of ''[[Manchester Corporation]] v Manchester Palace of Varieties Ltd''.<ref>''[[Manchester Corporation]] v Manchester Palace of Varieties Ltd'', P 133; [1955] 1 All ER 387</ref> Prior to this, the court had not sat for two centuries (since 1737), and before hearing the case, the court first had to rule whether it still existed.<ref>{{cite book |first=G. D. |last=Squibb |title=The High Court of Chivalry: A Study of the Civil Law in England |publisher=Oxford |date=1959}}</ref> The proceedings opened with the reading of various [[letters patent]] in order to make clear that the Duke of Norfolk was indeed Hereditary Earl Marshal and that he had appointed [[Rayner Goddard, Baron Goddard|Lord Goddard]], who was the [[Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales]], as his lieutenant in the court. It also had ruled that the Earl Marshal was allowed to sit in judgment without the [[Lord High Constable of England]], an office which until 1521 was also held as a hereditary dignity by the [[Duke of Buckingham|Dukes of Buckingham]].<ref name="THS001"/> The case itself was that the Palace Theatre had been displaying the arms of the [[Manchester City Council|Manchester Corporation]] (now Manchester City Council) both inside and on its seal and this usage implied that it was linked with the city's council. The corporation had requested that the theatre stop using it, but this request had been refused. The court ruled in favour of the corporation.<ref name="THS001"/>

==Appeals from the court==
In 1832, the Privy Council Appeals Act 1832 made the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Council]] the [[appellate court]] for cases heard by the High Court of Chivalry.<ref>Privy Council Appeals Act 1832 (2 & 3 Will. 4 c. 92)</ref> Since 1 February 1833, following the passage of the Judicial Committee Act 1833, appeals have been heard directly by the [[Judicial Committee of the Privy Council]].<ref>{{Cite legislation UK |act=Judicial Committee Act 1833 |chapter=41 |type=act |year=1833}}</ref> Prior to that, and in common with the [[Admiralty court|admiralty]] and [[Ecclesiastical court#Church of England|ecclesiastical]] courts, appeals from the Court of Chivalry were made to the Crown in Chancery, with appeals being heard by commissioners appointed by letters patent under the Great Seal in each case.<ref>Halsbury's Laws of England (3rd Edition), vol. 13, para. 1049</ref> Sittings by these commissioners had become known as the High Court of Delegates by the time of the 1832 Act.<ref>Privy Council Appeals Act 1832 (2 & 3 Will. 4 c. 92), preamble.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C224|title=Records of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council |date=2010 |website=discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk|publisher=The National Archives|language=en-GB|access-date=23 May 2017|quote=The Privy Council Appeals Act 1832 abolished the High Court of Delegates and transferred its powers to hear appeals in ecclesiastical and admiralty cases to the King in Council. The council had 
previously served only as a court of final resort from the delegates under the infrequently invoked procedure of petitioning for commissions of review.}}</ref>

==Composition==
===Judges===
Historically the court had two hereditary judges – the Duke of Norfolk as Earl Marshal of England, and the [[Duke of Buckingham]] as Lord High Constable of England – but in 1521 [[Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham]] was convicted of treason, stripped of his titles and offices, and executed. Since then the office of Lord High Constable of England has only been appointed to perform ceremonial duties during a [[Coronation of the British monarch|Coronation]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/WillandMar/1/6/section/III |title=Coronation Oath Act 1688: Section III. Form of Oath and Administration thereof |website=legislation.gov.uk |publisher=The National Archives| access-date=6 October 2016}}</ref> and there has only been the Earl Marshal acting as the sole judge.

===Lieutenant, Assessor and Surrogate to the Earl Marshal===
*[[Sir Edmund Isham, 6th Baronet]] 1728–1772
*[[Rayner Goddard, Baron Goddard]] 24 October 1954 – 1959
*[[George Drewry Squibb]], [[Norfolk Herald Extraordinary]] 1976–1994

===Joint Register to the High Court of Chivalry===
*[[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant-Colonel]] [[Sir]] [[Anthony Wagner]] [[Garter Principal King of Arms]] 27 October 1954–1995
*Wilfred Maurice Phillips ([[Notary Public]]), 27 October 1954.

===Cryer to the High Court of Chivalry===
*A. H. Smith, 1954

==See also==
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
*[[Canadian Heraldic Authority]]
*[[Chivalry]]
*[[Courts of England and Wales]]
*[[Law of Arms]]
*''[[Scrope v Grosvenor]]''
*[[Time immemorial]]
*''[[Warbelton v Gorges]]''
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/resources/court-of-chivalry About the Court of Chivalry]
* [http://www.heraldica.org/topics/britain/england1.htm Regulation of Heraldry in England: the Middle Ages]
* [http://www.heraldica.org/topics/britain/squibb.htm Cases in the Court of Chivalry]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120204050347/http://www.chronique.com/Library/Glossaries/glossary-KCT/gloss_c.htm#court A short piece about the Courts of Chivalry]
* [http://www.court-of-chivalry.bham.ac.uk/ University of Birmingham Index of Cases] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141207021953/http://www.court-of-chivalry.bham.ac.uk/ |date=7 December 2014 }}
* [http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/historycultures/departments/history/research/projects/court-of-chivalry/seventeenth-century/index.aspx The High Court of Chivalry in the early seventeenth century]

{{College of Arms}}
{{Judiciary of England and Wales}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Courts of England and Wales]]
[[Category:English heraldry]]
[[Category:Heraldry and law]]
[[Category:Courts and tribunals established in the 14th century]]