Armorial du Hérault Vermandois

Introduction

Links to the Marches are at the foot of this page

The Armorial du Hérault Vermandois was compiled between c1285 and c1300. The original is lost, and a fifteenth century copy, made before the death of Charles VII in 1461, is in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS.français 2249.

It is this copy which serves as the base for the present work, although there are three others which were made later. Little is known of its background.

Vermandois formed part of the present region of Picardy in Northern France, and formed part of the possessions of the French crown, under Philippe II Auguste, from 1185 onwards.

The manuscript is written in the Picard dialect, and contains the blazons of 1076 coats of arms.

The first work on the armorial was carried out in 1952, by Hugh Stanford-London. He simply transcribed the blasons as they appear in the original, without gloss. He presumably intended to publish his work at a later date, but died before he could do so. Some changes to the transcriptions were added by Paul Adam-Even, and a few by Robert Nussard, but the original typescript has remained in the Institut de la Recherche des Textes Historiques in Paris since the death of H S London.

My intention is to publish the armorial in its entirety for the first time, with translations and illustrations of the original blazon. There will be notes on those arms which appear in other rolls, and on those which are similar enough to assume a relationship between them. The manuscript is divided into marches of arms, and it will be convenient to break down the presentation into these marches.

The aim to is to allow an opportunity for the armorial to be seen by those who would not otherwise have the opportunity. However, my expertise is not in the history and genealogy of the period, and I would be grateful for comments and corrections.

The work will be published as it is completed, and what has gone before will necessarily have to be amended in the light of later research. I will endeavour to indicate when changes have made. It follows that, as the basic information grows, it may be necessary to alter statements and comments which seemed correct at the time they were made.

The Marches as presented in the Armorial du Hérault Vermandois