Why there should (and could) be a Welsh Heraldic Authority
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Since the late 1990s we have seen a shift in administration in the United Kingdom, from absolute rule in Westminster to almost complete devolution in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. This devolution brought new solutions to old problems, and equally has raised new problems in the vague patchwork of the British constitution, but heaven help me talk about something important or consider serious political implications when I could talk about heraldry.
The facts of the case are thus: in Scotland, heraldry is regulated by the Court of the Lord Lyon, which predates both devolution and the Acts of Union by some centuries, however since 1998 has been appointed by the Sovereign “on the recommendation of the First Minister,” moving the process of the King of Arms’ installation from Number 10 to Bute House. Scotland, therefore, has a heraldic authority which is somewhat tied in with the new devolved administration. Wales, like Scotland, has a heraldic tradition separate from that of England, however heraldry in Wales is regulated from London, not Cardiff, by the College of Arms, and while Wales has always had closer ties to England than Scotland has, perhaps heraldry is an area where it would be appropriate to branch away and create a devolved Welsh Heraldic Authority. I argue that heraldry is not a reserved matter under the Wales Act (2017), and therefore that the Welsh Government has the powers and right to establish such an authority.
To determine whether the creation of a Welsh Heraldic Authority (WHA) would constitute the Welsh Government infringing upon powers reserved to Westminster, we must first establish what the powers of the College of Arms and the Court of the Lord Lyon are. These powers are essentially: to grant heraldic achievements to individuals and corporate entities; and to uphold the security of their grants in a specific heraldic court.
The website of the College states that: “arms… are granted by letters patent issued by the most senior heralds… according to powers delegated to them by the Crown,” which sounds impressive, however all governmental authority is power delegated by the Crown, and therefore what the Welsh Government already wields is Crown authority, however it is uncertain whether it already wields powers pertaining to the granting of arms. The last heraldic authority to be established under the (former) jurisdiction of the College was the Canadian Heraldic Authority in 1988, which required letters patent from HM the Queen to advise the Governor General that they now had the right: “to exercise or provide for the exercise of all powers and authorities lawfully belonging to Us as Queen of Canada in respect of the granting of armorial bearings in Canada.” Currently in Wales the “powers… in respect of the granting of [arms]” have been provided to the College of Arms, however there is precedent of parliaments establishing heraldic authorities, but we must look to republics for this. In 1962 the Heraldry Act gave the South African government the right to grant arms, and in 1997 the National Cultural Institutions Act gave the same right to the Irish government. In the latter case this prompted (minor) political debate over the extent of the transfer of royal prerogative powers upon the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922, however legal advice issued to the National Library of Ireland in 2007 stated that the Dáil did have the right to create the power to grant arms.
Following this, the current model for Welsh devolution, adopted in 2017, runs along the principle that everything is fair game for the Senedd and Welsh Government, so long as it does not infringe upon the reserved powers kept for Westminster. As all government and ministerial power derives from royal prerogative, all royal prerogative save that which is specifically reserved has been devolved to the Welsh Government, so unless the granting and protection of arms can be seen to come under any of the reserved powers, then the Welsh Government could legally create a WHA. The only potentially difficult reserved powers with regards to the establishment of the WHA would be those found in the ‘restrictions’ section of the Wales Act. These state that the Senedd “must not generally modify the law” on reserved matters or on private matters such as tort and property law; and that it must not “confer or impose functions on reserved authorities”. The latter should not be problematic as the creation of the WHA would not “impose functions” on the College of Arms, and it is debatable whether the College can be considered a “reserved authority” in the first place. The former is potentially more problematic as armorial bearings are to all intents and purposes private property. However they are not governed by usual property law and are instead governed by the Court of Chivalry, and therefore the Senedd could use its power to “create Wales-specific tribunals that are not concerned with reserved matters” despite the unified legal system of England and Wales, as the law of arms is evidently not a specifically reserved matter. Therefore it is within the right of the Senedd to transfer the powers to grant arms to the Welsh Government or another body (i.e. to create a Welsh Heraldic Authority), and it is also within the right of the Senedd to create a Welsh Court of Chivalry as a “Wales-specific tribunal.” Questions of Crown involvement in the manner of Canada would be settled by Her Majesty giving assent to the related Act of the Senedd — or indeed not doing if she saw it as beyond the powers of the parliament.
Having found a legal basis for the creation of a Welsh Heraldic Authority, we must cast out eyes upon what it should do, as I justified my proposition that it should exist at all with the theory that heraldry in Wales is sufficiently distinct from heraldry in England. The development of Welsh heraldry was excellently traced in a 1958 article in The Coat of Arms by Major Francis Jones, which in brief shows a mixed reaction to the College of Arms from Wales, where arms had historically been assumed, and also a strange bardic control of arms in the principality, with the arms born or assumed by the current heads of clans permitted to be assumed a posteriori by the long-deceased (and possibly mythical) ancestor of the family. This could be translated in modern terms as the grantee picking a confirmed ancestor from all of whose descendants the newly granted arms would in turn descent, with the appropriate marks of cadency chosen by the WHA. As for the structure of the WHA, we may take inspiration from the Canadian Heraldic Authority and create a similar chain of command, from Her Majesty the Queen at the top; through a Herald Chancellor analogous to the Earl Marshal at the College of Arms; then to a Chief Herald analogous to the Garter King of Arms of Lord Lyon; and then to officers of arms — the heralds and pursuivants beneath. In Scotland there are six heralds and six pursuivants. As the population of Wales is half that of Scotland, three of each would perhaps be befitting, and these officers could be named after the six post-Roman kingdoms of Wales: Gwynedd, Powys, Deheubarth, Brycheiniog, Morgannwyg, and Gwent.
So there I present an argument in favour of the Welsh Government’s right to create a separate heraldic authority for Wales, and that Welsh heraldry is distinct from that of England sufficiently that there is a need for a separate authority. While I find it unlikely that Mark Drakeford’s administration in Cardiff Bay has any intention of following this suggestion, I would add that if they kept the prices well below those at the College of Arms of Lord Lyon they could make a wonderful argument about Wales being the best run devolved nation.
