The Right to Bear Arms

or no authority over the general public ; but certainly in the reign of Richard III., if not at a much earlier date, the Royal Officers of Arms were erected into a close Corporation by Royal Charter, and thereafter, as now, formed the Corporation of the College of Arms. Now the date of the incorporation of the various Officers of Arms is nearly always quoted as the first year of the reign of Richard III. Certainly there is a charter bearing the date the 2nd March, I Richard III., which will be found hereafter reprinted in full. The original charter is now in the British Museum. This certainly does erect the Officers of Arms into a corporate body, and if nothing else can be found, is in itself of full and ample extent for that end ; but, I believe, it really is principally as an actual matter of fact, no more than the grant of the messuage in Coldharbour ; and the fact that it contains a clause erecting the Officers of Arms into a close corporation, is by no means proof that they were not at that date already a corporate body; for a supplementary charter, or a charter of confirmation, at that date, nearly always regranted everything that existed before. My own opinion is that the Officers of Arms must have been a corporate body at a much earlier date, for I am given to understand that there are records at the College of Arms as far back as the reign of Richard II., which can be explained in no other way than by the supposition that they were already acting as... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.