The Lambeth Armorial (Lambeth Palace Library MS.316)

Available now as cross-platform PDF images on CD-ROM

This important and hitherto virtually unknown manuscript is a Scottish armorial of the Court of the Lord Lyon. Begun in the 1560s in the tempestuous reign of Mary, Queen, of Scots, the armorial seems to have commenced as a working herald's copy of the armorial of Lord Lyon Forman of Luthrie (Lord Lyon 1555-1567). Certainly the artist of the earlier part has been confirmed as the painter of Forman's Armorial in the Advocate's Library.

Following Mary's abdication and flight to England the armorial continued in use in Scotland during the reign of her son and successor, James VI. It is especially important as this and that at the Hague in the Netherlands are the only two surviving Scottish armorials which covers the period when the regulation of arms in Scotland was undergoing review. By comparison the Lambeth Armorial contains some 922 coats-of-arms of which some 846 are of untitled lairds and chiefs of clans; the Hague Armorial has 898 coats, whilst Forman's Armorial has 258 and the Dunvegan Armorial 282 coats.

The Scottish Parliament passed several Acts which attempted to reform the usage of coats-of-arms, particularly for Chiefs of Clans and Heads of Families, in the years 1587, 1592, 1594 and 1597, but the Armorial Register relating to the important Act of 1594, once kept at the Court of the Lord Lyon, has been missing since the seventeenth century.
The Lambeth Armorial continued in use until c.1624 but how it came to Lambeth Palace is something of a mystery which still remains to be solved. There are tentative links to the Cecil family in the persons of William and Thomas Cecil, 1st and 2nd Lords Burghley respectively, and to the English spy Thomas Randolph who was actively engaged in reporting the activities of the Scottish protestant lords from 1559 until his death in 1590. As well as the arms of the Scottish kings and queens and Scottish peers it also contains more coats-of-arms of the Chiefs of Clans, Heads of Families and Lairds, than any other source before the existing Lyon Register began in 1672.

The Lambeth Armorial is now issued as full-colour digital images available on CD-ROM. Also included on the CD-ROM is an in-depth description of the manuscript, its contents and its relevance to Scottish heraldry written by Hugh Peskett, FSAScot, one of the UK's foremost genealogical and heraldic researchers. The digital version also contains a full index giving easy access to individual coats-of arms by surname.

List Price GBPounds 95.00