This is the webbed version of a speech I intended to deliver on Nov. 5, AS 40 at an event in the East, "Noisemakers' Schola". This is a lot more formal than the actual presentation turned out to be.

Tirant lo Blanc is about a young gentleman who starts out as a simple Breton gentleman and ends as the Byzantine field marshal and, by a secret marriage, the emperor's son-in-law. Tirant lo Blanc was begun in 1460 by Joanot Martorell. After Martorell died in 1468, his friend, Marti Joan de Galba, worked on it until 1490, when he had it published in their native city of Valencia. Tirant lo Blanc was translated into Castilian, French, and Italian in our period. However, it wasn't translated into English until the twentieth century, by David Rosenthal. Other modern English translations exist, including one by Rudder that one can download from Project Gutenberg. However, Rudder cut all but the "action scenes" from the book. As I do not know Catalan very well, I have used Rosenthal's translation.

Although most chivalric fiction includes such stories of courage and courtliness, what makes Tirant lo Blanc so interesting is its realistic tone. Martorell and de Galba drew their inspiration for Tirant and his friends not just from earlier legends, but also from their own experiences and the lives of two great enemies of the Ottoman Empire: Janos Hunyadi and Roger de Flor. De Flor, who died about two centuries before Tirant lo Blanc was published, led a large company of pro-Byzantine Catalan mercenaries to military success in Asia Minor before he mutinied and was poisoned. Hunyadi, who died in 1456, led an army from his native Hungary through the Balkans and rescued Belgrade from an Ottoman invasion.

Throughout the Renaissance, Valencians were engaged in conflict and commerce all over the Mediterranean, which is shown by Martorell and de Galba's true-to-life portrayals of travel and battle on the sea and along the Barbary Coast and Asia Minor. Although there is no evidence that either author went to war, plenty of their kinsmen did, and nothing rules out the possibility that they were veterans, too. Even if Martorell never was a soldier, he did have a history of violence, including several trials by battle. This is important, because heralds had a part to play in these trials, especially in England, which Martorell visited during the reign of Henry VI, in order to arrange one between himself and another Valencian gentleman to settle a breach of promise suit regarding Martorell's sister and the other gentleman, as Valencian law did not allow trial by battle in most circumstances.

Heralds had active roles in the conduct of diplomacy, war, and aristocratic life in the real world of the Renaissance. The authors of Tirant lo Blanc would have had many chances to see heralds go about their business at first hand. In that sense, Tirant lo Blanc can provide a window on the herald of the early Renaissance, in much the same way that the works of Chrestien de Troyes and his contemporaries did for those from the time of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Richard the Lion-Hearted.

Let's have a look at these heralds. First, what kind of people were they? In Chrestien's time, heralds were simply minstrels with a sideline in tournaments, which meant that socially, they were pretty far down. By the time that Tirant lo Blanc was written, the status of heralds had climbed dramatically. When Tirant's friend, Diaphebus, was given the title of duke of Macedonia, he was given the opportunity to appoint a herald or a king of arms. Diaphebus was advised to pick a gentleman for the office, as opposed to a commoner, as gentlemen were supposed to be more trustworthy and used to being obeyed. This would seem to indicate that Martorell and de Galba thought that heraldry was an art that almost any gentleman could be expected to practice, and that a herald had a measure of command and responsibility that a mere minstrel would never have.

This responsibility and command took several forms. In Tirant lo Blanc, heralds are seen:

• as officials in tournaments
• as envoys, especially between participants in tournaments and duels, and between commanders of armies
• as experts in the law of honor, war, and tournaments
• as employees of orders of knighthood
• as participants in ceremonies of state (coronations, for instance)

Throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the tournament was the centre of the herald's world. The herald's trade began at tournaments, and it was the major source of the herald's income, whether through patronal rewards for announcements, resales of broken armor, or fees for services as humble as tacking up escutcheons on the "shield-tree". Tirant lo Blanc began his career as a successful tournament participant, much like William the Marshal and others did in real life.

Just as in real life, the heralds played important roles in the tournaments in Tirant lo Blanc. After Henry, the king of England in Tirant lo Blanc, defeated an invasion from the Canary Islands, he sent his heralds all over to announce that he would marry a French princess, and the occasion would be accompanied by a mass knighting and great tournaments. After the wedding and the mass knighting, the heralds went throughout the hall where everyone was celebrating to announce the sequence of the contests of the tournament, and the ways by which one could sign up for them.

After those challenges had been met, four mysterious knights came to England. King Henry sent a king of arms. whose title was Jerusalem, to greet them. Although the four knights only responded by signs, pageantry, and gifts, Jerusalem King of Arms was able to deduce that they came to face the young men whom King Henry had just knighted. When the four knights arrived in King Henry's court to present their written challenges, they asked that the knights responding to their challenges have their arms carried by heralds or by damsels, and that the heralds hang the knight's arms next to the shields that represented each of their challenges.

Tirant was able to find not just one herald or one damsel, but four heralds and four damsels, each carrying a shield emblazoned with one of Tirant's four quarterings. Later, when Tirant and his friends celebrated one of their early triumphs against the Turks by holding a tournament, they used heralds as messengers among the participants.

Since Valencian law did not use trials by battle for any but the most unusual circumstances, the authors' familiarity with such trials must come from Martorell's time in England, where they were an option for most forms of common-law litigation and the Earl Marshal's Court, where Martorell sought to have his trial by combat. When trial by battle was chosen by the litigants, they were each accompanied by a herald, who escorted them before the earl marshal and his herald, who asked the litigants to identify themselves. The litigants' heralds replied, and then escorted the litigants to their respective corners of the field. The earl marshal's herald announced the beginning of the combat, and the litigants fought until one or the other was defeated.

Tirant fights several duels and trials by battle, on top of his involvement in jousts, tournaments, sieges, and open battles. While duels are not the same as trials by battle, some elements of trials by battle, including the presence of heralds, are present in the duels Tirant fights.

Tirant's first challenge was sent to him by Lord Barrentowns, after Tirant accepted a brooch from Fair Agnes, with whom Lord Barrentowns was in love. Since King Henry had forbidden the instigating of private duels, Tirant needed to know what he ought to do, as he could not back down from the challenge without losing face. So Tirant went to talk to Jerusalem king of arms, who, like many real kings of arms, was a recognized expert in the laws of honor.

Jerusalem advised him to accept the challenge. Lord Barrentowns was not subject to the king's authority, and he was the instigator. Had Tirant been the instigator, then it would've been another matter-as King Henry had given Tirant arms, he was at some level Tirant's lord, whose word Tirant would've disobeyed. Jerusalem also acted as a go-between for Lord Barrentowns and Tirant. At first, he tried to reconcile the two knights, but after he was rebuffed by Lord Barrentowns, Jerusalem found a place for their duel and advised Tirant on the proper course of behavior towards Lord Barrentowns. Jerusalem also recruited another king of arms, Claros of Clarence, to act as their judge, as Jerusalem could not be impartial, having taken Tirant as his client. Claros also tried to reconcile them, but failed. He then directed them to their places in the field and gave the admonition to lay on. After the duel was over, with Tirant sorely wounded and Lord Barrentowns dead, the kings of arms brought the news of the duel to the royal court.

Tirant's second duel took place after he broke the seige of Byzantium and was made the Byzantine field marshal, between himself and the sultan. The sultan claimed that Tirant wasn't of the quality to love the Byzantine princess, Carmesina, and claimed to love her himself, to boot. Naturally, Tirant couldn't take this lying down, especially after the sultan was beaten by him twice in open battle, so Tirant dispatched his king of arms to the sultan with a reply. Not only did Tirant accept the challenge, but the sultan was advised to only fly pennons, since he had been defeated twice before by Tirant, lest Tirant drag a shield emblazoned with the sultan's arms through the dust in the forum. Tirant's king of arms also asked the sultan how Tirant could pick him out. The sultan told Tirant's king of arms what he would be wearing that day, and grudgingly agreed to follow the king of arms' advice on his display of his arms. Interestingly, this is the last sign of a herald in the book, and the only sign that either author knew that Muslims also used arms.

Tirant's trial by battle took place after he had defeated the four mysterious challengers. At the time that he fought them, nobody knew that they were actually the king of Friesland, the king of Poland, the duke of Austria, and the duke of Burgundy. While each of them were skilled and tenacious knights, tournaments are, after all, dangerous, and once Tirant encountered his opponents, they didn't last very long.

When the news reached Kyrieleison de Muntalba, a knight from Friesland, he sent a king of arms, whose title was Flower of Chivalry, to Tirant with an accusation of having murdered his late sovereign. Tirant sent Flower of Chivalry back to Kyrieleison de Muntalba, informing him that he would settle this by trial by battle. However, once Kyrieleison de Muntalba saw the tomb of his king, he collapsed and died. His brother, Thomas, took up Kyrieleison's challenge. When they entered the field for the battle, another king of arms delivered the admonition to lay on. Although they fought fiercely, Tirant was able to force Thomas to surrender, and Thomas was forced to undergo the ceremony of degradation.

When Tirant lo Blanc was written, almost every prince in Europe had his own order of knighthood. Most were based on an amalgam of the holy orders of knighthood like the Hospitallers, the tales of the Round Table and the Peers of Charlemagne, and lay confraternities devoted to the veneration of patron saints. The royal family of Aragon, which ruled Valencia, had their own order of knighthood, the Order of the Stole and Jar, during the lifetimes of our authors, but it was a shadow compared to the Garter. The Order of the Garter had been a going concern for generations when Martorell visited England. Also, at that time, it was not unusual for noblemen outside of England or the other Plantagenet domains to be invited to join the Garter-Henry the Navigator was a member, for instance.

In the fictional England of Tirant lo Blanc, the king established his version of the Garter soon after he was knighted. Just as the real Order of the Garter had its own king of arms, this one does, too. However, interestingly enough, while the real Garter King of Arms has an assistant, Bluemantle Pursuivant, the fictional order's bylaws make no mention of an assistant of any kind for Garter King of Arms.

This would be a pity, as the fictional Garter King of Arms was expected to travel all over the place, discovering what the members of the order on adventure were up to, and recounting their deeds to the members who remained in England. Actual heralds and kings of arms were expected to travel widely to collect such stories, and often did. Also, the real Garter King of Arms delivered the order's liveries to foreigners, so that they would be inducted into the order in their homelands.

In both orders, the members are expected to wear a token of membership every day. If a member of the fictional order was seen by any herald without such a token, he was to give the herald two gold coins. The herald was expected to keep one and give the other to the chapel that prayed for the souls of the members. To the best of my knowledge, no such penalty exists for the real Knights of the Garter.

In the SCA, we most commonly see heralds performing the last function-that of ceremonial witness and announcer. The heralds in the retinues of the surviving princely houses of Europe still have duties to perform at coronations, royal weddings, and so on and so forth. In Tirant lo Blanc, there are several ceremonies in which heralds had roles.

After King Henry was married and then given his accolade at the altar, the squires who had also come for their own knightings tried to reach the altar, but were told to wait for their turn by the assembled heralds. The next day, each squire was brought to a chamber in the palace, and a king of arms acted as the doorkeeper, quizzing the squires and letting them come in for their accolades one at a time.

After the tournaments in England ended, the most chivalrous knight had to be chosen. Since Tirant is our major character, it is he who receives this honor. In order to make this recognition official, a charter was drawn up, praising Tirant, and the charter was sealed with not just the seals of notaries (as most legal documents would be) and the grandees of King Henry's court (as many royal charters were), but also by the kings of arms, heralds, and pursuivants. After Byzantium was relieved, Tirant and Diaphebus, his closest friend, each reached high office. At their appointments, the official pronouncements of their new ranks and titles were made by the assembled heralds.

Heralds also had a place in a knight's degradation-that is, the ceremony that recognizes that he has lost his knightly quality. In one such ceremony in real life, the former knight has his armor removed from him and thrown at his feet, and his spurs are thrown into a dungheap. A shield emblazoned with his arms is dragged in the muck by a cart horse, and his own horse's tail is docked. A herald calls his name three times, and it is given three times. Finally, the herald proclaims that there is no knight by that name, but a coward, and the former knight is hauled away to have last rites read over him.

In Tirant lo Blanc, the ceremony of degradation is described in two places. The first place is while Tirant received tutoring in the meaning of being a knight by a hermit he met outside of London, just before he would be knighted. The hermit described a ceremony similar to the one I just did, with the added humiliation of having hot water poured over him as each piece of armor would be removed. The second place takes place after Tirant defeated Thomas de Muntalba in trial by battle. Thomas was stripped of his armor to the jeers of the onlookers and made to walk backwards to a church. Upon his arrival at the church, Thomas was doused with a basin of hot water by a pursuivant, who declared Thomas forsworn. A short time later, after Thomas recovered from his injuries, he became a friar and thus was dead to the world.

Unlike us, for whom heraldry is a hobby, the heralds of the Renaissance practiced the art to earn a living. As mentioned in the section on tournaments, some of their income came from fees related to tasks at tournaments, but they also received presents for organizing the funerals of the nobility, for carrying messages, and recounting the stories of knightly deeds that they heard in their travels. It was not unusual for those in the service of grandees or princes to be enfeoffed of some real estate or given an annual salary. They also got free room and board, in many cases.

Tirant and the other characters reward the heralds in their service in a number of ways. In the book, Garter King of Arms received ten thousand gold coins every year, to cover his travel costs. Also, in the passage referenced above about the kind of person that Diaphebus ought to appoint as his king of arms or herald, it was made clear to Diaphebus that he ought to provide his new king of arms or herald with a lot of presents, though no monetary figure is given. Nevertheless, the presents that kings of arms do receive in Tirant lo Blanc are pretty good. When Jerusalem King of Arms took Tirant as his client, Tirant gave him a sable lined brocade robe, and when Jerusalem went to greet the four mysterious knights, they sent him home with a gold-inlaid silver platter. After Flower of Chivalry King of Arms brought Kyrieleison de Muntalba's challenge to Tirant, Tirant also gave Flower of Chivalry King of Arms a nice robe.

The lesser heralds don't do too badly, either. After Tirant came to bring his responses to the four mysterious challengers, each of his heralds got a thousand gold coins. Similarly, after Tirant was declared Count of Sancto Angiolo and Imperial Constable, he showered the heralds with gold coins, to their cries of "Largesse!" (Generosity), as their way of declaring this to be a splendid display of that knightly virtue.

Has art imitated life? I think we can say that even if it wasn't a perfect portrait, the picture drawn by Martorell and de Galba is certainly recognizable. I have only touched on the parts of the book that were of direct interest to my subject, so I encourage everyone to look for a copy. I hope that everyone here has enjoyed our time together. As more and more translations of Iberian works of chivalry are made into English, I hope that this will become part of a wider study of the place of heralds in the literature of the Age of Exploration.