Lyon King Keeps a Close Eye on All Matters Chivalric and Ceremonial

Sir Malcom Rognvald Innes of Edingight isn’t a man to be taken lightly, and not just because he’s a lawyer.

He’s the Lord Lyon King of Arms, and his word is law in matters armorial, genealogical and ceremonial in Scotland. In this land of ancient traditions, that’s no small matter.

He has the power to destroy coats of arms that he has not approved and anything on which they are emblazoned, whether it be a shop or pub sign or the tail of a jumbo jet.

“I can go around on what is called a visitation of arms and smash them with a hammer if I want to, but it hasn’t come to that. A letter generally suffices,” said Innes, who was appointed by the government to succeed his father in the lifetime post.

Britons’ obsession with titles and inheritances and petitions for coats of arms keep the colleges of heralds busy.

As chief herald of Scotland, Lyon has greater authority than any other king of arms in the world, and wider powers than England’s Garter King of Arms and Earl Marshal combined.

“It’s a bit of a jungle in England, alas,” Innes said breezily.

He was most recently in the news because of a dispute over the earldom of Selkirk, a tortuous inheritance in the Scottish peerage. The arguments largely revolved around 24 lines of law written in Latin in the 17th century.

The earldom and the dukedom of Hamilton were in the same family, but over three centuries they have separated, merged and separated again.

There was no house or land with the earldom, but there was the matter of $770,000 left by the 10th earl. On March 14, Lyon ruled that Lord James Douglas-Hamilton should inherit.

The hearing was a great spectacle, with the Lord Lyon arrayed in a crimson robe and ermine cloak over a short coat called a tabard, richly embroidered with Scottish lion rampant, three lions of England passant and harp of Ireland. He was attended by a page in white blouse, red breeches and red velvet cap with ostrich feather.

The Lord Lyon, whose title comes from the lion rampant in Scotland’s royal arms, is one of the great officers of state, a minister of the crown and a judge of the realm with his own court of chivalry.

“Lyon’s power is well-known, and there are only about 30 people a year who get a letter for wrongly displaying arms in Scotland,” Innes said.

“There has never been more heraldry on display in Scotland than there is today, and it’s 99% correct. I’ve been Lyon for 15 years, and only three cases went to a prosecution before me in my court and were found illegal. I don’t want more.”

In one case, he fined builder Barry Pollitt 100 pounds ($154) and legal costs for advertising a development framed in the heraldic emblem of an oval to which he was not entitled.

In another, he recognized the claim of Maj. John Borthwick to be the 23rd Lord Borthwick. Lyon ruled that documents that had thwarted Borthwick’s claim for 40 years had been forged in the 18th century.

Scottish fondness for pedigree and lineage, heraldry and genealogy, honors and titles springs from their ancient Celtic civilization in which clanship was the basis of a tribally organized society.

“Anyone can apply for a coat of arms if they can prove they are virtuous and well-deserving persons under an Act of 1672,” Innes said.

Innes, 57, is a big, tall and friendly man. At his desk, he is surrounded by portraits of dead heralds, models of strange creatures to be found on crests and coats of arms and a host of law and lineage books going back centuries.

“I get lots of inquiries, from America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and there’s great interest in the rest of Europe,” he said.

He can trace his family to 1154, when Berowald the Fleming received a charter of the lands of Innes in Morayshire. His own estate at Edingight in Banffshire has a charter granted in 1559.

Innes is a member of an elite corps of gentlemen archers, the Queen’s Body Guard for Scotland, who practice on the lawn of Holyroodhouse, where the monarch stays when in Edinburgh.

“Nothing nicer than to have a sherry and shoot there. But my back gave out, and I can’t draw a longbow anymore,” he confided.