Buying coats of arms. The acquisition of heraldic certifications seen through the correspondence with the kings of arms

Abstract

This paper analyzes the different phases of the process of purchasing a heraldic certifica-tion in Spain in the Early Modern Age. The main source used has been the drafts of various kings of arms from the end of the 16th to the 18th centuries, with a special abundance of data for the latter, as well as the correspondence of various clients or their representatives with the heralds, preserved together with several of the aforementioned drafts. It is this last source that allows greater detail in the knowledge of certification purchase procedures, including a more intimate view of them and the intentions of those who acquired them. The analysis of these documents has made it possible to verify certain issues: the importance of the geographical proximity of the client to the king of arms; the fundamental role of intermediaries when contracting certifications of arms; the usual duration of the epistolary exchange and the execution of heraldic certifications; the genealogical claims of the clients and the way in which the kings of arms elaborated their genealogies; the heraldic fraud carried out by the kings of arms, who only copied coats of arms of homonymous families and often simply accepted the coats of arms presented to them by their own clients; and the specific motivations that pushed the latter to buy their certifications, which ranged from achieving a design to put a blazon on the facades of their houses to obtaining the nobility, sometimes being related to entering a military order or re-ceiving a title of nobility.