emphasize the importance and integrity of the numerous and widely dispersed texts which were composed, collected, and copied by the heralds as part of their duties. These writings include such things as illustrated rolls of arms, treatises on heraldic blazon, works on the organization and conduct of battles, lists of participants and casualties in battles, instructions for organizing tournaments and judicial duels, challenges to combat, chivalric biography, brief historical accounts, and narratives of specific feats of arms and public ceremonies. The last two of these, the historical accounts and narratives, are the subject of the present article. The word 'heraldic', in this context, means 'pertaining to the heralds', rather than implying any necessary connexion with coat armour, and is chosen to reflect the importance they placed on writing, recording, and copying.2 These duties had been growing since the thirteenth century, which is the time when the heralds came to be regarded as experts in armorial bearings and as authorities on all matters connected with tournaments and deeds of arms. To maintain this acknowledged status they began to keep records and accounts, taking particular care to detail the fees and perquisites to which they believed they were entitled. As their importance expanded they played an increasing part in public ceremonies, at which they were ideally situated to make official records for purposes of precedent and propaganda. Their duties also came to include diplomatic missions, which gave them the opportunity to meet and observe important people, sometimes at historic moments, a privilege which Froissart thought made them the best possible sources of information for writers of history.3 Furthermore, every herald had the appropriate literary skills, as well as access to the technical vocabulary and courtly style needed to do justice to these great occasions. Such is the writing tradition behind the heraldic narratives of the fifteenth century.