LANGUAGE OF ENGLISH THIRTEENTH-CENTURY ROLLS OF ARMS
First known heraldic rolls date back to the 13th century. However they are nothing like the rows of painted shields we are used to, but show a plain text describing those shields, which is called blazon. Quite often it is difficult to work with such texts: to date them, to define their author or country of origin, or even to know the accuracy of the copy made, as most of the original rolls are lost. However, the investigation is not impossible and even necessary. Indirect data, as names of people listed, can help us define the country of origin and such analysis shows certain predominance of English rolls (practically all created during the reign of King Edward I) over the French ones. As Anglo-Saxon ceased to be used as official language after the Norman Conquest, it is no surprise that all of those heraldic texts mentioned are written in French, however not all English rolls are Anglo-Norman. What's important is that compared to rolls created on the continent, the English ones prove to be more stable in their grammar and special vocabulary, which indicates earlier development of heraldic nomenclature in England. The analysis of the language of thirteenth-century rolls gives ground to suggest that it was English heraldry to inspire development of blazon and heraldry as a whole.