Definition
The Earl Marshal is a great hereditary officer of state in England, ranking among the highest officers of the Crown. The office is held by the Duke of Norfolk by hereditary right and carries responsibility for organizing major state ceremonies — including coronations, royal funerals, and state openings of Parliament — and for supervising the College of Arms (the official heraldic authority of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland).
Historically, the Earl Marshal exercised substantial judicial authority. Acting jointly with the Lord High Constable, the Earl Marshal presided over the Court of Chivalry (also called the Court of Honor), which held both civil jurisdiction over matters of heraldry, arms, and precedence and criminal jurisdiction over offenses committed beyond the seas or outside the reach of common law courts. After the Lord High Constable ceased to be a permanent office (the position is now appointed only for specific ceremonies), the Court of Chivalry fell into disuse. The Earl Marshal's judicial functions effectively became dormant, and the office contracted to its ceremonial and heraldic supervisory role.
Why It Matters in Research
The term appears in historical legal sources primarily in two distinct contexts that researchers must not conflate: (1) the Earl Marshal as a judicial officer presiding over the Court of Chivalry, and (2) the Earl Marshal as a ceremonial officer with supervisory authority over heraldry and state ritual. Sources written before the late seventeenth century will treat the office primarily as judicial; sources written after will treat it as ceremonial. Researchers using Blackstone (3 Bl. Com. 68; 4 Bl. Com. 267–268) should note that even by Blackstone's time the criminal jurisdiction of the court was largely historical.
The Court of Chivalry context is important for researchers examining the boundaries between common law and prerogative or civil law jurisdictions. The court sat without a jury, operated under civil law procedure, and its jurisdiction was a recurring point of conflict with the common law courts. Cases touching the Earl Marshal's authority therefore appear in the literature on prerogative jurisdiction, not in ordinary common law reporters.
Researchers working in heraldry, peerage law, or questions of precedence will encounter the Earl Marshal as the presiding authority over the College of Arms. Disputes about the right to bear coats of arms were historically within the court's jurisdiction, and the Earl Marshal's role in such determinations connects to a body of literature entirely separate from common law.
The derivation of the title noted (but not completed) in Bouvier points toward the Marshal's earlier military associations — the word marshal derives from roots meaning horse-servant, evolving through military household officer to great officer of state. Researchers in legal history will find this trajectory relevant when tracing the development of prerogative offices generally.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier and Burrill are in agreement on the essential structure: the Earl Marshal historically co-presided (with the Lord High Constable) over the Court of Chivalry in both its honor and criminal dimensions, and by the time of these dictionaries the office had contracted to ceremonial and heraldic functions. Both cite Blackstone at the same locations, indicating these were the standard reference points for the office.
Bouvier's entry is notably truncated — the observation about "similarity of duties and from the derivation of the title" is cut off mid-thought, suggesting a typographic defect in the source. Researchers relying on that passage should treat it as incomplete and consult Blackstone directly.
Burrill is marginally more complete, specifying the core surviving functions: adjusting armorial ensigns, determining rights of place and precedence, and marshalling coronations, marriages, and funerals of the royal family. Webster's 1913 adds that the Earl Marshal is the head of the heralds' office — a detail neither Bouvier nor Burrill states explicitly, and one useful for understanding the officer's ongoing administrative authority over the College of Arms.
Neither historical dictionary adequately conveys the hereditary character of the office (settled in the Howard family, Dukes of Norfolk, since 1672) or the distinction between the Earl Marshal sitting alone in the Court of Honor versus jointly with the Lord High Constable in the criminal court. Both distinctions matter for accurate historical research.
Jurisdictional Note
The Earl Marshal is specific to England (and by extension to the United Kingdom heraldic and ceremonial structure). Scotland has its own Lord Lyon King of Arms, who exercises heraldic authority under a different statutory and common law framework. There is no equivalent office in the United States or other common law jurisdictions, though historical references to the office appear in American legal literature when courts discuss the origins of prerogative or civil law jurisdiction.