Introduction: Identity, Status and State Intervention in Early Modern HeraldrySteven Thiry and Luc Duerloo PART 1 — HERALDRY AND NOBLE IDENTITY‘Degrees of Nobles’:The Aristocratisation of Europe’s Second Estate, c.1300-1700Hamish Scott The ‘Pennon’:Heraldic Witness to Aristocratic Identities in Early Modern FranceClément Savary Heraldry as a Nobiliary Sign:What Treatises of Nobility Bring to a Historiographical DebateCamille Pollet Political Disruptions and Mamluk Emblematic Evolutions in the Fifteenth CenturySimon Rousselot PART 2 — HERALDRY AND THE POLITICS OF STATUSTo Stand Out by Blazon:Heraldry, Hierarchy and Social Competition during the Early Modern PeriodNicolas Vernot ‘Que en esa forma me lo haga vuestra merced’:The Clients of the King of Arms Diego de Urbina and the Heraldic Forgeries in his Certifications of Arms (1584-1623)José Manuel Valle PorrasL’autorité des hérauts d’armes en question à Lille au début du XVIIe siècle : La Remonstrance burlesque au Roy d’armes pour la noblesse lilloise et son contexteDominique Delgrange PART 3 — HERALDRY AND STATE INTERVENTIONThe Forge of Honour:Interpreting Early Modern Policies on HeraldrySteven Thiry Emblematic Iconoclasm:The Case of Charles of Bourbon in 1527Antoine Robin Lord Burghley and Displays of Collective Heraldry in Elizabethan EnglandRichard Cust American Independence and the Privatisation of Heraldry, 1775-1800Joseph McMillan Bibliography Notes on ContributorsThe social use and changing character of armorial display in the early modern periodEarly modern heraldry was far from a nostalgic remnant from a feudal past. From the Reformation to the French Revolution, aspiring men seized on these signs to position themselves in a changing society, imbuing heraldic tradition with fresh meaning. Whereas post-medieval developments are all too often described in terms of decadence and stifling formality, recent studies rightly stress the dynamic capacity of bearing arms.Heraldic Hierarchies aims to correct former misconceptions. Contributing authors rethink the influence of shifting notions of nobility on armorial display and expand this topic to heraldry's share in shaping and contesting status. Moreover, addressing a common thread, the volume explores how emerging states turned the heraldic experience into an instrument of power and policy. Contributing to debates on social and noble identity, Heraldic Hierarchies uncovers a vital and surprising aspect of the pre-modern hierarchical world.Early modern heraldry was far from a nostalgic remnant from a feudal past. From the Reformation to the French Revolution, aspiring men seized on these signs to position themselves in a changing society, imbuing heraldic tradition with fresh meaning. Whereas post-medieval developments are all too often described in terms of decadence and stifling formality, recent studies rightly stress the dynamic capacity of bearing arms.Heraldic Hierarchies aims to correct former misconceptions. Contributing authors rethink the influence of shifting notions of nobility on armorial display and expand this topic to heraldry’s share in shaping and contesting status. Moreover, addressing a common thread, the volume explores how emerging states turned the heraldic experience into an instrument of power and policy. Contributing to debates on social and noble identity, Heraldic Hierarchies uncovers a vital and surprising aspect of the pre-modern hierarchical world.