The Right Honourable the Lord Lyon King of Arms, the head of Lyon Court, is the most junior of the Great Officers of State in Scotland and is the Scottish official with responsibility for regulating heraldry in that country, issuing new grants of arms, and serving as the judge of the Court of the Lord Lyon, the oldest heraldic court in the world that is still in daily operation.
Lord Lyon King of Arms' crown
Sir David Lindsay of the Mount was Lord Lyon from 1542 to 1554. A poet and diplomat during Renaissance Scotland.
Sir James Balfour, 1st Baronet of Denmilne and Kinnaird, was Lord Lyon from 1630 to 1654. Noted scholar, annalist and antiquary. In 1654 he was deprived of his office by Oliver Cromwell.
Alexander Brodie, 19th of that Ilk, was Lord Lyon from 1727 to 1754. Despite receiving the Lyon office as a political reward, he nevertheless undertook his duties seriously.
The Court of the Lord Lyon, or Lyon Court, is a standing court of law, based in New Register House in Edinburgh, which regulates heraldry in Scotland. The Lyon Court maintains the register of grants of arms, known as the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland, as well as records of genealogies.
New Register House in Edinburgh, home of the Lyon Court
Sir Thomas Innes of Learney in his tabard of the Royal Arms, He held the office of the Lord Lyon from 1945 to 1969.
Charles Burnett, Ross Herald at the installation ceremony of the Honourable Adam Bruce as Finlaggan Pursuivant of Arms, a private herald, to Clan MacDonald in 2006.
