The Pastons and the Creation of an Heraldic Myth

Rising from obscurity into the ranks of the gentry, during the fifteenth century the Norfolk family of Paston began a long process of obscuring and mythologising its own past by creating a bogus lineage, and combining it with fake heraldry. They were thus able to consolidate their social position by projecting themselves as old blood rather than as arrivistes. Theirs was by no means a unique example of such a process beginning in the medieval era. This enterprise was highly successful, and with further elaborations over subsequent centuries, provided the basis for an eventual elevation into the nobility.