Ralph Brooke

He is known for his critiques of the work of other members of the College of Arms, most particularly in A Discoverie of Certaine Errours Published in Print in the Much Commended 'Britannia' 1594, which touched off a feud with its author, the revered antiquarian and herald William Camden.

[3] Such bitter infighting among the heralds was common; Sir William Segar (Garter 1606–1633) also objected that Cooke made numberless grants to "base and unworthy persons for his private gaine onely.

"[3][5] In December 1616 Brooke tricked Segar into confirming foreign royal arms to Gregory Brandon, a common hangman of London who was masquerading as a gentleman.

[6] Brooke's Catalogue and Succession of the Kings, Princes, Dukes, Marquesses, Earles and Viscounts of this Realme of England since the Norman Conquest was published in 1619.

[7] Brooke died on 16 October 1625 and was buried inside St Mary's Church, Reculver, where he was commemorated by a black marble tablet on the south wall of the chancel, showing him dressed in his herald's tabard.

Ralph Brooke, York Herald, frontispiece to the 1723 edition of A Discoverie of Certaine Errours Published in Print in the Much Commended 'Britannia' 1594
Arms of Ralph Brooke, granted 1593: Or, a cross engrailed per pale gules & sable, on a chief gules a lion passant guardant or ; as Rouge Croix he bore: Gules, on a bend argent a cross throughout gules ; crest: On a torse or & sable a hand fessways joined to an open wing argent & holding a sword erect proper entwined with a spray of leaves vert
Ralph Brooke in the funeral procession of Elizabeth I.
1784 engraving of mural monument to Ralph Brooke in the chancel of St Mary's Church, Reculver ; destroyed when the church was rebuilt [ 1 ]