THE SOCIETY

One King of Arms = Jesper Wasling  (chairman)

Seven Heralds = Thomas Falk, Stefan Bede, Henric Åsklund, Eduardo Pazikas, Lennart Wasling, Björn Fridén + 1 (the council)

Unlimited numbers of Persevants (members)

Beginning - Borås Heraldiska Förening

The 25:th of may 1990; the Heraldry Society of Borås (Borås Heraldiska Förening, BHF) was founded at a café in Borås. 

Three men in their early 20:ies sat down and discussed heraldry in a polite maner. Someone, probably Stefan Bede, came up with the idea of a heraldic society. Magnus Persson and Jesper Wasling agreed. The society was founded. Since then, BHF have spread the knowledge of heraldry to the people of the district seven hundreds (Sjuhärad).

Stefan Bede became our chairman. Jesper Wasling the secretary. There was no need for a treasurer.
Later that year more friends joined the society. Between 1990 and 1995 our council had 12 members, but not all at the same time (Stefan Bede, Per Ladenvall, Mathias Söderlund, Jesper Wasling, Pontus Wasling, Magnus Andersson, Henric Oscarsson/Åsklund, Magnus Persson, Greger Lundstedt, Jonas Rengensjö, Fredrik Nättorp,  Mathias Svenungsson) and 4 other officers (Markus Carlsson, Felix Nolte, Henrik Sjövall och Gunnar Johansson).

At first, our name was the Heraldry Society of Borås (Borås Heraldiska Förening) but in 2010 we changed our name to Seven Heralds (Sju Härolder), the same name as our publication that we published between 2006-2008.

In 1991, the society granted itself the Coaf of Arms with the three sheep-shearing sissors with the same tinctures as the coat of arms of Sweden. The town Borås has two sissors.

The middle - A sleeping society

1995 the society hirbernated. All but two of the twelve members of the council and other officers had moved from Borås to universities around Sweden. BHF became a sleeping society. BHF had at most 28 members in the city of Borås, all in their twenties.

The today - An awakening

Between 1995 and 2005, all heraldic activities in Borås were arranged by the Heraldry Society of Sweden (why? See below.). 2006 that changed and BHF wake up from her beauty sleep. 

Stefan Bede, Henric Åsklund and Jesper Wasling together with Thomas Falk and Johanna Arnell/Hellström restarted the society. All except Caj were members of the council of the Heraldry Society of Sweden, SHF. Between 1990-95 Stefan Bede was the chairman and Jesper Wasling the secretary. This time the roles were reversed. 

The society focused on the publication Sju Härolder and made 6 issues between 2006 and 2008. After that the members had their articles published on the soceties website on a sub-domain to the website for the SHF. When in 2010, the SHF changed their web platform and CMS, there was no room for BHF.

So the council then decided that the society BHF  should be replaced by the informal association Seven Heralds/Sju Härolder and the name was, of course, taken from the publication. No more chariman, but a king of arms. No other members of the council but seven heralds. And no members, only persevants. 

The heraldic artist Thomas Falk was elected king of arms. The others became heralds. 

Contribution to heraldry in Sweden

Stefan Bede and Jesper Wasling was in 1993 members och the council of The Swedish Heraldry Society. Henric Oscarsson/Åsklund in 1998, Thomas Falk in 2004 and Lennart Wasling in 2008 joined them. Per Ladenvall was also a officer in the society. In 2020 Björn Fridén joined and in 2021 Eduardo Pazikas became a member of the council.  

Jesper and Stefan were 2015 co-founder of the Heraldry Society of Gothenburg (Göteborgs heraldiska sällskap), inspired by the society in Lund, that was co-founded by Henric Åsklund some years earlier. That means that the people who founded Seven Heralds also co-founded two of the three other local heraldic societies there is in Sweden. The fourth was founded in Stockholm and Uppsala in 1992 and have nothing to do with Borås. Yet.   

Stefan Bede, Jesper Wasling and Per Ladenvall were 1992 assistants at the 19:th international genealogical and heraldic congress in Uppsala, Sweden. 

Jesper Wasling have had five book about heraldry published, as confirmed by Wikipedia. He also run the largest heraldic blog in Scandinavia, perhabs in the world - www.waslingmedia.se.