City or Duke? Bristol hotels all over the world like to claim that they were allowed to name their house after Frederick Augustus Hervey, the fourth Earl of Bristol. It has been said that the Earl only gave permission for the use of his title to those hotels that could measure up to his high standards. This is of course nonsense since the majority of these hotels opened their doors over 100 years after the Earl had died. Furthermore, these hotels also carry the coat of arms of the city of Bristol, a city, not a travelling aristocrat. We can assume that the early Bristol hotels (Rome 1870, Vienna 1892) served as examples to the hotels that opened in later years (Warsaw 1901, Oslo 1920, Paris 1925 plus around 50 further hotels across Europe). They all proudly carry the coat of arms of the City of Bristol. The often quoted connection to the Earl of Bristol is no more than a poorly researched PR-gag. As you can see, the hotel trade is full of surprises and inventions. Until recently this story had been supported by many Bristol Hotels and sold to guests as fact. ____________________________ Who first brought up the legend about the traveling duke - we don't know. The person in question is the late Frederick Augustus Hervey (1730-1803), Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry. The Earl and bishop was an eccentric traveller. Nevertheless, for the hotels to have named their houses with his consent, he should have lived one hundred years later.
The solution of the riddle is in the coat of arms. We have long studied the legends around the Earl of Bristol. Finally we compared the coats of arms of the Earl and the City of Bristol. All hotels use the coat of arms of the city of Bristol, none the one of the Earl. For example, the coat of arms of the Hotel Bristol in Vienna went through various stages. The first one 100% resembled the coat of arms of the City of Bristol. In 1923 it was updated to a more modern version in Art Nouveau style. For the first time lions were used instead of unicorns. The lions later changed back to unicorns. The current coat of arms is once again graced by lions, however, the centre piece is the coat of arms of the city Bristol in England.