Category: Heraldry (page 1 of 1)

This set of entries will provide a modest introduction to heraldry. To cover the topic thoroughly one would need to develop a rather sizeable set of entries. Anyone interested in that much detail should seek out a site devotoed to the topic.

May 27, 2020 / 0 Comments

One Example of Charges on a Coat of Arms

There are literally tens of thousands of different coats of arms. Amazingly, there are Colleges of Heraldry established to keep track of all these Coats of Arms. Anyone who is serious about knowing exactly how the items on their coat of arms should contact one of these colleges. For a substantial fee, the heralds at the college will detail who received what charge and under what circumstances. It is exacting work done with a high degree of professionalism…thus the high fee.

Of course, if your desire is not that great, you can find out basic information by looking up the coat of arms associated with your surname. Most such programs will show you the coat of arms and give you a family history. It won’t tell you much about the coat of arms. The material we have covered here will help a bit in understanding the meanings associated with your coat of arms. By conducting a Gooogle search for various items on the shield, you will be able to find out more (say a Boar’s Head appears on your coat of arms… run a search for Bear on a Coat of Arms and you will find out that it is generally associated with bravery, recognize Google is a mass retrieval system, it will bring up everything it can find that is remotely related to your search so you might have to do some sifting).

Given the vast number of coats of arms, charges, and the meanings associated with them we will content ourselves with illustrating one coat of arms and how the armorial achievement of that coat of arms is presented. The coat of arms below is George Washington’s.

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Arms: Argent two bars and in chief three mullets Gules.

Crest: From a crest coronet a raven rising wings elevated and addorsed proper.

Motto: Exitus acta probat (The outcome is the test of the act).

The above image and description were found on the American Heraldry Society’s website (https://www.americanheraldry.org/heraldry-in-the-usa/arms-of-famous-americans/presidents-of-the-united-states/george-washington-1st-president-of-the-united-states).

In common terms, the Raven represents “Devine Providence”… seems very fitting on George Washington’s Coat of Arms. Red (Gules in blazon parlance) is used to designate a warrior or martyr. It also represents military strength and magnanimity. The mullet (spur rowel) is the mark of the third son. We could go on but I am sure you get the idea how precise terms describing a coat of arms translate into specific colors, bars, etc. on a given coat of arms.

May 26, 2020 / 0 Comments

Charges (i.e. images) on a Coat of Arms

Various animate and inanimate objects can appear as charges on a coat of arms. On the animate side, a number of animals appear as charges (bears, lions, bulls, eagles, dolphins, and so forth…mythical beasts also appear such as dragons and griffins). Trees, flowers, and the like are also commonplace.

When an animal is shown with its legs raised, it is said to be rampant. If seen from the side, the animal is said to be rampant displayed, seen looking directly at you it is said to be rampant guardant, looking away rampant reguardant, and sitting is rampant sejant.

When an animal is show as walking it is said to be passant. Animals lying down with their heads up are referred to as couchant. When the animal appears to be leaping, it is referred to as salient.

On the inanimate side, almost anything can appear as a charge on a coat of arms (chess pieces, buildings, parts of buildings, candles, and so forth).

A few representative charges are presented below. Again, go to a site that specializes in Heraldry for detailed information about various charges and their meanings.

May 25, 2020 / 0 Comments

Basic Shield Partitions on a Coat of Arms

The shield in a coat of arms can have one solid color with charges placed on it. Often, however, the shield is divided by various methods and charges placed in these subfields. I will consider some of the more common divisions here.

Dividing a shield into two areas…top and bottom is quite common. This is called “per fess” in blazon terminology and can be seen in the accompanying illustration.

Another common method of division is to divide the shield down the center to create a field on the left and right. This is referred to as a “per pale” division.

Yet another way to divide the field is to divide it with a diagonal line running from the top left to bottom right (“per bend”) or top right to bottom left (“per bend sinister”) as per the accompanying illustration.

Another way to divide the field is into quarters (“per cross or quarterly”).

Placing an inverted V on the shield is another common division. This is referred to as a “per chevron” division.

Placing an X on the field is an oft-used way to divide the field. This is referred to as “per saltire”.

The final two ways we’ll consider are using a Y (“per pall”) or inverted Y (“per pall reversed”).

The illustration below shows these and some other variations.

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May 24, 2020 / 0 Comments

Basic Lines used in Coat of arms Shield Partitions

When a shield is partitioned, the lines dividing these partitions need not be just straight lines. They can be wavy, jagged, etc. Each of these types of lines is associated with a different meaning. Some of the more common partition lines are considered below.

A nebuly line is associated with the sky…i.e. clouds/air.

An engrailed line and has to do with the earth/land.

The opposite of the engrailed line and is call “invected”. It has the same earth/land association as an engrailed line.

An “indented” line has to do with fire.

A “dancette” line has to do with water.

A “raguly” line means that some difficulty or another was encountered.

The “embattled” pattern is common in shields and refers to the walls of a fortress or a town.

Many other line patterns are possible (see accompanying graphic of the ones covered here and some not covered here) and are associated with different elements If you encounter a line not covered here, a search of sites devoted exclusively to heraldry should uncover its meaning.

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May 23, 2020 / 0 Comments

Colors on a Coat of Arms

Gold (Or) is used to denote generosity and elevation of the mind. Silver (Argent), the other base metal used in coats of arms, represents peace and sincerity.

Red (Gules in blazon parlance) is used to designate a warrior or martyr. It also represents military strength and magnanimity.

Blue. When blue (Azure) appears on a shield it typically refers to truth and loyalty.

Green (Vert) refers to hope, joy, and loyalty in love.

Black (Sable) has to do with constancy and, when appropriate, grief.

Purple (Purpure) is used to denote things having to do with royalty, majesty, sovereignty, and justice.

These are the primary colors that are found on coats of arms but lots of other colors will be found (e.g. orange…tenne.. having to do with ambition; maroon…murray…refer to one who is patient but victorious in battle, etc.). These colors were developed to suit specific purposes. One would have to examine those circumstances to determine the meaning of the color in a specific coat of arms. The ones described here can be used as general guides for the meaning behind a given coat of arms.

May 22, 2020 / 0 Comments

Shield Terminology

The shield generally referred to as the coat of arms can be divided into nine areas. Typically, things appearing in the top half of the shield are of more importance than things appearing in the bottom half. In turn, things on the left are more consequential than things on the right. Thus, in a shield divided into 9 fields, the elements in the upper left would be of most significance. Of course, a shield need not be divided into nine fields.

To be able to communicate exactly what should appear on a shield, one needs to follow customs precisely. To this end, a set of terms, referred to as “blazon”, have been developed to communicate precisely what is to go where on a shield. To give you an idea of how this works, I’ll work through the graphic accompanying this entry.

Let’s take the letters first, A refers to the “Dexter Side of the shield…that is the left side, B to the “Sinister” or right side, C to the “Chief” or top half, and D to “Base” or bottom half. Now we’ll proceed by the numbers. Number one on the shield is referred to as the “Dexter Chief” area, number two “Center Chief”, three “Sinister Chief”, four is the “Honor Point”, five “Fess” or center point, six is “Nombril” or navel point, seven is the “Dexter Base”, eight “Center Base”, and finally nine is the “Sinister Base”. Using this language anyone familiar with Blazon terminology will understand when you say you want a “Chevron” or whatever at the “Honor Point” (i.e., the Chevron is to be placed at the number four on the illustration).

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May 21, 2020 / 0 Comments

Armorial Achievement

The Armorial Achievement refers to a description of a shield, mantle, helmet, crest, motto, and supports of a coat of arms. Blazon is the language used to describe the shield. For instance, George Washington’s shield (the one that accompanies this entry) would be described as “Argent, two bars gules, in chief three mullets of the second.” In common parlance, it means the shield is silver, has two red horizontal bars, with three mullets (mullets are not stars but refer instead to spur rowels) across the upper third of the shield. These will be red in color (of the second means they are to be the color mentioned second in the blazon). In English heraldry the mullet is the mark of the third son. Other symbols were used by the English to designate birth order of sons on shields (a label…a narrow strip with three pendants…is reserved for the first born son; a crescent for the second born son; the third, a mullet; the fourth, a martlet (mythical bird).

Helmets take varying shape to indicate the rank of the person wearing the coat of arms (duke, earl, etc.). The helmet rests on a mantle. The mantle is essentially a scarf folded over to reveal the colors on both sides of the scarf. The crest usually resting on the helmet and can be various animate (hand, stag, etc.) or inanimate (scroll, scale, etc.) objects. The charges, colors, crests, and so forth all have particular meanings (like the mullet to refer to the third son).

Mottos on coats of arms were a fairly recent development. Mottos can appear above or below a coat of arms.

Supporters (animals or human forms) appear on both sides of the shield. Their use is restricted to royalty, the peerage, and some orders of knights.

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May 20, 2020 / 0 Comments

Tincture

Tincture refers to the metals, colors, and furs used in heraldry. In general, two metals, five colors, and two furs are used in the composition of coats of arms. Like any other area there are exceptions to these general expectations (other colors being used for instance). There is also the expectation that one metal will not be imposed on another, nor one color on another. Again, this rule is violated on occasion. However, the aforementioned colors, metals, and furs account for the vast majority of coats of arms. The metals involved are Or (gold) and Argent (silver). The colors are Gules (red), Azure (blue), Sable (Black), Vert (Green), and Purpure (purple). A table listing these elements is provided below for the English version of these tinctures. The same tinctures but with different names can be found in other heraldry traditions (France, Germany, etc.). You will notice that there is a column depicting the element (gold or whatever) in black and white as well as color. The black and white patterns were developed to convey the precise color, metal or fur in a common vernacular and to make the re-creation of a coat of arms a relatively simple matter.

May 19, 2020 / 0 Comments

Heraldry: Introduction

Heraldry is so named because of the heralds who were charged by Kings or Lords to keep track of family relationships and the rather intricate coats of arms associated with said families.

The origin of the use of coats of arms can be traced back to military applications. Coats of arms first appeared on shields as a way of identifying friend and foe. This was necessary because most of the soldiers were illiterate but could easily identify heraldic symbols. Eventually, the same symbolism used on the shield was transferred to the tunic worn over the knight’s armor, thus, the origin of the term “coat of arms”.

The use of heraldic symbols began in the 11th or 12th century and quickly spread beyond military applications. Much of the population was illiterate and needed a way to identify themselves in transactions of various sorts. Thus, many of them used coats of arms on stamps used on wax seals to let others know the document involved was genuine.

As we will see when we explore the topic in other sections of this chapter, heraldic symbols are precise, intricate and detailed. Eventually, thousands of coats of arms were developed and became associated with the families who developed them. Today people wear them proudly on clothing, on lapel pins, or display them in various ways, as I do the Ayres badge below.

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