HERALDRY, FAMILY COATS OF ARMS
Heraldry explainedPimbley's Dictionary Of Heraldry

HERALDRY. her'al-dre, is a hereditary system of identification using visual symbols according to certain conventions. The term is commonly accepted as pertaining to the devising.. granting, and use of coats of arms, or armorial bearings. Strictly speaking, the term has a wider significance, covering all the functions of a herald, or officer concerned with arms. genealogy, ceremonies, and precedence.
Although symbols have been used since the earliest times to identify individuals, families, clans, or military and political units, heraldry as a constant, complex, and conventionalized system of devices handed down within families was a development of the military aristocracy of medieval. Europe. It was soon adopted by civilian individuals and by corporate bodies such as town governments, universities, and the church, and eventually by regiments and national states. The use of heraldic devices has traditionally been regulated by official bodies of heralds such as the English College of Arms. A specialized language, called blazon, evolved to describe them. Long after heraldry lost its military purpose, it continued to indicate social status..
DEVELOPMENT AND REGULATION
Development-Martial Heraldry.
Heraldry emerged in western Europe in the 12th century to meet the necessity for military identification. At that time, when mail (armor of chain) was gradually being superseded by plate armor, the conical face-revealing Norman helmet was being covered by an additional large, closed helmet, which made the warrior unrecognizable to his followers. In order to prevent confusion, feudal leaders painted their shields with original, simple, instantly visible, easily memorized shapes in highly contrasting colors. Duplication was to be avoided, because the sole purpose of painting the shield was to establish the bearer's identity. There was bound to be a certain amount of overlapping, but adjustments were ultimately made. The warrior also displayed his armorial device upon a flag attached to his lance and on the front and back of his surcoat- a garment worn over his armor to protect it from the weather. His charger also wore the device on the housing, caparison, or ornamental covering for its armor. The display upon the surcoat gave rise to the expression "coat of arms," but "shield of 'arms" is also used.
When gunpowder was introduced in the early 14th century, the armor and shield were gradually abandoned. This marked the end of martial heraldry and the beginning of the era of "paper heraldry." The shield shape, however, was retained as a ground for the heraldic device.
Paper Heraldry.
The ability to identify a man by his armorial display was common not only to soldiers but to all classes of the population. Consequently, the use of armorial bearings was extended to non-military purposes. For example, because the average man, though unable to read a signature, could recognize an armorial device
barons began to engrave their arms on seals used to stamp letters and other documents.
Arms, however, were not only a means of identification but also, because of their association with the landholding military aristocracy (which included great barons and simple knights), an indication of superior social status. Thus, other persons in authority, such as prelates, who were not necessarily barons and usually not soldiers, began to acquire coats of arms for both convenience and prestige. Arms were also assumed by such non-military, non-noble persons as rich patrician burghers in Italy; the bourgeoisie in France; land-owning peasants in Switzerland, Austria, and Germany; and, in the 16th and 17th centuries, well-to-do merchants in England. Both on the Continent and in the British Isles, certain corporate bodies, such as chartered, propertyholding municipal corporations and trade and craft associations, displayed arms.
In every country arms bearers of noble, military origin considered arms the insignia of their class and jealously guarded them as such. Usage differed, however, as to whether the possession of arms by persons of non-noble, non-military origin entitled them to be considered nobility. On the Continent, where the status of nobility brought great privilege, it was accorded only to those whose arms were officially recorded and recognized by the heraldic authorities. In some countries only the arms of descendants of the feudal nobility were recorded, those of peasants and burghers being private and unrecorded and considered inferior. In other countries peasant and burgher arms were also recorded but not necessarily considered signs of nobility.
In England the description "armiger" (arms bearer) was held to be a minor title of honor, similar to "Esquire," and all who were armigerous were permitted the status of nobility. In the 13th and 14th centuries, gentle birth was emphasized irrespective of wealth, and rich merchants were prohibited from acquiring arms, though penurious knights could display them. in the industrial democracies of the 20th century, heraldry, no longer has the legal or social significance of former times. In republics where there is no official nobility, heraldry is chiefly of private, antiquarian interest. In monarchies it may be officially recognized, but the bearing of arms carries no special privileges. In England since World War I the possession of a coat of arms no longer indicates rank... and any honest, loyal citizen who petitions for arms may be granted them. Those extreme opponents of heraldry who declare that it is undemocratic fail to recognize its identification value.
Heraldic Authorities-
Growth of Heraldic Authorities.
In the Middle Ages, when power was divided among the feudal nobility, each lord assumed his own coat of arms. Many lords retained in their service heralds, learned men who organized and attended tournaments, at which they announced their master's challenge and proclaimed his titles and his fame in feats of arms. They also recorded the points scored and made registers (rolls of arms) of the armorial bearings of all who took part. The other duties of a herald included recording the pedigree of his lord's family and studying those of other families. With the rise of centrally governed nationstates, the king gradually preempted the right to grant arms. The lords gave up their private heralds and consulted at need those of the royal household. These royal heralds eventually became national armorial authorities, generally under royal patronage, responsible for recording and usually for controlling the use of arms.
The College of Arms.
The heralds of the English king were incorporated as the College of Arms by royal letters patent issued by Richard III in 1484. The college has survived, not without vicissitudes, to the present day. It is the sole authority in England and the Commonwealth for devising and granting, by royal letters patent on behalf of the sovereign, armorial bearings to all loyal subjects who petition for the honor. It is also the authority that Americans of English descent may petition.
The College of Arms is not a government department but a part of the sovereign's household. Each member, created by royal warrant for life, receives a token payment from the privy purse and a name of office, or title.
The college is under the jurisdiction of the Earl Marshal of England, the duke of Norfolk.
It consists of 13 officers-three kings of arms, six heralds of arms, and four pursuivants of arms. The first officer is Garter Principal King of Arms of Englishmen (Garter King of Arms). The provincial kings are Clarenceux King of Arms, who is responsible for England south of the Trent River and for Wales, and Norroy and Ulster King of Arms, who is responsible for England north of the Trent and for Ulster. Junior to the kings are the heralds of arms, named for the royal dukedoms: Chester, Lancaster, Richmond.. Somerset, Windsor, and York. Below them are the pursuivants of arms, named from old royal armorial badges: Bluemantle, Rouge Croix, Rouge Dragon, and Portcullis. On state occasions, such as the opening of Parliament, these officers accompany the sovereign. They are clad in a distinctive garment, called a tabard-a loose, open-sleeved, open-sided jacket with the royal arms embroidered on front and back.
An integral part of the College of Arms is the court of chivalry, or Court-martial, concerned originally with duels and tournaments and now chiefly with the right to display arms-. -Its supreme judge is the Earl Marshal, who may choose an officer of the law, such as a judge, as surrogate. Although in abeyance since the mid 18th century, the court met in 1954 to hear a case of infringement brought by the corporation of the City of Manchester against a theater, the Manchester Palace of Varieties.
The College of Arms maintains a register consisting of many beautifully written and painted volumes, containing all armorial bearings that may lawfully be displayed. Arms that are in use but are not recorded in the register are bogus, and their display is a minor form of fraud. The register.. the private property of the college, is not available to the public.
The Court of the Lord Lyon.
Heraldic authority is much stronger in Scotland than in England. In Scotland the Court of the Lord Lyon, or Head Court, serves the functions both of the College of Arms and of the Court of Chivalry. An unincorporated body formed by the nobility in the Middle Ages, whose chief was given his legal authority by Scottish parliament in 1592, it has no connection with the English authorities and is the only such judicial body to maintain an unbroken record from the past. The Lyon court is protected by civil law; its officers are both members of the royal household and also officers of the realm, paid by the state. The court includes the Lord Lyon King of Arms, appointed by the crown, and his appointees: three heralds -Rothesay, Albany, Marchmont-and three pursuivants-Unicorn, Kintyre, and Carrick.
The Lord Lyon is not comparable to the English Garter King of Arms but to the Earl Marshal. He is judge in his own court and has statutory powers not only to enforce all laws of arms but to "perscryve" new ones to remedy inadequacies. His Procurator Fiscal institutes proceedings against persons using arms without proper authority and may fine or even imprison culprits. The Lord Lyon may confiscate and destroy any objects, such as stained glass windows presented to churches, on which spurious arms are depicted. When necessary he does not hesitate to do so. The Lyon court maintains a register that is comparable to that of the College of Arms except that it is a public document. Continental Heralds. Official bodies of heralds developed on the Continent, as in England and Scotland, but with some differences reflecting their national cultures. Many royal heraldic authorities recorded only the arms of the landed nobility. The arms of burghers and peasants were supplied by private sources.
The French college of heralds, established by Charles VI in 1406, had no judicial authority and is now in abeyance, although the civil law of the republic protects the rights of those who have arms. The republics of Italy Switzerland, Ireland, and South Africa have official heraldic authorities who grant and record arms, as heralds continue to do in monarchical Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden, although in Sweden arms are no longer granted to private citizens. Orders of knighthood, such as the Knights of Malta, have their own heralds, as does the Vatican.
The Armorial Achievement-Elements.
The shield, with its identifying design, constitutes the coat of arms. Nevertheless, there are but few coats of arms without additional matter known as "exterior decoration," the whole grouping being the armorial achievement. The elements of the achievement are common to heraldry in general, but there are national differences in the details.
The achievement of a minor noble, or knight called a commoner in England, consists of the following elements in addition to the shield. Above the shield, resting on its upper edge, is a helmet, known as the helmet of rank, which, by its shape and the direction it faces, indicates the armiger's position in the social scale. (In Continental heraldry a knight's arms often have a simple coronet of rank between the shield and the helmet.)On the crown of the helmet is a circlet, or wreath, composed of two strips of silk, usually of the prevailing colors of the arms, twisted together in six alternate sections. Above or in place of the wreath, in England, some arms, such as those of a high-ranking officer or a county council, may have a crest coronet. Out of the wreath or crest coronet rises the crest, which may be either a repetition of the dominant object depicted on the shield or some other device.
Descending from the wreath and draped at each side of the shield is the mantling, a highly conventionalized representation of the tattered cloth hanging from the back of the helmet to protect the neck. Its fronds are twisted to reveal both the outer surface and the lining, which generally repeat the colors in the wreath. In the achievement of a churchman, the helmet, wreath, crest, and mantling are replaced by a miter with lappets (no longer used in the Roman Catholic Church) or a broad-brimmed hat with tassels. Beneath the shield in English heraldry, or above it in Scottish (usually) and Continental heraldry is a strip of ribbon, called the escroll, inscribed with a motto or slogan. It may be in a classical language.. including Hebrew and Arabic, or modern or earlier forms of national languages or dialects. The motto is included in an official grant of arms in Scotland and in some Continental countries but not in England, where one may change it.
The achievement of a great noble, a peer in England, differs somewhat from that of a minor noble. Between the shield and the helmet is the coronet of rank, its design varied according to the wearer's status in the peerage. The shield is flanked by two supporters, which may be alike or different and which may take any form, human or animal. In England the privilege of displaying supporters is granted only to the head of a family, not to the heir-apparent or cadets (younger sons), but supporters may be granted to corporate bodies. Until the end of the 19th century, supporters were often depicted suspended in thin air or, at best, balancing precariously upon the upper edge of the escroll, but in the present century care has been taken to provide a firm footing, often in the form of a grassy hillock, called the compartment, from the French comporter, meaning "to bear."
Evolution and Usage.
There are numerous theories concerning the evolution of crest and supporters, elements that came into use long after heraldry was firmly established. They may have been developed by the engravers of seals, who filled in the spaces between the triangular shield and the edge of the circular seal with grotesques of their invention. Or crests and supporters may have evolved in an effort to render tournaments as gay and glittering as possible. The crest may be related to the bunches of colored feathers or molded beasts on the helmets of the contestants. The supporters may have been derived from two servants, possibly pursuivants, minstrels, or "fools," amusingly costumed, who carried a specially constructed shield, its device in bas-relief, around the field while the heralds declaimed for the challengers.
Although a coat of arms may exist without a crest, a crest cannot exist without a coat of arms. These two elements of an achievement can be separated only for special purposes. For example,
arms alone are displayed by a lady, who is usually not permitted to use a crest. The use of a crest alone is justified only in small areas, such as the handles of silverware. Such practices have resulted in some people today claiming to be the inheritors of a crest, unaware that, if legitimate, it must be part of a complete achievement. By common usage an achievement is often called, erroneously, "a family crest."
Authorization for Arms-Legality of Arms. Since the establishment of official heraldic authorities, there has been no prescriptive right by which an individual could assume noble arms on the basis of long use or his own authority. Armorial bearings for which there is no patent or confirmation under the hands and seals of the English kings of arms or their Scottish and Continental equivalents are not only spurious but fraudulent. A patent of arms states clearly that a particular achievement has been devised for and granted to a person and to his descendants or other heirs, forever.
A coat of arms in British heraldry, therefore, is generally the property of only one branch of a family. It may not be used by collateral branches of that family, and most certainly not by persons having the same surname who are not related in the remotest degree of consanguinity. Unscrupulous purveyors of arms, although well aware of this fact, do not hesitate to sell to anyone named say, "Brown," the armorial bearings granted to a specific John Brown at some time in the past. A person who honestly believes himself to be a linea descendant of..that armigerous John Brown does not have the right to use the arms until he has produced documentary evidence (certificates of births, marriages, and deaths) that proves the relationship claimed, at which time a confirmation of arms will be issued.
Representation of Arms.
A patent of arms names the petitioner, blazons (describes verbally) the arms being granted, and emblazons ( depicts ) them in the margin. No alteration, either by addition or subtraction, may be made by the grantee; but additions, known as "augmentations of honor," may be made under royal warrant, in recognition of outstanding service either to the sovereign in person or to the state.
Notwithstanding the inviolability of a heraldic grant, it is not necessary for an armiger, when having a representation of his arms made for, say, a bookplate, to have a slavish copy of the drawing in his patent. (If the grant was made in a decadent period of design, the emblazonment may be very bad.) In any event, to blazon arms correctly is more important than to emblazon them. In a Scottish patent if there is a discrepancy between the blazon and the emblazonment, the blazon stands and the painting is amended. A heraldic artist differs from a mere copyist in that he draws from the blazon. The best armorial representations, ,although they adhere strictly to every detail specified, possess both strength and individuality.
DESCRIPTION
Blazon.
As .heraldry evolved throughout Europe, there developed the specialized language of blazon, a sort of verbal formula that made possible a precise, concise description of visual arms. Although it exists to some degree in every country, it is, according to some authorities, most highly systematized and condensed in England, where the rules were propounded by Gerard Legh, an officer of arms, in the 16th century.
English blazon, the spelling of which has never been standardized (ee and y endings are both in use; for example, as in "bezantee" or "bezanty"), is euphonious and fascinating. It is not Old French, as is frequently stated, but a polyglot mixture containing some Anglo-NormanFrench, much Middle English, some Old English, and borrowings from Hebrew, Arabic! Greek, Latin, and other tongues. The vocabulary and standardized grammar enable a coat of arms to be minutely described in a minimum of words without fear of misunderstanding; but careless or inexpert use of blazon can, of course, lead to serious errors in depicting the achievement.
The Field.
The surface of the shield, known as the field, is theoretically divided into nine areas, thus enabling the exact position of an object on the shield to be specified. These areas are named according to the four edges of the shield and one of three fixed points on the shield. The four edges are the top, or chief; the bottom, or base; the right Hank, or dexter; and the left Hank, or sinister. Since one conceives of the shield from the point of view of the warrior behind it, his right hand (dexter)~ and hence the shield, is on the observer's left..
The three points are the fess point (including the surrounding area) at the visual center of the shield, slightly above the geometrical center; the honor point, halfway between the fess point and the chief; and the nombril point, halfway between the fess point and the base. Accordingly, the nine areas are as follows: along the chief of the shield are the dexter chief, center chief, and sinister chief; along the central part of the shield are the dexter flank, fess point, and sinister flank; and along the base of the shield are the dexter base, center base, and sinister base.
Metals and Tinctures.
The colors in heraldry include two metals and five tinctures, and often, various furs. The metals are Or (gold,

OR

represented by gold leaf in a patent, otherwise by yellow ocher) and argent (silver,

ARGENT

 represented by white paper). The tinctures are azure (blue,

AZURE

 represented by ultramarine or cobalt paint), gules (red,

GULES

by vermilion), vert (green,

VERT

by emerald), sable (black,

SABLE

by India ink or black paint), and rarely, purpure (purple,

PURPURE

by purple lake).
In order to increase visibility, contrast was obtained by depicting objects of tincture on fields of metal and vice versa. This fundamental rule holds good in theory in English and Scottish heraldry but has, since the Middle Ages, frequently been violated. It has never been strictly adhered to in Continental heraldry.
.The heraldic furs consist of conventionalized allover patterns representing pelts. Ermine, or the winter coat of a weasel-like animal, is argent, powdered with sable spots (representing the black tip of the animal's tail), which are drawn as narrow arrowheads, each with a triangle of dots at the point. This pattern is extended by a change of color scheme to make ermines, sable with argent spots; erminois, Or with sable spots; and pean, sable with Or spots. Vair, or squirrel, is represented by angular church-bell shapes in various arrangements alternating argent and azure. When other colors are employed, the composition is said to be vairy of the colors. Based on vair is the fur called potent, in which short, thick capital T-shapes replace bells.