Heraldry

ErinB-CMS will research this topic Heraldry The battle raged, swords clashed, and knights, horses, and soldiers ran to and fro, slicing through the enemy, but the commanding knights, covered in their shining armor, were unrecognizable, and the soldiers did not know who was who. They did not know which knights were their commanders and which were opposing them. Even some of the knights themselves were confused. The solution to this problem was the idea of every knight having their own symbol, a coat of arms. This art became known as heraldry. Heraldry was an intricate and colorful art.

The concept of heraldry was first introduced when the knights of the Middle Ages realized they might be unwittingly killing their friends and allies in battle because they could not recognize each other. The heralds decided to develop a system of décor that could be put on the surcoat and shield of a knight. This changed the way knights were thought of. Heralds were “official representatives of the king” (Heraldry 135-136). A herald’s duty was to “keep track of family relationships and the etiquette of coats of arms” (Heraldry 135-136). Heralds were in charge of remembering and making all the coats of arms (Daly-Weir 10). The written records of the coats of arms were called armorials (Daly-Weir 10). There were certain things that could and could not be put on a coat of arms. Some things, such as marks of cadency, were mandatory and required. There were hundreds upon thousands of different combinations of usable symbols, colors, and other designs that could be used on an official coat of arms. Eventually every family, business owner, knight, and noble had a personal coat of arms. This made it easier to notice, identify, and remember people and businesses. **__Uses for Heraldry__** The original use for coats of arms was for locating and identifying knights in a battle (Heraldry 135-136). The knights, who were usually commanders in the army during wars, were granted a coat of arms by the king and a herald normally designed them. The knights would have their coat of arms sewn onto a surcoat to be worn over their armor and painted on a shield. The colors and symbols were bold and easily recognized.

Coats of arms were also widely used in tournaments. For example, to choose which knights would compete in the tournament, a large tree was chosen, and the knights who wanted to enter would hang their shields on the tree. Then, the ladies of the castle would come out and remove the knights’ shield from the tree if they believed he was unworthy to participate. This was a great and fair way to narrow down the competition and show respect for the woman. The tree was called the Tree of Chivalry (Daly-Weir 7). The knights also decorated themselves, their helmets, their servants, and their horses with their colors.

Usually a coat of arms was passed down from father to son in a line of knights. If there were many sons, they would use their father’s coat of arms but were required to put a mark of cadency on it. Once the father died, the eldest son would receive the coat of arms and the other sons would continue using their marks of cadency (Daly-Weir 28-29). Eventually women were allowed to have a coat of arms. These were usually displayed on a lozenge, or a diamond-shaped piece of jewelry like a necklace or a ring. When a knight and lady were married, they would combine their coat of arms into a shield with half of it showing the man’s coat of arms and the other half showing the women’s (Daly-Weir 30).

**__Parts of the Achievement__** A complete achievement is a full coat of arms with a shield, supporters, crest, helm or helmet, mantling, and motto (Valman Para. 5). Getting a full achievement was a serious accomplishment. Some of the parts had to be earned, and others were very near impossible to get.

The shield is what most people first imagine when they hear “coat of arms.” It is painted onto a knight’s shield. (Hence the name) The shield is the most important part of the achievement because it has the charge on it and was mainly used to identify a knight quickly in the midst of battle (Heraldry 135-136).

The shield had specific parts used to identify where all the different designs and décor were. The top of the shield was called the chief. The bottom was the base. The middle, or the fess, had the main charge on it. Just above the fess was the honour point, and just below was the nombril point. Dexter meant the left side of the shield from the front, and sinister was the right (Heraldry 136). The full face of the shield was known as the field (Daly-Weir 14). These terms made it easier to blazon a shield. A blazon is a verbal description of a coat of arms (Heraldry 136).

The rarest and hardest to get of all the parts of an achievement were the supporters. Supporters were animals standing in either side of the shield. They were usually displayed in the rampant position. Commonly used supporters were unicorns, lions, stags, and griffins. What made a supporter hard to get was that only royalty could use them (Heraldry 135-136). Therefore only kings, princes, very high nobles would have supporters. Eventually, some of the larger and more important families had supporters on their family’s coat of arms. Every person in the family could have their own supporters (Complete Achievement Para 8). The only thing that had to be the same on a family’s individual coats of arms was the shield.

The crest, crown, helmet, and mantling are extra decoration that are added to the complete achievement. The crown sits on top of the shield. On top of that is the helmet. The helmets were similar to those worn in battle and showed the rank of the individual using it (Complete Achievement Para 5). The helmet usually had mantling flowing out of it. Mantling is decoration that usually was the two main colors of the coat of arms. It came out of the helmet and could looks like wings, flowing cloth, or anything like that. Sitting directly on top of the helmet was thetorse. The torse looked like the two main colors of the arms, on separate strips of cloth, were taken and twisted together. The torse sat on top of the helmet like a crown or halo. Next on top was the crest, which was “a figure or symbol affixed to the top of the helmet” (Complete Achievement Para 3). This created a very tall tower on top of the shield.

The last part of a complete achievement was the motto. The motto was usually written in Latin and placed above the crest or below the shield. Mottos were war cries, statements of faith, or virtues that the knight felt important. The mottos were used as battle cries as well as a motto. An example of a well-known motto is “In God We Trust,” a motto used by the United States. **__Simple Designs__** The first and most basic designs put on a shield were the tinctures. Tinctures can be divided into three groups: metals, colors, and furs. The colors and metals represented different emotions and traits. The two most common metals were gold, which represented generosity, and silver, peace. They were painted on the shield as gray-white and yellow. The colors that were used most often were red (courage), blue (loyalty/truth), and green (happiness). Less common colors were black (royalty/fairness), purple (sadness/determination, orange, and maroon. The most important rule of the tinctures was a metal could not be put on another metal and a color could not be on a color. This was so the symbols showed up better and could be seen from farther away (Daly-Weir 15). A fur was a design that was put on a shield to make it looks like fur and be used as a tincture. Ermine and vair (squirrel) were used the most often. They did not really look like fur though.

The next designs that would be seen on heraldic shields were the ordinaries. They were decorative lines that would divide the shield. There were many styles of ordinaries. Just a few were dancetty, potenty, embattled, wavy, nebuly, urdy, and dovetailed (Daly-Weir 17). These would be used on the shield designs to personalize them. Many are described by their names such as wavy and dovetailed.

The simplest shield a knight would have was a single charge on a field of one color or metal, but more often than not, it would be partitioned, or divided, into two or more metals or colors (Partitions Para 1). The shield could be partitioned however the herald or knight wanted, but some divisions were popular enough to be given names. The lines were thick, so a cross design could have the four corners one color and the cross itself would be a metal. The chief and fess designs are easily understood. The chief consists of a line across the chief of the shield, and the fess was a line across the fess. Bend sinister and bend dexter described a diagonal line either from the top right to the bottom left (bend sinister) or the top left to the bottom right (bend dexter). The cross was a line across the fess and pale (vertical middle) and the saltire was an X across the shield (Daly-Weir 16). The ordinaries would be applied to the edges of these designs to make them more noticeable and harder for shields to accidently duplicate another.

As explained before, in a line of knights, the sons of a knight had to use marks of cadency on their shield to identify them. Marks of cadency were small symbols that could be used on the shield in any way. The first mark was and ordinary called a label and the eldest son would use it. The second son used the crescent symbol. The mullet that was used for the third son was a star. The martlet was the fourth mark. It was a small bird with no legs. The fifth mark was a ring called an annulet. A fleur-de-lis was used for the sixth son. There was a rose for  the seventh, a cross moline for the eighth, and an octofoil for the ninth son. These marks made it easier to identify the knights. **__Charges__** A shield is not just tinctures, ordinaries, and partitioning. The last thing that would be included on the shield was the charge. A charge is a figure or symbol that is placed on the face of the shield, and if only one charge is included, it is centered on the fess (Daly-Weir 18). The figures used as charges were classified as animate or inanimate charges. The charges would most commonly be animals, plants, objects, body parts, weapons, shapes, or mythical creatures and had separate meanings as well (Daly-Weir 18-19). There were many charges that have been found to have been used by the people of the Middle Ages.

An animate charge was a figure that in reality would have life and movement. These charges were mainly animals. They usually stood for personality attributes. Some examples were: the lion for courage and nobility, the deer for peace, the bear for strength and intelligence, the fox for wisdom and craftiness, and the eagle for might and victory (Daly-Weir 18). The lion was the most popular charge in all of heraldry. The eagle was the second. Animate charges also included the mythical creatures such as the dragon, the centaur for glory, the unicorn for integrity, griffin for courage and alertness, and the hydra for the defeat of a powerful enemy (Daly-Weir 22-23).

The inanimate charges were not used as often as the animate charges, but there were much more of them. They were plants, objects, shapes, body parts, weapons, and pretty much anything that did not have life or the ability to move. Some examples are: the anchor for hope, the tower for safety, the oak tree for age and might, the sun for magnificence, the arm for hard work, the cross for faith, and the holly for honesty (Daly-Weir 18-19).

The roundel was a different type of charge that was just a single circle of a single color or metal. It would be used as a normal charge. Some shields had several roundels of different colors (Roundels Para 1).

The people of the Middle Ages had a sense of humor too. The knights would sometimes make puns on their shields having to do with their name or title. For example, the family of Bullock’s shield has a young cow’s head on it. In those times a young cow was called a bullock. This type of humor was known as canting arms (Olmert Para 30).

The animate charges could be positioned in several ways. The most popular position for all of the animate charges was the rampant pose. This was the animal standing on its hind legs, mouth open, and with its front legs in front of it with one leg higher than the other. The passant position was popular too and had the animal on all fours as if walking. Dormant, statant, and courant are other poses used in heraldry (Beasts Pic 1).

Heraldry is an ancient art used to show family pride and heritage. Even though it started as a name tag for knights, heraldry has evolved into a worldwide way to express beliefs and values to others. In the beginnings of heraldry, it was a long and difficult process with many rules and regulations to create a coat of arms, but it ended up as a colorful, bright symbol of pride. __**Works Cited**__ “Beasts.” __Heraldic Dictionary.__ July 2000. University of Notre Dame. July 2000. <[]>

“Components of a Complete Heraldic Achievement.” __Heraldic Dictionary.__ July 2000. University of Notre Dame. July 2000. <[]>

Daly-Weir, Catherine. __Coat of Arms.__ New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 2000.

“Heraldry.” __Compton’s Encyclopedia.__ 1996.

Olmert, Michael. “Hail to Heraldry, A most Intricate and Revealing Art.” __Smithsonian__ May 1984: 86+. __Student Resource.__ Cope Middle School, Bossier City, LA. 4 March 2011.

“Partitions of the Field.” __Heraldic Dictionary__. July 2000. University of Notre Dame. July 2000. <[]>

“Roundels.” __Heraldic Dictionary.__ July 2000. University of Notre Dame. July 2000. <[]>

Valman, Bernard. “Achieving a Coat of Arms (Images in Pediatrics).” __Archives of Disease in Childhood__ 87.2 (2002): 90 __Student Resource Center – Gold .__ Cope Middle School, Bossier City, LA. 7 March 2011.

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