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THE COLLEGE OF
ARMS FOUNDATION, INC.
ENGLISH HERALDRY
The Complete Coat of Arms
The main elements composing a full coat of arms, called a complete
achievement of arms, derive from the equipment of a medieval knight.
They are: a shield with heraldic markings or devices (called
charges), above which are a helmet topped by a crest.
Often attached to the helmet and surrounding the shield is flowing
material known as mantling, which is derived from the material
used to protect the knight from the sun's rays (it is now solely
decorative). A motto (or war cry), which can be changed at will,
usually completes the coat of arms. The shields of peers, senior
knights and leading corporate bodies are flanked by supporters
(usually representations of real or imagined creatures).
The Language of Heraldry
Heraldry is a highly symbolic and stylized art with a language all
its own. Blazon, or heraldic description, is a combination of
Norman French (the language used when heraldry became codified),
Anglicized Latin and Old English.
Since the original purpose of the shield of arms was to be clearly seen
across a battlefield or tournament ground, only a limited number of
contrasting colors - sable (black), gules (red), azure
(blue), vert (green), purpure (purple) - and metals -
argent (silver), or (gold) - were used. A basic rule or
heraldry states that no color should be placed on another color, or a
metal on another metal.
The surface of a shield is called the field and it may be all of
one color or have small designs scattered across it. Any design placed
on a shield is called a charge. The most widely used charges
are simple geometric shapes known as ordinaries. Some common
ordinaries are:
Fess - a wide horizontal stripe dividing a field
Chief - a wide stripe across the top of the field
Bend - a diagonal stripe slanting from top left to bottom right
Bend sinister - a diagonal stripe slanting from top right to bottom left
Bar - a thick horizontal stripe
Pale - a vertical stripe
Chevron - an inverted "V"
Saltire - a diagonal cross
With the growth of heraldry, charges of a more pictorial and symbolic
nature were adopted, including birds, lions, boars, leaves, weapons,
crescents, stars (mullets), and scallops (escallops).
Practically any object, animate or inanimate, can be and has been used
as a heraldic charge.
Once the language has been mastered it is easy to translate such precise
heraldic descriptions as Sable a cross Or, a golden cross on a
black field.
Arms can be used to show marriage alliances, the holding of two or more
lordships or the acquiring of important offices by the arms holder.
This is done by the practice or marshalling, which takes two
forms. Impaling is dividing a shield down the middle and having
each side show the original coat of arms in its entirety. Quartering
is the division of a shield into two or more parts; an extreme example
of this is the coat and crest of Lloyd of Stockton, which contains some
350 quarterings.
Heraldic art is full of wit and humor. Canting is the use of
emblems that are puns or rebuses of the name or title. For example, the
crest of Sir Edmund Bacon has a decidedly porcine motif and the arms of
Sir John Islip show an eye and a man falling from a tree (i.e.,
eye-slip). The crest that was given to William Shakespeare's father
shows a falcon gripping a lance (spear) in one of its talons.
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