Home > Heraldry
Heraldry is the knowledge and art of describing-coats-of-arms, also referred to as achievements or armorial bearings. Its origins are in the need to distinguish participants in battles or jousts and to describe the various devices they carried or painted on their shields.However it is important to note that a given coat-of-arms is defined by a written description (which is given in heraldic language, called "blazon"), not by a picture. A given coat-of-arms may be drawn in many different ways, all considered equivalent, just as the letter "A" may be printed in many different fonts while still being the same letter. (A possible exception might be the arms of the University of Northern British Columbia.[1]) For example, almost invariably the shape of the shield is immaterial and different artists can depict the same coat of arms on many different shapes of shield.
A description of a coat-of-arms is called a "blazon". To draw it is to emblazon it. To ensure that the pictures people draw after reading the descriptions are accurate and reasonably alike, blazons follow a set of rules. The first thing the blazon describes is the tincture ( colour) of the field (background) (though in some cases of "landscape heraldry" all or part of the field is some sort of landscape), and then it describes the placement and tinctures of the different charges (objects) on the shield. The charges on a shield are described from the top to the base, from dexter to sinister. Dexter ("right" in Latin) is the left side of the shield, and sinister ("left") is the right, as seen by the viewer. The reason for this is that they refer to the shield-bearer's point of view, not the observer's.
There are no strict definitions of the shades of colours used in heraldry, but the usual practice is to use bold, vivid colours rather than pastel shades.
The word " crest" is commonly used to refer to a coat-of-arms. However, in heraldry, a crest is just one component of a coat-of-arms, so using the word to refer to the entire coat is in fact incorrect. In a complete depiction of a coat-of-arms, the crest is a design affixed to the helmet. Crests can also be used on their own; this is particularly useful when there is insufficient space to display the entire coat-of-arms, and this practice may be the origin of the popular usage.
1 Shield and lozenge
Traditionally, as women did not go to war, they would not have a shield. Instead, their coats-of-arms would be shown on a lozenge, usually a square standing on one of its corners. As women may now serve in the armed forces in a number of countries, some armigerous women prefer to use a shield anyway. A parallel usage for noncombatant clergymen could be found sometimes on the EuropeFor the band of the same name, see Europe (band . Europe is a continent forming the westermost part of the Eurasian supercontinent. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sean continent, with the occasional placement of arms on a cartouche (an ovalAn oval or ovoid was originally an egg shape (from Latin OVVM); it is now usually used to refer to ellipses, but can also mean any similar shape, such as egg shapes or race-course shapes (a semicircle on either side of a quadrilateral). See also ovals of-shaped vehicle for their display).
Very rarely and almost invariably in non-European contexts, such as the arms of NunavutThe coat of arms of the territory of Nunavut, Canada known officially as The Arms of Her Majesty in Right of Nunavut was granted by a warrant by Romeo LeBlanc, Governor-General of Canada, dated March 31, 1999, one day before the territory of Nunavut, Cana and of the former Republic of BophuthatswanaBophuthatswana was a former Bantustan homeland in the north of South Africa. It had a surface area of approximately 40,000 kmē and consisted of seven enclaves dispersed over the former South African provinces of Cape Province, Transvaal and Orange Free St, specific shapes of shield are specified in the blazon (and the specific type of shield is sometimes followed to the extent, as in the arms of Gauteng, that structures in the shield (in that case "shield thongs") function as charges).
| The arms of The Lady ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS (born October 13, 1925) is a British politician and the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a position she held from 1979 to 1990. She is a member of the Conservative Party and still and the late Sir Denis Thatcher, BtSir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet ( May 10, 1915 June 26, 2003) was a businessman, and husband of former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher. He was born in Lewisham, South London; the son of a New Zealand businessman. He was the director |
|
| |
| A lozenge, the traditional shape of a woman's coat of arms | A shield, traditionally used only by a man |
