HERALDRY

the science and art that deals with the use, display, and regulation of hereditary symbols employed to distinguish individuals, institutions, and corporations. These symbols, which probably originated as identification devices on shields, are called armorial bearings. Strictly defined, heraldry denotes that which pertains to the office and duty of a herald; that part of his work dealing with armorial bearings is properly termed armory. But in general usage, the term heraldry has come to mean the same as armory. Like all other human creations, heraldic art has reflected the changes of fashion. As heraldry advanced from its utilitarian usages, its artistic quality declined. In the 18th century, for example, heraldry described new arms in an absurdly obtuse manner and rendered them in an overly intricate style. It was not until the 20th century that heraldic art recovered and in many ways improved upon the originals. There were still, however, far too many drawings of poor quality emanating from official sources. all the activities of a herald, but primarily the art and science of armorial bearings, which is a herald's principal concern. The adoption of symbolic devices as a means of identification spread throughout the nobility of Europe in the 13th century and soon embraced corporations and institutions. The principal vehicle for displaying the heraldic devices is the shield. The crest, a subsidiary device, emerged in the late 14th century; it was modelled onto the helm. In pictorial representations the shield, on which the arms are borne, is surmounted by helm and crest; the latter is usually placed within a wreath or coronet, or rests upon a chapeau (a crimson cap turned up with ermine). The type and position of the helm indicates the rank of the bearer. In the late 15th century great nobles, and later certain corporations, were accorded supporters, creatures on either side of their shields to support them. At the same time insignia were used with arms; the garter of the Order of the Garter surrounded the shield; peers placed their coronets above their shields; and later orders and decorations were shown below the shield. The whole display is called an achievement of arms. In the design of arms a wide variety of symbols are used, depicted and arranged according to a series of conventions. Arms are hereditary; all male descendants of the first person to whom arms were granted or allowed bear the arms. Younger sons add small symbols, called marks of cadency, to their arms and crests. Arms are insignia of honour and so are protected by law. Today only the European monarchies, Ireland, Switzerland, South Africa, and Zimbabwe control the use of arms. In some countries there is non-noble or burgher heraldry, but this generally enjoys no protection. Tinctures are hues used in heraldry, which are denoted colours, metals, and furs. The colours are gules (red), azure (blue), sable (black), vert (green), and purpure (purple). Rarely used are murrey (sanguine), tenn (an orange-tawny colour), and bleu celeste (sky blue). The metals are or (gold, often represented by yellow) and argent (silver, invariably depicted as white). The furs are ermine (black spots on white) and such variations as erminois (black spots on gold) and vair (small symbolic squirrel pellets), alternately white and blue. The symbols used in heraldry are called charges. The principal charges are ordinaries-geometrical shapes such as the pale (a broad vertical strip), the fess (a horizontal strip), and the bend (a diagonal strip). Other charges are animate-beasts, monsters, humans, birds, fish, reptiles, and insects-or inanimate, which includes almost everything else. The field, the background of the shield, is "charged" with the charges. It may be plain, patterned (checkered), sem (strewn with little charges), or divided by a line or lines following the direction of the ordinaries. A shield divided into halves vertically is per pale, horizontally, per fess, and diagonally, per bend dexter (from upper right) or per bend sinister (from upper left). The dividing lines may be embattled (crenellated), wavy, or indented (zigzag). The top area of the field is the chief and the bottom the base. The shield is viewed as if being borne, so the viewer's left is the right, or dexter, and the viewer's right, the sinister. The top centre is the honour point, the middle centre the fess point, and the base centre the nombril point. To describe an achievement is to blazon it. The terms of blazon are in general a mixture of English and old French. Blazon is based in conventions that make it terse and unequivocal. Charges always face dexter, for example, and three charges on a shield are placed two in chief and one in base unless otherwise blazoned. There are many such conventions. The basic rules of blazon are to describe, in this order, the field, the principal charge (often an ordinary), other charges, and charges on charges. Adjectives follow the nouns they qualify, the tincture coming last; a red rampant lion on a gold shield is blazoned "Or a lion rampant gules." Badges are simple devices anciently used by nobles to mark their retainers and property and were displayed on their standards. They are now granted to people and institutions who bear arms. Augmentations are additions to arms to commemorate and often reward doughty actions. Charles II, for example, rewarded many loyalists by the grants of augmentation of his royal insignia and badges. Marshalling is correctly depicting an achievement of arms, particularly in connection with showing more than one coat on a shield. In marshalling, a married man impales the arms of his wife by placing the two coats side by side on one shield. If she is a heraldic heiress he places her arms on an inescutcheon, a small shield in the centre of his. An heiress may transmit her arms as a quartering to her descendants. Quartering is to divide the shield into four or more divisions by horizontal and vertical lines to accommodate the requisite number of inherited coats. A spinster bears her paternal arms in a lozenge (a diamond) with no crest. When married she uses the marital shield of arms only, and if widowed, she uses the marital arms on a lozenge. Certain officials, such as bishops and kings of arms, have arms appertaining to their office, which they impale to the dexter of their personal arms. Additional reading There are many guides to heraldry; the majority appear to be derived from an old original. Among the most useful for the beginner are: A.C. Fox-Davies, Heraldry Explained (1906, reprinted 1971), a small, well-illustrated book written by the clearest expositor of heraldry; Charles Mackinnon, The Observer's Book of Heraldry (1966), a very useful and clearly written work; and Sir Anthony R. Wagner, Heraldry in England (1946, reprinted 1953), a brief account but with 15 plates in colour; Leslie G. Pine, Teach Yourself Heraldry and Genealogy, 2nd ed. (1970), designed for the beginner and including a glossary of terms, and The Genealogist's Encyclopaedia (1969, reprinted 1977); and James R. Planch, The Pursuivant of Arms or Heraldry Founded upon Facts (1852, reprinted 1973).More specialized works include A.C. Fox-Davies, A Complete Guide to Heraldry (1909, reprinted 1978), and Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat Armour, 7th ed., 2 vol. (1929-30, reprinted 1970). Gerard J. Brault, Early Blazon: Heraldic Terminology in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, with Special Reference to Arthurian Literature (1972), illustrates the development of the language of blazon. The writings of Oswald Barron should be read as a correction to some of Fox-Davies' theories on heraldic history. Some of his best work may be found in the 12 volumes of The Ancestor, which he edited in 1902-05. Two volumes now reprinted in one constitute A Treatise on Heraldry: British and Foreign by John Woodward and George Burnett (1892, reprinted 1969), which contains some inaccuracies. Sir Thomas Innes, Scots Heraldry, new ed. (1978), explains much in heraldic practice that may not otherwise be clear. Another good view of heraldry in the international sense is Robert Gayre Of Gayre And Nigg, The Nature of Arms (1961). For information on Irish heraldry, see Sir Christopher and Adrian Lynch-Robinson, Intelligible Heraldry (1948, reprinted 1967). Boutell's Heraldry has been edited many times since its first appearance in the 19th century. The editions of V. Wheeler-Holohan (1931), C.W. Scott-Giles (1958), and John P. Brooke-Little (1978) are all very useful, as are John P. Brooke-Little, An Heraldic Alphabet (1973); and Ottfried Neubecker and John P. Brooke-Little, Heraldry: Sources, Symbols, and Meaning (1977). Julian Franklyn, Shield and Crest, 3rd ed. (1971), gives much otherwise not easily obtained information.Little continental work on heraldry has been translated into English. Perhaps the best course is to consult periodical publications like The Augustan, with articles from a wide variety of sources. Several non-English-language encyclopaedias, such as the Enciclopedia Italiana (1929-37), have excellent articles on heraldry. Many non-English writers transcend their national boundaries in writing on the subject. Rmi Mathieu in Le Systme hraldique franais (1946) writes of French heraldry and helps to clarify the whole subject. On Spanish heraldry, see Jos Asensio Y Torres, Tratado de herldica y blasn, 3rd ed. rev. (1854, reprinted 1929); and Lucas De Palacio, De Genealogia y heraldica (1946), the latter author being especially interested in the connection between totemism and heraldry; the Japanese mon is exhaustively dealt with by Carroll Parish in The Augustan, vol. 11, no. 1 (1968).Other works that will help the student after he has acquired a sound knowledge of this subject are: Sir Anthony R. Wagner, Heralds and Heraldry in the Middle Ages, 2nd ed. (1956, reprinted 1960), and Historic Heraldry of Britain (1939, reprinted 1972); and Leslie G. Pine, The Story of Heraldry (1952, reprinted 1967), an account of much controversial matter, including the present English heraldic position in law; George D. Squibb, The High Court of Chivalry: A Study of the Civil Law in England (1959); C. Pama, Lions and Virgins (1965), which discusses the history of arms in South Africa; and Leslie G. Pine, International Heraldry (1970), and American Origins (1960, reprinted 1980), concerned with heraldry throughout the world.Reference works in English are easily available. Sir John B. Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (1883, reprinted 1976), gives the description under alphabetical order of surnames of thousands of coats of arms. John Woody Papworth, An Alphabetical Dictionary of Coats of Arms Belonging to Families in Great Britain and Ireland (1858-74, reprinted 1977), the counterpart of Burke's General Armory, enables the seeker to trace a coat of arms without knowing the owner's name. Both books contain inaccuracies. James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, new ed. (1970), with 1,000 illustrations, is a helpful book, as is Leslie G. Pine, A Dictionary of Mottoes (1983). Regular editions of John Debrett, Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage (since 1713); and John B. Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage (since 1826), and Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry (since 1837), abound in illustrations and descriptions of arms. The role of the herald in history and in the contemporary art and science of heraldry is explored in Rodney Dennys, The Heraldic Imagination (1976), and Heraldry and the Herald (1982). Leslie Gilbert Pine Historical development of heraldry The exact date or place of origin of the heraldic system in western Europe in the 12th century is not known; neither are the precise reasons for its introduction. But limits can be drawn to indicate generally when heraldry began, and probable reasons for its emergence can be deduced. The Bayeux Tapestry, produced in the last quarter of the 11th century in Bayeux, France, is a pictorial record that shows conditions in everyday life and in warfare at the time of the Norman Conquest of England. The English and Norman soldiers are armed alike. None of the Englishmen has a design of any kind on his shield or armour. In a few scenes, Normans or Frenchmen have designs on their shields that have a rough heraldic resemblance. In scene VIII of the tapestry, four of the followers of Guy, count of Ponthieu, have shields with these devices: some kind of creature holding what appears to be a fish in its mouth, a rough design emerging from the left side of the shield, a cross, and an animal resembling a sheep. In scene XII the messenger of William the Conqueror bears a winged creature on his shield, and this reappears in scenes XIII and XV. In scene XVIII a cross or a variant of it is seen on a shield, but this was probably a boss (metal protuberance) to strengthen it. Scene LXXV has a Norman knight with a design of a birdlike creature on the shield, but generally the Normans shields have only bosses in the middle. In 1066, at the time of the Conquest, heraldry clearly did not exist. The most that can be said is that possibly some of the rudiments out of which it emerged were present. Even at the time of the First Crusade (1095-99), there is evidence that heraldry was not yet in use. The Alexiad, the history of the Emperor Alexius (reigned 1081-1118) written by his daughter, the princess Anna Comnena, contains a vivid description of the Frankish barbarians-as the Crusaders appeared in the eyes of the civilized Byzantines. The Princess gave a careful account of the Crusaders' armour. She said that Alexius exhorted his archers to shoot at the Franks' horses rather than their riders, whose armour rendered them almost invulnerable. "For the Frankish weapon of defence is this coat of mail, ring plaited into ring, and the iron fabric is such excellent iron that it repels arrows and keeps the wearer's skin unhurt. An additional weapon of defence is a shield which is not round, but a long shield, very broad at the top and running out to a point, hollowed out slightly inside, but externally smooth and gleaming with a brilliant boss of molten brass." The shields in her description, therefore, are similar to those depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry. Thus, all the pictures from later times of King Alfred the Great, William the Conqueror, or Charlemagne bearing coat armour can be disregarded as anachronisms. Early roots of heraldry Not until a generation after the First Crusade does unmistakable evidence of heraldic designs appear. The earliest evidence is in an enamel (Muse de Tess, Le Mans, France) made not later than 1151 showing Geoffrey, count of Anjou, bearing a shield azure with possibly four rampant golden lions (the exact number is not discernible because of the position in which the shield was depicted). The count was the son-in-law of King Henry I of England (reigned 1100-35), and, according to a chronicle, Henry in knighting Geoffrey bestowed upon him a shield that bore painted lions. In addition, from 1136, heraldic devices appear on seals. It is possible that the insignia were used first on seals and later on warriors' shields. Simultaneously, body armour was becoming all-enveloping, and some means of distinguishing men in full armour became necessary. The heavy barrel-type helmet closed in the wearer's face except for the opening of his visor, and a mixture of plate and ring mail enclosed the whole body. Another factor was the Crusades, in which men from different lands had to be distinguished from one another. Within a few years heraldry was found throughout all of western Christendom. The first English king to bear arms was the crusader Richard I the Lion-Heart (1157-99). The three gold leopards or lions of England have been used by every dynasty since his time.