Coat of arms
See heraldry for a fuller account of the history, design, and regulation of coats of arms. |
The Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom |
|
Coat of arms of the Boreyko family of Poland. |
A
coat of arms or
armorial bearings (often just
arms for short) is, in its originally
European tradition, a design belonging to a particular person (or group of people) and used by him or her in a wide variety of ways. Unlike
seals and
emblems, coats of arms have a formal description, that is expessed as a
blazon.
Coats of arms have their origins in the designs used by
medieval knights to make their armour and shield stand out in battle or tournaments and enable quick recognition by allies or spectators. The designs were used to decorate clothing worn over the knight's armour, from which we derive the term
coat of arms. In addition to being painted on the shield, elements of a knight's coat of arms were used to decorate the helmet crest, pavilion, and banners used by knights.
In some heraldic traditions (such as the Scottish and the English), an individual (rather than a family) possesses a coat of arms. In those traditions, coats of arms were passed from father to son as legal property, and were not used by more than a single individual at the same time (other than the eldest son and his eldest son both of whom would differentiate with a label). Other children in these families would only use a form of their father's arms that were
differenced with a change to a colour or addition of a distinguishing
charge once they obtained specific approval. In Scotland the
Lord Lyon has criminal jurisdiction to enforce the laws of arms. In England use of arms is a matter of civil law. Many other traditions are less restrictive — allowing, for example, all members of a family or dynastic house to use the same arms or may reserve one or more elements to the Head of the House.
Because of their importance as legal property, the use of arms as a distinguishing mark has necessitated their strict regulation (although today only a few countries continue in this); this has been carried out by
heralds and the study of coats of arms is called "heraldry."
Today, the term "coat of arms" or "arms" is frequently applied in two different ways. In some uses, it may indicate a
full achievement of arms or
heraldic achievement, which includes a variety of elements — usually a
crest sitting atop a
helmet, itself sitting on a
shield; other common elements include
supporters holding up the shield and a
motto beneath. Other times, "coat of arms" or "arms" is used to refer simply to the
escutcheon (i.e. the shield itself), or to one of several designs that may be combined in one shield. (Note that the crest is one specific part of a heraldic achievement and that "crest of arms" is a misnomer.) The "coat of arms" frequently were adorned with a
device - a
motto,
emblem, or other mark used by a
Knight-errant to distinguish himself from others. If a motto affixed to the arms, it usually had some punning allusion to his name. A device differed from a
badge or
cognizance primarily because as it was a personal distinction, and not a badge borne by members of the same house successively.
The Japanese equivalent, called
kamon (often abbreviated "mon"), are family badges which often date back to the seventh century, and are still actively used in Japan today.
At a national level, "coats of arms" were generally retained by those states with constitutional continuity of more than a few centuries, including constitutional monarchies like
Denmark as well as old republics like
San Marino and
Switzerland. However, today, nearly every nation in every part of the world has its own "coat of arms", in many cases emblems that do not fully conform with European heraldric traditions. Since 1989, some of the ex-Communist states, such as
Romania, have resumed their former arms, often with only the symbols of monarchy removed.
The
Great Seal of the United States is often said to be the coat of arms of the
United States of America. Although the Seal contains some armorial elements, it was not designed to be used as a coat of arms and does not fully conform with European heraldic traditions.
Note that not all personal or corporate insignia are heraldic, though they may share many features. For example,
flags are used to identify ships, embassies and such, and they use the same colours and designs found in heraldry, but they are not usually considered to be heraldic. A country may have both a national flag and a national coat of arms, and the two may not look alike at all. For example, the flag of
Scotland (St Andrew's Cross) has a white
saltire on a blue
field, but the royal arms of Scotland has a red lion within a double tressure on a gold field. Compare this with the
flag of Maryland, which is an heraldic banner, being simply the design on the shield of
George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore.
*
List of national coats of arms*
Insignia*
Burke's Peerage & Gentry International Register of Arms*
Free symbols, including civic coats of arms, in vector format*
Coat of arms collection of Swiss families* [
1] A shareware program which allows the user to construct their own blazons
