What heraldry is
Heraldry is the system of designing, displaying and regulating coats of arms. A coat of arms is a distinctive design, originally painted on a shield, that identified a particular person or family. Over time the same design appeared on banners, seals, tombs, buildings and household goods, and the rules for describing and arranging these designs grew into a specialized craft with its own vocabulary.
The word “heraldry” comes from heralds, the officials who in the later Middle Ages kept track of who bore which arms. But the practice began before such officials had a formal role, and it was shaped as much by painters, armorers and ordinary knights as by anyone in an office.
Where and when it began
Historians generally place the emergence of hereditary arms in western Europe in the twelfth century. Earlier warriors certainly decorated their shields. The Bayeux Tapestry, made in the later eleventh century, shows painted shields with dragons, crosses and other patterns, but the same person is not reliably shown with the same design from scene to scene. Those were decorations, not yet a system of inherited identity.
By the middle of the twelfth century, fixed designs begin to appear, and by the thirteenth century they were widespread among the nobility. Exactly where and why it started is debated. The main factors usually mentioned are the spread of armor that hid the face, the importance of recognizing leaders in battle and tournaments, and the growing use of personal seals. A fuller timeline is covered in the article on the rise of heraldry.
Why arms were needed
Armor explains much of it. As helmets came to cover most of the head, a knight’s face was no longer a way to tell him from anyone else. A bold, simple design on the shield, the surcoat worn over the armor, and the horse’s covering made a person recognizable from a distance. This mattered in a battle line and even more in a tournament, where spectators and officials needed to know who was who.
Arms also solved a written problem. Charters and legal documents were authenticated by seals, and a seal showing a rider with a shield bearing a known device was a convenient proof of identity. When a design passed from father to son, the seal carried the family’s identity forward.
Who used arms
Arms began among mounted warriors but did not stay there. Over the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries they were adopted by a wide range of users:
- Kings and great lords, whose arms became symbols of their lands and dynasties.
- Ordinary knights and gentry, for whom arms were a mark of rank.
- Women, who commonly used arms on seals, often showing their father’s or husband’s design.
- Clergy, including bishops and abbots, and religious houses.
- Towns and cities, which used arms on seals and banners.
- Guilds and merchant groups, including the craft guilds of larger towns.
Over time, wealthy townspeople who were not knights also took arms, which shows how far the custom had moved from the battlefield. Some historians read this as a sign of rising social ambition, while others see it as a practical need for a recognizable mark.
The building blocks of a design
Heraldic designs are built from a small set of elements, which is why they are easy to recognize and to remember.
- Tinctures: the colors, metals and furs. The two metals are gold (or) and silver (argent). The common colors are red (gules), blue (azure), black (sable) and green (vert), with purple (purpure) rarer. Furs such as ermine and vair appear as patterned fields.
- Divisions of the field: the shield can be split into parts by lines, for example vertically, horizontally, diagonally or into quarters.
- Ordinaries: simple geometric shapes such as the cross, the chevron, the bend (a diagonal band) and the fess (a horizontal band).
- Charges: any object placed on the shield, such as animals, plants, tools or stars. The article on heraldic charges looks at the most common ones.
A custom that is often described as a rule is that color is not normally placed on color, nor metal on metal, because contrast makes a design legible at a distance. There are known exceptions, so it is best treated as a strong habit.
Arms are described in a specialized language called blazon, which developed largely from Anglo-Norman French. A blazon is a written recipe: someone who knows the terms can draw the shield from the words alone, without seeing a picture.
Inheritance and differences
If arms were inherited, the question arose of how to tell family members apart. Several customs developed. Sons might add a small mark, called a difference, to their father’s arms. The eldest son in England often used a label, a horizontal bar with hanging points, while a younger branch might alter a color or add a small figure. When two families joined by marriage, their arms could be combined, either side by side or by dividing the shield into quarters.
These systems were never perfectly uniform. Practice varied between regions and over time, which is one reason that early arms can be hard to interpret.
Heralds and record keeping
As the number of arms grew, someone had to remember them. Heralds, who began as messengers and announcers at tournaments, became experts in recognizing arms, and they compiled rolls of arms, which are lists of shields with names attached. The earliest surviving examples date from around the middle of the thirteenth century. Later, in several kingdoms, heralds were organized into formal bodies. In England the College of Arms was founded in the late fifteenth century. The role of heralds is covered in more detail in the article on heralds and tournaments.
How it spread
The custom moved quickly across France, England, the German lands, Italy, Iberia and Scandinavia. Regional tastes appeared. German arms often featured elaborate crests above the helmet, while Italian cities used heraldry heavily in civic life. Rulers of the Holy Roman Empire used the eagle, and French kings were linked with the fleur-de-lis, which gave these emblems wide recognition.
Heraldry also found a place in art. It appears in stained glass, carved stone, floor tiles, church furniture, and in the margins of illuminated manuscripts. Many surviving arms are known today from these sources rather than from the shields themselves, which rarely survived.
What heraldry tells us
For modern readers, heraldry is a useful way to read the Middle Ages. A coat of arms on a tomb can show a family’s alliances, a seal can place a person in a town, and a banner in a chronicle illustration can identify a commander. It is worth remembering, though, that medieval people used it for practical ends first, and that many popular ideas about secret meanings in colors and symbols come from later writers rather than from the period itself.