Before heraldry: decorated shields
Warriors decorated their shields long before heraldry existed. Greek and Roman soldiers painted emblems, and early medieval fighters did the same. The Bayeux Tapestry, made in the later eleventh century, shows kite-shaped shields with crosses, dragons and other patterns. But the designs are not consistent for the same individuals across the work, and there is no sign that they passed from father to son. Most historians treat these as personal or unit decorations rather than arms in the strict sense.
The key change was not the painting of shields but the idea that a design belonged to a person and then to a family.
The mid-twelfth century: first signs
The earliest hints of true arms come from the period around the middle of the twelfth century. A frequently cited example is Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, who is described in a later chronicle as being given a shield with golden lions by his father-in-law, King Henry I of England, around the time of his knighting in the late 1120s. A medieval enameled plaque associated with Geoffrey, once in the cathedral of Le Mans, shows a shield with lions. Historians treat these sources with some caution, because the chronicle was written later and the plaque’s date is debated, but the case is often used to illustrate the early stage of the custom.
Seals offer firmer evidence. In the twelfth century, great lords began to use seals showing a mounted knight, and on those seals the shield design becomes more consistent from one generation to the next. Seals were used to authenticate documents, so a repeated design on a seal was a practical way to tie a document to a family.
Why battlefields and tournaments mattered
Several practical pressures pushed the change along.
- Armor: helmets that covered most of the face made individuals harder to recognize. A bold design on a shield or surcoat helped soldiers find their leaders and helped others see who was who.
- Tournaments: from the twelfth century, mock battles and jousting brought many knights together in public. Participants and spectators needed to identify competitors, and the designs were an obvious tool. The history of the medieval tournament is a separate subject, but its role in heraldry is hard to overstate.
- Fashion and rivalry: displaying a striking design was part of showing status, and neighbors copied what they saw.
Historians still debate how much weight each factor deserves. Some stress the military need, while others stress seals and social display. It is likely that several causes worked together and in different ways in different regions.
The thirteenth century: arms become hereditary
By the early thirteenth century, many noble families in England, France and neighboring lands had stable arms that passed to their heirs. This is the period when the system takes the form recognizable today.
Several developments are visible:
- Spread beyond the great lords. Ordinary knights adopted arms, and so did women and clergy, who used them on seals.
- Rolls of arms. The earliest surviving examples date from around the middle of the thirteenth century. They list names with shields, often arranged by region or by a lord’s following. The English chronicler Matthew Paris, a monk at St Albans, also drew shields in the margins of his manuscripts.
- Differences. With more people using arms, ways of marking sons and younger branches emerged, such as small additions to the father’s design.
- Language. A technical vocabulary, based largely on Anglo-Norman French, was established for describing arms in words.
The fourteenth century: expansion and regulation
In the fourteenth century heraldry reached a wide social range. Towns, guilds and some wealthy non-noble families used arms. Heraldry also appeared in great quantity on tombs, stained glass, buildings and clothing. Large armies, such as those in the Hundred Years War, made recognizing banners and surcoats an everyday need on campaign.
This was also the period when disputes over who could use which arms became common. Perhaps the best-known example in England is a long-running dispute between two knights over the same design, heard by a military court and recorded in a large set of witness statements. Such cases show that by then arms were treated as valuable property.
Kings began to grant arms directly. Later in the Middle Ages, royal grants and the work of heralds made it clearer who held a design by right. The idea that a design could be created and granted from above, rather than simply adopted, gradually became more important.
The fifteenth century and after
By the fifteenth century, heralds had become professional officials in several kingdoms. In England, the College of Arms was established in the late fifteenth century, and heralds began making visits to record the arms of gentry families. Heraldry became more elaborate, with larger crests, supporters (figures standing on either side of the shield) and mottoes.
As armor and warfare changed, arms no longer had the same battlefield role, but they continued as markers of status, on monuments and documents. In that sense, the later history of heraldry is less about the battlefield and more about identity and rank.
What is uncertain
A few cautions are useful.
- Exact origins. There is no single moment or place of invention. The best evidence suggests a gradual process across western Europe over several generations.
- Crusade claims. Popular accounts often link the start of heraldry to the Crusades. Contacts between Europeans in the East probably did not hurt the spread of the custom, but the evidence that heraldry began there is weak, and historians generally do not rely on it.
- Dating. Many early examples come from objects whose dates are estimates, so statements such as “the earliest arms” should be read with care.
A rough timeline
| Period | What was happening |
|---|---|
| Later 11th century | Decorated shields, as on the Bayeux Tapestry, but no stable family designs |
| Mid-12th century | First fixed designs on shields and seals |
| 13th century | Arms hereditary among the nobility; first surviving rolls of arms |
| 14th century | Wide adoption by towns, guilds and gentry; disputes over arms |
| Late 15th century | Professional heralds and formal bodies such as the English College of Arms |
The dates in this table are approximate, and regional differences were large.