Coats of Arms, Shields, Heraldry 

People in medieval times used personal and family banners and shields to express their identity and status in society. Think of your school logo, or the logo of a professional sports team. These logos are so distinctive that you can recognize your school banner or your favorite team simply by their logo. Heraldry is the same kind of thing, but a bit more structured. 

Heraldry includes a family motto and a family coat of arms. The actual design of the coat of arms followed a pattern, although each was distinctive. 

As time went on, a family's heraldry was recorded so that no one could copy the pattern or take it for themselves. Today, you can look up a family name and find their family coat of arms in the old records. There is usually a charge for this, but you can do it. The records are there. 

The concept of using a coat of arms as a form of identification goes way back to Roman times, and possibly further back than that. In Roman times, a coat of arm was used to identify groups of fighting men within the Roman legion. In the Middle Ages, a distinctive coat of arms was used to identify each noble family. Each item in the design had meaning.  

Once a coat of arms was adopted by a family, the design was placed on shields held by knights of the manor, embroidered on tapestries, and carved in stone throughout the castle or manor house. It was placed on swords and on banners and even burnt into the top of breads on special occasions. A family's heraldry was important. It said, "This is who we are, and we are special." That is heraldry.

Each noble family not only had its own heraldry, each employed a herald. A herald was a person. 

• A herald's job was to make sure that the family's heraldry was properly used, displayed, and understood.   

• The herald was responsible for teaching the sons and knights of the fief to recognize the heraldry of other noble families. In these violent times, it was important to be able to quickly recognize friend from foe. 

• The herald also acted as the announcer or the scorekeeper at a joust. He shouted out what was happening, who was winning, and why. 

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Sample Crests and Coats of Arms

Design a Coat of Arms

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Symbols of Heraldry

Terminology

Coat of Arms

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