Divisions of the field
Right, so the previous post outline extra things to add to a shield, but what about the field itself? The truth is, it can be parted (or party) in several ways. The most simple is parted per fess, which is halved to form two horizontal parts, one on top of the other. One example is the flag of Lübeck, in Germany, which is:
Parted per fess, argent and gules
This means it formed from two sections, white on red. Note the top tincture (in this case argent) is first. If horizontal, it’s left-to-right.
The equivalent term for three stripes is tierced.
All the terms either resemble or are derived from the ordinaries in the previous post.
Per…
- fess is parted horizontally,
- pale is parted vertically,
- bend is parted diagonally from upper left to lower right,
- bend sinister is parted diagonally from upper right to lower left,
- saltire is parted diagonally in both directions,
- cross or quarterly is parted into four quarters,
- chevron is parted by a line in the shape of a chevron,
- pall or pairle is parted into thirds by lines to the middle from the top-left and top-right corners and the base of the shield.
Ordinaries
Up to this point, all we know about is the shield, which has a background (the field). The field can have a tincture. Now comes another layer of detail, which, while basic, is slightly more complicated. Anything else that has a colour, that one can put on a shield, is an ordinary. This is the short definition. For example, one could put a white horizontal stripe on a red background. This stripe is called a fess. There are other words to cover similar things, but they are treated in the same way: they are followed by a tincture.
The arms of Austria are:
Gules, a fess argent
To be honest, the comma is optional. What this is telling us is that the shield is red (Gules) with a white horizontal stripe (a fess argent). In this case, the fess takes up about 1/3 of the height of the shield. The “about” is important: just like shades of a tincture, it is a matter of preference. All ordinaries are geometric in nature; they are mathmatical constructs. However, this type of “ordinary” is not moveable. There is only one position for the stripe, and that’s central. To take an extract directly from my book:
- A cross is a cross (+) whose vertical stripe covers between about one-fifth and one-third of the shield width and vice-versa.
- A saltire is a diagonal cross as in St. Andrew’s cross.
- A pale is a central vertical stripe of about a third of the shield’s width.
- A fess is a central horizontal stripe of about a third of the shield’s height.
- A bar is a narrower fess of around one-fifth of the shield’s height.
- A bend is a diagonal band from the viewer’s upper-right to lower-left, a bend sinister the opposite.
- A chevron is a band in the shape of a chevron (^).
- A chief is a band across the top of a shield.
- A bordure is a border.
- A pile is a triangle pointing down from the top corners of the shield.
- A pall is a Y-shape.
One of my favorite coats of arms is that of de Clare. If I told you a chevronel was a thinner chevron, maybe you can visualise “Or, three chevronels gules”. If you can’t, or want to show off to yourself how correct you are, click here.
Blazon make-up
What a blazon is is described here, but this is how they are made up. The words in bold are jargon, and will be explained more fully later, but I hope the gist is clear enough.
The blazon begins with a definition of the field. This is the background of the shield. In the case of many coats of arms this is single tincture, for example ‘Or’ (gold). It then includes the principal charges, along with their tinctures, starting with the ordinaries. These come, in the French style, after the charges they describe, for example ‘a bend azure’. The charges of the shield are then described, followed by the supporters and other surrounding elements.
The blazon of the shield of Libya is “Vert”. This means it has a green background, with nothing on. If it were “Vert, an eagle Or”, it would be green with an eagle on (more on this charge later). It’s then built up from there.
Simple tinctures
Tinctures describe things, and refer to their appearance. The English language rather lacks the correct language to accurately describe the scope of the word “tincture”, but it encompasses three categories: colours, metals, and furs. The most simple are the first two, which are explained here. This short list is not comprehensive, since I’ll leave the most rare to more advanced posts. Or and argent are metals; the others here are colours.
If something as proper, it is shown in its normal colours in nature.
The term Or represents Gold, related with heraldry and royalty from the start. It is usually capitalised to avoid confusion with the conjunction. In line drawing or engravings, a pattern of light dots is used in its place. It normally represents the Sun and the life it brings and the virtues of courage and honour.
The term argent literally means ‘silver’ but it is almost always represented as white (and for this reason an argent field is never shown on a white background). In line drawing or engravings, the area is left blank, sometimes with the abbreviation Ar. written in them.
Sable represents the colour black, and is shown in line drawings and engravings as a hatch of vertical and horizontal lines.
The term gules denotes red, and symbolises martyrdom in particular. In engravings it is depicted with vertical lines or the abbreviation Gu., and is normally illustrated with a pure red.
Azure is used to describe blue. It is a dark, rich blue, and the only type of blue to be regularly described in heraldic language . It may be represented in a lighter or darker shade, however. In line drawing or engravings, horizontal lines are used to signify its presence, or the abbreviation Az. or B.
The term purpure refers to the colour purple. In engravings it is depicted with diagonal lines, running from the observer’s bottom-left to top-right, or the abbreviation Purp.
Vert, coming from the French for green, is used to describe it in English heraldry (the French use the term sinople). It is depicted in black-and-white by diagonal lines, running from the observer’s top-left to bottom-right, or the abbreviation Vt. It is associated with abundance and life.
Case in point (1)
The first of many example pieces designed to ensure the topics are well understood, and may help people who are unsure. This build on what on previous posts, using the arms of Moravia as the example. It’s not going to be in much detail at this stage, but that’s not the point: everyone’s got to start somewhere. It’s also a useful test for jumping in at the “Case in point” you understand, and work from there. Here it is:
The coat of arms of Moravia, in the public domain (author unknown).
Right, we can see that:
- The shield is blue with an eagle on it;
- The helm is a mediaeval helmet;
- The crest is a coronet and another eagle;
- The mantling is red and white;
- There are no supporters.
That should be enough to summarise what you know about this particular coat of arms already, using the right jargon. A pat on the back for those who started at the beginning, methinks. There’s more to do yet, though!
The achievement
A diagram of an achivement, showing all features, some of which are rare. (From Wikimedia Commons, click to see better)
This is the correct term for the shield part, which is most familiar to people, and the other parts of the arms. This includes the helm, which sits on top of the shield, and is replaced with a crown or coronet if for royalty; the crest, which sits on top of that (note: the term “crest” only refers to this bit, although in England, it is sometimes used alone); mantling, which is emanating pieces of fabric (well, representations of fabric, anyway) from the helm; supporters, which are animals, humans or angels each side of a shield; and the motto which is written on a scroll beneath the shield. Each of these basic elements will be examined individually, and there other more complicated parts of an achievement, but they are rarer than these. In a blazon, the shield is examined first, with other parts later, normally introduced with “Supporters:” or similar.
Coat of arms
The simplest, and by far most common, form of heraldry is the coat of arms. The Austrian coat of arms illustrates the introduction.
In the Middle Ages, men wore heraldry’s symbols on themselves, embroidered upon the garments that partially covered their armour, and this is why they called them “coats of arms”; where they bore them on their shields, they called them “shields of arms”. In their banners and pennants they again displayed these insignia. The heraldry may be defined to be a symbolical and pictorial language, in which figures, devices, and colours are employed instead of letters.
The coat of arms in itself is what is on a shield (in contradiction of the original terms), although it’s used to mean the whole achievement – the shield and other miscellany. All of it is described in the blazon.
Blazon
Blazon is the language of heraldry. You may consider it a language, or you may consider it jargon. In any case, it’s derived from Anglo-Norman, a mix of English and French. A blazon is a description of a coat of arms given in this language. It’s designed to describe perfectly what the coat of arms looks like. This is because it is the only official description of a coat of arms. It is made up from several chunks, which describe each part of a full achievement (that’s the shield and a few surrounding things). A lot of the words in it are either similar to the modern English or French, or can be “translated” word-for-word. This helps make heraldry a lot easier to learn, because a simple dictionary can help. Once we’re through the stuff about what makes up an achievement, one of the thing’s we’ll do is divide up a blazon and demystify it.
A beginning
To deliberately alter the phrase: I will build it, and they will come. Let us start at the beginning. I should mention that some of these posts will use material from public domain sources such as Charles Boutell’s guide to heraldry, but heavily edited non-the-less (not least for brevity!). The only starting point can be a simple definition: anything to do with armorial insignia – most commonly, coats of arms. Coats of arms are colourful symbolic icons used as a symbol of one’s identity, while encompassing one’s traits and heritage.
Now we’re on the first stage of the track, the first history bit:
In the olden times, in England, the love of heraldry was prevalent amongst all social classes. It formed a part of the feudal system of the Middle Ages, echoing the thoughts and feelings of the time, and imparted to them brilliant colours and vividness. Heraldry exercised a powerful influence on the manners and habits of those people who used it.
Among many of our early ancestors, a little heraldry was considered indispensable. To them it was the outward sign of the spirit of chivalry. This heraldry grew up out of the circumstances and requirements of those times. It was invented and introduced, because it was needed for practical use; it was accepted and cherished because it did much more than just fulfils its purpose. At first, it was simply useful to distinguish particular individuals, especially in war and at the tournament, English Heraldry soon became popular; and then, with no less rapidity, it rose to high honour and dignity.
The Introduction
Arms of Austia in around 1900 or 1915.
The world of heraldry seems rather big to many people. In many ways it is, with its own language, styles, and rules. The idea behind “snippets” is that they will allow people to learn in small chunks, without the “where the hell did my afternoon go?” feeling. I’ve written books on the subject before, in an attempt to revitalise the works of old (around 200 years ago) but I realised that I was going to fall into the same mistake of making heraldry seem antiquated. That’s the point of these posts. I hope you enjoy reading them. Here is one of the simpler, but still stunning works by Hugo Gerhard Ströhl, now in the public domain. I’m argentandsable, which are, for beginners, the heraldic terms for white and black respectively. More on that later. There’s going to be a mix of ideology, ideas, history, particular examples and language thrown all together.
English Heraldry 
