Heraldry, or the Study of Coats of Arms
Heraldry
Heraldry is an auxiliary historical discipline concerned with coats of arms. Its name derives from heralds, who were the first medieval experts on coats of arms.
Heraldry is divided into two main branches: theory of arms and heraldic art.
Theory of arms
Also known as theoretical heraldry or heraldry in the strict sense, deals with heraldic law, the history of coats of arms, lawful and unlawful arms, and heraldic identification (archaically: címerisme).
Heraldic art
The doctrine of armorial representation or heraldic practice, concerns the correct construction, drawing (granting), description, practical use, historicising, and critical analysis of coats of arms.
A coat of arms is a coloured emblem, generally borne on a shield and constructed according to defined rules, which a family, institution, or corporate body uses permanently and hereditarily for identification.
For heraldic classification, these characteristics make it possible to systematise a given coat of arms (regular construction, colouring of shields, classification of armorial figures) and to define it (hereditary use).
Components of a Coat of Arms
The most important element of a coat of arms is the shield, as the earliest distinguishing marks were borne on shields. Therefore, the shield itself is regarded as the coat of arms proper. The other elements are known as armorial components and armorial accessories.
A coat of arms consisting of a shield, helmet, helmet crown, mantling, and crest is called a full achievement of arms. A coat of arms remains a coat of arms even if it consists solely of the shield. Other components may be omitted, but the shield may never be absent.
The surface of the shield intended for bearing armorial figures is called the field. The shield must be viewed from the perspective of the armiger, as if it were worn on the breastplate; thus, what appears on the right when viewed frontally or on paper is, from the bearer’s perspective and in heraldic terminology, the left.
The field may be covered with various colours: metals (gold and silver), colours (red, blue, green, black, purple), and furs (ermine, vair, and marten). The collective term for furs is coverings, while metals and colours together are called tinctures.
Various armorial figures may be placed in the field. These may be charges or ordinaries. Therefore, a coloured or furred field is also called the heraldic ground or simply the ground. Thus one may speak, for example, of three gold crowns on a blue field or a silver Greek cross on a red field.
The three principal components of a coat of arms are therefore:
the shield,
the tincture (covering),
the armorial figures.
Armorial figures may be charges or ordinaries.
The heraldic classification system divides charges into six groups:
human figures,
objects,
animals,
natural objects and phenomena,
plants,
other charges.
The taxonomic classification of a depicted being is determined by the head; thus, for example, the centaur is placed among human figures. The same applies to animals: in the case of composite creatures lacking a specific name and consisting of parts of different animals (for example, a creature with a bear’s head and a lion’s body), classification is determined by the head (and its tincture), and the creature is grouped accordingly (in this example, among bears).
In Hungarian heraldry, the armoured arm and leg appear frequently. These may be couped if the line of severance is straight, or erased if it is jagged. A charge is issuant if only one third is visible, emerging if half is visible, and issuing if two thirds are shown. If only the outlines are visible, it is called a shadow.
The lion and the eagle are extremely common in heraldry. They often bear distinguishing attributes such as passant, sejant, salient, rampant, regardant, etc., especially in the case of lions and other quadrupeds. Differently coloured beaks, claws, hooves, tusks, teeth, fins, manes, or tail tips are termed armament in heraldic description. Thus one may speak of a red lion armed with gold.
According to modern heraldic principles, the lion should properly be depicted only in its normal rampant form, standing on its hind legs with the right forepaw raised. Its heraldic tinctures are red or gold, more rarely black, and only exceptionally other colours. Its claws must differ in colour from the body: if the lion is metal-coloured, the claws are red or blue; if the body is coloured, the claws are gold or silver, but always distinct from the field. The teeth and eyes are usually silver, but if the field is silver, they are coloured.
The lion is generally depicted crowned. Heraldically, the crown must always be an open crown, consisting of a circlet with one full and two half trefoil ornaments. Closed crowns are entirely incorrect. In placement, the crown should align vertically and preferably follow the longitudinal axis of the shield. With a crown depicted in this manner and all the above conditions fulfilled, the heraldic animal is considered a lion; all other large cat-like figures (even if maned but not rampant, for example) are termed leopards.
According to Indo-European mythology, the lion is the principal enemy of the unicorn; both appear as supporters on either side of the royal arms of the United Kingdom. In Hungarian heraldry, both animals often appear together in several coats of arms, usually with one as the crest and the other on the shield. Both figures facing each other in rampant posture are rarer, occurring independently, for example, in the arms of the Fejérpataky family of Kelecsény, the Kádár family of Dés, the Róth family of Pongyelók, the noble Surányi family, the Zinie family of Szinye, and the Sümeghy families of Lovász and Szentmargitha.
Among plants, the heraldic lily and the heraldic rose are common. Among natural objects, the (six-pointed) star and the crescent are very frequent in Hungarian heraldry, while the sun is also relatively common.
Ordinaries and Divisions of the Shield
Ordinaries are geometric figures created by division lines and coloured differently from the rest of the field. Shapes created by these divisions may be considered fields or ordinaries, depending on how tinctures and charges form structural patterns (see the colour–form relationship). Knowledge of this distinction is important for heraldic identification.
In black-and-white depictions, colours are usually indicated by hatching. Decorative or geometric ornamentation of the field is called damasking. A rare method of colouring is shadowing, where only the outlines of the charge are visible and the field’s colours show through.
Principal divisions of the shield:
per pale,
per fess,
per bend,
per bend sinister,
quarterly,
per saltire.
The principal ordinaries are considered diminutives of the main divisions:
the pale,
the fess,
the bend,
the bend sinister,
the cross,
the saltire.
In English heraldry, the chevron, pall, and pile are also considered chief ordinaries.
Other ordinaries include figures that are partly variations of the above and partly distinct types, such as: the chief, base, canton, chequy, bendy chequy, lozengy, fretty, bendy fretty, wedge, capped, shod shields, the frame, Byzantine, roundel-bearing, etc.
Division of the shield by vertical, horizontal, or diagonal lines generally produces a divided shield. The dividing line may be straight, wavy, concave, convex, embattled, indented, engrailed, crutch-shaped, dovetailed, bezanty, clouded, helmet-shaped, cross-formed, forked, meandered, flame-shaped, curved, etc.
A shield may be divided twice, three times, four times, and so on.
In twice-divided or halved shields, several variants occur. Division by a vertical line produces a shield per pale; by a horizontal line, per fess. Diagonal divisions create a per bend shield: a division from the heraldic upper right produces per bend, while from the upper left to the lower right produces per bend sinister.
Threefold divisions are variants of the above, but a shield is only considered tripartite if the fields differ in tincture. If the outer fields share the same tincture, the figure is an ordinary rather than a tripartite shield. Further variants exist: straight dividing lines produce wedge or fork divisions, while curved diagonal lines produce a tented division.
If a shield is both per pale and per fess, it is quarterly; if both per bend and per bend sinister, it is per saltire. A distinction must be made between quartering and marshalling (Ger. Quadrierung, Wiederquadrierung; Eng. marshalling). The latter is a method of genealogical heraldry whereby multiple independent coats of arms are combined on a single shield according to specific rules. These combinations are inherited and may result in more than four fields within a few generations. For heraldic identification, however, only the number of fields is relevant.
Shields divided into more than five fields are generally divided by vertical and horizontal lines and are termed quintipartite, sextipartite, septipartite, etc.
Apart from these division types, the heraldic classification system accepts no other basic variants. Transitional types—such as a per pale shield whose dexter field is per fess—are not treated separately. The system always seeks symmetry; such shields are therefore considered divided only twice, not three times.
Inescutcheons and other small shields are not counted as fields themselves, only the fields they cover. According to heraldic classification, a coat of arms containing an inescutcheon is considered composite, as it results from the combination of at least two separate coats of arms.
Multiple coats of arms may be combined not only within a single shield but also by placing several shields together. This produces a combined coat of arms, most often created through marriage (Fr. alliance). Such arms frequently appear on the façades of noble residences, and were also used by institutions, corporate bodies, jurisdictions, and settlements.
Sources of Heraldry
The sources of heraldry may be divided into two main categories: written and visual (artistic) sources.
Written sources include verbal descriptions of coats of arms, such as the works of troubadours and heraldic poets (Chrétien de Troyes, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Ulrich von Lichtenstein, Konrad von Würzburg, Peter Suchenwirt, etc.), as well as other written materials such as armorial legends.
Visual sources include letters patent of arms, seals, coins, tombstones, armorials, rolls of arms, funeral shields, banners, and similar objects.