Heraldry

Heraldry is the science and art of describing coats-of-arms, also referred to as achievements or armorial bearings. Its origins lie in the need to distinguish participants in battles or jousts and to describe the various devices they carried or painted on their shields.

Blazons

Full descriptions of shields range in complexity:

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• "Ermine" (the arms of Brittany)
• "Azure, a bend Or" (over which the families of Scrope and Grosvenor fought a famous legal battle)
• "Sable, two swords crossed in saltire argent, between four fleurs-de-lis Or, all contained within a bordure purpure"
• "Party per fess argent and sable, in chief a falcon close vert, in base a plate charged with a fleur-de-lis vert"
• "Party per fess: The chief Argent, charged with five bezants, the centre bezant charged in chief with a Latin cross of the field, on a canton in sinister base of the first, a bucket: The base party per pale Azure and Argent, the dexter side charged with three rings conjoined at their centres in pairle, the sinister side charged with a bend sinister Azure bearing three quatrefoil of the field. Behind the shield a pastoral staff. The shield contained within a cartouche and ensigned with an ecclesiastical hat supporting six tassels on either side of the shield."
• "Quarterly, I three lions' heads affrontés crowned Or; II chequy Gules and Argent; III Azure, a river in fess Gules bordered Argent, thereupon a marten proper, beneath a six-pointed star Or; IV per fess Azure and Or, overall a bar Gules, in the chief a demi-eagle Sable displayed addextré of the sun in splendour, and senestré of a crescent Argent, in the base seven towers three and four, of the third; enté en point Gules, a double-headed eagle Proper on a peninsula Vert, holding a vase pouring water into the sea Argent, beneath a crown Proper with bands Azure; overall an escutcheon barry of eight Gules and Argent impaling Gules, on a mount Vert a crown Or, issuant therefrom a double cross Argent; overall an escutcheon tierced in pale a lion rampant Gules crowned Or, Gules a fess Argent and Or on a bend Gules three allerions Argent."