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.

Charges

Charges can be animals, objects or geometric constructs (ordinaries).

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Common animals are lions, leopards, martlets, eagles, gryphons, fish, boars or dolphins. There are dragons and unicorns as well, but they are not nearly as common as most people suppose. Possibly the rarest animal in heraldry is found in the coat of arms of Maidstone, Kent, which bears an iguanodon rampant on the dexter side. An animal shown langue (with its tongue sticking out) denotes fierceness or a roar.

Related Topics:
Lion - Leopard - Martlet - Eagle - Gryphon - Fish - Boar - Dolphin - Dragons - Unicorn - Maidstone - Kent - Iguanodon - Tongue

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The default position of an animal is looking . Animals are found in various different positions — a flying martlet is a martlet volant, a swimming dolphin is a dolphin naiant, and a walking lion is a lion passant. Other words for positions are rampant (on hind legs), salient (leaping), sejant (sitting) and gardant (looking at the viewer). There are humans as well, although they are unusual, like wild men or Saracens. If you show only the head of, say, a lion, cut off at the neck, it is a lion's head couped if the cut is straight, and erased if it looks as if the animal's head has been ripped off.

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Common objects are escallops (shells), crosses, mullets (a conventional five-pointed star shape, as on the American flag, which in fact represent spurs), crescents, bugle-horns, water-bougets, gauntlets, and different kinds of trees, flowers, leaves, and other plants. Circles are generally called "roundels", but in England instead of being described a roundel vert, they have different names depending on colour: bezants if they are golden, plates if silver, torteaux if red, hurts if blue, pellets or ogresses if black, pommes if green, oranges if orange, and guzes if sanguine. A roundel that is barry wavy argent and azure is called a fountain. This over-specialisation is peculiar to English heraldry; in French heraldry, for example, metal roundels are bezants and all others (colours and furs) are tourteaux.

Related Topics:
Shells - Cross - Mullet - American flag - Crescent - Bugle - Water-bouget - Gauntlet - Tree - Flower - Leaves - Plant - Bezants - Gold - Silver - Red - Blue - Black - Green - Orange - Sanguine

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