Sunday 28 August 2005
English Royal Heraldry
Coat of arms from various stages of history can be seen throughout the
country, from churches and other historic buildings, to royal publications,
commercial products of companies that hold a royal warrant allowing them to
advertise that they supply the Queen, to acts of Parliament and other
official documents.
But what are they, and where are they coming from?
Heraldry originated in medieval warfare and tournaments when it was
necessary to identify knights who were completely covered in armour. The
knights adopted unique designs painted on their shields and on the surcoats
covering the armour (hence the term �coat of arms�). The designs from the
shields were also repeated on banners and standards which could be held
aloft in battle (so apologies for some repetition to those who've read my
earlier column on royal flags and standards!)
In time, arms were recorded for reference by heralds on rolls of arms, and
became hereditary, passing from father to son. The sons would use the same
arms but with an added distinguishing mark, making it possible to identify
not only a family, but the individual members of it. These distinguishing
marks are called �differences�, and arms containing them are said to be
�differenced�. An eldest son would retain the difference until his father�s
death, when he would inherit the undifferenced arms. Other sons retain their
differences for life, and pass them on to their descendents.
The basic, essential, element of a coat of arms is the shield. In
tournaments, knights also wore a carved ornament on top of their helmets
called a crest (a term which is often, but wrongly, used to describe the
whole coat of arms). When arms were depicted on paper, parchment or seals,
it was common to show them with the shield, helmet and the crest. To these
basic elements others were often added, including crowns or coronets of
rank, mottoes on a scroll underneath (usually above in Scotland), and
�supporters� such as animals (e.g. lions, dogs, unicorns), birds (e.g.
falcons, eagles) or human figures. In modern England, only certain classes
of people, such as peers, Knights of the Garter and Knights Grand Cross, are
entitled to use supporters.
Heraldry became more elaborate through centuries, with rules for usage and
inheritance, and, in England, by the 15th century it came under royal
control with the responsibility for recording arms, genealogies, and
granting new arms, falling to the King�s heralds. Arms were recorded not
only as a designed pattern, but were also accompanied by a written
description called a �blazon�, which included (and still includes) a fair
amount of Norman French terminology.
There are rules governing the way a blazon is written, which make it
possible for anyone who understands them to draw an accurate rendition of
the arms from the blazon. Versions of the same arms needn�t look identical
in every particular, as long as they reflect what is written in the blazon.
A �lion rampant� (standing upright with one leg raised) must be clearly a
lion, and it must be rampant, but it can be as stylised or as naturalistic
as the artist wishes. Red (�gules�) can be any shade of red, but cannot be
replaced by another colour. The shield can be of various shapes, and can be
tilted or upright. It is acceptable to leave out certain parts of the design
as long as the shield is there. The version of the Royal Arms used by the
British government and Parliament usually leaves out the helmet and crest,
replacing them with the Crown, whereas the Queen uses a more complete
version.
Kings, knights and nobles started adopting arms around the 12th century. The
first definite English royal arms were used by Richard the Lionheart
(1189-99) and consisted of three yellow or gold (�or�) lions on a red
(�gules�) background, one above the other (�in pale�), walking (�passant�),
with their heads turned outwards, facing the observer (�guardant�). This
design is blazoned as �Gules, three lions passant guardant in pale Or,� and
it is still the coat of arms of England today. The royal crest became a gold
lion standing on the royal crown, head turned outwards. Various �supporters�
were used by English kings, but a gold lion became a regular �supporter� by
the late Tudor period.
The evolution of the arms since its beginning reflects English history. In
the 14th century, Edward III (1327-77) laid claim to the throne of France
(through his mother) and added the French royal arms to his. The shield was
quartered, and, since France was the senior kingdom, the French arms took
precedence in the first (top left) and fourth (bottom right) quarters. The
arms were blue, and scattered with the famous gold fleur-de-lys of France.
Around 1400, the French king reduced the number of fleurs-de-lys on the
shield to three, and Henry IV (1399-1413) followed suit. Although the claim
to the French throne was meaningless by the late 16th century (the last
mainland possession � Calais � was lost in 1558 during the reign of Mary I),
British monarchs continued to claim the title �King of France�, and to use
the arms, until 1801.
Apart from changes in �supporters�, the Royal Arms remained stable for the
next 200 years, until the union of the Crowns of England and Scotland
(1603), when James I (1603-25) quartered the arms of Scotland and Ireland
with those of England (including the French arms). In England, the English
arms took the first and fourth quarters, but in Scotland the Scottish arms
took pride of place. This continues to be the case today. The �supporters�
were a lion (from the English arms) and a unicorn (from the Scottish arms),
and they have remained unchanged since.
William III (1689-1702) added his own arms on a small shield (inescutsheon)
in the middle of the main shield, but the next major change to the arms came
in 1707 when England and Scotland were united to form the United Kingdom of
Great Britain. The English and Scottish arms were �impaled� (placed side by
side) in the first and fourth quarters, to reflect the fact that they were
now a single kingdom, and France was relegated to the second quarter. After
Anne�s death, George I (1714-27) replaced the fourth quarter with the arms
of Hanover, and so, for the next 87 years, the lions of England occupied
only one-eighth of the shield (half of the first quarter).
The year 1801 saw the union between Great Britain and Ireland, and the arms
were re-arranged to reflect this event, with the main shield consisting of
England (1st and 4th quarters), Scotland (2nd) and Ireland (3rd), with the
arms of Hanover (a separate realm) on an escutcheon in the middle. Because
Salic Law (male-only succession) prevailed throughout Germany, Queen
Victoria (1837-1901) didn�t inherit Hanover, and so the arms of Hanover were
dropped from the arms, giving us the Royal Arms we know today.
In addition to the royal �arms of dominion� of the Queen, every adult member
of the Royal Family has his/her own personal coat of arms. For children and
grandchildren of the sovereign, the coats of arms consist of the Royal Arms
with a white �label� (a white strip across the top, with other strips,
�points�, hanging from it). The label for children of a sovereign (and
Prince William) has three points; those of the rest of the grandchildren
have five. The Prince of Wales�s label is plain (although he also has an
escutcheon with the princely arms of Wales), while all others have a small
charge on one or more of the points [anchors, crosses, lions, hearts and,
for the Wales princes, shells (escallops) are currently in use]. There is a
standard system of differentiating in English heraldry, in which only eldest
sons use labels, while others use other symbols (e.g. a crescent for the
second son, a star for the third son), but the Royal Family doesn�t follow
the rule. Every member of the family is awarded a distinctive coat of arms
with a label, issued by Royal Warrant from the Queen rather than a grant of
arms from the heralds as others receive.
Princesses, in their own right, have their own arms with a label (on a
lozenge, or diamond-shaped shield, and with no helmet or crest), but women
who marry into the royal family impale their fathers� arms with those of
their husbands (impaling is dividing the shield vertically, and when it�s
done through marriage, his arms are on the left and hers on the right). Men
who marry into the royal family use their own arms, which need not have
connection to the British Royal Family. Prince Philip was granted arms by
George VI (1936-52), which quartered the arms of Greece, Denmark,
Mountbatten and Edinburgh.
Until 1917 (when the British royal family dropped German titles), the
male-line descendents of Queen Victoria bore the arms of Saxony (for Prince
Albert) on an inescutcheon over the royal arms. This practice was not
repeated for the current Queen�s children, so they bear no indication of
their paternal heritage on their arms.
This is but a brief overview of heraldry and royal heraldry. There is much
more to them than I have outlined here, and rules and practices differ from
country to country. Scottish heraldry differs from English in some respects,
and, since 1988, Canada has had its own heraldic authority, which has
introduced a few innovations.
- Paul James
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