Heraldry

What is heraldry?

"Heraldry is the systematic use of hereditary devices centred on the shield."
Sir Anthony Wagner, Clarenceux King of Arms

As Bartolo says, Quilibet potest sibi assumere arma ie. anyone may assume arms for themselves and use them. But it's a Bad Idea to choose arms that are already in use by somebody else.

Bartolo's rule is still good for most of the world. There are however some countries where heraldry is actually regulated by the government, most notably Scotland, where the Court of Lord Lyon can fine you for using unregistered arms. In some countries you can get your arms designed and approved by an official body. The legal niceties involved vary wildly by country, as do the fees associated with the process.

And in yet other countries there are private organizations that keep and publish lists of arms in use in those countries.

Heraldry is the perfect artform for the Web

The clever thing about heraldry is that it only uses a very limited palette of colours (or tinctures, to use the technical term). The generally accepted number is seven: yellow or gold (or), white or silver (argent), red (gules), blue (azure), black (sable), green (vert) and purple (purpure). Thus 16 colours is plenty for a heraldic (gif or jpeg) illustration, which means smaller files, which saves bandwidth, which is a Good Thing. Especially for people with slower modems.

Also, if you want even more compression, you can reduce a coat of arms to text with no loss of data! This technical description, called a blazon, is the essence of a coat of arms. It is what a coat of arms is, and any pictorial rendition of it is just a picture, no matter how pretty. The technical term for a picture of a coat of arms is an emblazon. As an example of blazon and emblazon, here's my arms.

The arms of rec.heraldry

Azure an escutcheon argent within an orle of bezants.

You can read all sorts of symbolism into this simple shield if you like. Many do, although heraldry isn't very much about meanings beyond the obvious "Hi! I'm sir John d'Oh!" So anyway, this is what I see in the arms of rec.heraldry, besides it symbolizing the readers of the rec.heraldry newsgroup:

Blue field: The newsgroup covers all the world, the entire Blue Planet.
White shield: A blank shield to show that all manner of heraldry is on-topic.
Eight gold coins: Eight is the default number for charges in orle, and a number of great significance with computers. Eg. there are eight bits in a byte. And the gold coins refer to the hundreds if not thousands of dollars that veteran Usenet users will remember each posting costs the net.

And if you enjoy the discussions on rec.heraldry, you may wish to show the world by buying some of my wonderful rec.heraldry products from my store on CafeShops.

Gongmongers

There are some unscrupulous operators who exploit the ignorance of the general public by offering titles of nobility or knighthood for sale, or memberships in some impressive-sounding order for a high fee. Now in certain countries this is actually illegal, but in most countries you would have to prove fraud if you wanted your money back.

This person who calls himself Grand Duke John IV is a pretty typical example of these entrepreneurs of the chivalric twilight.

Heraldry links

Francois Velde's excellent pages with lots of links
The British Heraldic Archive

The Heraldry Society
College of Arms of England
Civic Arms of the World
Elias Granqvist's Swedish heraldry page

Societas Heraldica Scandinavica

Suomen Heraldinen Seura / Heraldiska Sällskapet i Finland
The Heraldry Society of Finland
P.O. Box 48
FIN-00101 Helsinki, Finland
Skandinavisk Vapenrulla
SCA

SCA College of Arms oversees the use of heraldry within the SCA, a worldwide Middle Ages re-creation society.
rec.heraldry store

My store for all your rec.heraldry needs, on CafeShops!

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Yet Another Fake Order of St. John

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Latest update: 13 October 2002