Portal:Heraldry

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Welcome to the Heraldry and Vexillogy Portal!

Heraldry encompasses all of the duties of a herald, including the science and art of designing, displaying, describing and recording coats of arms and badges, as well as the formal ceremonies and laws that regulate the use and inheritance of arms. The origins of heraldry lie in the medieval need to distinguish participants in battles or jousts, whose faces were hidden by steel helmets.

Vexillology (from the Latin vexillum, a flag or banner) is the scholarly study of flags, including the creation and development of a body of knowledge about flags of all types, their forms and functions, and of scientific theories and principles based on that knowledge. Flags were originally used to assist military coordination on the battlefield, and have evolved into a general tool for signalling and identification, particularly identification of countries.

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Scrope v. Grosvenor was one of the earliest heraldic law cases brought in England. The case resulted from the fact that two different families were using the same undifferenced coat of arms. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the composition of coats of arms was very simple. Most shields consisted of only one charge and two tinctures, and there were times when two families bore the same coat of arms in the same jurisdiction. In the fourteenth century, though, cases of two unrelated families bearing the same coat of arms became less tolerated. When this happened, the monarch was usually called on to make a decision. (more...)

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Selected coat of arms

In heraldry, the Royal Arms of England is a coat of arms symbolising England and its monarchs. Its blazon (technical description) is Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or armed and langued Azure, meaning three identical gold lions with blue tongues and claws, walking and facing the observer, arranged in a column on a red background. This coat, designed in the High Middle Ages, has been variously combined with those of France, Scotland, Ireland, Nassau and Hanover, according to dynastic and other political changes affecting England, but has not itself been altered since the reign of Richard I. (more...)

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Selected flag

The National Flag of Canada, also known as the Maple Leaf, and l'Unifolié (French for "the one-leafed"), is a red flag with a white square in its centre, featuring a stylized 11-pointed red maple leaf. Its adoption in 1965 marked the first time a national flag had been officially adopted to replace the Union Flag. The Canadian Red Ensign had been unofficially used since the 1890s and was approved by a 1945 Order-in-Council for use "wherever place or occasion may make it desirable to fly a distinctive Canadian flag". In 1964, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson appointed a committee to resolve the issue, sparking a serious debate about a flag change. Out of three choices, the maple leaf design by George F. G. Stanley was chosen. The flag made its first appearance on February 15, 1965; the date is now celebrated annually as Flag Day. Other flags have been created for use by Canadian officials, government bodies, and military forces. (more...)

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Oil painting (2005) of the Coat of arms of Gozdawa. In Polish heraldry each coat of arms has its own name and may be shared by several unrelated families.

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Did you know...

...that the arms of Ferry de Clugny, Cardinal-Bishop of Tournai, appear in the carpet and stained glass in the depiction of the Annunciation (pictured) now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art?

...that Marcus Vulson de la Colombière, a French heraldist of the 17th century, was involved in a dispute with Silvester Petra Sancta over who invented the method of hatching to indicate heraldic tinctures?