Coat
of Arms History
When the true
Family Crest Coat of Arms History begins in Western Europe nothing is more
remarkable than the suddenness of its development, once the idea of
hereditary armorial symbols was taken by the nobles and knights. In England many legends
survive of arms borne by William the Conqueror and his companions. But nothing
is more certain than that neither armorial banners nor shields of arms
were borne on either side at Hastings. The famous record of the Bayeux
tapestry shows shields which in some cases suggest rudely devised
armorial bearings, but in no case can a shield be identified as one
which is, recognized in the generations after the Conquest. So far is
the idea of personal arms from the artist, that the same warrior, seen
in different parts of the tapestry’s history, has his shield with
differing devices. A generation later, Anna Comnena, the daughter of the
Byzantine emperor, describing the shields of the French knights who came
to Constantinople, tells us that their polished faces were plain.
The
Family's First Coat of Arms
Of all
men, kings and princes might be the first to be found bearing
arms. Yet the first English sovereign who appears on his great
seal with arms on his shield is Richard I. His seal of 1189
shows his shield charged with a lion ramping towards the
sinister side. Since one half only is seen of the rounded face
of the shield, English antiquaries have perhaps too hastily
suggested that the whole bearing was two lions face to face.
But the mounted figure of Philip of Alsace, count of Flanders,
on his seal of 1164 bears a like shield charged with a like
lion, and in this case another shield on the counterseal makes
it clear that this is the single lion of Flanders. Therefore
we may take it that, in 1189, King Richard bore arms of a lion
rampant, while, nine years later, another seal shows him with
a shield of the familiar bearings which have been borne as the
arms of England by each one of his successors.
That seal of Philip of Alsace is the earliest known example of the
arms of the great counts of Flanders. The ancient arms of the kings of
France appear even
later. Louis le Jeune, on the crowning of his son Philip Augustus,
ordered that the young prince should be clad in a blue dalmatic and blue
shoes, sewn with a flower whose name, as “Fleur de Loys,” played upon that of his own,
and possibly upon his epithet name
of Florus. A seal of the same king has the device of a single lily. But
the first French royal seal with the shield of the lilies is that of
Louis VIII. (1223—1226). The eagle of the emperors may well be as
ancient a bearing as any in Europe, seeing that Charlemagne is said, as
the successor of the Caesars, to have used the eagle as his badge. The
emperor Henry III. (1039—1056) has the scepter on his seal surmounted by
an eagle; in the 12th century the eagle was embroidered upon the
imperial gloves. At Mölsen in 1080 the emperor’s banner is said by
William of Tyre to have borne the eagle, and with the beginning of
regular heraldry this imperial badge would soon be displayed on a
shield. The double-headed eagle is not seen on an imperial seal until
after 1414, when the bird with one neck becomes the recognized army of
the king of the Romans. There are, however, earlier examples of shields of arms than any of
these. 
Coat of Arms of Sheild's
From the beginning of the 13th century arms upon shields increase in
number. Soon the most of the great houses of the west display them with
pride. Leaders in the field, whether of a royal army or of a dozen
spears, saw the military advantage of a custom which made shield and
banner things that might be recognized in the press. Although it is
probable that armorial bearings have their first place upon the shield,
the charges of the shield are found displayed on the knight’s long
surcoat, his "coat of arms," on his banner or pennon, on the trappers of
his horse and even upon the peaks of his saddle. An attempt has been
made to connect the rise of armory with the adoption of the
barrel-shaped close helm; but even when wearing the earlier Norman
helmet with its long nasal the knight’s face was not to be recognized.
There can be little doubt that ancient armorial bearings were chosen
at will by the man who bore them, many reasons guiding his choice.
Crosses in plenty were taken. Old writers have asserted that these
crosses commemorate the badge of the crusaders, yet the fact that the
cross was the symbol of the faith was reason enough. No symbolism can be
found in such charges as bends and fesses; they are on the shield
because a broad band, aslant or athwart, is a charge easily’ recognized.
Medieval wisdom gave every noble and magnanimous quality to the lion,
and therefore this beast is chosen by hundreds of knights as their
bearing. The legends which assert that certain arms were “won in the Holy Land”
or granted by ancient kings for heroic deeds in the field are for the
most part worthless fancies.
Tenants or neighbors of the great feudal lords were wont to make
their arms by differencing the lord’s shield or by bringing some charge
of it into their own bearings.
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