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Anyone who subscribes to the Heraldry Society’s Facebook Group cannot help but notice the frequent requests that arise from new joiners asking for help to ‘identify this crest’ or ‘explain the meaning’ of the charges on a shield. From time to time the old canard of the coat of arms for a surname arises, and these posts usually get a swift reply from someone keen to put the enquirer on the right track. Our recent poll on X (Twitter) revealed that the confusion about crests and coats of arms, and the assumption that there are coats of arms for surnames were the two biggest myths in heraldry.
Some years ago, the Heraldry Society published a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) which deal with many of the enquiries that arise from heraldic novices. This article seeks to build on that FAQ and address some of the myths and misconceptions that frequently enter heraldic discourse.
Note: Throughout this article we refer exclusively to the conventions of heraldry as applied in the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies, Overseas Territories and those Commonwealth nations which do not have their own heraldic authority unless specific reference is made for comparison.
So, let us start with the big three:
1. There is a coat of arms for your surname
Coat of Arms are granted to individual living persons and to corporate bodies, not to families or to surnames. The letters patent granting armorial bearings to a person or corporate body names that person. The simple rule to remember is one coat of arms: one person or corporate body.
There is not and never was a situation where a coat of arms granted to Mr John Smith of No. 1 Honeysuckle Close in St Albans becomes the arms of all persons with the surname Smith. No matter how many websites offer to sell you the coat of arms for your surname, they are all false.
2. Crests and coat of arms are the same thing
You may feel a bit crest-fallen to discover that crest and coat of arms are different things, they are not synonymous and never were. A crest is a distinct part of an armorial achievement. The coat of arms is everything on the shield, the crest is everything on top of the helmet placed above the shield.
In English heraldic convention women have not been permitted crests since the reign of King James I. Prior to the Stuart monarchy women were granted crests in England, and there have been a number of exceptions since. Curiously Scotland’s heraldic authority grants crests to women today. This is one of many anomalies in heraldic convention.
3. The colours, lines and symbols on a shield have meanings
Alas no. While the owner of the arms may associate meaning with the various elements of a coat of arms, there is no big book of meanings in the College of Arms which includes entries such as “Lions mean…” or “Gold means….”. The lines of division, the colours, the metals, the symbols (charges) on a shield are just that, and have no meanings attached to them.
What is often true is the design of a coat of arms considers the wishes of the person or corporation petitioning for the arms. They may wish to incorporate colours, metals, furs, line of division and symbols which have meaning to the petitioner, but any such meaning is in their mind and not attached to the design of the arms.
Now let us move on to some of the less prevalent myths and misconceptions:
4. You can buy your own coat of arms from a website or pop-up shop
This practice is widely known as bucket shop heraldry. But let us call a spade a spade - it is fraud plain and simple. Any website or shop offering that sells you a picture of a coat of arms on the strength that it is for your surname or family is engaged in fraud by deception. What you are buying when you purchase from these outlets is a copy of a picture and some text, that picture may be the coat of arms that was once granted to someone else who may share the same or a similar surname (eg., spelt differently) to you but go back and read 1.
Why the heraldic authorities in London and Edinburgh do not do more to educate the public on this trade, and publicly name and shame the offenders is a matter for the heraldic authorities to explain.
5. Coats of arms are defined by a picture
An easy trap to fall into, assuming that the pictorial representation of a coat of arms is what defines the arms. Not so, arms are defined by their written description in blazon, that is the language of heraldry. Blazon is a specialist language, a mix of English and Norman French, which precisely and concisely describes the arms. Artists who can read blazon will be able to depict the arms in any physical or digital form, from stained glass to stone monuments, from vector graphics to a bitmap image.
The blazon (written description) of a coat of arms is found in the letters patent granting the arms. That is the legal document which states by what authority the arms are granted, to who, and then describes the arms in the precise and concise language of blazon.
6. Only Knights and Lords can be granted arms
The King of Arms have been granted wide ranging discretion to determine who is sufficiently eminent to be granted arms. There has never been a requirement for individuals to be knights or peers of the realm. It is up to the Kings of Arms to decide who is eminent and who is not, there is no list of mandatory requirements.
In theory any of His Majesty’s subjects may petition for a grant of arms, but it is unlikely arms would be granted to someone who has been convicted of a serious criminal offence or has achieved nothing of distinction in their life. That said, the Common Hangman of London was once granted a coat of arms when York Herald tricked Garter King of Arms into doing so in 1616. York and Garter were briefly imprisoned for this act of stupidity.
7. Anyone can use someone else’s coat of arms so long as they have permission
Nobody has the right to use (or claim usage of) another person’s coat of arms, even if the owner of the arms has given their permission. The Kings of Arms grant arms to a single living person or corporate body. The simple rule to remember is one coat of arms: one person or corporate body.
Now that said, we have to be clear about ‘usage’ in this context. Usage means claiming the arms as your own and using them in any manner that is intended to suggest that the arms are yours when they are not. It is perfectly acceptable to refer to the arms of another person so long as you do not claim them as your own or give the appearance that you are doing so. For example, a company which has been granted a Royal Warrant by the King can display the arms of His Majesty and state that they are a Royal Warrant holding body. In doing so they are not claiming the arms of His Majesty belong to, are on loan to, or are being used by the company concerned, rather they are showing the Royal Warrant is granted to them by His Majesty as a mark of distinction for providing products or services to the Royal Household.
The concept of using arms does not extend to depicting them in whatever form, for example a heraldic artist who paints a picture of someone else's arms is not 'using' the arms, and neither is a photographer who photographs someone's arms and puts that photo onto the web.
8. All coats of arms have been lawfully granted
We wish this were true; however, many coats of arms were assumed by their owners, and have never been lawfully granted. The only way to know for certain if a coat of arms has been lawfully granted is to consult the relevant heraldic authority in London or Edinburgh. Some ancient colleges, towns and cities still use arms that have never been lawfully granted.
There is only one person who may assume arms without a lawful grant issued by the heraldic authority in either London or Edinburgh and that is His Majesty, after the power to grant arms is part of the Royal Prerogative, and one personally exercised by the Monarch rather than by His Majesty's ministers.
9. Foreign coats of arms are valid in the United Kingdom
Heraldry is very much a feature of the European world and has extended to the Commonwealth Realms and many countries which were once colonial possessions of European nations. Consequently, heraldry can be seen in countries such as Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. Some European nations, and some former colonial countries have their own heraldic authority (e.g., Canada, South Africa, Malta, Spain, Denmark, Ireland), while others rely on the heraldic authority in London (e.g., Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand).
Coats of arms granted by one heraldic authority are not formally recognized outside of their respective domain of authority (the nation or nations for which they are responsible). A coat of arms granted to a person in Spain has no legal status in England, and vice versa, however this does not invalidate the grant from whichever authority granted the arms.
10. Men and women have the same rights in heraldry
The law of arms has evolved over many centuries, and women have long been able to be granted arms, certainly since the 16th century. At different times women have enjoyed greater rights than they do today, but presently they do not have the same rights as are granted to men.
There remains significant difference between the rights of women under Scotland’s heraldic authority and that for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and much of the Commonwealth. In some European heraldic traditions (e.g., Spain and Poland) the rights of women were much closer to those of men. In others such as the Holy See (the Vatican) there are no women priests to be granted arms.
11. Heraldic colours are based on a standard colour model
Heraldry developed centuries before anything like the modern RGB, CYMK, CIELCH models. Heraldry's palette of tinctures is very small and comprises two metals: Gold (also Yellow) and Silver (also white) along with five colours: Red (Gules), Green (Vert), Blue (Azure), Black (Sable) and Purple (Purpure). Occasionally you might see other colours such as Light Brown (Tenne) and Light blue (Blue Celeste). Heraldry also identifies a number of furs, these are depictions of the coats of ermine, stoat and red squirrel.
The exact colour available to an artist will differ depending on the medium they are working with, for example stained glass, cloth and stone are all coloured in different ways and hence the exact shade of colour depends on the medium concerned.
12. Coats of arms are a form of trademark
While it is possible to trademark a particular depiction of a coat of arms, the arms themselves are defined by their written description, as such it is not possible to trademark the sentence that defines the arms. Furthermore there is little point in trademarking a coat of arms unless you are using it to represent a product or service, and as we learned in the first of the myth busting questions above, a coat of arms is granted to a single living person, or to a corporation. Neither of these things are products or services. Some corporations have trademarked a particular depiction of their corporate arms in order to establish brand consistency, but doing so does not make the coat of arms any more or less the personal property of the corporation than they were prior to being registered as a trademark.
Great topic!
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