What are the coat of arms for?

Coats of arms were a form of symbol which had particular importance on the mediaeval battlefield. In the absence of the communications used even in the seventeenth century (New Model Army) and later on, when several bugle sounds could be used to instruct infantry and cavalry, there was no other way of knowing who was your leader and of gathering around him or following him in a charge. A shield with a coat of arms would be easily recognised at a time when armies did not wear uniforms and people were almost all illiterate. Soldiers could then protect, or follow their leader because they could distinguish him from other knights on the field of battle.

At the Battle of Hastings, the Norman Duke, William the Conqueror had to show himself to his army to prove that he was still alive as rumours had spread that he had been killed. Under the Normans in particular, feudalism spread throughout Europe and Norman knights soon began to identify themselves by the use of heraldic designs to distinguish themselves from other landowning knights. The terms used in heraldry are Old French - argent, sable and azure being colours used in heraldic designs, for example. These designs could be used in great wax seals to attach to documents to show that you had read (or, more likely, had read to you) a treaty, for example. A study of mediaeval documents like the grants made by kings of lands to their subjects will have their seal attached.Often this shows the king on horseback carrying his shield with his coat of arms upon it.

Without going into the subject exhaustively, the design of a shield will often show such things as whether the bearer was a bastard. Sometimes, a play on words will be found, eg the coat of arms of the Scottish Turnbull family features a bull; that of Catto a cat.


A coat of arms is, strictly speaking, a distinctive heraldic design on a tunic used to cover and protect armour, but the term is more broadly applied to mean a full heraldic achievement which consists of a shield and certain accessories. In either sense, the design is a symbol unique to a person, family, corporation, or state. Such displays are also commonly calledarmorial bearings, armorial devices, heraldic devices, or arms.
Historically, armorial bearings were first used by feudal lords and knights in the mid-12th century on battlefields as a way to identify allied from enemy soldiers. As the uses for heraldic designs expanded, other social classeswho never would march in battle began to assume arms for themselves. Initially, those closest to the lords and knights adopted arms, such as persons employed as squires that would be in common contact with the armorial devices. Then priests and other ecclesiastical dignities adopted coats of arms, usually to be used as seals and other such insignia, and then towns and cities to likewise seal and authenticate documents. Eventually by the mid-13th century, peasants, commoners and burghers were adopting heraldic devices. The widespread assumption of arms led some states to regulate heraldry within their borders. However, in most of continental Europe, citizens freely adopted armorial bearings.
Despite no widespread regulation, and even with a lack in many cases of national-level regulation, heraldry has remained rather consistent across Europe, where traditions alone have governed the design and use of arms. Unlike seals and other general emblems, heraldic achievements have a formal description called a blazon, expressed in a jargon that allows for consistency in heraldic depictions.
In the 21st century, coats of arms are still in use by a variety of institutions and individuals; for example, universities have guidelines on how their coats of arms may be used, and protect their use as trademarks.[1][2][3] Many societies exist that also aid in the design and registration of personal arms, and some nations, like England and Scotland, still maintain to this day the mediaeval authorities that grant and regulate arms.