Heraldry thread

Wappen wiki is great for coats of arms. Will post some.

Good thread.

This animal wins the 'laziest thing to put on your arms' award. Eagles come in second.

>>17869139
Are there any coat d'arms with bears? Other than Berlin and Bern of course.

>>17869173
Madrid

>>17869173
Greenland

>>17868882 (OP)
>oh no they removed the dick! time for people to die
such a homosexual hobby

>>17868989
Neat. Didn't know about this site. At first I the design led me to believe that it was a shitty fantasy site (like those websites that claim that every "Smith" hails from the ancient Smith line of nobles) but from a cursory glance it seems legit.
Although one mistake in pic rel:
It is supposed to be the coat of arms of the County of Berg until 1225. But the colors are wrong. The merlon rows are supposed to be black and the field is silver. The design in use dates to the time after 1225, as the male line of Berg died out and via marriage, the Limburg dynasty took over - Limburg had a red lion on a white field as their coat of arms and thus the red & white color combination took hold in Berg.

>>17869253
Here a better representation of the coat of arms of the counts of Berg.
>>17869173
See for yourself
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Coats_of_arms_with_bears

>>17869139
Sometimes we add a lot of lions though

And the Limburg Lion evolved into the Berg Lion - the distinguishing features of the latter are that the crown, talons and tongue of the lion are colored in blue. For the Limburg Lion those elements are colored in gold.
>>17869173
A way better link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_in_heraldry

So fucking metal holy shit

>>17869253
There are certainly some mistakes here and there on that website, but I generally found it to be a good catalog that’s mostly accurate. I’m not an expert whatsoever though and, ironically, I use it as it intersects with genealogy.

>>17869139
And sometimes you gotta go a bit east to find more unique designs.

>>17869281
I never bothered with genealogy. Do you simply link names to corresponding coat of arms?

>>17869139
Lions aren't even native to Europe since they went extinct around antiquity

Insect is chad heraldry choice.

>>17869305
NTA but Coat of Arms were typically only granted to individuals, despite what PopHis might suggest, although being a direct descendant of someone with a coat of arms could give you some level of credibility, hence why people began treating it as a family thing. Personally I think simply someone with your last name having a coat of arms is basically meaningless unless you can prove it's one of your direct male ancestors, which few people can.

>>17869305
No, when I find a line legitimately descending from nobility, I put appropriate coat of arm for the individual if they’re of enough importance to bear arms of any significance. That’s if there’s no portrait of the person. I also just like seeing the arms evolve over time, like this Stewart one. Most of my ancestors, including myself, were not entitled to arms.

Bump

Is there a limit to the amount of shit that can be added to a coat of arms?

>>17869139
I wouldnt mind so much if lions were actually in Europe, I dont even think the European lion, that went extinct even lived in a lot of places in Europe
Eagles are fine if a bit overused

Made this chart
maybe Spain more shield than lion tho

>>17869872
dont ask about the White dots

>>17869364
>Most of my ancestors, including myself, were not entitled to arms.
In many countries such as the US you can adopt a coat of arms freely, and in countries with an official registry (for example, the College of Arms for the UK sans Scotland) they will often register arms for people who are willing to pay I think it was around £9000. Supposedly they are willing to do this for US citizens who will pay the fee upfront and allow them the right to change the final design if necessary. Beyond that, the only supposed requirements are that the person can proof of descent from a British subject and is not someone of bad repute. This may be similar for some other official authorities as well. Trump was able to register the coat of arms of his golf course officially in Scotland for example, and his version had birds with golf balls in their claws.

>>17869758
There's no official limit that I've seen. One guy called George Nugent-Temple-Grenville had a compound coat of arms with over 700 different parts to it.

>>17869851
I think griffin is almost as kino as lion and eagle, and has lots of decent-looking poses but hardly anyone used it unless their name was Griffin.

Reading the thread, some misconceptions about heraldry seem to pop up.

>>17869305
The wider populace did not have last names before 16th century at the earliest. They used to be exclusive to nobility. As population expanded and censuses became more complicated, people were forced to adopt them. Usually they copied the last name of a local lord or a landmark (which itself originated from a lord's title or he adopted as his title). Thus sharing a last name with a family that has a coat of arms usually means nothing.

You have to do a genealogical research to find if any of your ancestors had a coat of arms (and what are the succession laws).

>>17869353
Coats of arms are always given with a noble title (be it a family or a personal or title), however this doesn't preclude people with no title having a coat of arms made. Being a peasant with a coat of arms is fully legitimate. At certaint times it was popular to get among the bourgeoise as well.

As for coats of arms typically being given to individual, that's an anglophone peculiarity. In Western and Central Europe it was typically awarded as a family thing. A person had to go out of their way to have a personal coat of arms made on the basis of the family one. In Eastern Europe coat of arms was often shared among everyone in a noble clan.

>>17869758
Technically no, as there is no centralized heraldic authority for the whole world. However, if something goes against the universally agreed rules and art canons, you'll be given side eyes constantly. If a coat of arms speaks prestige, then a bad coat of arms announces a fool.

>>17870060
In most (probably all) countries, coats of arms are made by whichever heraldist the client choses. Any serious professional nationally or internationally publishes a collection of all of their work regularly.

That being said, unless you're an aristocrat or a knight, having a coat of arms will probably be seen as kitsch. It's not like you can use it by itself for, well, anything.

>>17870290
Oh and to open that can of worms (which is woefully missing from the thread), heraldry is deeply rooted in the Catholic and later Christian idea of power sharing between the Emperor and Pope (political and spiritual). That is to say, just as there are worldly aristocrats, aristocrats of spirit are their equals. As such being a priest demands the same respect from others as a lower noble title. Once a member of the clergy moves above the position of a regular priest, the respect required is the same as of higher nobility (and that's why kneeling and kissing their hands is required). I believe bishops are the equivalent of dukes (title equivalence between countries is messy). Specifically, in the Catholic church and a few others, once you get to the level of a bishop, you're legally required to have a coat of arms.

>>17868882 (OP)
my mother's family's crest, picrel

>>17869139
nah those are based.

>>17869872
>Made this chart
spelled 'sheild', a mix between shield and sheeeit.

>>17870304
frick i didnt notice

>>17869298
broccoli hands lol

This is the coat of arms of the Colleoni family, the word "Colleoni" means "Scrotums" in ancient italian; so, they added three of them on the shield.

>>17869353
>>17869364
>>17870290
I know that a name alone is no solid indicator for claiming a descendance from nobility. But I know that enough people think otherwise and I get worried when some 4channer claims he does genealogy and uses coat of arms in this capacity as well.
>>17870290
>Coats of arms are always given with a noble title
Not always. At least since the 15th century in the HRE there was a difference between a Patent of Coat of Arms (Wappenbrief), which merely entitles a person/family/institution to bear the described coat of arms, and a Patent of Ennoblement, which entitles a person/family/institution to noble privleges. Of course early on (well before those processes were codified) both patents went hand in hand - but especially in the 18th century it became fashionable for rich bourgeois to buy a Patent of Coat of Arms.
>>17870296
A nice parallel to the thread about the ecclesiastical states of the HRE. Here many "men of the cloth" functioned as sovereigns of their own territories. A shame that it died so quickly.'

Anyways; pic rel is imo a very cool coat of arms of a municipality near me. Mons Praeclare means Beautiful Mountain and according to legend was the exclamation of a local knight who returned home from the 3rd Crusade after being imprisoned by the Muslims.