Arms of Attribution - Arms that are fictitious, such as indulged in to absurd extent by the heralds of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
- "Almost all the older genealogists attribute coats of
arms to ancestors long before they were in use. On the tomb of
Queen Elizabeth are emblazoned the arms of William the Conqueror
and Matilda of Flanders, and of Henry I and Matilda of Scotland,
all, of course, pure inventions. It is only of very late years,
since a critical spirit has found its way even into heraldry, that
these absurdities have been exposed." -- Ency. Brit., vol xi
(1902).
Arms of Community - Those borne by corporations, religious houses, colleges, cities and boroughs, inns of court, guilds and the cinque ports, some of which go back to an early period.
Arms of Concession - Arms granted by a sovereign to commemorate some great deed. The heart on the arms of the Douglases is in memory of the mission of James Lord Douglas with the heart of Robert Bruce to the Holy Land. The families of De la Warr, Pelham, Vane and Fane bear arms in allusion to the share their ancestors had in the capture of John of France at Poitiers.
Arms of Dominion - Are those belonging to empires, kingdoms, principalities, states, etc., officially used by the ruler de facto. The origin of some of these arms is obscure, such as the three legs conjoined in triangle of the Isle of Man and the lion of Scotland. Occasionally the arms of dominion were those of an early sovereign or governor. Thus the lions of England belonged to the Plantagnet kings. In the United States the Stars and Stripes, now so well known throughout the world, had their origin in the coat of arms of the first President, the immortal George Washington, whose English ancestors bore "argent, two bars gules, in chief three mullets of the second." The arms of the State of Maryland are those born by Cecililus Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, Lord Proprietary of the Colony.
Arms of Family - Those received by some distinguished person and borne with modifications by all his descendants.
Arms of Honor - The same as Arms of Concession.
Arms of Office - Those borne by holders of certain offices which designate that office. For instance, the ancestors of the Dukes of Ormond, being hereditary butlers of Ireland, bore three covered cups. Garter, the principal king-at-arms of England, bears "argent, a cross gules, on a chief azure a crown or, encircled with a garter of the order buckled and nowed between a lion of England and a lily of France."
Arms of Patronage - (1) Arms borne by the lesser gentry which were derived from the arms of the greater; arms on which there is some mark of subjection or dependence. (2) Arms to indicate the connection between the follower and his feudal lord. (3) Arms added to the family arms as a token of superiority, right or jurisdiction.
Arms of Pretension - Arms quartered by a sovereign belonging to a state over which he does not hold authority. Nearly all the earlier European sovereigns bore arms of this character. The kings of England, from Edward III until 1801, in the reign of George III, bore the lilies of France. The treaty of Amiens (January 1, 1801) stipulated that this quartering of the French arms should be abandoned.
Arms of Succession - The same as Feudal Arms.
Arms Royal - The personal arms borne by the sovereign of a country, as distinguished from those borne by him in his official capacity, being those of the country over which he rules. As set forth in Arms of Dominion, the personal arms of a ruler sometimes become those of the country. On the other hand, neither the arms of Baliol, Bruce nor Stuart ever became the arms of Scotland. Cromwell placed his arms on an escutcheon of pretense over those of the commonwealth, and William of Nassau did the same with those of England.
Allusive Arms - (Called also canting or punning arms, and by the French Armes parlantes) are those in which the charges suggest the bearers name. Thus were the castle and lion for Castile and Leon, the fers de cheval of Ferrers, the corbeau or raven for Corbet, the herons of Heron, the falcon of Falconer, the swine's head of Swinebourne, the hammers of Hammerton and the swallows (hirondelles) of Arundel. Allusive arms were treated with respect until the time of James I, when they fell into disrepute.
Find another term:
Abased to Adumbration
Affrontee to Aquilated
Arbalest to Arms of
Assumption
Arms of Attribution to Arms, Allusive
Arms, Assumptive to Azure
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