Coats of arms of monarchs. French kings and their coats of arms

If you take a quick look at the coats of arms of the Scandinavian states, one cannot fail to note a detail common to almost all: almost everywhere there is an image of lions and leopards equally exotic for the northern countries. Why are they present in the emblems of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland?

A banner that fell from the sky

The leopard appeared on the coat of arms of Denmark around 1190 under Knud VI Valdemarsson, almost simultaneously with the leopards of Richard the Lionheart. Therefore, we have one of the oldest state symbols. The leopards of the Danish king were azure in a golden field adorned with scarlet hearts. This image was preserved in the coat of arms of Denmark under all rulers. It has survived to this day, and in the modern state emblem of the Kingdom of Denmark it occupies the first field.

The division of the shield on the Danish coat of arms is special. It is produced not with the help of lines, but with the help of a cross. This is no coincidence. After all, the cross it is called Danenbrog is considered one of the national emblems of the Danes. Sometimes images of cross banners were minted on coins by Danish kings, such as Regnald Gottfredsson in the tenth century or Valdemar the Great in the twelfth century.

However, the legend connects the appearance of the Danenbrog (as they call not only the cross, but also the banner with the cross) with another ruler, King Valdemar II the Conqueror. According to legend, a red banner with a white cross fell from the sky to his troops at the critical moment of the battle with the Estonians in 1219 and helped to win. This is even mentioned in the “History of the Russian State” by N.M. Karamzin.

Since the 15th century, the coat of arms of the Danish kings has been a combination of the coats of arms of the allied kings of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Vandalia. In the center was placed a shield with their dynastic coats of arms. Later, Danish leopards, then dynastic Oldenburg and Delmengorst signs appeared in turn in the middle shield, and the entire heraldic shield was rebuilt depending on this.

In the XVIII century, the Danish coat of arms took on a form close to the modern one: a shield with a dynastic coat of arms is superimposed on a large shield with the coats of arms of the kingdoms that are part of the possessions of the Danish crown. The heraldic shield is supported by bearded savages with clubs, whose images appeared in the Danish coat of arms in 1449. In truth, no one gives an explanation for this: it is believed that the savages were “brought” into the Danish coat of arms by the Oldenburg dynasty, thus declaring their ancient origin. The shield was topped with a crown and surrounded by chains of the highest state orders - the Elephant and Danenbrog.

In 1960, the Large and Small State Emblems of the Kingdom of Denmark were defined. The small coat of arms was actually the coat of arms of Denmark, in which the leopards were finally replaced by "leopard lions". The large coat of arms of Denmark had a complex structure and lush decorations. It was used by the royal family, the court and the guards.

Queen Margaret II, who ascended the throne in 1972, renounced all titles that were not supported by real power, except for the Danish royal. The emblems of the German possessions, the emblems of the kingdoms of the Goths and the Wends, disappeared from the coat of arms. The leopard lions of Schleswig have survived since part of Schleswig was returned to Denmark in 1920.

The Danes explain the second field with three crowns as the emblem of the Kalmar Union, which united the Scandinavian kingdoms from 1397 to 1523. Under Margaret II of complex form, the "order" cross of Danenbrog was replaced by a direct "banner".

Fire of volcanoes and water of geysers

In 1918, Iceland was proclaimed an independent kingdom in union with Denmark. In 1944, the island nation withdrew from the union and declared itself a sovereign republic. Then the Icelandic coat of arms was created. The heraldic shield carries the design of the national flag and is supported by four shield holders at once. They are the guardian spirits of Iceland. According to the ancient sagas, they must protect the island from the Danish kings. The symbolism of the colors of the Icelandic flag is the scarlet fire of volcanoes, the silver water of geysers, the azure of the sea and sky.

Three crowns

In Sweden, lions are preserved only in the large royal coat of arms. And this tradition has been going on since time immemorial. Shield-bearing lions have been fixed in the coat of arms since the end of the 16th century and are depicted with forked tails. Let's pay attention to two other lions placed in the second and third fields of the shield, divided by a large cross. These are the so-called Gothic lions. They are depicted on top of silver streams in an azure field.

The history of their appearance is as follows. First, in the coat of arms of King Eric III around 1224, three leopards appeared at once, one under the other, as in Danish. This coat of arms was adopted by the nephew Valdemar, who succeeded Eric III, who belonged to another family, the Folkungs. Valdemar's father, Jarl Birger, had another family coat of arms - a lion on top of three left bands. As you can see, it is very reminiscent of the images in the second and third fields of the shield on the modern royal coat of arms of Sweden. The thing is that King Valdemar was overthrown from the throne by his brother Magnus, who received the nickname Defender of the Peasants, who, unlike his predecessor, remained faithful to the Folkung family coat of arms, but the lion has since become crowned.

The oldest known seal of Magnus Protector of the Peasants has three crowns on the top and sides of the royal shield. In the 14th century, under King Albert of Mecklenburg, the three crowns became the main symbol of Sweden.

There are several interpretations of this heraldic emblem. Some correlate the appearance of the three crowns with the widespread in Europe cult of the Three Kings Magi, who brought gifts to the infant Jesus Christ. This cult revived after the transfer of their relics from Milan to Cologne in 1164 by Frederick Barbarossa. Others see Swedish crowns as a symbol of the Holy Trinity. But there are also purely heraldic interpretations. Individual connoisseurs of heraldry see in this emblem either a crown from the Mecklenburg family coat of arms, reinforced with the sacred number three, or the legendary coat of arms of King Arthur, embodying the moral ideals of chivalry, or some kind of “fabulous coat of arms” of one of the ancient Irish kings.

The three crowns suddenly took on a new meaning when the Scandinavian kingdoms united into one state, the Kalmar Union. The Swedish crowns then occupied the second quarter of the common coat of arms of the allied kings, and this symbol began to express the unity of Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

Actually, the Swedish coat of arms was formed back in the years of the Kalmar Union. Under Karl Knutsson, who proclaimed himself King of Sweden in 1448 and ruled intermittently until 1470, the heraldic shield was divided into parts by a golden cross. According to legend, this emblem appeared in the XII century. According to the legend, the Swedish king Eric IX, before going to the pagan Finns, saw a cruciform golden glow in the sky. However, the origins of the symbol are much older. In the description of the life of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, it is said that before the battle with his rival commander Maxentius, he saw a sign in the sky - a shining cross made up of stars. Constantine ordered this sign to be depicted on the weapons and banners of his troops, which allegedly helped win the decisive battle at the Milvian Bridge. Carl Knutsson introduced into the Swedish coat of arms and a central shield with the image of his own family coat of arms a golden boat in a black field.

In 1523, the Kalmar Union broke up. In Sweden, Gustav Vasa became king, and a new dynastic coat of arms, a sheaf, was placed in the middle shield instead of a boat. In Swedish, the generic nickname "Vase" is consonant with the word for a sheaf, a bunch of twigs, a bunch of plants, and the like.

Gustav Vasa assumed the triple title of "King of the Swedes, Goths and Wends", perhaps in imitation of the extremely pompous titles of the Danish kings. In accordance with this, the meaning of the three crowns of the House of Folkungs was once again rethought. And this is how they began to explain the origin of the three crowns on the coat of arms of Sweden.

Under Gustav Vasa or under his son Eric XIV, the original colors of the coat of arms also changed. Instead of a black bunch in a golden field, a golden sheaf appeared in an azure-silver-carlet field, twice beveled on the right. Gradually, the outlines of the sheaf also changed, which eventually began to resemble a vase with handles.

Later, royal dynasties did not stay long on the Swedish throne. The large coat of arms remained unchanged all the time, only the dynastic emblems in the shield changed: the palatines of the Rhine, the landgraves of Hesse-Kassel and, finally, the dukes of Holstein-Gottorp ...

In 1810, the last of the Swedish Gottorp dynasty adopted the Napoleonic Marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, Prince de Pontecorvo. Eight years later, the marshal took the Swedish throne, taking the name of Charles XIV John. As a sign of continuity, and not as a sign of kinship, which was not there, the coat of arms of the Vaza dynasty reappeared in the middle shield of the royal coat of arms, and next to the princes of Pontecorvo in azure above the silver stream (wavy tip) a silver bridge with three arches and two towers, and above the bridge is a Napoleonic eagle with two thunderbolts.

Some time later, the Napoleonic eagle on the Swedish coat of arms turned into a raven. It is difficult to say whether this confusion arose by accident or on purpose. The word "corvo" in Italian means "raven", and "ropte corvo" is translated as "humped bridge".

The law of May 15, 1908 fixed the official image of the large and small emblems of Sweden. The place of the raven in the coat of arms of Pontecorvo was again taken by the Napoleonic eagle...

Lion of Saint Olaf

Around 1200, the ruler of Norway had his own coat of arms: a golden crowned lion of St. Olaf in a scarlet field with a battle ax in its front paws. This image is almost exactly reproduced on the modern coat of arms of Norway. On a pointed "Varangian" red shield under a royal crown without precious stones, a lion walks with an ax on its paws.

The Norwegian royal coat of arms, like the Danish one, is decorated with dynastic symbols. Here we see the same shield, but a crown above it with precious stones. A mantle with an ermine lining is released from under it: the Shield is surrounded by a chain with the badge of the Order of St. Olaf, founded by King Oscar I in 1847.

Lifting the sword and trampling on the saber

The first dukes of Finland were Swedish princes from the Folkung family. A lion was present in their family coat of arms. The first coat of arms of Finland was granted in 1557 by the Swedish king Gustav Vasa to his son John, along with the title of Duke of Finland. This coat of arms was made up of the coats of arms of the two most important provinces of the duchy: Northern Finland (Satakunta) and Southern Finland, or Finland proper. The coat of arms of the latter, among other things, depicted a black bear carrying a sword. Later, a single coat of arms appeared, denoting all the Swedish eastern possessions, including Finland and Karelia. The tomb of Gustav Vasa in the city of Uppsala is decorated with this coat of arms. This is a crowned shield with a golden crowned lion in a scarlet field. The right front paw of the lion is clad in armor and raises the sword, with its hind legs the lion tramples the thrown crooked saber. The scarlet field is strewn with silver roses there are nine of them on the tomb of Gustav. It must be assumed that the lea was taken from the Swedish royal coat of arms, and its gesture was borrowed from the coat of arms of Northern Finland or the Principality of Karelian, where the right hand was depicted with a raised sword.

When John Vasa ascended the Swedish throne, he combined his former title “Grand Duke of Finland and Karelia” with the title “King of the Swedes, Goths and Wends and others” (in Latin, Finland was called the Grand Duchy, and in Swedish the Grand Duchy). John III, for reasons of prestige, included a closed crown in the royal coat of arms.

In this form, the coat of arms of Finland was preserved until the end of the century, and at the beginning of the 17th century the gesture of the lion changed somewhat: he began to trample on the blade of the saber with his right hind paw, and clawed the hilt of the sword with his left front paw. Disappeared from the head of the lion and the crown. Soon the armor disappeared somewhere, and the tail of the lion turned out to be forked. But ten silver roses survived.

The coat of arms of Finland looked similarly when the Russian Romanovs occupied the grand ducal throne. True, under Alexander II, a special Finnish grand ducal crown was introduced into the coat of arms. She looked somewhat ridiculous: with a double-headed eagle on the front prong, with high "auxiliary" prongs, but without side ones. The subjects themselves stubbornly refused to recognize this crown, under any pretext replacing it with the Grand Duke's. Regardless of the officially approved coat of arms of "Russian Finland", the Finns adhered to their traditions and everywhere used the coat of arms with an image repeating the shield from the tomb of Gustav Vasa, but with a closed crown.

The Declaration of Independence of Finland, proclaimed in December 1917, and the constitution approved in July 1919, consolidated this option. But in 1920, the crown ceased to crown the shield, and the coat of arms curiously lost the symbol of sovereignty just when Finland really became sovereign.

Georgy Vilinbakhov, Mikhail Medvedev

The French are one of the most proud and in love with their culture and history of nations. The state symbols they use have a deep meaning. How did one of the most important ones appear - the coat of arms of the country, and how did its image change?

The attitude of the French to heraldry

Surprisingly, modern France does not have a traditional national emblem. Shields with his image do not decorate the walls of embassies, as is customary in all other countries. And if you ask a French passerby about the main national symbol, he will most likely tell you about Marianne, a woman who has represented France since the days of the French Revolution. Her image is sometimes used on official documents. But Marianne, of course, cannot be called the coat of arms. This situation arose because the French abandoned heraldic insignia after each destruction of monarchical rule. Citizens who honor republican freedoms to this day do not want to use the state emblem that belonged to the kings. Republican symbols are a peculiar combination of signs of all French territories and provinces. This image is called the Great Coat of Arms of France.

The first French coats of arms

Despite the lack of interest in heraldry among modern citizens, in ancient times a variety of symbols of monarchs existed on the territory of the state, so that the history of the coat of arms of France goes back centuries. The first images were subjected to a noticeable influence of the Christian religion, which had already begun to dominate the country. So, the founder of the state, Clovis, changed the white banner with three toads to blue, which is considered a symbol of the patron saint of France, Martin. This happened when the monarch adopted Christianity in 496. Why exactly blue? This question can be answered by a legend that says that Martin, the bishop of Tours, once met a beggar on the road and gave him half of his cloak, which was blue. A banner of this shade, attached to a cross with a red cord, became a symbol of the Franks.

Medieval coat of arms of France

The Frankish Empire was proclaimed by Charlemagne in 800. His banner was a three-tailed red cloth, on which six blue-red-yellow roses are depicted. The state collapsed already in 843, and the kingdom returned to its former blue symbolism. By the first quarter of the 12th century, during the time of King Louis the Sixth the Tolstoy, golden fleur-de-lis appear on the coat of arms. The image officially begins to be called the "banner of France", and the shield with flowers and an azure field becomes the first French coat of arms. called a stylized drawing of a yellow iris, which symbolizes the Blessed Virgin. The history of the coat of arms of France notes that such flowers were the emblem of the Capetian dynasty already in the 10th century. By the end of the XIV century. on a blue background, only three lilies remained. Most likely, this is due to the trinity essence of the Christian deity. During a significant part of the French territories was captured by the British. A movement of patriots arose, headed by Joan of Arc, whose banner was a white cloth, on one side of which the French coat of arms was depicted, and on the other - angels and God.

White color has acquired the meaning of a symbol of the independence of the state. The description of the coat of arms of France in the post-war period resembles the original image - the French kings again returned to the blue color and three golden lilies.

Bourbon rule

The royal Bourbon dynasty came to the throne in 1589. The national coat of arms of France, the description of which previously included a blue shield and lilies, has now been replenished with a red Navarre shield with a chain. Two shields were placed on the same mantle, topped with a crown, and along the edges were the coats of arms of the largest provinces: Brittany, Burgundy, Guyeny, Dauphine, Ile-de-France, Languedoc, Lyonne, Normandy, Orleans, Picardy, Provence, Champagne. Over time, Navarre also became a province, and in the center there was only a shield with lilies, surrounded by chains of the orders of St. Michael and the Holy Spirit. Two angels supported him on the sides. The history of the coat of arms of France in this version was interrupted in 1789, when the Great French Revolution took place, and the monarchical symbolism was canceled. On the banners of the revolutionaries, the tricolor, which later became traditional, was used, and sailing boats and an ax with a bunch of rods were located at the corners of the panels. The last image is called the "lictor beam" and

is the first emblem of the French Republic.

Heraldry in the 19th century

The history of the coat of arms of France in its monarchical manifestation resumed from 1804, when Napoleon was proclaimed emperor. The symbol is depicted on a blue background holding a beam of lightning in its paws. All around was the chain of the Legion of Honor, and in the background were bees and crossed scepters, a mantle and a crown. In 1814, the power of the Bourbons was restored, and with it the former coat of arms, from which the angels disappeared. In 1830 there was a revolution again, and then the Orleans dynasty came to power. Their family coat of arms became the state symbol. In 1832, a wave of uprisings began, which led to the revolution of 1848, the symbol of which was the popular image of the Gallic rooster. After some time, power returned to Napoleon, and in 1871 the Paris Commune was declared. The emblem of France of that period is the following image: the golden letters of the name of the state on a blue oval surrounded by national flags, the Order of the Legion of Honor, a lictor beam, and

also branches of oak and olive. The emblem survived until the thirties of the next century.

State symbols in the XX century

During World War II, France was occupied by the Nazis. In the southern part of the state, the reign of Pétain arose with its capital in Vichy. The emblem was an ax with two blades and a handle in the form of a marshal's baton. The symbol of the patriots was a shield in the colors of the French flag, in the middle of which is placed a red cross of Lorraine. After the liberation of the country, the image used before the war was officially approved, in which some changes were made. So, the inscription “Freedom. Brotherhood. Equality”, and around the profile of Marianne placed the text “French Republic. 1870". The fall of the monarchy and the final transition to republican rule are associated with this date.

The invention and use of all kinds of signs and symbols is characteristic of man. The custom of choosing for oneself or for one's kind and tribe a special distinguishing sign has very deep roots and is widespread throughout the world. It comes from the tribal system and a special worldview, characteristic of all peoples in the primitive period of their history.

Generic signs and symbols are called totems; they are the closest relatives of coats of arms. The term "totem" comes from North America, and in the language of the Ojibwe Indians, the word "ototem" means the concept of "his kind." The custom of totemism consists in the election by a clan or tribe of some animal or plant as the progenitor and patron, from which all members of the tribe are descended. This custom existed among ancient peoples, however, even today it is accepted among tribes leading a primitive way of life. The ancient Slavs also had totems - sacred animals, trees, plants - from the names of which some modern Russian surnames are supposed to come. Among the Asian peoples of Turkic and Mongolian origin, there is a similar custom "tamga". Tamga is a sign of tribal affiliation, an image of an animal, bird or weapon, accepted by each tribe as a symbol, which is depicted on banners, emblems, burned on the skin of animals, and even applied to the body. There is a legend among the Kirghiz that tamgas were assigned to individual clans by Genghis Khan himself, along with "uraniums" - battle cries (which were also used by European knights, which is why they then ended up on coats of arms in the form of mottos).

The prototypes of coats of arms - various symbolic images placed on military armor, banners, rings and personal items - were used in antiquity. In the works of Homer, Virgil, Pliny and other ancient authors, there is evidence of the use of such signs. Both legendary heroes and real historical figures, such as kings and generals, often had personal emblems. So, the helmet of Alexander the Great was decorated with a sea horse (hippocampus), the helmet of Achilles - an eagle, the helmet of the king of Numibia Masinissa - a dog, the helmet of the Roman emperor Caracalla - an eagle. The shields were also decorated with various emblems, for example, the image of the severed head of the Gorgon Medusa. But these signs were used as decoration, arbitrarily changed owners, were not inherited and were not subject to any rules. Only some emblems of the islands and cities of the ancient world were constantly used - on coins, medals and seals. The emblem of Athens was an owl, Corinth - Pegasus, Samosa - a peacock, the islands of Rhodes - a rose. In this one can already see the beginnings of state heraldry. Most ancient civilizations had some elements of heraldry in their culture, for example, a system of seals or stamps, which in the future will be inextricably linked with heraldry. In Assyria, the Babylonian Empire and in ancient Egypt, seals were used in the same way as in medieval Europe - to certify documents. These signs were extruded in clay, carved in stone and imprinted on papyrus. Already in the third millennium BC, there was a "coat of arms" of the Sumerian states - an eagle with a lion's head. The emblem of Egypt was a snake, Armenia - a crowned lion, Persia - an eagle. Subsequently, the eagle will become the coat of arms of Rome. The "coat of arms" of Byzantium was actually a double-headed eagle, later borrowed by some European states, including Russia.

The ancient Germans painted their shields in different colors. Roman legionnaires had emblems on their shields, by which it was possible to determine their belonging to a certain cohort. Roman banners - vexilla (hence the name of the science of flags - vexillology) were decorated with special images. To distinguish between legions and cohorts, the troops also used badges - signa - in the form of various animals - an eagle, a boar, a lion, a minotaur, a horse, a she-wolf and others, which rushed ahead of the troops on long poles. From these figures, often related to the history of the city of Rome, military units were sometimes named.

So, various systems of insignia and emblems existed always and everywhere, but heraldry proper as a special form of symbolism arose in the process of the development of the feudal system in Western Europe.

The bright and colorful art of heraldry developed in the gloomy times of the decline of culture and economy that came in Europe with the death of the Roman Empire and the establishment of the Christian religion, when feudalism arose and a system of hereditary aristocracy developed. Several factors contributed to the appearance of coats of arms. First of all - feudalism and the crusades, but they gave birth to the destroying and life-giving fire of war. It is believed that the coats of arms appeared in the 10th century, but it is difficult to find out the exact date. The first coats of arms depicted on the seals attached to documents date back to the 11th century. The oldest official seals are placed on the marriage contract of 1000, concluded by Sancho, Infante of Castile, with Wilhelmina, daughter of Gaston II, Viscount of Bearn. It should be borne in mind that in the era of total illiteracy, the use of a stamp for signature and for denoting ownership was the only way for many to certify a document with their name. Such an identification mark was understandable even to an illiterate person (it is quite possible that coats of arms appeared first on seals, and only then on weapons and clothes).

Undoubted evidence of the existence of heraldry appears only after the Crusades. The earliest such evidence is a French enamel drawing from the grave of Geoffroy Plantagenet (died 1151), Count of Anjou and Maine, depicting Geoffroy himself with a coat of arms, where on an azure field there are supposedly four rearing golden lions (the exact number of lions is difficult to determine due to the position , in which the shield is drawn). The earl was the son-in-law of Henry I, King of England, who ruled from 1100-1135, who, according to the chronicle, granted him this coat of arms.

The first English king to have a personal coat of arms was Richard I the Lionheart (1157-1199). His three golden leopards have been used since then by all the royal dynasties of England.

"WHO HERE IS SORRY AND POOR WILL BE RICH THERE!"

The Crusades, which lasted from 1096 to 1291, constituted an entire era in European history. The beginning of this two-hundred-year war was provoked by the Turks, who had established themselves in Palestine - fanatical Muslims, who, armed with their irreconcilable religion, began to desecrate the shrines of Christianity and put obstacles in the way of Christians who wanted to make a pilgrimage to Palestine and Jerusalem. But the true reasons lay deeper and consisted in the centuries-old confrontation between Europe and Asia, which continues to this day. The Asian tribes, united under the banner of Islam, began a grandiose expansion, as a result of which they conquered Syria, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa, Spain, threatened Constantinople and were already approaching the very heart of Europe. In 711, an Arab army of 7,000 men led by Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to the European continent. Thus began the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula (the rock on the Spanish coast has since been called Mount Tariq, or in Arabic - Jabal-Tariq, which in Spanish pronunciation turned into Gibraltar). By 715, almost the entire Iberian Peninsula was in Muslim hands. In 721, the Umayyads, who ruled a vast caliphate from 661-750, crossed the Pyrenees, invaded Spain, and began their conquest of southern France. They captured the cities of Narbonne and Carcassonne. Thus, new strongholds arose for attacks on Aquitaine and Burgundy. The ruler of the Franks, Charles from the Carolingian family (689-741), defeated the Arabs when they reached the Loire. This happened in 732 at the Battle of Poitiers. The victory earned him the nickname Martell - "hammer", because he stopped the advance of Muslims in Western Europe. But the Arabs held power in Provence for several decades. The military expansion of the Muslim conquerors contributed to the penetration of Arab art and philosophy into Europe in a short period of their heyday. Arab culture gave impetus to the development of medicine and natural sciences in Western Europe. In Byzantium, the Muslims were smashed by Emperor Leo III the Isaurian. The further spread of Islam was stopped by the beginning political disintegration of the Muslim world, until then strong and terrible by its unity. The caliphate was divided into parts that were at enmity with each other. But in the XI century, the Seljuk Turks launched a new offensive to the West, stopping under the very walls of Constantinople.

By that time, the lands of Western Europe were divided between secular and church feudal lords. The feudal system was strengthened, replacing the communal one with its military democracy. The oppression and impoverishment of the people intensified - there were practically no free tillers left, the peasants were enslaved and taxed. The feudal lords invented more and more taxes, competing in extortions with the church - the largest feudal owner, whose greed knew no bounds. Life became unbearable, which is why the population of Europe, impatiently awaiting the end of their torment in connection with the end of the world promised by the Church and the onset of paradise on Earth, was in a state of religious exaltation, expressed in the desire for all kinds of spiritual exploits and in readiness for Christian self-sacrifice. The flow of pilgrims increased. If the Arabs in the past treated them tolerantly, now the Turks began to attack pilgrims and destroy Christian churches. The Roman Catholic Church decided to take advantage of this, hatching plans for world domination, for which, first of all, it was necessary to subjugate the breakaway eastern - Byzantine - church and increase its income by acquiring new feudal possessions - dioceses. In the latter, the interests of the church and the feudal lords completely coincided, since there were no more free lands and peasants sitting on them, and according to the rule of "majorate" the land was inherited from the father only to the eldest son. So the call of Pope Urban II to protect the Holy Sepulcher fell on fertile ground: the oppressive socio-economic conditions in Europe led to the emergence of many desperate people who had nothing to lose and who were ready to go on a risky journey to the ends of the world in search of adventure, wealth and the glory of the "warriors of Christ." In addition to large feudal lords driven by aggressive urges, the idea of ​​​​a campaign to the East was taken up by numerous small feudal knights (junior members of feudal families who could not count on receiving an inheritance), as well as merchants of many trading cities, hoping to destroy their main competitor in trade with the rich East - Byzantium . But the greatest enthusiasm was, of course, experienced by the common people, brought to despair by poverty and deprivation. Huge masses of people were inspired by the speech of Pope Urban in Clermont on November 24, 1095 and vowed to go to war against the infidels for the liberation of the Holy Sepulcher and the Holy Land. They sewed crosses on their clothes, cut out of matter (often taken from the clothes of the priests themselves, who called the masses to the feat), which is why they got the name "crusaders". To the cries of "So God wants!" many set off directly from the Plain of Clermont, following the Pope's propaganda appeal: "The land you inhabit has become cramped with your numbers. Hence it happens that you bite each other and fight with each other ... Now your hatred, enmity will cease and internecine strife will slumber. Take the path to the holy tomb, uproot that land from the wicked people and subdue it to yourself. ... Whoever is sorrowful and poor here will become rich!".

The first crusade took place in 1096, but coats of arms could well have appeared a little earlier. The problem is that the first documentary evidence of coats of arms appeared at least two hundred years after their appearance. Perhaps the close connection between the crusades and the birth of heraldry is explained by the fact that it was during this period that the use of emblems became widespread. This required the creation of an ordered system of symbolic images as a means of communication, because the coat of arms served as an identification mark that carried some information about the owner and was clearly distinguishable from a distance.

Since the 12th century, armor has become more and more complex, the helmet covers the entire face of the knight, he himself is dressed in armor entirely, from head to toe. In addition, with some differences, all the armor was of the same type, so it became impossible to identify the knight not only from a distance, but also close up. This situation gave impetus to the mass use of the coat of arms as an identification mark. In addition to the coat of arms depicted on the shield, additional emblems gradually appeared, which were designed to help the knights recognize each other at a distance and in the heat of battle: pommel (kleinod) - an ornament from animal horns and bird feathers fixed on the top of the helmet (this element received development during knightly tournaments), as well as heraldic pennants and standards. The combination of two types of generic signs - a shield and a pommel - later formed the material basis of the coat of arms.

But back to the crusades. Much in heraldry indicates that it took shape during the conquest of the East by the Crusaders. Here are the signs. The term enamel, which denotes heraldic colors, is of Eastern origin. The word comes from the Persian "mina", meaning the blue color of the sky (the first enamels were blue). The unique technique of enamel painting came to Europe from Persia, Arabia and Byzantium. It was in this way - by applying enamel - that steel armor, shields and special armorial boards were painted, which the heralds exhibited at tournaments. The blue color or azure - "azur" - was brought to Europe from the East - its very modern name ultramarine (overseas blue) reminds of this. The heraldic name "azur" comes from the Persian "azurk" - blue. From here comes the name of lapis lazuli (lapis lazuli), a stone found mainly in Afghanistan, from which this paint is obtained. The name of the red color - "gulz" (gueulez) - came from furs dyed with purple paint, with which the crusaders sheathed their marching clothes around the neck and sleeves (in the section "Rules of Heraldry" it will be said that heraldic figures were often made from pieces of fur stuffed with on the shield). The name comes from the word "gul" - red, in Persian, denoting the color of a rose. The origin of the green color - "vert", also called "sinople", probably comes from dyes produced in the East. The orange color, more commonly found in English heraldry, is called "tenne" - from the Arabic "henne". This was the name of the vegetable yellow-red dye, known to us as henna. It is an ancient custom among Asiatic and Arabian chieftains to henna the mane, tail, and belly of their war horses, and the right hand that holds the weapon. In general, the inhabitants of the East dye their hair and nails with henna. Eastern origin has the name of a shield with a special semicircular cutout from one or both edges, where a spear is inserted. This shield is called "tarch" - just like its Arabic prototype.

Two important details of the heraldic design - the baptism and the burlet - owe their origin to the crusades. In the first crusade, dozens of knights died every day from the heat, as their steel armor became hot in the sun. The Crestons had to borrow from the Arabs a method used by the desert inhabitants to this day: in order to escape from the hot sun and prevent the helmet from heating up, the Arab and Persian warriors used a piece of cloth thrown over their heads and shoulders and fastened on their heads with a hoop of woven camel hair intertwined with silk threads. The so-called kufya is still an integral part of the Arab costume. It is from her that the lambrequin or lambrequin ("lambrequin", from the Latin "lambellum" - a piece or a piece of matter), as well as a burlet (from the French "burrelet" - a wreath) comes from. The namet is an obligatory part of the coat of arms, and is depicted as a cape with fluttering ends, attached to the helmet with a burlet or crown. The basting is either whole, with an ornamentally carved edge (especially in early coats of arms) or excised, with long, whimsically intertwined flaps (probably, the basting cut with saber blows indicated the courage of the owner of the coat of arms - a participant in the hottest fights).

During the crusades, European feudal lords, who were well known to everyone in their homeland, joined a huge international army and, against the general background, lost their usually pronounced external individuality, which is why they had the need to somehow distinguish themselves from the mass of the same knights , demonstrate their national, tribal and military affiliation. The conquests of the crusaders were always accompanied by terrible robbery and robbery, so the rule was established according to which the knight who first broke into any house of the taken city was declared the owner of everything that was in it. The knights had to somehow mark the loot in order to protect it from the encroachments of comrades-in-arms. With the advent of coats of arms, this problem was solved by nailing a shield with the coat of arms of its new owner to the door of the house. Not only individual crusaders, but also major military leaders had such a need: the inhabitants of the houses and quarters taken by their detachments hung out the banners of these troops in order not to be plundered by other feudal lords. It should be noted here that conflicts over the division of booty, skirmishes and disputes over the honor of taking this or that city arose among the crusaders constantly. You can also add that all the crusades were very poorly organized. In the preparation of military operations, complete confusion reigned, and during the battles there was a general dump. All their strife, greed, deceit and cruelty, from which Europe groaned, the secular and church feudal lords brought with them to the East. Later, this (as well as the traditionally treacherous policy of Byzantium) will lead to the collapse of the crusader movement and the expulsion of Europeans from the occupied territories, but for now there is a need to somehow streamline the situation. An example was before my eyes: Arab warriors used shield emblems, usually consisting of inscriptions or drawings of flowers and fruits. This custom, like many others, was adopted by the crusaders and became one of the foundation stones of the emerging heraldry.

The consequence of the crusades was the extinction of many noble families in Europe, all male representatives of which died during the campaigns. Noble families, whose roots go back to the era of the conquest of Rome by barbarian tribes, simply disappeared. As a result, European monarchs for the first time were forced to favor the nobility, creating a new aristocracy. Coats of arms played the most important role in this, since often the only basis for claiming nobility and documentary evidence of noble origin was a coat of arms brought from the Holy Land.

So, the accumulation in one place of many feudal lords from different countries (an unusual situation for Europe), the international nature of the crusader army, the need to identify each other and (under conditions of illiteracy and language barriers) to assert their own name, as well as the characteristics of weapons, the method of warfare and borrowing many inventions of Eastern civilization - all this became the reason for the emergence and design of heraldry.

The coat of arms owes to knightly tournaments no less than to the crusades. Tournaments appeared before the Crusades. In any case, there is a mention of military games that took place in 842 in Strasbourg during the negotiations between Charles the Bald and Louis the German. Tournaments probably took shape in France in the middle of the 12th century and then spread to England and Germany. In some chronicles, the French baron G. de Prelly is called the inventor of tournaments, but most likely he only developed the first rules for tournaments.

Tournaments have long become an integral part of Western European life. Only knights with an impeccable reputation were allowed to participate in them. Violation of the knightly code threatened with terrible shame. Around 1292, new, safer rules for tournaments were introduced - "Statutum Armorum". Only blunt weapons could be used. Each knight was allowed only three squires. In duels, special spears were now used, which easily break on impact. It was forbidden to fight out of turn, to injure the enemy's horse, to strike otherwise than in the face or chest, to continue the fight after the enemy raised his visor, to act as a group against one. Violators were deprived of weapons, horses and imprisoned for up to three years. Special tournament armor appeared so massive that the knight and his horse could hardly bear their weight. The horses themselves from the 13th century also dressed in armor. Just like the shields of the knights, horse blankets had heraldic coloring. Two more important details should be mentioned. The knight had to be clearly visible from above, from the stands, especially during the general fight. That is why the already mentioned pommel appeared (or at least became widespread) - figures fixed on the top of the helmet, made of light wood, leather and even papier-mâché (later - from more expensive materials). The famous German errant knight of the XIV century, Ulrich von Liechtenstein, who took part in several tournaments dressed as the legendary King Arthur, introduced the fashion for complex pommel: he wore a helmet decorated with the figure of Venus, holding a torch in one hand, and an arrow in the other. Tents or tents in which the knights prepared for competitions, stored weapons and rested between battles (the crusaders used the same tents on campaigns), will also be reflected in the art of heraldry in the future - they will turn into a heraldic mantle and a canopy tent.

Tournaments have evolved from wild bloody battles into colorful theatrical performances, where formalities have become increasingly important, and the fight itself has become less important and more conventional. For example, in the "Tournament of Peace" held in Windsor Park in England in 1278, swords made of parchment-covered whalebone and silver plated, helmets of boiled leather and shields of light wood were used. For certain achievements in the competition, the knight received points (for example, bonus points were awarded for a knocked down pommel). The winner was determined by the crowned persons, the oldest knights or specially appointed judges (often heralds), sometimes the issue of the winner was decided by the ladies in whose honor the knights fought. Tournaments were traditionally imbued with an emphatically reverent attitude towards women, which was almost the basis of the knightly code. The award to the winner in the tournament was given from the hands of the lady. The knights performed adorned with some kind of badge received from their ladies. Sometimes the ladies brought their knights tied with a chain - the chain was considered a symbol of special honor and was given only to the elite. In every contest, the last blow was delivered in honor of the lady, and here the knights especially tried to distinguish themselves. After the tournament, the ladies led the winner to the palace, where they disarmed him and arranged a feast in his honor, where the hero occupied the most honorable place. The names of the winners were entered into special lists, their exploits were passed on to their descendants in the songs of the minstrels. The victory in the tournament also brought material benefits: sometimes the victor took away the horse and weapons from the enemy, took him prisoner and demanded a ransom. For many poor knights, this was the only way to earn a living.

From Friday to Sunday, when tournaments were allowed by the church, there were fights every day, and in the evenings dances and festivities were held. There were several types of competitions: horse races, when the knight had to knock the enemy out of the saddle with a blow of a spear; sword fight; throwing spears and arrows; the siege of wooden castles built specifically for tournaments. Another way to show courage besides the tournament was to "protect the passages". A group of knights announced that in honor of their ladies they would defend a place from everyone. So, in 1434, at Orbigo, in Spain, ten knights defended the bridge from sixty-eight rivals for a month, having spent more than seven hundred fights. In the 16th century foot fights with short spears, maces and axes became popular. In Europe, only persons of noble birth were allowed to participate in tournaments. In Germany, the requirements were more liberal: sometimes, in order to get permission, it was enough to refer to an ancestor who took part in a jousting tournament. We can say that the main pass to the tournament was the coat of arms, proving the high origin of the owner and his position in the tribal hierarchy. For connoisseurs, such as the heralds, the presented coat of arms contained all the necessary information. That is why emblems were the most important part of tournament etiquette, which became so numerous that it was time to put things in order in this area.

The heralds systematized knowledge about coats of arms, developed general principles and rules for their compilation and recognition, and ultimately created the science of "coat of arms" or "heraldry"
There are two variants of the origin of the terms "heraldry" and "herald": from the late Latin heraldica (from heraldus - herald), or from the German Herald - spoiled Heeralt - a veteran, as they called people in Germany in the Middle Ages who had a reputation as valiant and brave warriors who were invited as guests of honor and judges at various celebrations, and, in particular, at tournaments. These veterans were supposed to preserve the customs of chivalry, develop the rules of tournaments, and also monitor their observance.
The predecessors of heralds were representatives of several related professions, whose duties were combined and specified, which led to the appearance of heralds in the classical sense of the word - heralds, courtiers and wandering minstrels, as well as the veterans mentioned above.
Heralds or parliamentarians were used even in ancient armies, as they are still used today - for negotiations with the enemy, for the announcement of decrees and various kinds of announcements.

Minstrels (French menestrel, from medieval Latin ministerialis) are called medieval singers and poets. In any case, this term acquired such a meaning in France and England at the end of the Middle Ages. Initially, in all feudal states, ministerials were people who were in the service of a lord and performed some special duty (ministerium) with him. Among them were poets-singers, unlike their wandering brothers in the craft, who were constantly at the court or a high-ranking person. In France in the 12th century, minstrels were sometimes called the servants of the king in general, and sometimes his court poets and singers. The function of court minstrels was to sing and glorify the exploits of their feudal lords. And from here it’s not far to the function of stewards of court ceremonies and, in particular, knightly tournaments. It is likely that the wandering minstrels, whose art was in demand at the courts of European feudal lords, gained experience in recognizing the coats of arms that constantly surrounded them. The oldest known herald poet was Konrad of Würzburg, who lived in the 13th century. The functions of veterans, who by the nature of their activities were directly related to the coats of arms, have already been said.

It is possible that representatives of all three professions were called at a certain historical moment by one common term - heralds. One way or another, but the spread of jousting tournaments contributed to the emergence of special officials who were supposed to announce the opening of the tournament, develop and observe the ceremonial of its conduct, and also announce all fights and the names of their participants. This required special knowledge - the herald had to know well the genealogy of the noble families whose representatives took part in the battles, and be able to recognize the coats of arms of the knights who had come to the tournament. So gradually the profession of heralds acquires a purely heraldic character, and heraldry itself is born at tournaments.

The French name for heraldry - "blason" - comes from the German "blasen" - "blow the horn" and is explained by the fact that when the knight drove up to the barrier that protected the tournament venue, he blew the horn to announce his arrival. Then the herald came out and, at the request of the tournament judges, described the coat of arms of the knight aloud as proof of his right to take part in the tournament. From the word "blasen" comes the French "blasonner", the German "blasoniren", the English "blazon", the Spanish "blasonar" and the Russian word "blazon" - that is, to describe the coat of arms. The heralds created a special jargon to describe coats of arms (and today used by specialists in heraldry), based on Old French and medieval Latin, since chivalry itself, like many things connected with it - the chivalric code, weapon developments, tournaments and, finally, heraldry - originates from France, or rather from the empire of Charlemagne (747-814), inhabited by Franco-Germanic tribes. Much of the heraldic terminology is denoted by quasi-French, obsolete words. During the Middle Ages, French was used by the ruling classes in most of Western Europe, so the rules of heraldry had to be drawn up in that language. However, some heraldic terms are so ornate that they seem deliberately designed to puzzle the uninitiated. The special terms developed by the heralds will be discussed below.

It is assumed that the Russian word "coat of arms" is borrowed from the Polish "herb" and is found in many Slavic and German dialects (herb, erb, irb) in the meaning of heir or inheritance. The Slavic name of this identification mark directly indicates its hereditary character. The English term "coat of arms", denoting the coat of arms, comes from the name of a special item of clothing "surcoat" - a linen or silk cape that protects the knight's armor from the sun and rain (the word "knight" comes from the German "ritter" - rider).

So, coats of arms are becoming increasingly important in the countries of Western Europe. In England, since the 12th century, heralds have been held in high esteem at the court of kings. Edward III (1312-1377) established a heraldic college that functions to this day (this institution - "The College of Arms" - is located in London on Queen Victoria Street). In France, Louis VII (1120-1180) established the duties of heralds and ordered all royal regalia to be decorated with fleur-de-lis. Under the French king Philip II Augustus (1165-1223), heralds begin to dress in a knight's dress with the coat of arms of the owner and entrust them with some duties in tournaments. The duties of the heralds are precisely formulated by the middle of the 14th century. The title of herald becomes honorary, it is raised only after any battle, tournament or ceremony. To do this, the sovereign poured a goblet of wine (sometimes water) on the head of the initiate and gave him the name of the city or fortress associated with the initiation ceremony, which the herald kept until he received the next highest degree - the title of armory king (French "roi d" armes ", German. "Wappenkoenig") The duties of the herald were divided into three main groups: 1) they were charged with declaring war, making peace, offering to surrender the fortress, and the like, as well as counting those killed and wounded during a battle or tournament and assessing the valor of knights; 2) they were required to be present at all solemn ceremonies - at the coronation or burial of the sovereign, at the elevation to knighthood, ceremonial receptions, etc. 3) they were assigned purely heraldic duties - the compilation of coats of arms and genealogies.
The work of the heralds was paid very well, there was a tradition not to let the sent herald go without a gift, so as not to show disrespect to the sovereign who sent him.

Each state was divided into several heraldic brands, which were under the supervision of one "arms king" and several heralds. For example, France in 1396 was divided into eighteen such marks. In Germany in the 14th century, individual provinces also had their own heralds.
True, from the 18th century, heralds lose their medieval significance, but do not disappear without a trace, and are still used at solemn ceremonies - coronations, marriages, etc.

Centuries after the appearance of coats of arms, the first scientific works on heraldry and armorials proper begin to appear, the earliest of which, apparently, is the Zuricher Wappenrolle, compiled in Zurich in 1320.

In France, Jacob Bretex at the end of the 13th century describes tournaments and the coats of arms of their participants. But the earliest work outlining the rules of heraldry is considered to be the monograph of the Italian jurist Bartolo, whose "Tractatus de insigniis et armis" was published in 1356.
Berry, the chief herald of France at the court of Charles VII (1403-1461), traveled all over the country on the instructions of the king, visiting castles, abbeys and cemeteries, studying images of coats of arms and compiling genealogies of ancient noble families. Based on his research, he compiled the work "Le registre de noblesse". After him, the French heralds began to keep regular genealogical records. A similar task was received from the kings in the period from Henry VIII (1491-1547) to James II (1566-1625) by English heralds, who carried out the so-called "heraldic visits" - inspection trips around the country in order to census noble families, register coats of arms and verify their eligibility . It turned out that most of the old coats of arms that appeared before 1500 were appropriated by the owners without permission, and not granted by the king. It was not difficult to invent a simple coat of arms. The situation in which three unrelated nobles had the same emblems was not uncommon, but only proved that these emblems were adopted by them arbitrarily. When a dispute arose between the owners of identical coats of arms on this basis, each appealed to the king as the last resort. It is noteworthy that when the dispute was resolved, the nobleman, forced as a result to abandon his coat of arms, consoled himself by inventing a new one for himself.
The materials collected during the "heraldic visits" formed the basis of English genealogy and heraldry.

CITY ARMS

At the heart of the city and state emblems are the seals of the feudal lords, which certify the authenticity of the documents sent by them from their possessions. The family coat of arms of the feudal lord, thus, passed first to the seal of the castle, and then to the seal of the lands belonging to him. With the emergence of new cities and the formation of new states, the requirements of the time and legal norms led to the creation of coats of arms, either completely new, not borrowed from the family coats of arms of the nobility, but bearing symbolic images indicating local attractions, historical events, the economic profile of the city, or mixed. An example is the coat of arms of Paris, in which a ship and an azure field with golden lilies adjoin. The ship symbolizes, on the one hand, the island de la Cité on the Seine River, lying in the very center of the city, in the form of a ship, and on the other hand, trade and trading companies, the main component of the urban economy. An azure field with golden lilies is an old emblem of the Capetian dynasty, under whose patronage Paris was.

From the end of the 13th and during the 14th centuries, heraldry penetrated into all areas of public life, and heraldic terminology became commonly used in the cultural strata of society. Heraldry is becoming fashionable in literature, art, and everyday life. Coats of arms appear everywhere, from knightly armor to the collars of your favorite dogs. The knights who returned from the crusades, imitating the luxurious clothes of the eastern rulers, began to wear special coats of arms, matching the colors of their coats of arms and decorated with embroidered coats of arms and mottos. Servants and squires receive clothes with the coat of arms of their masters, ordinary nobles put on a dress with the coats of arms of their seniors, noble ladies begin to wear dresses with images of two coats of arms: on the right - the coat of arms of their husband, on the left - their own. Under the French king Charles V the Wise (1338-1380), clothes painted half in one, half in another color came into fashion. From the nobles and their squires, this fashion passed to the representatives of the urban estates. Thus, heraldry becomes an important component of the culture of Western Europe.

Along with individual heraldry, in the Middle Ages, other areas of heraldry were developed - urban and corporate, including church. City artisans and merchants created guilds, registered as "legal entities" and supplied with coats of arms, respectively. It was customary for the members of the guild to wear the heraldic colors of their association - special liveries. So, for example, members of the London Butcher's Company wore white and blue liveries, bakers - olive green and chestnut colors, wax candle merchants wore white and blue liveries. The London Furriers Company was allowed to use ermine fur in its coat of arms, although according to medieval norms, this heraldic color could only be used by royal and noble families as a sign of their exclusivity and superiority. On corporate coats of arms were placed mainly tools.

Similar coats of arms, called vowels - "armes parlantes", in which the name of the craft was conveyed by heraldic symbols, are received by many workshops and guilds. Here, for example, looked like the coats of arms of the workshops of Ghent, one of the largest craft centers of the Middle Ages: coopers depicted a working tool and a tub on the shield of their coat of arms, butchers - a bull, fruit merchants - a fruit tree, barbers - a razor and scissors, shoemakers - a boot, fishmongers - fish, shipbuilders - a ship under construction. The goldsmiths' workshop of Paris received from King Philip VI (1293-1350) a coat of arms depicting royal golden lilies, combined with a golden cross and the emblems of their craft - golden sacral vessels and crowns, with the motto "In sacra inque coronas". Apothecaries depict scales and a lancet on their coats of arms, nailers - hammer and nails, charioteers - wheels, playing card makers - symbols of card suits. In addition, images of the patron saints of the respective crafts were found in corporate coats of arms. The French king Louis XIII, wishing to raise the importance of the merchants, granted coats of arms to six merchant guilds of Paris, in which the ship from the Parisian city coat of arms was adjacent to the symbols of the corresponding crafts and mottos.

Wishing to imitate the aristocracy, wealthy citizens used family signs like coats of arms, although they were not official. But the French government, in need of money, decided to turn the spreading fashion to its advantage and allowed everyone to acquire coats of arms, but for a fee. Moreover, greedy officials even obliged the townspeople to acquire coats of arms. As a result of the introduction in 1696 of a tax on the right to have a personal coat of arms, the treasury began to receive significant income, since a huge number of coats of arms were registered. But as a result of this, the value of coats of arms in France has fallen dramatically - the incredibly prolific coats of arms have depreciated.

Educational institutions have also used coats of arms for centuries. Universities often received the coat of arms of their founders, such as Christ's College, Cambridge, founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort. Eton College received its coat of arms in 1449 from its founder, King Henry VI (1421-1471), a devout hermit whose inability to rule was one of the causes of the Wars of the Scarlet and White Roses. The three white lilies on this coat of arms symbolize the Virgin Mary, in whose honor the college was founded. Many private and commercial firms today strive to obtain a coat of arms, since the presence of such a coat of arms gives the company solidity and reliability. For example, the well-known English trading company Herrods received a coat of arms relatively recently.

From the first days of its existence, the church claimed the highest and absolute power in this world, therefore it appropriated all the attributes of secular power, including coats of arms. The coat of arms of the papacy in the 14th century was the crossed gold and silver keys of the Apostle Peter - "allowing" and "binding", tied with a gold cord, on a scarlet shield under the papal tiara. These symbols have received various interpretations, which we will not dwell on here. Let's just say that the coat of arms indicates the rights received by Peter to "decide" and "bind" all the affairs of the church and that these rights were inherited from him by his successors - the popes. This coat of arms is today the official coat of arms of the Vatican, but each pope receives his own coat of arms, in which the keys and tiara frame the shield. For example, the current Pope John Paul II has a coat of arms that he received when he was Archbishop of Krakow from the hands of Archbishop Bruno Haim, a specialist in heraldry. The cross and the letter "M" on the coat of arms symbolize Christ and the Virgin Mary. It should be said that placing any inscriptions in the coat of arms, except for mottos, is considered bad form, but the author of the coat of arms is justified, referring to the traditions of Polish heraldry (which will be discussed later), where runic letters were originally used. Indeed, the letter "M" resembles a rune of a similar design.

The flag of the Vatican depicts the small coat of arms of the city-state, in which there is no scarlet shield, but this color is transferred to the cord that binds the keys. Obviously, the colors of the keys are chosen for the flag - gold and silver.

The church, which was the largest feudal lord of the Middle Ages, early began to use coats of arms for practical purposes - to identify and demonstrate the territorial affiliation of church organizations. Coats of arms have been found on the seals of abbeys and bishops since the 12th century. The most common symbols of church heraldry are the keys of St. Peter, the eagle of St. John and other signs symbolizing various saints, details of church life, and a wide variety of crosses. In the UK, there are certain rules for the coats of arms of church leaders, showing their status in the church hierarchy. For example, the coats of arms of archbishops and bishops are decorated with miters (the coat of arms of the Pope is crowned with a tiara), and on the coats of arms of priests of a lower rank, special hats of different colors are placed, in accordance with their status, equipped with multi-colored cords and tassels. A dean, for example, might have a black hat with two purple single cords with three red tassels on each. The priests of the Roman Catholic Church are not under the jurisdiction of the official heraldic authorities, but the coats of arms they use have been regulated by a special decree since 1967. For example, the coat of arms of a Catholic archbishop may contain a green hat with two green single cords, each with ten green tassels.

At the heart of all the state emblems of European countries lay the family emblems of the ruling dynasties. On many modern European state emblems, in one form or another, there are lions and eagles - traditional symbols of power and statehood.

On the coat of arms of Denmark - three azure leopards on a golden field decorated with scarlet hearts - this is how the coat of arms of King Knud VI Valdemarsson looked around 1190. Along with the English, this emblem can be considered the oldest European national emblem. On the large royal coat of arms of Sweden, lions support the shield and are also present in the second and third quarters of the shield. Around 1200, the ruler of Norway got his own coat of arms, which depicts a crowned lion of St. Olaf holding a battle ax in his front paws. The lion of the Finnish coat of arms was gradually formed by the 16th century. On the arms of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, a lion also settled - the old emblem of the Dukes of Burgundy. On the coat of arms of the Netherlands - a golden lion with a silver sword and a bunch of arrows in its paws. This is the union emblem of the Republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, which gained independence in 1609. The republican coat of arms as a whole survived after the creation of the kingdom in 1815. The coat of arms took its modern form in 1917, when, at the initiative of Prince Consort Heinrich of Mecklenburg (1876-1934), the royal crown on the head of a lion was replaced with a regular one, a mantle with a canopy and shield-holder lions appeared. By decision of the Congress of Vienna, which established a new European order after the collapse of the Napoleonic empire, the Netherlands gained independence. The son of the last stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, William VI of Orange, became King of the Netherlands under the name of William I. But the southern provinces of the Netherlands decided to defend their own independence. In 1830, an uprising took place in Brabant, and since then the Brabantian golden lion in a black field has been perceived as a symbol of the independence of the union of the southern provinces. In 1831, the Kingdom of Belgium was proclaimed, the coat of arms of which was the coat of arms of Brabant. The coat of arms of Luxembourg was approved by King William I of the Netherlands in 1815, since he was also the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. The lion can also be seen on other state emblems. In international state heraldry, the lion is adjacent to another symbol of supreme power - the eagle. It can be seen on the emblems of Austria, Albania, Bolivia, Germany, Indonesia, Iraq, Colombia, Libya, Mexico, Poland, Syria, USA, Chile and many other countries. Unfortunately, the volume of this article does not allow us to pay attention to each of them, so here we will consider only some examples.

The Austrian three-stripe (red-white-red) shield was the coat of arms of the Dukes of Babenberg, who ruled this country until 1246. His image appeared on the seals of the dukes in the 20-30s of the XIII century. Earlier, in the second half of the 12th century, the image of a black eagle, a very common heraldic emblem, first appeared on the seal of the first Austrian Duke Henry II of Babenberg. The Austrian knights, led by Duke Leopold V, set off on the third crusade under a flag with a black eagle. Soon, in 1282, Austria came under the rule of the new Habsburg dynasty, whose family coat of arms was a red lion in a golden field. From 1438 to 1806, the Habsburgs almost continuously occupied the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, whose emblem was traditionally a double-headed eagle. He became the coat of arms of Austria, and later the Austrian Empire (1804) and the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1868). The same eagle can be seen on the shield of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.

Plants can be seen at the base of the coat of arms of Great Britain. These are unspoken (silent) mottos or symbols of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. In different versions of the coat of arms, they can be depicted both separately and collected in one fantastic plant, a kind of hybrid consisting of a Tudor rose, a Caledonian thistle of Scotland, an Irish clover shamrock and a Welsh onion.

The Tudor rose was formed from the scarlet rose of the Lancasters and the white rose of the Yorks, who fought among themselves for the English throne. After the "War of the Scarlet and White Roses", which lasted from 1455 to 1485, the founder of the new dynasty, Henry VII (1457-1509), united the emblems of the warring houses into one. Shamrock joined the "hybrid" rose and thistle in 1801 with the formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

The rose, thistle, shamrock, and bow illustrate another area of ​​heraldry. A variety of badges attached to clothes that could symbolize a specific person, country or some concept appeared even before the coats of arms, in antiquity, and in the Middle Ages gained great popularity. With the development of heraldry, these badges began to acquire a heraldic character. The badge, as a rule, represented one main emblem of the family coat of arms, many of which were very complex and consisted of many details. These badges were designed to show that their owners belong to the environment of a person or to a whole family. During the War of the Scarlet and White Rose, many soldiers, especially foreign mercenaries, dressed in the heraldic colors of their master. For example, at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, the soldiers of the Earl of Richmond's army wore white and green jackets, the soldiers of Sir William Stanley's army wore red, and so on. In addition, they wore the personal badges of their generals. It was the prototype of a military uniform. In all modern armies, along with elements of heraldry, there are special badges. The owner of the coat of arms could have several badges, as well as arbitrarily change them at will.

Apart from Western Europe, only Japan by the 12th century had developed a similar heraldic system called "mon". In some European languages, this is erroneously translated as "coat of arms", although it is not a coat of arms in the European sense of the word. As an example, we can consider the emblem of the imperial family - a 16-petal chrysanthemum. Similar signs were also placed on helmets, shields and breastplates of armor, but unlike coats of arms, they were never depicted so large that they could be recognized from a distance. If such identification was required, "mon" was displayed on the flags. Just like the European coat of arms, "mon" is used in art - for decorating clothes, furniture, and interiors. Just like in European royal families, the younger members of the Japanese imperial family had a chrysanthemum image modified according to certain rules. Just like in Europe, in Japan, "mon" was required to be legalized. Both hereditary heraldic systems arose independently of each other, but their similarity is not surprising, since feudal societies developed along the same lines. Like European, Japanese heraldry survived the era of chivalry and is widely used in our time.

SOME CONSIDERATIONS

In Europe, as well as in the USA and other former colonies, heraldry continues to live, despite the fact that feudalism is a thing of the past, and the coats of arms themselves play a purely decorative role. But in these countries, heraldry, which has a long history, has become a good tradition and has largely been democratized. Many people who have no relation to the nobility for a long time, having found the owner of the coat of arms among their ancestors, are in a hurry to decorate their homes with a coat of arms with a certificate in a beautiful frame. As a result, new coats of arms are constantly appearing. In many countries there are official heraldic societies involved in the development and approval of coats of arms, genealogical research. The large number and solid status of these organizations testifies to the real need of society for heraldry, which today is not a mossy fragment of history, but a part of modern culture. Obviously, while there are people who are interested in the past of their kind, interest in coats of arms will also remain - witnesses of cruel wars, heroic crusades and luxurious knightly tournaments (to be convinced of this, it is enough to familiarize yourself with the short and, of course, incomplete list of national and international heraldic organizations, which you can not even read, but just skim through your eyes).

Unfortunately, the present and future of heraldry is not so optimistic in Russia, where there is practically no ground for its existence. In addition, the old Russian heraldry is not very rich in material: it includes several thousand noble and several hundred provincial and city coats of arms, most of which appeared at about the same time and in one place - in the corresponding administrative institution, that is, in the Senate department of heraldry. The "General Armorial of the Noble Families of the All-Russian Empire", which by 1917 amounted to 20 volumes, contained only about 6 thousand coats of arms, with a total number of noble families of about 50 thousand. Of course, this is a drop in the bucket compared to the resources of European heraldry. Although various kinds of emblems were used by the Slavs in antiquity, real emblems appeared in Russia five hundred years later than in Europe, and not because of practical necessity, but as a beautiful toy from the West. Therefore, not having time to take root, Russian heraldry was carried away by the whirlwinds of history.

In the process of creating site materials, the question sometimes arose - how detailed should they be? What to talk about in general terms, and what to consider in detail? The degree of detail was determined by common sense, because the purpose of the site is to give the reader only a general idea of ​​heraldry, which is to some extent reflected in its title. "Excursion to Heraldry", of course, cannot claim to be a complete coverage of this vast area, since only the basic principles are stated here, illustrated by some examples. Nevertheless, the authors believe that these materials may be of interest to those who have just begun to be interested in heraldry and are in need of basic information on this topic.
The efforts of modern heraldry as an auxiliary scientific discipline are aimed at studying coats of arms, namely, at identifying their owners, clarifying the history of their origin and establishing the time of their creation. For serious historical research, of course, more detailed information and more reliable sources will be required than the Excursus to Heraldry. But in order to understand what a coat of arms is, what it consists of, what its main elements mean and what its main elements are called, and, finally, in order to try to create a coat of arms on your own, guided by the principles outlined and focusing on the examples given, you can successfully use our review. In any case, the authors hope that they have mentioned here all the main points necessary for the first steps towards the practical study of heraldry.

List of some foreign heraldic organizations:

• AUSTRALIA: The Heraldry Council of Australia; The Heraldry Society (Australian ranch); The Heraldry Society of Australia Heraldry Australia Inc.
• AUSTRIA: Heraldisch-Genealogische Gesellschaft.
• ENGLAND & WALES: The College of Arms; The Heraldry Society; Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies.
• BELGIUM: Heraldique et Genealogique de Belgique; Musees Royaux d "Art et d" Histoire; L "Office Genealogique et Heraldique de Belgigue.
• HUNGARY: Magyar Heraldikai es Geneologiai Tarsasag.
• GERMANY: Der Herold; Genealogisch-Heraldische Gesellschaft; Wappen Herold; Deutsche Heraldische Gesellschaft.
• DENMARK: Heraldisk Selskab, Koebenhavn; Dansk Genealogisk Institute;Nordisk Flaggskrift.
• IRELAND: The Chief Herald of Ireland's Office; The Heraldry Scoiety of Ireland.
• ITALY: Aradico Collegio; Instituteo Italiano di Genealogia ed Araldica.
• CANADA: Canadian Heraldic Authority; Heraldry Society of Canada.
• LUXEMBOURG: Conseil Heraldique de Luxembourg.
• NETHERLANDS: Koninklijk Nederlands Genootschap voor Geslact en Wapenkunde; Central Bureau voor Genealogy.
• NORWAY: Heraldisk Forening Norsk; Norsk Vapenring; Norsk Slekthistorik Forening; Kunstindustrimuseet i Oslo; middelalderforum; Universitetet i Oslo, Historisk Institute; Universitetet i Oslo Ethnografisk Museum.
• NEW ZEALAND: The Heraldry Society of New Zealand; The Heraldry Society (New Zealand Branch).
• POLAND: Heraldic Records Archive.
• PORTUGAL: Institutio Portuges de Heraldica.
• SCANDINAVIAN SOCIETY: Societas Heraldica Scandanavica.
• USA: New England Historic Genealogical Society; North American Institute of Heraldic and Flag Studies; American College of Heraldry; The Augustan Society Inc.; Genealogical and Heraldic Institute of America; National Genealogical Society.
• FINLAND: Heraldica Scandanavia; Suomen Heraldinen Seura; Finlands National Committe for Genealogi och Heraldik; Genealogiska Samfundet and Finland; Heraliske Sallskapet and Finland.
• FRANCE: Federation des Societes de Genealogie, d "Heraldique et de Sigillographie; La Societe Franeaise D" Heraldique et de Sigillographie; La Societe du Grand Armorial de France.
• SCOTLAND: Lord Lyon King of Arms, and the Court of Lord Lyon; The Heraldry Society of Scotland; The Scottish Genealogical Society.
• SWITZERLAND: Heraldische Schweizersche Gesellschaft.
• SWEDEN: Swedish state herald: Clara Neveous, Riksarkivet - Heraldiska sektionen; Svenska Heraldiska Foreningen (Heraldry Society of Sweden); Heraldiska Samfundet; Skandinavisk Vapenrulla (SVR); Svenska Nationalkommitten for Genealogi och Heraldik; Voestra Sveriges Heraldiska Saellskap; Riddarhuset; Genealogiska Foereningen Genealogical Society).
• South Africa: The State Herald; Bureau of Heraldry; The Heraldry Society of Southern Africa.
• JAPAN: The Heraldry Society of Japan.
• INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS: Academie Internationale d "Heraldique; Confederation Internationale de Genealogie et d" Heraldique; International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Studies; International Fellowship of Armorists (Heraldry International); International Genealogical Institute; Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints.

Charles V of Habsburg is the largest statesman of Europe in the first half of the 16th century. This is the last sovereign ever formally proclaimed by the Roman Emperor. The ruler, the first in history to create a power in which the sun never set. It was during the reign of Charles V - in 1519-1522 - that the Spaniards (subjects of Charles) under the command of Ferdinand Magellan made the first known round-the-world expedition. For me, this is an important and symptomatic fact. And finally, a man born in a Flemish city, which is one of my favorites. The personality is large-scale, contradictory and diverse. But in this entry, I will not consider the psychological characteristics of Charles V, but his coat of arms. Moreover, his coat of arms as the King of Spain (de jure - Aragon) under the name Charles I. This was his first royal title, adopted even before the title of Roman Emperor. It was Charles who was the first ruler of a unified Spain.

Charles was the heir to four prominent dynasties in Europe. Thanks to the crossing of dynastic lines, Charles inherited vast territories in Western, Southern and Central Europe, which have never been united to this day:
- from his father, Philip: Burgundian Netherlands, Luxembourg, Artois, Franche-Comté;
- from his mother, Juana the Mad: Castile, Leon, Andalusia, Canary Islands, Ceuta and the West Indies;
- from maternal grandfather Ferdinand II of Aragon: Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, Roussillon, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, Balearic Islands;
- from the paternal grandfather Maximilian I: the crown of the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Tyrol.

Lands annexed by him: Lombardy (Milan), Tunisia, New Granada (modern Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama), New Spain (territories of modern Mexico, the southwestern states of the USA and Florida, Guatemala, Belize, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica , Cuba), Peru and a number of others.

None of the European Monarchs, either before or since, has held so many titles. Charles had nine Royal crowns alone - he was simultaneously the King of Leon and Castile, Valencia, Aragon, Granada, Naples, Sicily, Bohemia, and also the titular King of Germany and Italy.

Complicated self-naming of Carl: "The Chosen Emperor of Christendom and the Roman, ever Augustus, and also the Catholic King of Germany, Spain and all the Kingdoms belonging to our Castilian and Aragonese crowns, as well as the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands and the Indies, the Antipodes of the New World, the land in the Sea-Ocean, Straits of the Antarctic Pole and many other islands of both the extreme East and West, and others; Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, Brabant, Limburg, Luxembourg, Geldern and others; count of Flanders, Artois and Burgundy, count palatine of Gennegau, Holland, Zeeland, Namur, Roussillon, Cerdanya, Zutphen, margrave of Oristania and Gotzania, sovereign of Catalonia and many other kingdoms in Europe, as well as in Asia and Africa, lord and others "…

Great Coat of Arms of King Charles

Coats of arms that are part of the Royal Arms

The coat of arms consists of two heraldic groups, which are repeated in reverse order: identical, respectively, the first and fourth quarters (upper left and lower right for the viewer) - the Spanish part and the second and third quarters (lower left and upper right (for the viewer) - Austrian Part.

Spanish part

● in a scarlet field, a three-tower golden castle - the Kingdom of Castile (this region has a telling name, reflecting the abundance of castles)

● purple in a white field (it is scarlet on the Great Coat of Arms, but purple is the more correct shade) a lion in a golden crown - the Kingdom of Leon (at first glance it seems that there is also an obvious analogy here - Lion and Leon, but in fact the name of this region descended from the Roman legions)

● in a golden field, four scarlet pillars - the Aragonese crown; this is a long-term union of numerous titles and states in the hands of the King of Aragon (according to legend, the ruler of Aragon, Gottfried, Count of Barcelona, ​​distinguished himself in battles with the Normans robbers on the Iberian Peninsula, as a sign of which Emperor Charles the Bald touched his bleeding wounds with his hand and ran it over the gilded count's shield, thereby in fact, the coat of arms of Aragon comes from the red and gold banner of the Burgundian (Arelat) Kingdom that existed in the early Middle Ages)

● in a scarlet field, gold chains laid in an oblique and straight cross and along the perimeter of the shield, in the middle of the shield is an emerald - the Kingdom of Navarre. In various versions of the coat of arms, the chains are depicted both as separate interlaced rings and as a sequence of connected rings.

● in a white field, a golden eight-pointed Jerusalem cross (in the form of four converging Greek letters tau) surrounded by four straight crosses and eight red and silver horizontal stripes - the Kingdom of Naples

● diamond-shaped combination of the coat of arms of Aragon and two black eagles in a silver field - the Kingdom of Sicily (the eagles are reminiscent of the Imperial Hohenstaufen dynasty, which owned this island for a long time)

Austrian part

● red and silver stripes - Austria, the ancestral possession of the Habsburgs (the red color also has an explanation for the legend of the bloody stripes on the silver-plated shield of the Austrian duke)

● rows of golden lilies in an azure field, red and white stripes along the border - the Second Capetian House of Burgundy (the Burgundian branch of the Valois dynasty, "New Burgundy")

● oblique gold and azure stripes, red border - the Duchy of Burgundy ("Old Burgundy"; by the way, these gold and azure stripes have the same Arelatian origin as the stripes of the coat of arms of Aragon, despite the color differences that arose later)

● in a black field, a golden lion with red tongue and claws - Duchy of Brabant

● in a golden field, a black eagle with red tongue and claws - Duchy of Flanders

● in a silver field, a red eagle with a golden beak and claws - county of Tyrol

Symbols of Granada

At the bottom of the shield is a golden pomegranate with a green stem and leaves - the vowel sign of Granada, the last region of Spain, conquered in 1492 from the Moors during the Reconquista. In the middle of the fruit there is a hole through which ripe grains are visible. They symbolize the fabulous wealth and splendor now open to Christians.

Holder of the Coat of Arms and his entourage

The holder of the coat of arms (in the style of the Empires - this type of holder was adopted only in Russia, Austria and Germany) is a black double-headed eagle with a red beak and claws - a symbol of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation under the Habsburg dynasty. The eagle is surmounted by the Roman Imperial crown; behind him is a red oblique cross - the St. Andrew's Cross of Burgundy. Around the coat of arms is a chain of the Radiant Order of the Golden Fleece, which is of Burgundian origin.

On the sides of the eagle are the Pillars of Hercules, symbolizing the Strait of Gibraltar. Among the ancient Greeks, this strait was considered almost the border of the world. Spain (even before Charles), thanks to the expedition of Columbus, radically expanded the ideas of Europeans about the world around them. The left (for the viewer) column, crowned with the Imperial crown, is wrapped around a ribbon with the inscription PLVS; the right one, surmounted by the Royal Spanish crown, is wrapped around a ribbon with the inscription OVLTRE. That is, "Further" is the motto of Karl.

Additional images of the coat of arms

version with an eagle without a crown, cross and pillars, but with a sword, scepter and orb (the central shield is simplified):

coat of arms in the Cathedral of Cordoba (Spain, province of Andalusia):

The character of Karl Habsburg in Charles de Coster's novel The Legend of Ulenspiegel

The Belgian writer Charles de Coster, in his novel The Legend of Ulenspiegel, severely rebuked Charles V for the numerous atrocities committed during the era of his reign. In the novel there is a scene-fantasy of the Supreme Court over Charles (for some reason, the Judgment is administered by Jesus Christ, but I will not comment on this - another subject). By this Judgment, his soul is sentenced in hell to torture, wandering and other sufferings, like thousands and tens of thousands of victims of state and church executioners of Charles. I do not want to give a description of this sentence; I'll just quote the end of it:

When, after three hundred years, he has experienced all the torments and all misfortunes, let him go free, and if by this time he becomes as good a person as Claes, take his body to a place of eternal rest in a green meadow, under the shade of a wonderful tree where the sun shines in the morning and where at noon there is a shadow. And friends will come to him, and shed a tear, and plant flowers of remembrance on his grave - violets.

The real tomb of Charles V of Habsburg is located in Escorial in Spain. Where is the above-described place of his rest, I can only guess. Perhaps in the hearts of some people. At least there are violets growing in my heart that remind me of Karl.