and partitions, and the language of “blazon” used to describe them, was developed
gradually in the period between 1130 and 1300, mainly by heralds, and it changed little
between 1300 and 1500.
Down to ca. 1500, simple arms, representing a single lineage, office, or corporate
entity, normally included only one or two distinct forms of charge. In families, such
simple arms were in principle borne in France from ca. 1170 “plain,” or undifferenced,
only by the heir of the first user, in keeping with the principle of primogeniture; all
younger sons in every branch and generation were obliged in theory to add permanent
marks of difference, or “brisures,” to their fathers’ arms, and even the heirs apparent had
to add a temporary mark during their fathers’ lifetimes. After 1300, the arms of princes
and barons became still further complicated as increasing numbers of them combined on
the same shield steadily growing numbers of simple arms, representative of different
principalities and baronies they possessed or claimed. After 1350, these arms were
usually arranged on “quarters” of the shield, whose number after 1430 often grew beyond
four.
Arms, as defined above, first appeared in France and neighboring countries in the
1130s. Although they were at first displayed primarily on the shields and flags actually
borne in battle, their form and use before ca. 1250 are known to us largely from seals, on
which they were commonly portrayed from ca. 1135 either on the effigy of the owner or
on a representation of the shield alone. The earliest arms often incorporated emblems
used before 1135 on seals, coins, or flags, and some princes adopted two distinct armorial
designs, one representing their person and, when inherited by their descendants, their
patrilineage, and usually displayed on their shield; the other representing their principal
dominion, and usually displayed on their banner. The practice of adopting such
jurisdictional arms gave rise after 1200 to the idea that arms could be adopted to
represent other types of office, jurisdiction, or corporation and to the use of initially
dynastic arms as arms of territorial jurisdiction.
Until ca. 1160, the use of arms in France was confined to princes, but after 1160 it
spread gradually downward through the ranks first of the military nobility, among whom
it became virtually universal by 1260, then of the rest of society, in which it always
remained relatively limited. In northeastern France, where these developments occurred
first, arms were adopted by lesser barons and knights banneret between 1160 and 1220,
by simple knights between 1180 and 1220, and by simple esquires between 1220 and
- All of these men used their arms on a real shield as well as on the purely pictorial
one represented on their seal, but the existence of the latter led to the gradual adoption of
arms by both individuals and bodies who had no occasion to appear in battle: by married
women of the upper and middle nobility after 1180, though rarely before 1230; by
prelates after 1210, though rarely before 1250; by lesser clerics, especially after 1350; by
men of the bourgeoisie after 1300; and by guilds after 1250, though rarely before 1350.
Although the arms of nobles were normally designed by professional heralds, down to
1500 lawyers generally maintained that new arms could be adopted at will by anyone, so
long as they were different from all existing arms within the kingdom. Even peasants
used quasiarmorial seals.
At first used primarily as marks of identity, after 1240 arms were increasingly
displayed on every type of object, both as a mark of ownership and as an element in the
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