Heraldry for genealogists

A 'BLAZON' is the written words that are used to produce a Coat of Arms with no doubt as to how to represent it pictorially. As I do not know the blazon for Blakeley I had to work out what it might have been from the resultant Arms itself. The examples listed here are all from 'Boutell's Heraldry' by JP Brooke-Little, Richmond Herald of Arms.

To get started we need to know the format for laying the 'STYLE' so we will take a blazon:

Gules, a bend Or and two escallops Argent, with a Cornish Chough proper between two cinquefoils Azure on the bend; and a chief Or charged with a Rose Gules seeded Or and barbed Vert between two fleur-de-lis Gules.

This gives the Heraldic artist precise instructions to produce the Coat of Arms. There is a set format in producing the blazon from an existing Coat of Arms:

PRINCIPAL FEATURES OF THE BLAZON	THE BLAKELEY BLAZON
1) The field of the shield	Gules: red
2) The principal charge resting on the shield, i.e. the diagonal band, termed 'bend'	A Bend Or: Gold
3) Secondary charges resting on the field of the shield i.e. the scallop shells	Two escallops Argent: Silver
4) Objects resting on the charges already mentioned, i.e. on the bend
5) Important charges resting on the field but not in a central position, i.e. the horizontal band at the top termed 'chief'	A chief Or: Gold
6) Charges on No.5	A rose Gules seeded Or and barbed Vert: Green between two fleur-de-lis Gules

Using the above system we can compile the description in italics above, however it is not in the heraldic ‘style’, which would be as follows:

Gules, on a bend Or between two escallops Argent a Cornish Chough proper between as many cinquefoils Azure; and on a chief of the second a rose of the first seeded Gold and Barbed Vert between two fleur-de-lis of the field.

The Style was formulated as a more elegant way of putting it when compared to the Medieval form above. In our example , the 'tinctures' (colours) and the number two are used several times and the bend is mentioned more than once. Repetition has to be avoided to conform to style. If there is a mention of previously mentioned items in a blazon, subsequent reference is made by alluding to the first instance. i.e. if the 'charges' (objects placed on the shield, bend, chevron or chief) are the same colours as the 'field' they are referred to as 'of the field' or 'of the first' etc. When one charge is repeated several times in the same composition, the objects are usually arranged in rows and so:
'six cross crosslets 3,2,1' can be used to show the positions they occupy, so in the BLAKELEY Coat of Arms 'three cross-crosslets' would place them as two at the top and one at the bottom. As the chevron is blue with what is known as a 'vair' this would make it 'a chevron between three cross-crosslets vair'. this would place the crosses two at the top and one at the bottom. As the 'vair' design is invariably Azure, it is not necessary to enter the colour in the blazon. The 'style' of blazonry tends to change with different Kings of Arms - the current prefers blazons without punctuation (he must be a solicitor!) The names of charges and tinctures (colours) begin with a capital letter. It is usual to repeat the name of a tincture with (sometimes prefaced with the word 'also') 'gold' - although popular in the fifties it is not much used these days. The ending 'y' is preferred to the French 'ee' (although not in our Blazon!)

The blazon 'Argent a Chevron Gules between three broad arrow heads points upward sable' when translated is ' a red chevron with two sable arrow-heads along the top of the shield which is silver (white) and one arrow-head at the bottom of the shield, with all of the arrow-heads pointing upwards'. As you can see it takes 33 words to describe what only takes twelve in the blazon!

The BLAKELEY Arms only contains four colours, Red, Gold, Blue and White. These are described as Gules, Or, Azure and Argent. White is usually used to represent silver on a painted shield.

The strange blue and white 'bullet' shaped pattern on the Chevron is called 'vair' and is a heraldic fur. Vair is an alternating pattern of white and blue pieces and can be in varied shapes and sizes. The pointed 'vair' is called 'vair angular' and is the type on the BLAKELEY Arms, so perhaps ours could be 'vair angular Azure and Argent'?

A Chevron always has its point in the 'chief' unless specified as 'reversed'. Charges on the Chevron are usually placed upright and don't usually follow the direction of the Chevron.

Back to our cross-crosslets, if they have points which would enable the real item to be stuck in the ground they are known as 'fitchy' (or fitchee!). Ours does, so now we must amend our blazon to 'Gules a Chevron vair angluar between three cross-crosslets fitchy Or' (I tried it in the blazon program and found that it worked if I took out the 'angular'! See COA picture.

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