Portal:Heraldry

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Welcome to the Heraldry and Vexillology Portal!

Heraldry encompasses all of the duties of a herald, including the science and art of designing, displaying, describing and recording coats of arms and badges, as well as the formal ceremonies and laws that regulate the use and inheritance of arms. The origins of heraldry lie in the medieval need to distinguish participants in battles or jousts, whose faces were hidden by steel helmets.

Vexillology (from the Latin vexillum, a flag or banner) is the scholarly study of flags, including the creation and development of a body of knowledge about flags of all types, their forms and functions, and of scientific theories and principles based on that knowledge. Flags were originally used to assist military coordination on the battlefield, and have evolved into a general tool for signalling and identification, particularly identification of countries.

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The Shield of the Trinity or Scutum Fidei is a traditional Christian visual symbol which expresses many aspects of the doctrine of the Trinity, summarizing the first part of the Athanasian Creed in a compact diagram. In medieval England and France, this emblem was considered to be the heraldic arms of God (and of the Trinity). The precise origin of this diagram is unknown, but it was evidently influenced by 12th-century experiments in symbolizing the Trinity in abstract visual form, mainly by Petrus Alfonsi's Tetragrammaton-Trinity diagram of ca. 1109.

The Shield of the Trinity diagram is attested from as early as a ca. 1208-1216 manuscript. The diagram was used heraldically from the mid-13th century, when a shield-shaped version of the diagram (not actually placed on a shield) was included among the heraldic shields in Matthew Paris' Chronica Majora, ca. 1250. Allegorical illustrations ca. 1260 show the diagram placed on a shield. The period of its most widespread use was during the 15th and 16th centuries, when it is in found in a number of English and French manuscripts, books, stained-glass windows and ornamental carvings. (more...)

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Marcela Mariño de Agoncillo (June 24, 1860 – May 30, 1946), also simply known as Marcela Agoncillo, was a Filipina renowned in Philippine history as the principal seamstress of the first and official flag of the Philippines, gaining her the title of Mother of the Philippine Flag.

After finishing her studies at Sta. Catalina College, Agoncillo married Filipino lawyer and jurist Don Felipe Agoncillo. When her husband was exiled to Hong Kong during the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution, Agoncillo and the rest of the family joined him and temporarily resided there to avoid the anti-Filipino hostility of some foreign countries. While in Hong Kong, General Emilio Aguinaldo requested her to sew a flag that would represent their country. Agoncillo, her eldest daughter and a friend manually sewed the flag in accordance with General Aguinaldo's design which later became the official flag of the Philippines. (more...)

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Flag of the Philippines

The national flag of the Philippines is a horizontal bicolor with equal bands of blue and red, and with a white equilateral triangle based at the hoist side; in the center of the triangle is a golden yellow sun with eight primary rays, each containing three individual rays; and at each corner of the triangle is a five-pointed golden yellow star. The flag is displayed with the blue field on top in times of peace, and with the red field on top in times of war. The design was conceptualized by Emilio Aguinaldo during his exile in Hong Kong in 1897, and formally adopted in 1898. The flag's colors have varying symbolism, and the shade of blue has changed over time. (more...)

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The Coat of arms of the British Antarctic Territory features a lion and Emperor penguin as supporters, and the RSS Discovery in the crest.

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Did you know...

...that Garter King of Arms William Segar (pictured) was imprisoned for confirming a coat of arms to someone who was not a gentleman?

...that for most of Sir Richard Lane's time as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, there was no Great Seal?

...that the coat of arms of Andalusia bears the Pillars of Hercules, the ancient name given to the promontories that flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar?

...that from 1850 until 1872, the Party Processions Act made it illegal to parade with music, flags or banners in Ireland?

...that in almost 100 years of existence, Ireland King of Arms granted only four known coats of arms, two of which were within the heraldic jurisdiction of other kings of arms and so annulled or regranted?

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