Can anyone explain to me what a coat of arms is??

Question

Coat-of-arms is what William Shakespeare was granted with in 1596.

What is that? I've tried looking online but i can't find it.

THANKs!

Answer 1

some law

Answer 2

A coat of arms is a design belonging to a particular person (or group of people) and used by them in a wide variety of ways. Its like a family crest. It is most often seen in Europe. Each part of a coat of arms has a meaning. They were very important for identification, especially in seals on legal documents, the use of arms was strictly regulated and registered. Few countries continue in this today. There were specific designs, colors, symbols and words that were put together to form a person's or family's coat of arms.

This web site has a good explanation of the meanings of the symbols and the parts of a coat of arms.

http://www.fleurdelis.com/coatofarms.htm

This web site gives you a short history of Shakespeare's coat of arms.

http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/life/arms.html

Actually, the arms were not granted to William, but to John Shakespeare, the family patriarch.

Answer 3

This is the explanation of a Coat-of-arms that i found on the internet:

A coat of arms or armorial bearings (often just arms for short), in European tradition, is a design belonging to a particular person (or group of people) and used by them in a wide variety of ways.

Answer 4

I don't remember this exactly but I learned this in school.I think it is a symbol representing a family.Like in the medeviel times,when knights were jousting,they had a coat of arms symbol on them so people know who that person is even though there face is covered.

Answer 5

ok yeah i did something like this for school
i had to make a personal coat of arms

it was a shield with a symbol on it that represented me
like a fish cuz i love to swim and love animals

Answer 6

1. Go to: "Research your answer" on your question page. 2. Type in: Coat-of-arms/definition? 3. Go to: #2.

Answer 7

Since earliest times, men have sought out feelings of acceptance and a need to belong. The hunters and gatherers formed groups in order to survive and prosper. As the population increased, members would branch out and form new groups.
With the advent of archeology, discoveries were unearthed that showed groups would decorate and make their pottery in unique ways from any other group. Historians and archeologists have argued that these pottery shards are in fact the first documented coats of arms.
By the time of the rise of nations it was a general custom to adopt some symbol by which they could be distinguished from another. This custom reached its fullest development by the Middle Ages. The carrying of personal armorial insignia on shields and banners began widespread in feudal times. A knight had his face covered with the visor from his helmet and as such, had to be recognized at a distance. During the Crusades (the first one began in 1097 AD), these marks and colors were worn outside their coat of mail on their surcoat and hence the expression "coat of arms."
Insignia were not hereditary at first and knights were free to choose their own symbols, as were wealthy individuals, families, towns, lordships, abbeys and other groups who had gained the favor of the reigning monarch. As confusion and duplication grew so did the complexity of these symbols. What had started out as a simple form of identification and pride had risen to a complex system of inherited social status. The problem became so widespread that in 1484 the Herald's College was established in Britain to oversee all claims of subjects to armorial rights. No arms were considered legal unless recorded in the College.
Beginning in England in 1528, officers of the Herald's College began making visitations throughout the country to find out which Coat of Arms were in use and make a record of the genealogies of the families using these arms.
There is no such thing as a "Family Crest" or "Family Coat of Arms" The Coat of Arms that bears your name was bestowed upon ONE individual and to that individual alone.
Centuries ago, the joining of two powerful houses in marriage, resulted in combining their Coats of Arms.
Of all men, kings and princes might be the first to be found bearing arms. Yet the first English sovereign who appears on his great seal with arms on his shield is Richard I. His seal of 1189 shows his shield charged with a lion ramping towards the sinister side. Since one half only is seen of the rounded face of the shield, English antiquaries have perhaps too hastily suggested that the whole bearing was two lions face to face. The mounted figure of Philip of Alsace, count of Flanders, on his seal of 1164 bears a like shield charged with a like lion. That seal is the earliest known example of the arms of the great counts of Flanders.
The first French royal seal with the shield of the lilies is that of Louis VIII. (1223—-1226). The eagle of the emperors may well be as ancient a bearing as any in Europe, seeing that Charlemagne is said, as the successor of the Caesars, to have used the eagle as his badge. The emperor Henry III. (1039—-1056) has the scepter on his seal surmounted by an eagle; in the 12th century the eagle was embroidered upon the imperial gloves.
From the beginning of the 13th century arms upon shields increase in number. Although it is probable that armorial bearings have their first place upon the shield, the charges of the shield are found displayed on the knight's long surcoat, his "coat of arms," on his banner or pennon, on the trappers of his horse and even upon the peaks of his saddle. An attempt has been made to connect the rise of armory with the adoption of the barrel-shaped close helmet; but even when wearing the earlier Norman helmet with its long nasal the knight’s face was not to be recognized. Ancient armorial bearings were chosen at will by the man who bore them. Crosses in plenty were taken. Old writers have asserted that these crosses commemorate the badge of the crusaders, yet the fact that the cross was the symbol of the faith was reason enough. Medieval wisdom gave every noble and magnanimous quality to the lion, and therefore this beast is chosen by hundreds of knights as their bearing.
The eldest son (during the lifetime of his father) was to bear a label of three points; the second son, a crescent; the third, a mullet(star); the fourth, a martlet (bird); the fifth, an annulet (a ring); the sixth, a fleur-de-lis.Some historical documentation carries that out to the tenth with the seventh bearing a rose, the eighth a cross moline, the ninth an anchor, and the tenth a double quatrefoil. In medieval times the shield generally represented the family and the crest usually represented a particular son or family line. Since each arms or crest were earned in battle or given to one individual, the individual usually proudly exhibited it while fighting against enemies. Under heraldic rules only the first sons of a first son of the recipient of a Coat of Arms are permitted to bear their ancestor’s arms.
On a national level, "coats of arms" were generally retained by European states with constitutional continuity (or had to be in existence) of more than a few centuries . The Great Seal of the United States is often said to be the coat of arms of the United States of America. Although the seal contains some armorial elements, it was not designed to be used as a coat of arms and does not fully conform with European heraldic traditions. The U.S. state of Vermont, founded as the Vermont Republic, has the coat of arms of Vermont and
is the only U.S. state to have authentic armorial bearings described in a blazon.

Answer 8

i guess gratitude?and why?