Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 480

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 480

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/480

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Greetings,

Here's the information we found on your arms.

Our comments are limited because we weren't able to make a connection with the Web site you pictured.

We can very rarely know _why_ a particular charge was incorporated into a set of arms. There are exceptions: Some charges were used for cadency (showing familial or feudal relationships), some were used to indicate political associations, and some were chosen to "cant", i.e. to make a sort of visual pun on the owner's surname. The details varied considerable from one time & place to another.

17th and 18th century heraldic scholars invented complicated systems of meanings assigned to every component of a coat of arms, but these systems did not exist in our period. Medieval heralds certainly associated symbolic meanings with certain charges, but their meanings were more abstract and general: courage for lions, piety for the cross, etc. A medieval bestiary would be a good guide to the symbolism that medieval folk might have associated with specific charges.

This means that the crown in your arms doesn't necessarily imply a claim to royalty, and the bear doesn't necessarily mean that your family is connected to Madrid. For the most part, elements in arms can't be attributed a specific meaning.

Arval Benicouer, Walraven van Nijmege, Rouland Carre, and Talan Gwynek contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful.

Sincerely,
Alan Terlep
Academy of S. Gabriel