Center shield

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Coat of arms of Count Tauentzien von Wittenberg, the heart shield with the family arms is placed on the middle shield, which in turn is on the main shield
Heraldic peculiarity: The coat of arms of the later King Wilhelm I of the Netherlands as Prince of Fulda: A heart shield on a quartered shield as the heart shield of a middle shield on a main shield
Split central shield (because it is slightly larger than a heart shield) with an eagle at the split and three red diagonal bars

As a central shield in the will Heraldry one in the middle of a coat of arms lying, smaller escutcheon designated if it contains an even smaller, so-called central shield is. So it is not called the middle shield because it is in the middle (central) when viewed two-dimensionally, but between two shield shapes, a larger and a smaller one, when viewed three-dimensionally.

This enrichment of the coat of arms was introduced from the second half of the 15th century. The shields were created by combining several coats of arms in one shield. The middle shield is located in the middle of the main shield, the heart shield placed in the middle of the middle shield usually shows the most distinguished coat of arms, the family coat of arms , or in the case of national coats of arms that of the home country or the ruling dynasty. So the middle shield is a medium and is therefore slightly larger than a heart shield. If there is a shield inside a shield that is clearly larger than a heart shield, although no heart shield is placed on it, it is usually emblazoned as a central shield .

The middle shield must not be confused with the common figure Schildlein . Since the shields must be single, only middle shields and heart shields are suitable for holding special coats of arms.

literature

  • Gert Oswald : Lexicon Heraldry. Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig, 1984.

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