Letter of arms
Coats of arms are formal documents that assign a certain heraldic badge to a person, corporation, city, etc. Originally, as early as the Middle Ages, non-noble knights received a coat of arms about the coat of arms awarded by the king.
Heraldic letters or heraldic diplomas are a certificate issued by a sovereign as a sign of recognition to individuals or families. These coats of arms are not synonymous with elevation to the nobility .
Coats of arms and letters of nobility were created in the 14th century and were initially issued and awarded by the emperor or his court counts .
The oldest known letter of arms was issued by Emperor Ludwig IV , the Bavarian , on February 8, 1338 for Count Carbonesi, and the oldest letter of nobility by Emperor Karl IV. On September 30, 1360 for the Frankfurt citizen and Mainz clergyman Wicker Frosch , whose The tombstone can still be seen today in the Katharinenkirche in Frankfurt am Main.
The letter of coat of arms gave the owner all the honorary and preferential rights of the nobility at that time through its content. If the recipients of the coat of arms letters and their descendants did not put the word "von" in front of their names, it was a custom of that time. When this became common at the beginning of the 18th century , it was unobjectionable.
Web links
- Collection: Illuminated documents - coats of arms in the European document archive Monasterium.net .
- Publications on letters of arms in the Opac der Regesta Imperii