Coat of arms improvement

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Family coat of arms of those of Eickstedt Improved coat of arms: combined with the symbols of the ecclesiastical dignity of Old Western Pomerania
Family coat of arms of those of Eickstedt
Gebessertes arms : united with the symbols of Erbkämmererwürde of Alt-Vorpommern

Augmentation Of Honor referred to in the Heraldry , the change of an existing arms around this adjust the arms support the development over time or other significant events.

These improvements are made in heraldry through

In the early days of heraldry, it was customary to change one's coat of arms at will and without being asked. Later improvements were only possible according to the will and the law of the ruler. They controlled the heralds in the court chancelleries, and the registers and registers were created, which are the basis of research today.

The reasons for changes in the sense of improving the coat of arms were complex. The inheritance process, in which the coat of arms is passed on to the next generation, was a reason to redesign small things on the coat of arms to differentiate between father and son. The use of additional characters belongs here, but also all other possibilities of improving the coat of arms. The rise in the nobility hierarchy was another important reason. Often times, out of gratitude, the ruler allowed the subject to use parts of his coat of arms. Examples are the takeover of the Habsburg-Babensberg-Lorraine shield by the Worliker branch of the Prince Schwarzenberg and the permitted takeover of the Austrian eagle by Count Clam-Martinic . However, there were also genders and families who, despite many improvements in the coat of arms, kept the old coat of arms.

The preferred means of improving the coat of arms were dependent on culture and country. In France, the improvements to the coat of arms often went hand in hand with the lily , in England with the lion and in Russia and in Prussia with the eagle . In the head of the shield these little things were, if not self-contained, well-placed in the larger arms field.

Coat of arms Prenzlau Aussig coat of arms
Coat of arms Prenzlau
Aussig coat of arms

In addition to the coat of arms improvements, there were also coat of arms reductions . So the sovereign was able to make changes to the coat of arms, which should reduce the ideal value. Often times, this was done as a punishment for unobedient cities or families. One form of mitigation was to put a helmet over the head of heraldic animals ("capped"). This is what happened in the city arms of Prenzlau on the instructions of the Elector of Brandenburg, who had the Brandenburg eagle equipped with a helmet, since the citizens of the city opened the gates to the Pomeranian troops in 1425. The Bohemian lion in the city coat of arms of Aussig (today Ústí nad Labem) was masked as a punishment because the population took in the Hussites .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Milan boys : Heraldry. Edited edition. Albatros Publishing House, Prague 1987.
  2. ^ Gert Oswald: Lexicon Heraldry. 1984, p. 407.