The Medieval Combat Society

Making Your Own Heraldry (Have a go Heraldry!)

Heraldry was used as identifying a friend or foe during a battle at a tournament, it needs to be clear and visible from a distance and no two coats of arms should look the same to avoid confusion. The heraldry would have been used on their shields, tabards and on their standards (flags). There are certain rules that must be used and they are given below.

1). To get a blank shield template to print out click here

2). The Colours that you can use are:

A metal (Gold or Silver) cannot be put on a metal or a colour cannot be put on a colour. For example this is the shield of King Edward III, and the gold (metal) lions are on a red (colour), the gold Fluer-de-Lis (metal) are on blue (colour). The red and blue are next to each other and not on top of each other which is ok.

3). Choose a design for your shield. You can have either a). a design called an ordinaire or b). a distinctive symbol on the shield such as the Lion or the Fleur-de-Lis on King Edward III's shield. Some examples are shown below. Click on the shield so that you can print it and then colour it in.

a). Ordinaires

Bend	Bend Sinister	Chief	Fess	Pale
Cross	Saltire	Pall	Chevron	Pile

b). Symbols and Beasts

Anchor	Arrow	Axes	Bear Pasant	Castle
Fleece	Gauntlet	Griffin's Head	Heron	Horn
Horse Rampant	Lion Rampant Regardent	Mullet, 6 Point	Owl	Scimitar
Stag At Gaze	Sun	Swan	Tiger Rampant	Wolf Stantant