List of oldest heraldry

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This list of oldest heraldry aims to include the oldest documented, non-attributed heraldic achievements for individuals, families, locations or institutions.

A problem with determining early occurrence of heraldry stems from the fact that many early heraldic charges and compositions emerged in emulation of prior visual identifications, as seen in ante-heraldic seals and standards of individuals, authorities and towns, well before traditional heraldic custom was established. Visual culture and identity naturally predated heraldry. Notably, lions that would subsequently appear in coat of arms of royal dynasties, such the Kingdom of León, predated heraldry well enough in the early Middle Ages.

In an extreme comparison, some elements today commonly associated with heraldry have even been traced in Western civilisation to antiquity, such as to the Lions gate of Mycenae from the 13th century B.C. A reoccuring, less distant perception of proto-heraldic appearances is that of the Bayeux tapestry (11th century) in Normandy, following the Battle of Hastings (1066).

It has been suggested that the use of heraldic devices in western Europe was strongly influenced by the return of noblemen from the First Crusade (1095–1099). King Alfonso VII of León started using a lion device in 1126 and the lion was already used as heraldic emblem in 1148. Henry I of England may have been using a lion as a heraldic device during his reign in the early 12th century. A later chroncler would claim he awarded his son-in-law, Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, a lion device in 1127, and several lineages descended from Henry would use lions on their coats of arms once full-fledged heraldry developed. The earliest known heraldic representation appears on the funerary enamel of Geoffrey of Anjou (d. 1151), showing a coat of arms that appears to be the same as one later used by some of his descendants, though it has been pointed out that they may be merely post-mortal, attributed coat of arms. Even so, it would still demonstrate the development of heraldry within a short time after his death. Likewise the early seals of King Richard Lionheart of the House of Plantagenet are usually taken as a manifestations of heraldry, due to the apparent similarity between the shield represented on the second Great Seal and the documented coat of arms used by the British royal family shortly afterwards.

List of oldest heraldry

Year	Contemporary	Modern	Type	Armiger/attribution	Occasion	Grant	Location	Notes
1155-1160			Personal, then family coat of arms	Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou		Self-assumed or post mortem attributed arms	Le Mans Cathedral, Le Mans,  France	Appearing on funerary enamel commissioned by Geoffrey's widow Mathilda of England between 1155 and 1160 for his tomb. Often described as the first documented personal coat of arms. A chronicler wrote that in 1127, King Henry I presented to Geoffrey a badge of a gold lion.[1] Some scholars represent this as an earlier description of the same heraldic device, and perhaps the same coat of arms.
1189			Personal, then family coat of arms	King Richard the Lionheart; House of Plantagenet	Great Seal of the Realm	Likely self-assumed	History Museum of Vendée,  France	Possibly the first documented royal coats of arms of the United Kingdom as well as royal coats of arms at all. Colours are unknown from seals, but that of the Second Seal likely matched the coat used by his successors, with three gold lions on red.
ca. 1194			Personal, then family coat of arms	Canute VI of Denmark; House of Estridsen		Likely self-assumed	St. Bendt's Church, Ringsted,  Denmark	Seal of Canute VI likely used around 1194, and is in principal the same coat of arms that Denmark uses today.[2]
before about 1255			Personal, then family coat of arms	Alfonso VII of León, Castile and Galicia, called the Emperor; House of Ivrea		Self-assumed	Santiago Cathedral, Santiago de Compostela,  Spain	King Alfonso VII (1126-1157) is first reported using a lion as a personal emblem in Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris when it describes the armies participating in the taking of Almería. Martín de Riquer insisted that the lion was already used as heraldic emblem in 1148.[3] The earliest conserved heraldic representation appears on illustrations of Ferdinand II (1157-1188) and Alfonso IX (1188-1230) in the Tumbo A Manuscript of Santiago de Compostela Cathedral. The charters in this manuscript span from the early-12th to mid-13th centuries, and it is unclear when the illuminations were created nor whether the arms depicted for Ferdinand II and Alfonso IX represent contemporary usage or are attributed arms based on the use by their descendants. It is essentially the same coat of arms that the city of León uses today.[4]
1281–1294?			Papal coat of arms	Pope Boniface VIII		Likely self-assumed		Supposedly the first documented Papal coat of arms (although older undocumented are indicated), likely assumed sometimes as Cardinal (1281–1294).
1290's			Ecclesiastical heraldry	Diocese of Ely				Possibly the earliest documented coat of arms for a diocese.[5]
1369			Civic heraldry	Košice, Slovakia		King Louis I of Hungary	Diósgyőr Castle near present-day Miskolc,  Hungary	Claimant to be the oldest coat of arms of a town.
1441			Academic heraldry	King's College (Cambridge)		King Henry VI	Cambridge,  England	Possibly earliest documented coat of arms for an academic institution, at least in England.

See also

Proto-heraldry: A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry (11th century) depicting Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, rallying Duke William's troops during the Battle of Hastings in 1066

• Bayeux Tapestry (11th century)

External links

• https://www.theheraldrysociety.com/articles/as-it-was-in-the-beginning/

References