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An overview of the history of heraldry in France Summarizing centuries of history in a short text is quite a feat... The birth of heraldry, and its first use, was the work of the warrior class whose defensive equipment made recognition practically impossible. There was a need for an identification system which could allow combatants to distinguish friends from foes on the battlefield. Coats-of-Arms were first seen on standards, then on shields, and finally as crests on helmets. Identification being the main purpose of heraldic marks, an optical rule had to be devised to preserve its readability. This rule, which is still in use, is based on a principle called the "opposition of tinctures". It means that one cannot, when creating a Coats-of-Arms, place a color (gules, azure, sable, vert, and purpure) upon another color or a metal (or and silver) upon another metal. As a matter of fact, when viewed from afar, a white shape on a yellow field is far less visible than a blue shape on a yellow field.
The origin of Heraldic figures was neither spontaneous nor borrowed, during the crusades, from the oriental civilizations of the Mediterranean. Lions, crosses, dragons, geometrical designs, and fleur-de-lis all pertain to an iconography in use since antiquity which was constantly modified and enriched throughout the Middle Ages until the present day and time. Tournaments, as a substitution for war and a very profitable sport, were of the utmost importance for the initial propagation of Coats-of-Arms amongst chivalric society. Coats of arms were first used as seals affixed to records during the first half of the twelfth century in lands comprised between the Loire and Rhine rivers. From the twelfth century until the first half of the thirteenth century they were solely used by warriors. The wide use of seals led all classes to progressively adopt Coats-of-Arms following the fashion ushered in by the elite. Seals played a leading role for the propagation of heraldry because they were an indispensable tool to authenticate records. Letters were deemed legal only if the testator had affixed his/her seal to it. Oftentimes they bore the names and arms of their owner. It should be remembered that the majority of the people living during Middle Ages had no knowledge of reading or writing. Seals were the only signature known to the population and they still confer legality to acts emitted by governing bodies today.
The use of Coat-of-Arms spread to each and every social class in France between 1230 and 1330 in the following order: women of the nobility, secular clergy, burghers and artisans, farmers and cities, and finally to corporations and religious congregations. Following this new trend Coat-of-Arms lost their primary use, which was to help in the identification of warriors on battlefields, and instead became symbols of ownership and decorative designs used and applied on the surface of objects of the everyday life (i.e. jewels, vessels, stained glass windows, clothing, etc.). Before 1789, in what is now called "l'Ancien Regime" in the French historiography, anyone, regardless of religious inclination or social status, was allowed to adopt and bear arms providing he/she was not borrowing arms that were not his/her own. This was, and still is, not the case in other parts of Europe. Many countries restricted the use of Coat-of-Arms to men and women of the nobility, and still do so today. Despite their universal use France, Coat-of-Arms were "hunted down" in the midst of revolutionary fever. They were wrongly associated with privileges of the nobility and as such they were destroyed. A decree dated June 19th 1790, forbid the use and display of Coat-of-Arms. Many heraldic devices were simply destroyed outside of its owner's dwelling, seen as symbols of the former royal power. Consequently, France appears today comparatively poor to England pertaining to the subject of heraldic displays on public and private historic monuments. Napoleon did reinstate the use of Coat-of-Arms but limited them to the nobility by means of strong administrative control. Louis XVIII, Charles X and Louis-Philippe followed his example as well as Napoleon III. The Second Republic however forbade the use of titles of nobility and the Third Republic did not legislate at all. Today, as in the "Ancient Regime", anyone has the right to adopt and bear arms of his/her choice as long as they are genuinely their own (by inheritance or by creation). Coats-of-arms are considered as an intangible part of the patronymic name by French law and as such are protected (NB: Civil courts are the sole authority in litigious cases). For almost three decades France has shown a renewed interest in heraldry. It can clearly be seen by the growing number of scholarly works published about the subject in the field of humanities (heraldry is an auxiliary science of history), the profuse number of material for scholars and popular readers, and regular exhibitions presenting heraldry and the heraldic arts. This renewal of interest for heraldry can be linked to the emergence of a strong enthusiasm for genealogy in the late 1970's. While looking for relatives in public archives many an amateur genealogist discovered that his/her family bore arms and enthusiastically decided to recreate them. Many more are yet unaware of their family arms (noble or not). Today, more and more French are taking action to find or create a Coat-of Arms for themselves, for a friend or even for their children. Local governments are also following suite by abandoning "logos", which like dairy products tend to get out of date too fast, to return to the use of heraldic devices. We can now only hope that French companies will also adopt new Coat-of-Arms to access new markets with strong and meaningful symbols to represent them. NB: this summary is based on the work of Prof. Michel Pastoureau in his main book about heraldry: Traité d'héraldique.
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