A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon, surcoat, or tabard. The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement which in its whole consists of: shield, supporters, crest, and motto. A coat of arms is traditionally unique to an individual person, family, state, organization or corporation.
The national emblem of Belarus, which replaced the historic Pahonia arms in a 1995 referendum, features a ribbon in the colors of the national flag, a map of Belarus, wheat ears and a red star. It is sometimes referred to as the coat of arms of Belarus. The emblem is an allusion to one that was used by the Byelorussian SSR, designed by Ivan Dubasov in 1950, with the biggest change being a replacement of the Communist hammer and sickle with an outline map of Belarus.
Nikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin was a Russian writer, poet, historian and critic. He is best remembered for his History of the Russian State, a 12-volume national history.
The coat of arms of Serbia is the official coat of arms of the Republic of Serbia. It is closely modelled after the royal coat of arms of the Kingdom of Serbia, and it was officially adopted by the National Assembly in 2004 and later slightly redesigned in 2010. The coat of arms consists of two main heraldic symbols which represent the national identity of the Serbian people across the centuries, the Serbian eagle and the Serbian cross.
The coat of arms of Germany displays a black eagle with a red beak, a red tongue and red feet on a golden field, which is blazoned: Or, an eagle displayed sable beaked langued and membered gules. This is the Bundesadler, formerly known as Reichsadler. It is one of the oldest coats of arms in the world, and today the oldest national symbol used in Europe.
This article outlines the heraldic and non-heraldic national emblems used to represent France.
Sulima is a Polish coat of arms. It was used by several szlachta families in the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Among its most notable users were Zawisza Czarny and the Sułkowski family.
The coat of arms of the Russian Federation derives from the earlier coat of arms of the Russian Empire which was abolished with the Russian Revolution in 1917. Though modified more than once since the reign of Ivan III (1462–1505), the current coat of arms is directly derived from its medieval original, with the double-headed eagle having Byzantine and earlier antecedents from long before the emergence of any Russian state. The general tincture corresponds to the early fifteenth-century standard. The shape of the eagle can be traced back to the reign of Peter the Great (1682–1725), although the eagle charge on the present coat of arms is golden rather than the traditional, imperial black.
Count Fyodor Vasilyevich Rostopchin was a Russian statesman and General of the Infantry who served as the Governor-General of Moscow during the French invasion of Russia. He was also known as a satirical writer who ridiculed Francophiles.
In heraldry and vexillology, the double-headed eagle is a charge associated with the concept of Empire. Most modern uses of the symbol are directly or indirectly associated with its use by the Roman/Byzantine Empire, whose use of it represented the Empire's dominion over the Near East and the West. The symbol is much older, and its original meaning is debated among scholars. The eagle has long been a symbol of power and dominion.
A roll of arms is a collection of coats of arms, usually consisting of rows of painted pictures of shields, each shield accompanied by the name of the person bearing the arms.
Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin was a playwright and writer of the Russian Enlightenment, one of the founders of literary comedy in Russia. His main works are two satirical comedies which mock contemporary Russian gentry and are still staged today.
The uses of heraldry in Belarus is used by government bodies, subdivisions of the national government, organizations, corporations and by families.
The Reichsadler is the heraldic eagle, derived from the Roman eagle standard, used by the Holy Roman Emperors and in modern coats of arms of Germany, including those of the Second German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and the Third Reich.
The wild boar and boar's head are common charges in heraldry.
Russian heraldry involves the study and use of coats of arms and other heraldic insignia in the country of Russia since its formation in the 16th century. Compare the socialist heraldry of the Soviet period of Russian history (1917–1991).
The so-called Fojnica Armorial is an еarly modern Catholic roll of arms, including heraldry of South Slavic history, that is related to the early ideas of romantic nationalism and illyrism. The manuscript is named after the Franciscan monastery in Fojnica where it was kept.
The Wernigerode Armorial is an armorial compiled in southern Germany in the late 15th century.
Heraldry is the system of visual identification of rank and pedigree which developed in the European High Middle Ages, closely associated with the courtly culture of chivalry, Latin Christianity, the Crusades, feudal aristocracy, and monarchy of the time. Heraldic tradition fully developed in the 13th century, and it flourished and developed further during the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Originally limited to nobility, heraldry is adopted by wealthy commoners in the Late Middle Ages. Specific traditions of Ecclesiastical heraldry also develop in the late medieval period. Coats of arms of noble families, often after their extinction, becomes attached to the territories they used to own, giving rise to municipal coats of arms by the 16th century.
The Poltoratsky family was a Russian noble family, descended from the Cossack Mark Fedorovich Poltoratsky (1729–1795), who during the reign of Catherine the Great, was in charge of the Court Singing Chapel. The Poltoratsky coat of arms shows a harp as a sign of this.
