Attributed arms
Medieval literature attributed coats of arms to the Nine Worthies, including Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and King Arthur.
[1] In such an era, it was "natural enough to consider that suitable armorial devices and compositions should be assigned to men of mark in earlier ages".
The quarterings for the family of Lloyd of Stockton, for instance, include numerous arms originally attributed to Welsh chieftains from the 9th century or earlier.
[12] In the Arthurian legends, each knight of the Round Table is often accompanied by a heraldic description of a coat of arms.
King Arthur was assigned many different arms, but from the 13th century, he was most commonly given three gold crowns on an azure field (Loomis 1938, 38).
[6] The reason for the triple-crown symbol is unknown, but it was associated with other pre-Norman kings, with the seal of King Magnus Eriksson, with the relics of the Three Wise Men in Cologne (which led to the three crowns in the seal of the University of Cologne), and with the grants of Edward I of England to towns which were symbolized by three crowns in the towns' arms.
Lancelot starts with plain white arms but later receives a shield with three bends gules signifying the strength of three men.
His earliest arms, a gold lion rampant on red field, are shown in a set of 13th-century tiles found in Chertsey Abbey.
[clarification needed] Plain arms were rare in the 12th century, and were used in literature to suggest a primitive heraldry of a time long past.
Geoffrey of Monmouth noted with favor that in the Arthurian age, worthy knights used arms of one color, suggesting 12th century heraldic ornamentation was partly pretence.
The hero of Cligès competes in a jousting tournament with plain black, green, and red arms on three successive days.
[24][25] The earlier Saxon Kings were assigned a gold cross on a blue shield, but this did not exist until the 13th century.
[30] The Hyghalmen Roll (c. 1447–1455) shows Christ holding an azure shield charged with Veronica's Veil proper.
The heraldry continues with the 15th century jousting helmet, which is covered by the seamless robe as a form of mantling, and the Cross, scepter (of mockery) and flagellum (whip) as crest.
The banner's long red schwenkel is a mark of eminence in German heraldry, but it was omitted when this image was copied into Randle Holme's Book (c. 1464–1480).
The image on the opposing page (shown above) includes a shield quartered with the five Wounds of Christ, three jars of ointment, two rods, and the head of Judas Iscariot with a bag of money.
An early example from William Peraldus' Summa Vitiorum (c. 1260) shows a knight battling the seven deadly sins with this shield.
A variation included with the shields of arms in Matthew Paris' Chronica Majora (c. 1250–1259) adds a cross between the center and bottom circles, accompanied by the words "v'bu caro f'm est" (verbum caro factum est, "the word was made flesh"; John 1:14).
The Douce Apocalypse portrays him carrying a red shield with a gold fess, and three frogs (based on Revelation 16:13).
