Personal heraldry portal

Heraldry of the World

Personal heraldry portal

Register of personal arms

HOTW Register of personal arms How to submit a registration

Armorials Wapenboek Vorsterman van Oijen

Personal arms by country Personal arms by name

Arms of Popes Cardinals Roman Catholic Archbishops Roman Catholic Bishops Anglican bishops Lutheran Bishops For other churches, see the Religious or Ecclesiastical heraldry section.

PERSONAL HERALDRY PORTAL

Personal heraldry, coats of arms of persons or families, is very complex and has been differently regulated in different countries through the years. In some countries/regions personal arms are very individual, in other countries they are connected to families. Not to family names, but to families descended from the original armiger. Again in other countries arms can be connected to clans or larger family units.

Family arms can be transferred to other family members as such, or with differentiations (small additions/changes) or not at all. Personal arms can also change during the lifetime, due to changes in status in the family, marriages etc.

In some countries (f.e. England and Scotland) personal heraldry is very much regulated. In others, like the Netherlands, only the arms of the nobility are strictly regulated and registered. Many countries have no regulations or registrations at all and people can simply assume arms.

Personal arms can be registered at a number of organisations, often, but not always, restricted to the country of origin of the armiger. Registration does not provide generally any legal protection, unless it is an official register (College of Arms in the UK or Court of Nobility in the Netherlands), although this may differ again between countries.

All this means that personal heraldry is very complicated and to make or compile an overview of personal arms, form past and current times, is basically impossible.

In this section of Heraldry of the World we currently have the following sections on personal heraldry:

Register of Personal Arms Here we register contemporary or historical arms of any individual from any country. Registration is free HOTW Register of personal arms How to submit a registration	Personal arms form Armorials In this section we list arms from armorials or rolls of arms published during the centuries. Wapenboek Vorsterman van Oijen (1890s) Wappenbuch der Stadt Basel (1880) More armorials will be added in due time.
Personal arms ex officio In this section we list arms from persons who bear arms due to their profession In practice this means so far arms of religious officers in different churches. Arms of Popes Cardinals Roman Catholic Archbishops Roman Catholic Bishops Anglican bishops Lutheran Bishops For other churches, see the Religious or Ecclesiastical heraldry section.	Royal heraldry Here we will add arms of sovereign rulers of countries.