Avalon/Coat of Arms of Avalon

Coat of Arms

A coat of arms or armorial bearings (often just arms for short) is a colorful design belonging to a particular person or group of people and used by him or her in a wide variety of ways.

Coats of arms have their origins in the designs used by knights to make their armor and shield stand out in battle or tournaments and enable quick recognition by allies or spectators. The designs are used to decorate clothing worn over the knight's armor, from which we derive the term coat of arms. In addition to being painted on the shield, elements of a knight's coat of arms are used to decorate the helmet crest, pavilion, and banners used by knights.

In some traditions an individual (rather than a family) possesses a coat of arms. In those traditions, coats of arms are passed from father to son as legal property, and are not used by more than a single individual at the same time (other than the eldest son and his eldest son both of whom would differentiate with a label). Other children in that family only use a form of their father's arms that are differenced with a change to a color or addition of a distinguishing charge once they obtained the Lord's specific approval. Other traditions are less formal.

Because of their importance as legal property, the use of arms as a distinguishing mark necessitated their strict regulation.

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