Getting a COA registered

[Joseph McMillan]

As for the pretension on social class it has already been stated; there are granted arms by authority, and burgher arms, period.

The English heraldic theorists who propagated this notion have a great deal to answer for!

"Burgher arms" are nothing more or less than the arms of a burgher family--that is to say, a non-noble family enjoying the citizenship of a city. There are also clerical arms, yeoman arms, even peasant arms. Germany and France are full of arms granted or confirmed by authority (Hofpfalzgrafen in Germany, the d'Hozier juges d'armes in 17th century France) that are unambiguously burgher arms. All those arms in the Armorial General de France that belong to "Jean Deaux, marchand de Deauville" and "Richard Reaux, bourgeois de Reaumont"--they're all by definition burgher arms, because the bearers were burghers (bourgeois).

And the entire continent is full of arms belonging to nobles that were originally assumed and never granted or approved by "authority." The English theory would presumably have it that these are "burgher arms"--tell that to the member of the old nobility whose family has been using them for the last 800 years!

To me what is important is the use of arms! I don't care by what authority.

Amen!

My children who grew up with the letters patent on the wall, don't have any real desire to use or display them, especially their spouses. One of my daughters-in-law doesn't understand it at all.

That's okay...the arms are theirs whether they use them or not, and perhaps their children in turn will be interested. Or theirs, or theirs after them. Who knows?

[Gael Ridire]

Point taken concerning Burgher arms! One must be careful to generalize concerning arms rules, for most printed articles are just concerning Great Britain and one forgets that their rules don't encompass the world.