Heraldic Badges

[Cygnus]

Thank you, Scott, for your concise answer.

If you and everyone else on the forum will oblige me:

Is a badge inherited with the arms (by the eldest son, for example) or would the eldest son have a different badge from his father?

Are there specific criteria for the grant of a badge, or is it something that anybody can request?

Thank you, once again!

[JSFMACLJR]

Thank you, Scott, for your concise answer.

If you and everyone else on the forum will oblige me:

Is a badge inherited with the arms (by the eldest son, for example) or would the eldest son have a different badge from his father?

Are there specific criteria for the grant of a badge, or is it something that anybody can request?

Thank you, once again!

Usually in Scotland, Lord Lyon King of Arms grants badges only to peers, baronage, chiefs, chieftains, and "the older landed houses." There might be some question now about grants to the baronage since the Abolition of Feudal Tenure Act of 2000.

The Canadian Heraldic Authority and the College of Arms, on the other hand, are much less restrictive with grants of badges to petitioners.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Is a badge inherited with the arms (by the eldest son, for example) or would the eldest son have a different badge from his father?

Now days badges tend to be heritable, and may or may not be transmittable to younger sons.

Are there specific criteria for the grant of a badge, or is it something that anybody can request?

Before answering, it might be a good idea to have a better understanding of the heraldic badge...

Badges are heraldic insignia which, like arms and crests, are distinctive of a person or a family. Broadly speaking badges fall into two categories-- household badges and private badges. Household badges would be used to distinguish adherents and retainers, whilst a private badge would be used in lieu of arms to mark out an individual person. In modern terms I think is not far off the mark to consider any badge to be a type of personal logo that may be "lent out" to those who may have no entitlement to share in the armory of the owner of the badge. In other words, the hired help, along with your live-in brother-in-law, who you could allow to use your badge, but not your crest.

Badges pre-date heraldry and, as heraldry developed, in many instances the badge came to be adopted as either the crest, or as a charge on the shield. I am of the opinion that the chiefly arms of many West Highland clans are composed of the badges of the lesser chieftains, with the badge of the chief being used as his crest to show his paramountcy within the clan. One has only to look at the heraldry of Ireland and the West of Scotland to see how this theory suggests itself.

Once the original badge had been melded into the arms, or attached to the helmet as a crest, it was still necessary to provide adherents with a means of identification, and new badges were devised. Generally speaking these badges are personal, although usually they are passed on to the person inheriting the undifferenced arms; cadets will often have similar badges, often differenced merely by tincture. For example the badge of my chief is a lion's head erased sable collared or charged thereon with three mullets azure; it would not be unreasonable to suppose that his second son might adopt as a badge the same device, but reverse the tinctures: a lion's head erased or collared sable, etc..

The most common use of badges, at least in Scotland, is on heraldic flags where they are displayed on standards and guidons; since the use of these flags is controlled by Lyon, and since they are heritable, it would be reasonable to assume that the badges there on displayed are personal cognizances the use of which falls under Lyon's absolute jurisdiction.

Anyone may apply for a grant of a badge, although generally speaking the guidelines for the granting of a badge seem to vary widely between jurisdictions, and it will be up to the granting authority to decide if you have a sufficient following to justify a badge.

[Gael Ridire]

Just for FYI, to my knowledge a badge may be granted by the Chief Herald of Ireland, but it isn't inheritable.