What is the most popular sign in human history? Of course, the cross is the intersection of two straight lines at an angle of 90 degrees. Wherever this figure was placed, and what only it did not indicate. In heraldry, the cross is one of the most popular figures, and today we will tell you about the crosses on the emblems.
It is clear that the most common image on the coats of arms was a simple cross, which appeared literally at the dawn of heraldry in the era of the Crusades to the East. And although he was not the first to appear on the knightly coat of arms that has come down to us - the first was the blue shield of Geoffroy of Anjou, decorated with bizarre golden lions - a gift from King Henry I, made to him around 1170 - it is still one of the first heraldic symbols that appeared because it reflected the very essence of the crusading movement.
We see him on very simple coats of arms of Genoa and Milan (scarlet, that is, a red cross on silver, that is, on a white shield field), Savoy (white cross, red field), Verona (gold, that is, yellow on a blue shield) and so Further. Many coats of arms contained the image of a simple cross in the past, but then changed. For example, a simple red cross on a blue field decorated with golden lilies was in the Middle Ages near the city of Reims, the same, but only a black cross had the archbishopric of Cologne and Trier. The coat of arms of the city of Mantua was exactly the same as that of Milan and Genoa, only in the upper left quarter of its shield is the patron saint of the city of St. Anselm.
On the coat of arms of the German city of Attendorf, a simple black cross complements the red crescent in the upper right quarter. We see simple heraldic crosses in the coats of arms of such famous spiritual and knightly orders as the Order of the Knights Templar - a red cross on a black and white shield, the Order of Saint Lazarus - a green cross on a white shield. And also on the coat of arms of the modern Sovereign Military Order of St. John of Jerusalem (known in former times as the Order of Malta). On it, by the way, it is also straightforward, as such a connoisseur of European heraldry as Stephen Slater reports.
A footed or cavalry cross was adorned on the coat of arms of the Commenge county, and today it can be seen next to a silver sword on the coat of arms of the Belarusian city of Krichev. The wedge-shaped (with broadened ends) is represented in the coat of arms of the Goms district in Switzerland, and there are two of them at once: white on red at the top and red on white, which in heraldic language is described (that is, blazoned) as follows: in a shield crossed on scarlet and silver there are two alternately colored wedge-shaped shield. The crutch cross is on the coat of arms of the city of Bethune in France.
The cross broadened at the ends can be seen on the coat of arms of the German city of Bachenau. It is black on silver and has the same black key in the right quarter. The crossed cross adorns the coat of arms of the municipality of Berango in Spain: a silver crossed cross in a dissected shield, four golden lilies in azure at the corners, and four black dogs with scarlet tongues in a pillar in silver. Also, the red anchor cross belonged to the yellow-green coat of arms of the English Count John Elcham, a participant in the Hundred Years War, and the gold one - to the coat of arms of the Falleron commune in France.
It should be noted that France is generally rich in various types of crosses in the coats of arms of its communes and cities. Therefore, here you can see the so-called mill cross in the coat of arms of the commune of Le Cristobal, where it is silver in an azure field; lily-shaped - near the commune of Buanss-sans-Avuar, with golden lilies in the corners; clover-leaved - near the commune of Agilkur, and even pointed (with points at the ends!) - near the commune of Peitz: in a scarlet field there is a silver pointed cross, at the corners there are four golden lilies. The lancet cross was chosen by the creators of the film "Inhabited Island", based on the novel of the same name by the Strugatsky brothers, as the emblem of the "State of the Fathers" on the planet Saraksh, and we have it on Earth, for example, on the coat of arms of the city of Putaendo in Chile. The shield of the coat of arms is crossed and half cut; in the first part, in a green field, there are three golden ears under a silver star between two silver sabers; the second part is beveled six times into scarlet and gold; in the third part, in the azure field, there is a silver lancet cross, accompanied at the corners by four sheets of the same metal. A spherical cross - that is, a cross with balls at the ends, is in the coat of arms of the Spanish municipality of Les Avellanes y Santa Ligna, but the same eastern swastika - scarlet in a silver field - represented the coat of arms of the Polish noble family Boreiko!
At the same time, many crosses associated with certain territories or knightly orders could well be found on the coats of arms of cities that have nothing to do with all this! For example, the eight-pointed Maltese (and also Joanite) cross is in the coat of arms of the French commune of Rontalon, the red Jerusalem cross is in the coat of arms of the commune of Olivet, all in the same France. Even a very ancient, so-called "cross in a halo" or a Celtic cross, and that found a place on the coat of arms … of the principality-bishopric of the Holy Roman Empire of Würzburg: a black Celtic cross in a silver shield with a scarlet toothed head.
The cross of the knightly order of St. Iago got on the coat of arms of the municipality of Olea in Spain, but the Toulouse, Occitan (and also called Qatari) cross - on the coat of arms of the commune of Gemiy: a golden Occitan cross in a scarlet shield. By the way, the coat of arms of Toulouse itself is now completely different, but the original Toulouse cross flaunts among the Toulouse people on the flag. It is also found on many other coats of arms in Languedoc and even on stone windowsills in the castle of Carcassonne, and why this is so is understandable, because this is their original emblem.
The Serbian cross looks quite ordinary - it is a narrow simple silver cross. However, among the Serbs, he is accompanied in the corners by four flints of the same metal, and this is exactly how - on a scarlet shield there is a silver cross and four flints - the modern coat of arms of Serbia looks like, only the shield itself with a cross is placed on his chest of an eagle!
But the famous Burgundy cross, called in heraldry stumpy, branchy, or knotty, in fact, it is still the same St. Andrew's cross. In the coat of arms of Burgundy, he was absent before and is absent now, but he decorated its banner and, moreover, somehow penetrated the coat of arms of the old Russian city of Poshekhonsk. There is a green Burgundy cross in a golden shield - this was the coat of arms in the old days! In Spain, this cross (red on yellow) has also become a naval flag, and here for some reason it is called the cross of St. Magdalene!
Christian crosses also found their place on the coats of arms, and none of them was deprived of attention. Thus, the image of a golden Latin cross can be seen in the coat of arms of the Aimargues commune in France; The "martyr's cross" of St. Peter adorns the coat of arms of the village of Kucherov in the Czech Republic, although if you think about it, what relation did this saint have to this particular village ?! Azure Cross of St. The Antonia or Tau Cross is on the coat of arms of the Rønø Parish in Sweden, and it is also burdened with a smaller silver tau cross, and it is located between the alchemical symbol of copper and flame! The papal cross and two suns are placed on the coat of arms of the Spanish city of El Soleras. The coat of arms of the Maine-et-Loire department in France is cut into azure with a scarlet border and golden lilies and azure with a scarlet archbishop's cross, and exactly the same gold cross adorns the rider's shield on the coat of arms of Lithuania. The six-pointed Orthodox cross is in the coat of arms of Kherson, and the cross of Calvary is in the coat of arms of the Fulida municipality in Spain. The image of the cross can be seen in the coats of arms of Aragon, and three at once, and Asturias in Spain, Saar and Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany, as well as the German cities of Attenweiler and Assweiler. But with the coat of arms of the German city of Coburg, a metamorphosis took place at one time: on its ancient coat of arms was the head of a Moor, depicting St. Mauritius, which greatly annoyed the National Socialists who came to power from the party of Adolf Hitler. Therefore, already in 1934, it was replaced by a sword with a swastika on the head of the hilt. In 1945, the old coat of arms was restored again.
It is interesting that sometimes the heraldic figures could be located on the cross itself, because of which its size increased accordingly. So, for example, in the coat of arms of an unknown knight (d. 1330) whose effigy is located in the church of the English city of Whitwater, there are five eagles on the cross at once, and in the upper left quarter there is also a ring.
Well, how many crosses can there be on a coat of arms? Or let's put it this way: which of their creators had enough imagination to decorate their coat of arms with the greatest number of crosses? It is clear that the smallest number is one cross, as, for example, the oblique St. Andrew's cross in the coat of arms of the Irish Fitzgerald family and the Latin O'Donnell family. The coat of arms of the English Willoughby family included four crosses: two studded and two anchor! In the coat of arms of the city of Abington-on-Thames there are five crosses: one large lily-shaped gold cross in the center of a green shield and four silver clawed crosses at the corners. Five crosses were also in the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and in the earlier form, the main cross was spherical and only then was it replaced with a crutch cross, which apparently symbolized a greater level of support! Finally, as many as six crosses of the Order of Santiago are present in the coat of arms of the English family Davenport from Capestorn, but this, as it turns out, is not the maximum possible!
For example, the English knight Sir Roger de Trumpington is known (his memorial bronze plaque is in the Trumpington Church in Cambridgeshire and dates from 1289), who in 1270 went on a crusade with Prince Edward and happily returned back, since his name is mentioned in the list of participants in the tournament at Windsor in 1278. So on his coat of arms, in addition to two pipes, you can see nine (!) Crossed crosses at once, which, like the pipes, were gold, and superimposed on azure, that is, they were on a blue field.
But the effigy of the knight Maurice Berkeley from the Cathedral in Bristol (died 1326) in the coat of arms, in addition to the rafter cutting the field of the shield into two parts, depicts ten wedge-shaped crosses (!) - six above the rafters and four below! And what would that mean? Special piety or what ?! The desire to become holier than all the saints?
(to be continued)
