How to Read a Blazon

A blazon is the written description of a coat of arms, and learning how to read heraldry really means learning the order a herald writes in. That order never changes. The field comes first, then the main shape laid across it, then the charges, then whatever sits on top. Learn the sequence and about twenty heraldry terms and you can turn the blazon text in a family record or an old roll back into a shield.

What a blazon does that a picture cannot

Give the same blazon to two artists and you get two different shields. The lions will have different faces, the shield will be a different shape, the red may be darker or brighter. Both drawings are correct. A blazon pins down what heraldry treats as the arms, which is the colors, the shapes, the number of charges and their placement, and leaves style to the artist.

That is why the words are so compressed. A blazon reads more like a spec than a sentence. It drops verbs, puts adjectives after nouns, and uses commas to separate stages of the description rather than to mark pauses.

The fixed word order

Nearly every shield blazon follows these five steps.

1. The field

The field is the background, and its tincture is named first with no article and no verb. “Azure” on its own means a plain blue shield. If the field is divided, the division is named here instead: “Per pale Gules and Argent” means split down the middle, red on the holder’s right, white on the holder’s left.

2. The main ordinary

Next comes the big geometric band, if the arms have one. An ordinary is a shape such as a fess, which is a horizontal band, or a pale (vertical), a bend (diagonal), a chevron or a saltire. It gets its own tincture: “Azure, a fess Or.”

3. Charges on the field

Then the charges: animals, plants, objects, stars, crosses. The number comes first, then the charge, then its posture, then its tincture. “Three lions passant guardant Or” means three gold lions walking, each head turned to face you.

4. Charges on the ordinary

Anything resting on the band is blazoned after the band and introduced by “on”: “a fess Gules, on the fess three mullets Argent.” Charges that flank the band use “between” instead.

5. The chief and the last marks

A band across the top of the shield, called a chief, is usually blazoned last because it is laid over the rest of the design. Small marks that tell younger sons apart come at the very end.

Naming colors and metals

Tinctures split into two metals, five colors and a set of furs.

Word	What it means	Type
Or	Gold or yellow	Metal
Argent	Silver or white	Metal
Gules	Red	Color
Azure	Blue	Color
Sable	Black	Color
Vert	Green	Color
Purpure	Purple	Color
Ermine	White with black tails	Fur
Vair	Blue and white bell shapes	Fur

Two more words come up constantly. “Proper” means drawn in its natural colors, so a boar proper is a dark bristly boar rather than a heraldic tincture. “Counterchanged” means the colors of a divided field swap over as a charge crosses the dividing line.

The tincture names also act as a check on your reading. Heralds avoided putting color on color or metal on metal, so if your reading has a red lion on a blue field, you have probably misread which word belongs to which part.

Counting and placing charges on the shield

When a blazon gives a number and nothing else, use the default arrangement. Three charges sit two above and one below. Two sit side by side. Anything other than the default is spelled out, usually with one of these phrases.

Phrase	Where it puts things
in chief	near the top of the shield
in base	near the bottom
in fess	in a horizontal row
in pale	stacked in a vertical column
in bend	in a diagonal line
in saltire	arranged in an X
between	flanking the ordinary
on	sitting on the ordinary
dexter	the holder’s right, your left
sinister	the holder’s left, your right

Dexter and sinister trip up most first readers. Heraldry describes the shield from behind it, as the person carrying it would see it, so dexter appears on your left.

Reading the crest and motto lines

Longer records describe the whole display, not just the shield. The shield blazon ends, then a new line begins with the crest, often written as “on a wreath of the colours” followed by the figure itself. The wreath colors are the main metal and main color of the shield, which is why they are not spelled out.

The motto usually comes last, in quotation marks or italics, with no translation. Supporters, if the arms have any, are blazoned between the crest and the motto.

Three blazons read line by line

“Azure, three fleurs-de-lis Or.” Blue field, three gold fleurs-de-lis, two above and one below. No ordinary, no extras.

“Gules, three lions passant guardant in pale Or.” Red field. Three gold lions, walking, heads turned out at you, stacked in a column because of “in pale.” This is the historic coat of England.

“Argent, a chevron Gules between three mullets Sable.” A made-up example in a very common pattern. White field, red chevron across it, three black stars around the chevron, two above and one below. Red on white keeps the color on metal rule.

Turning a blazon back into a drawing

Work in the same order you read in.

1. Paint the field, including any division.
2. Lay the ordinary over it.
3. Add the field charges in their default spots unless a phrase moves them.
4. Add the charges that sit on the ordinary.
5. Add the chief and any mark of difference.
6. Build upward from the shield: helm, wreath, crest, then the motto scroll.

If a step leaves you guessing, the blazon is probably incomplete or copied with a word missing. Old family papers do this often.

Draw one in the Coat of Arms Maker

Reading sticks faster once you build a shield. The free Coat of Arms Maker lets you set a field, drop in an ordinary, place charges and add a crest and motto, so you can test a blazon you found and see whether your reading of it holds up.