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Armory
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Arms of the Espousal of TRH Joseph Prince of Judah, Curator of the Throne of David, and Mary Princess of Judah |
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Nativity Arms of the Holy and Royal Family, HRH Joseph Prince of Judah, Curator Emeritus of the Throne of David, and HM Mary Great Lady and Queen Mother of Judah, Israel and All the Holy Land, Princess of Judah |
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Nativity Arms of HM the King |
THE ARMS OF THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL
Although tribal emblems were known and used in the ancient world (including Israel) as insignia of honour and distinction for notable persons, tribes and military formations (Numbers 2:2), heraldry as we know it today emerged only in the twelfth century of the Christian era. The development of new methods of warfare required that a knight in the field had to be totally enclosed in armour, so that he was quite unrecognisable by anything other than a personal emblem, which would be placed on his battle shield and his surcoat.
Heraldry - the systematic art and science of armorial bearings and the rules of the hereditary descent of arms - was already fully developed by the end of the twelfth century. As styles of military armour changed during the fifteenth, shields became obsolete as instruments of war and survived only as decorative emblems of honour.
A coat-of-arms can accurately be described in words as well as art, and this verbal description is called a blazon. The language of blazon uses special terms, derived mostly from Norman French, which enable an artist to reproduce a completely accurate coat from the blazon alone. The points of a shield are reckoned from the perspective of one standing behind it and holding it. The right side of a shield is called the dexter and the left side the sinister, the dexter being actually to the observer's left. For more about the language of blazon and about heraldry generally visit the website of the Heraldry Society.
Since the Crown was everywhere the fount of both the right to wage war and the privilege of bearing coat armour, it soon became established that a man could possess and use only the achievement of arms which the Crown had granted him or which he had inherited from his ancestors. A person who is entitled to bear and use a coat-of-arms is called an armiger. A coat-of-arms will often be decorated with a crown or a helmet set on top of the shield, a device above the helmet known as a crest and one or two mottoes. There will frequently be a lambrequin or mantling, which is a protective cloth fixed to the helmet and flowing around the shield. Sometimes human or animal figures - known as supporters - will be placed on either side of a shield as though holding it in place. The shield together with these decorations is called an achievement.
It followed (and still does) that armorial achievements cannot be assumed at will, since they are in the nature of a public honour. A King may, of course, assume any achievement he pleases, and is in the nature of the case a law unto himself in this matter. Otherwise it is unethical, dishonourable and offensive to use arms to which one is not entitled by displaying them on one's notepaper, on a signet ring, on a banner, on one's home where the public can see it, or in any other way which passes them off as one's own. In some places it is even unlawful to do so and might even be judged to be defamatory.
However, it is perfectly acceptable to display arms on the clear indication that they belong to someone else, especially when done in honour of the armiger. It is also fully acceptable and legitimate to invent arms for persons of note who never bore them. These, including those shown on this website, are called attributed arms.
Some armorists of mediaeval Christendom composed arms for the Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Apostles and Christ Himself as expressions of devotion to them, though none of them came anywhere near enjoying that generality of acceptance which might have conferred on them some sort of authority.
Indeed, it was held that it was inappropriate to attribute arms to God possibly because, being invulnerable, He has no need of a shield. This is, of course, not true of the royal ancestors of Christ, and it is self-evident that, as a man, He is fully capable of inheriting any hereditary honours that might have been attributed to them.
There is no doubt that Christ is inherently an armiger, since He is a reigning King from whom is all earthly authority, including the authority to award and regulate coat armour. The Arma Christi is perhaps the best known example of arms attributed to Him and was borne on the seal of Fra Robert de Turnham as Custos of Studies at Cambridge (c. 1244). This coat consists of an arrangement on a shield of the instruments of Christ's Passion, but although time-honoured it does not express His illustrious heritage as the descendant of King David. The arms attributed to David - a gold harp on a blue shield - were never incorporated in the Arma Christi as the rules of heredity would have required.
Arms which were attributed to Our Lady included the winged Immaculate Heart pierced with a sword on a blue shield. It seems that these were never arranged to reflect either her marriage to St Joseph, who was a Prince of Judah, or her widowhood. The act of arranging a shield to reflect the relation of an armiger to his living or deceased spouse is called marshalling. For a married couple, marshalling usually involves dividing a shield vertically and placing the husband's arms on the dexter side, and his wife's on the sinister.
The Personal Arms attributed on page 2 to Our Lord and to the Princes of Judah, and on page 3 to Our Blessed Lady, have been designed according to a coherent theory of descent from King David, and with a view to the greatest possible authenticity of biblical and historical symbolism and to the honour of the Holy Family and the House of David. They should not, however, be understood as being in any sense "official".
THE ROYAL ARMS OF ISRAEL AND ALL THE HOLY LAND
The Royal Arms of Israel and All the Holy Land are arms of dominion, since they pertain not to the Holy Family but to the local, hereditary civil dominion of the Crown of David in the Middle East. Their composition is therefore dictated in part by existing political facts and, today, by the established emblems of choice of the politically organised communities of the Israelis and the Palestinians.
By the conventions of heraldry the arms of a Sovereign are always arms of dominion, not the hereditary arms of his family, which he would use if he were not a Sovereign. The reason for this is that arms of dominion represent the fount of all other armorial honours, and must therefore take precedence of them. The Personal Arms of Christ are an exception to this rule. They uniquely take precedence over all thrones as the hereditary arms of a divine Person who, by virtue of His divinity, has dominion over the Throne of David, though He also has possession of it by hereditary right.
The Ancient Arms presented here trace the history of the rule of the House of David in the Holy Land, beginning with the arms for the independent Kingdom of Judah during the first seven years of the reign of King David, at a time when the House of Saul ruled over the rest of Israel. Arms of dominion are always presented quarterly where they combine two or more coats.
KINGDOM OF JUDAH (c. 1010 to 1004 and 970 to 587 BC)
Blazon: Quarterly, 1st and 4th gules on a sword erect argent two keys crossed in saltire the dexter key or the sinister of the second (Sovereignty); 2nd and 3rd Argent a lion rampant armed and langued azure crowned with the Holy Crown of King David proper and charged on the body with an inescutcheon of the second a Harp of King David or (Judah).
After the murder of Saul's successor Ishbaal, David was free to take possession of the entire Holy Land and was proclaimed King at Hebron. The union of Judah and Israel is expressed in the replacement of the arms of Judah in the third quarter by those of Israel.
UNITED KINGDOMS OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL (1003 to 970 BC)
Blazon: Quarterly, 1st and 4th gules on a sword erect argent two keys crossed in saltire the dexter key or the sinister of the second (Sovereignty); 2nd Argent a lion rampant armed and langued azure crowned with the Holy Crown of King David proper and charged on the body with an inescutcheon of the second a Harp of King David or (Judah); 3rd azure between two olive branches in pale a Menorah of the Temple and in base the word "Israel" in Hebrew characters (Israel).
The two kingdoms separated at the beginning of the reign of King Rehoboam. The House of David remained in possession of Judah only and never recovered the Northern Kingdom, which was destroyed by the Assyrians in 721 BC. Judah herself disappeared from history in 586 BC, leaving only the Throne of David sovereign by divine right, though shorn of its political and social expression. The following coats differ only in the appearance of the Crown, shown in its pre-Resurrection and post-Resurrection forms.
THE SOVEREIGN THRONE OF DAVID (587 BC TO 15 May 1948)
Blazon: Gules on a sword erect argent two keys crossed in saltire the dexter key or the sinister of the second (Sovereignty).
In the Modern Arms the symbols of monarchy - the Crown and the Sceptre - are integrated into the design of the Palestinian eagle, while the crossed keys on a sword signify the truth that the civil authorities in the Holy Land hold their powers directly of the Crown. The inclusion of these elements alongside the existing arms of the State of Israel (in the second quarter of this shield) "polemicises" both the exclusion of Christ from the public life of Israel and the exclusion of the Palestinian people from its benefits.
The eagle on this coat-of-arms is different from the Eagle of Saladin which is the emblem of the Palestinian Authority and of several other Arab States. It is a Royal Eagle, which symbolises the special divine election of the Palestinian people for the service of the King in His homeland and theirs, as well as their tribute to Him for His singular generosity in giving them a heritage in His land.
This coat-of-arms is intended to serve as a symbol of civil allegiance to the Crown and of Christ's corresponding dominion over the Holy Land. In particular, it recalls the fact that, in Christ, the enmity between Jew and Gentile is taken away as much in the Holy Land as universally (Ephesians 2:11-22).
Blazon: Quarterly, 1st and 4th gules on a sword erect argent two keys crossed in saltire the dexter key or the sinister of the second (Sovereignty); 2nd azure between two olive branches in pale a Menorah of the Temple and in base the word "Israel" in Hebrew characters argent (Israel); 3rd vert an eagle argent displayed wings inverted or langued and eyed gules armed winged and tailed holding in both talons a sceptre in fess of the third crowned with the Holy Crown of King David proper and charged on the breast with an inescutcheon per chevron reversed: 1st gules; 2nd per pale vert argent and sable (Palestinian Community).
The shield is crowned with the Holy Crown of King David.
Supporters: Dexter, St Michael holding in his dexter hand a sword; sinister, St Gabriel holding in his sinister hand a scroll, all proper.
Motto (Hebrew): Ein-lanu melekh ki im Dovid (We have no king but David).
THE ROYAL ARMS OF ISRAEL AND ALL THE HOLY LAND (PALESTINIAN JURISDICTION)
For use in the Palestinian jurisdiction of the Patrimony of David, the Royal Arms (shown here without supporters) are displayed with the second and third quarters transposed to place the Palestinian arms senior to those of Israel.
Motto (Arabic): La melek aleina illa Dawud (We have no king but David).
Armorial designs by Michael Petek and Ancestors of Dover Ltd, copyright Michael Petek 2002
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