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Armory
THE ARMS OF THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL
ARMS OF HM THE QUEEN MOTHER
Although Our Lady the Blessed Virgin Mary is not known to have been born into a family of gentility, there is no doubt that she was raised to royal rank in her own right as a Queen Mother as soon as she conceived her Divine Son during her marriage to Joseph.
Her attributed maiden arms consist of a blue shield signifying piety, with the Ark of the Covenant beneath a dove, both in gold. The shield bears an augmentation of honour, being strewn with the Immaculate Heart, the symbol of her sinless maternal love which has as its primary object the Person of her Divine Son. The dove and the Ark recall the overshadowing of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit to cause her to conceive Christ, as the Divine Presence overshadowed and descended on the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament. The shield is crowned with her own Crown, which is hers as Queen Mother.
Had coats-of-arms been in use in New Testament times, Joseph would have impaled his wife's arms on his own shield by dividing it vertically in half and by placing his own arms on the dexter side (to the right of one standing behind the shield and carrying it) and his wife's on the sinister (left). On the birth of Jesus, whom Jewish law presumed to be the natural son of Joseph, the Crown of David passed from father to Son and would therefore have ceased to crown Joseph's marital shield.
When a gentleman dies his widow continues to use the marital arms, but in a diamond-shaped figure called a lozenge, since a shield, being an instrument of war, is usually considered to be inappropriate for a lady unless she is a Queen Regnant. She may add to the lozenge or shield her own insignia. She can also use a shield if she is the mother of a Sovereign, as did HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Accordingly, Our Lady's arms as presented here are identical to her marital arms, except for the shield being crowned with her own Crown.
A woman who is an armiger in her own right (ie by grant) can transmit her arms at her death as a quartering to her descendants, impaled on her husbands arms and surrounded by a bordure. The Blessed Virgin Mary is not considered to have transmitted her arms to her Divine Son, as she is not known to have died in the course of her bodily Assumption into heaven at the end of her earthly life.
Blazon: Argent a lion rampant armed and langued charged on the body with an inescutcheon azure a Harp of King David or and crowned with the Holy Crown of King David proper impaling azure semy of the Immaculate Heart of Mary gules surmounted fesswise of roses argent emergent from the heart a flame tenne a dove volant affronty an Ark of the Covenant in pale or.
The shield is crowned with the Rose Crown of the Queen Mother.
Armorial designs by Michael Petek and Ancestors of Dover Ltd, copyright Michael Petek 2002
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