Position:Home>Genealogy> What do each of the parts represent on this coat of arms?

http://www!.fleurdelis!.com (various pages)
BLAZON (pronounced BLAY-zun) is the physical, written description of the coat of arms:
COLORS:
BLUE (AZURE): represents Truth and Loyalty
SILVER: means Peace and Sincerity
GOLD (the 8 x's going around the shield): Generosity and elevation of the mind
BLACK (Sable): (of the bird) means "Constancy or grief"

I'm not sure if the bird is an eagle or hawk, so here are both explanations:
HAWK: one who does not rest until his objective is achieved
EAGLE: a person of noble nature, strength, bravery, and alertness; or is high-spirited, ingenious, quick-witted, and judicious!. If the wings are
displayed, it signifies protection!.

The 3 PLUMES OF FEATHERS on the helmet is a sign of "willing obedience, and serenity of mind!." Their colors go with the descriptions above!. The helmet varies with the bearer's rank, the century represented, or the herald's or artist's preference!.

The crest is whatever appears above the helmet!. (Note that there is not always a crest for every coat of arms!.) Yours is the family name!.

http://www!.fleurdelis!.com/shields!.htm
The shape of yours is the CLASSIC shape (shown in all red on the page)!. Shield shapes vary according to the geographical origin as well as the time period!.

http://fleurdelis!.com/banners!.htm --see picture MM for yours!. The font used for the name Garcia and the word Spain is ENGRAVERS OLD ENGLISH BT!.

http://www!.fleurdelis!.com/mantlings!.htm --the leaf design around the shield is in the SWIRL pattern!. Mantle/Mantling: Not a part of the official blazon (except that sometimes the colors are specified), the design varies with the herald's or artist's preference!. This is said to represent the cloth that hung from the wreath and protected the back of the head and neck, even though it may often be depicted more like the leaves of a plant!.

I could not find a motto on the picture at all , other than possibly the word SPAIN--which means whoever was awarded the right to this coat of arms pledged his loyalty to Spain!.

Heraldry explained:
There's No Such Thing As A FAMILY Crest!!
Heraldry has been defined as the art of blazoning, assigning, and marshalling a coat of arms!.
Historians once theorized that a coat of arms enabled a knight to be recognized by his followers during battle!. The coat of arms became hereditary just as a knight inherited the right to lead or the duty to follow another leader in battle!. However, most knights had NO followers so there was no need to identify himself to anyone else!.
It was much more likely that the depiction of arms on a shield was a form of "individual vanity" rather than a practical military device!.
"Family identification" was practiced in northern Europe even before the Norman Conquest!. The oldest documented example of a coat of arms borne on a shield is where King Henry I of England is said to have bestowed on his son-in-law, Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, in 1127 A!.D!.: the azure shield bore four gold lions rampant!.
Coats of arms became military status symbols, and their popularity increased along with the popularity of the tournament, which was developed in the mid-eleventh century in France !. The "tournaments" were exercises to keep the knights in shape--a training ground for them, so to speak, and some knights made their living (and their reputations) roaming from tournament to tournament!.By 1400 A!.D!., bearing a coat of arms had become a prerequisite to participation in a tournament, and due to the importance of social standing in such pageants, a coat of arms also became a mark of noble status!.
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Okay:

1!. The shape in the middle represents a knight's shield, on which his coat of arms would have been painted!. This is the basic element of a coat of arms; a few very primitive old coats consist of the shield and nothing else!.

2!. Above the shield is the knight's helmet!. (In British heraldry different ranks of nobility have different models of helmet; but this doesn't hold good for every country and I don't know whether the model of helmet has any significance in Spain!.)

3!. All that raggedy foliage-like stuff is called the "mantling", and it represents the cloth that was worn over the helmet in hot countries (e!.g!. on Crusade) to stop the sun cooking up your iron helmet and your head inside it!. Traditionally the mantling is shown in the main colour and the main metal-colour of the shield, here blue and silver (white and yellow in heraldry stand for silver and gold)!.

4!. On top of the helmet the knight would wear a crest, another thing that helped in recognition when wearing a full-face helmet!. Some crests were made of feathers, as here; others were solid 3-D models made out of boiled leather, which often (though not always) repeated a motif from the shield!.

5!. The join between the helmet and the crest was hidden by a "wreath", normally two strips of different-coloured cloth (usually, again, the main colour and the main metal-colour of the shield) twisted together!. You can see the wreath shown here!.

6!. There appears to be no motto!. (I suspect the word "Spain" was just put in to say where the coat comes from - it doesn't sound like a plausible motto to me!.) Not every coat of arms has one!.


And that's really all there is to explain!. Whatever anybody tells you, the colours and motifs on coats of arms do not necessarily have ANY SYMBOLIC MEANING AT ALL!. Many people picked their design simply because they thought it looked nice, and chose the colours they did simply because they had paint and cloth in the right colour!. The whole notion of all these things having any kind of symbolism - all this to-do about "blue meaning Truth and Loyalty" and "hawk meaning one who does not rest until his objective is achieved" is complete rubbish!. Of course, many people picked something that did relate to them personally - something about their character, their past life, their home, their name (there are a lot of coats that are puns on the owner's name, such as lions for a person called Lyon, or legs for a person called Legge) !.

I hope you realise that there are dozens if not hundreds of *totally unrelated* families called Garcia, and that this coat can only belong to one of them! It is quite irrelevant to the vast majority of Garcias!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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The only way you can know what these symbols mean is to know who originally owned the arms!. These are NOT Garcia arms, since there are no such thing as surname arms!. The link you posted is to a website that sells bogus arms or other peoples arms to unrelated people of the same surname!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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The mosy important thing for you to know is that there is NO SUCH THING as a FAMILY coat-of-arms! They were issued to individuals and passed (usually) to the eldest son!. Only one person - not the whole family - was entitled to use it!. Web sites offering "family" coats-of-arms are simply trying to make money and misleading people!Www@QuestionHome@Com

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