You could see a heraldic coat of arms on the shield of a knight at a jousting tournament. Each family had their own special design and during a battle it was a good way of recognising friends and enemies. This was mainly because it’s kind of difficult to spot who it is underneath layers of armour and helmet and you wouldn’t want to be hacking away at your best friend’s head in the middle of a battle would you?
You’re going to make up your own heraldic coat of arms and create it in beautiful copper sheet during this activity.
Heraldic coats of arms were designed to be impressive and would often include powerful beasts to put across a certain message – think of them as like medieval marketing by important families. The use of a lion might indicate that a family wanted to appear brave, strong or kingly (you didn’t often see a turbot as a powerful knight’s coat of arms!). You’ll be trying to come up with some symbols to represent yourself but you can make them humorous or plain Freaky if you like.
