France
Burgher arms used to be common in France, but they disappeared in the French Revolution, which was hostile to heraldry. In the end of the 17th century, an attempt was made to list all arms in Armorial général as a device to increase tax revenue. When the attempt failed, in order to force people to pay tax, arms were given to many burghers who had never had them. These arms were never used by their recipients. In France burgher arms are not supposed to have a helmet.
Read more about this topic: Burgher Arms
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“Intellectuals can tell themselves anything, sell themselves any bill of goods, which is why they were so often patsies for the ruling classes in nineteenth-century France and England, or twentieth-century Russia and America.”
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