Law of Heraldic Arms - Arms Conferring Nobility

Arms Conferring Nobility

In England a grant of arms does not ennoble a grantee in itself, but is a recognition of rank or status and, therefore, an authoritative confirmation of it. An armiger (one who has the right to bear arms) is deemed to be of the status of a gentleman, and in England, many of the suits in the Court of Chivalry were decided on that basis. He may of course be of higher rank, as esquire, knight, peer, or prince.

In contrast, a coat of arms in Scotland is often, not without controversy, said to be a fief annoblissant, similar to a Scottish territorial peerage or barony. Under Sir Thomas Innes of Learney (Lord Lyon King of Arms 1945–1969), wording was introduced into every Scottish patent of arms which states that the grantee "and his successors in the same are, amongst all Nobles and in all Places of Honour to be taken, numbered, accounted and received as Nobles in the Noblesse of Scotland". These claims, strongly championed by Innes of Learney himself and by other writers, have now found broad acceptance amongst legal commentators as correctly representing the Law of Arms in Scotland (for example, The Stair Encyclopaedia of Scots Law (vol. 11, p. 548, para. 1613)), but are challenged by others, some of whom are reluctant to place a grant of arms on the same legal plane as a feudal barony or peerage.

On the European continent, there is a clear difference between noble arms and burgher arms.

In most countries, scholars agree that a coat of arms is an indication of nobility, but that (in times past) simply assuming a coat of arms did not ennoble the armiger ipso facto. In certain countries (viz. the Italian states pre-1860), armorial heraldry was not strictly regulated, while titles of nobility were.

As a generality, most nobles, whether titled or not, have coats of arms, hence the widely held perception of heraldry as an aristocratic trapping.