The Heraldic Identity Generator

Heraldry took its modern form during the Norman conquests of the eleventh century, precisely the period in which the first Baron of Brattleby — Sir Roger de Brattleby — received his fee from King William I in 1066. By the reign of King Stephen, knights bore identifying devices on shield and surcoat in tournament and battle alike, and within a generation the College of Arms had begun codifying the language we still use today.

A blazon — the verbal description of a coat of arms — always reads in a strict order: first the field (the background of the shield, in one of seven canonical tinctures), then the ordinary (a geometric band such as a fess, pale, bend or chief), then the charges placed upon them (lions, eagles, stags, mullets, fleurs-de-lis), and finally the crest (the figure rising from the helm above the shield). Tinctures are divided into metals (Or, Argent) and colours (Azure, Gules, Sable, Vert, Purpure), and the celebrated Rule of Tincture forbids placing colour upon colour or metal upon metal — a convention our generator strictly observes.

The Noble House of Brattleby bears, by ancient grant, Azure, a lion rampant Or armed and langued Gules, on a chief of the second three mullets of the field — the gold lion upon blue declaring fortitude in service of the crown, the three stars on the gold chief commemorating the three founding manors of Lindesia.

Each question targets a single heraldic element. Question 1 (your guiding virtue) determines your archetype and therefore the temperament of your motto; Question 2 (your ideal landscape) calibrates the symbolic colour-palette of your mantling; Question 3 (your role in battle) selects your ordinary; Question 5 (your tincture preference) locks the field; Question 6 (your spirit-animal) sets the principal charge; Questions 9–11 determine shield shape, helm style, and crest figure respectively.

The remaining questions enrich the narrative archetype the atelier assigns you — one of The Honourable Vanguard, The Cunning Counsellor, The Devout Steward, or The Iron Sovereign — each drawn from recognised Brattleby ancestral types catalogued by Lady Nicoleta in her ongoing study of the family rolls.

Every blazon composed here is recorded in the Brattleby archive with a unique identifier and may be re-summoned at any time by visiting its permanent URL. You are free to: print and frame your shield; reproduce it on personal stationery, signet rings or bookplates; share it across social platforms (Twitter card and Open Graph imagery are auto-generated); and quote your blazon prose in genealogical correspondence.

You should be aware, however, that this is a creative-heraldic exercise. The Brattleby Atelier is not the College of Arms in London, and a shield composed here does not constitute a legally registered grant of arms in England, Scotland or any Commonwealth jurisdiction. For any formal matriculation of arms (which is the responsibility of the official heraldic authorities of England, Scotland or Ireland), a separate formal application is required and is outside the scope of this site. We would, however, be delighted to introduce serious enquirers — please write to our office.

The House of Brattleby has, since the thirteenth century, maintained a tradition of composing arms for its allies and tenants — a courtesy first recorded under Lady Eleanor de Brattleby, 5th Baroness, who in 1312 personally devised arms for forty-two retainers as wedding-gifts. We have, in the twenty-first century, simply digitised that ancient generosity. Each generation of the House has expanded the practice: Honorary Lord Răzvan Vasile (by marriage) oversees the twelfth iteration of our public atelier, and Baron Mihai Alexandru Crăciun has authored the renewed tincture grammar for the present version.

If you wish to study heraldry in greater depth, our Brattleby Academy runs an annual residential course on English Heraldry, taught from the family rolls themselves; and the Heraldry Hall on this site documents nine centuries of Brattleby armorial bearings.