Gold

Usually blazoned as "Or", but in English heraldry it is also often blazoned as "gold". Bartolo di Sasso Ferrato describes gold as a nobler colour than the others, representing the light of the sun, and says that on one is allowed to bear gold in his arms except prince. Honoré Bonet, writing some thirty years later, between 1382 and 1387, follows Bartolo and declares that "the colour gold is the noblest in the work, because gold, of its nature, is bright and shining and full of virtue, and so comforting that the doctors give it as a sovereign cordial to the man who is sick unto death". He too adds that "the ancient laws ordained that no one but a prince should bear this colour".

John de Bado Aureo, whose Tractatus de Armis was written in the late fourteenth century, puts gold third, but Sicily Herald puts it first and equates it with the sun and the precious stone topaz, and the Sunday amount the days of the week. He says that its properties are those of the age of adolescence and faith, and that it corresponds to the virtues of richness and noblesse. Nicholas Upton, who wrote the De Studio Miliari in 1446, follows SicilyHerald while Gerald Legh, writing in 1562, devotes some six pages to a discussion on gold. Silver Normally blazoned as "Argent", although several of the later medieval English rolls of arms use the term "silver". Both Bartolo and Bonet place it fourth in order, after gold, red and blue. Sicily Herald, however, places it second, and says that it corresponds to the virtues of purity and justice, to the age of childhood and hope. It is appropriate for those of phlegmatic temperament, and should be equated with the pearl and the moon, and with Monday. This very curious practice of blazoning colours by the day of the week is said by Gerald Legh to have been invented by Falcon King of Arms in the time of King Edward III, but, luckily for modern heralds, it never became popular.

Silver

Normally blazoned as "Argent", although several of the later medieval English rolls of arms use the term "silver". Both Bartolo and Bonet place it fourth in order, after gold, red and blue. Sicily Herald, however, places it second, and says that it corresponds to the virtues of purity and justice, to the age of childhood and hope. It is appropriate for those of phlegmatic temperament, and should be equated with the pearl and the moon, and with Monday. This very curious practice of blazoning colours by the day of the week is said by Gerald Legh to have been invented by Falcon King of Arms in the time of King Edward III, but, luckily for modern heralds, it never became popular.

Red

Invariable blazoned as "Gules". While the shade is not laid down, it should of course be a clear and unambiguous red, although in the early Middle Age no distinction was made between red and purple. Both Bartolo (who described it as color purpureus sive rubeus) and Bonet place it second, immediately after gold, and Bonet had this to say:

"the second colour is purple, that we call in French red or vermilion, and it represents fire... This colour too, according to ancient laws, should be rarely worn except by great princes or those nearest them in blood".

The Llyfr Dysgread Aufau, a Welsh treatise on heraldry probably written between 1394 and 1410, is even more explicit:

"This colour is forbidden by civil law to be worn without permission, except by a prince; and whoever transgresses may be executed. And why is this colour ordained to a prince more than white or black or blue or golden colour? Because this colour represents cruelty, and a prince ought to be cruel to his enemies, and it behooves him to punish disorder."

This restriction, however, appears to have been disregarded fairly early on in the Middle Ages, and red was used pretty widely among all levels of the knightly class. Sicily Herald equates it with the ruby, fire, the planet Mars, and with Wednesday and summer, and considers it symbolic of a sanguine temperament, nobleness, boldness, and the age of virility.

Blue

Invariably blazoned as "Azure". Here again, the exact shade is not laid down, but it should not be too dark for

"this colour Blew doth represent the Sky in a clear Sun-shining day, when all clouds are exiles... and signifyeth Piety and Sincerity."

The treaties of both Bartolo and Bonet placed this colour third. Nicholas Upton says

"thys colowre us callyd the hevenly colowre bycause ye ayre hathe most dominion.. as hyt aperyth in saphyres whych preciouse stoones resemble moste trewly azoure or blew coloure. The Saphyre hys nature us to take away envy, to expell fere, to make one hardy and vitoriouse, to strength a man hys mind in goodness and to make a bearer meke, lowly and jentyll."

This echoes the views of Sicily Herald, who also equates it with the planet Jupiter, with the quality of justice and purity, and with Tuesday and the autumn season.

Black

Always blazoned as "Sable", and equated with the diamond and the planet Saturn. Bartolo regarded it as the least of all colours, and Bonet echoes this view, describing it as the lowest and humblest colour, fit only for the religious, who should eschew vainglory. Following Francois de Fovesi, Bado Aureo promotes back to the second most important colour, on grounds which seem remarkable abstruse. Sicily Herald, however, puts it firmly back in its places and says it is symbolic of sadness and descepitude and a melancholic temperament, and corresponds with Friday and the season of winter. One might wonder why anyone every bore black in their arms after this, but fortunately the Middle Ages had a flexible approach to the problems of heraldry.

Green

Always blazoned as "Vert", and in the later Middle Ages also as "emerald" or "Venus", that planet which "exciteth to love wonderfully, especially between man and woman". Randle Holme, writing in 1689, describes it as the colour which signified felicity and pleasure. Neither Bartolo or Bonet included green in their lists of heraldic tinctures, although Bonet was writing about the time that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was composed. The Tractatus de Armis of Bado Aureo has an interesting comment on it:

"Green colour some men put and adde [ i.e. include], the which I suppose hadde and toke his men begynnyng of some knyght mynstall or bourder [jester], the which was no worthy man".

However, he then depicts, later in the same treatise, the attributed arms of King Arthur - a Cross Argent on a green field with the Virgin Many and Child in the first quarter - which seemed to indicated a little muddled thinking on the subject. Sicily Herald considers it symbolic of jolliness and youth, but also of beauty and shame (a rather cynical combination), and equates it with Thursday and spring. Nicholas Upton, wring about the same time, had commented disparagingly on the colour green but, by the time he wrote the De Studio Militari, had been persuaded to change his mind. Apart from King Arthur's arms, there are few other well-known cases of the use of green in heraldry, in particular the attributed arms of Uther Pendragon (God, two Dragons addorsed Vert, crossed Gules) and the famous party of arms of William Marshal, Early of Pembroke and Regent of England (Party per pale Or and Vert a Lion rampant fourchée Gules), who died in 1219, over a century before Bartolo was writing. Nevertheless, there seems to have been an antipathy towards the colour until well into the fifteenth century, for it is not often found in the early armoury. This may possible have been because, in the literature of the time, while bright green was emblematic of spring -- like the surcoat, shield and trappings of the Green Knight,

"as green as the grass and greener it seemed"

- pale green was regarded as emblematic of death. Even to this day one finds many people who regard green as unlucky. John Guilim, Rouge Croix Pursuivant of Arms in 1613, has the last work on this colour which

"best resembles youth, in that most vegetables, so long as they flourish, are beautiful with this verdure; and is a colour most wholesome and pleasant to see, except it be in a young Gentlewoman's face".

Ermine

The principle fur of heraldry is ermine, and it is so blazoned. It consisted originally of the white winter coats of stoats, with the black tails of the tails sewn on. As stoats in Western Europe do not normally turn white in winter, these skins had to be imported in the Middle Ages from as far away as Muscovy, at great expense, and consequently were only within reach of the purses of the great. Ermine was, therefore, highly regarded, and we find the Dukes of Brittany using it for these arms, without any other charges upon it. The heralds of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries invented several variations of ermine by reversing or changing the colours: thus white tails on black become "ermines", while a gold ground with black tails is "erminois", and the last reversed is "pean".

Vair

This fur is also of some antiquity in heraldry, being originally composed of the skins of a kind of squirrel, bluish-gray on the back and white underneath, sewn together and producing an alternate blue and white appearance. Sudak, on the southern shores of Crimean, was the main emporium where Russian vair was traded to Venetian merchants, Marco Polo's father among them, and thence found its way to the west. Later the ingenuity of the heralds produces variations of these colours, so that we get vairy Gold and Azure or vairy Argent and Gules.