Shield and Related Topics

Hoplite

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Hoplites shown in two attack positions, with both an underhand thrust and an overhand prepared to be thrown

Phalanx fighting on a black-figure amphora, c. 560 BC. The hoplite phalanx is a frequent subject in ancient Greek art

Probable Spartan hoplite (Vix crater, c. 500 BC).

Hoplite armour exhibit from the Archaeological Museum of Corfu. Note the gold inserts around the chest area of the iron breastplate at the centre of the exhibit. The helmet on the upper left is a restored version of the oxidised helmet on the right.

Stele of Aristion, heavy-infantryman or hoplite. 510 BC. Top of helmet and pointed beard missing.

Athenian cavalryman Dexileos fighting a naked Peloponnesian hoplite in the Corinthian War. Dexileos was killed in action near Corinth in the summer of 394 BC, probably in the Battle of Nemea, or in a proximate engagement. Grave Stele of Dexileos, 394-393 BC.

Chigi Vase with Hoplites holding javelins and spears

Hoplites on an aryballos from Corinth, c. 580–560 BC (Louvre)

Crouching warrior, tondo of an Attic black-figure kylix, c. 560 BC (Staatliche Antikensammlungen)

Achaemenid king killing a Greek hoplite. Circa 500 BC–475 BC, at the time of Xerxes I. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Spartan hoplite. (Image from Vinkhuijzen Collection of Military Costume Illustration, before 1910)

Paintings of Ancient Macedonian soldiers, arms, and armaments, from the tomb of Agios Athanasios, Thessaloniki in Greece, 4th century BC

Etruscan warrior, found near Viterbo, Italy, dated circa 500 BC.

Hoplites ( : hoplítēs) were citizen-soldiers of Ancient Greek city-states who were primarily armed with spears and shields.

Kite shield

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Kite shields as depicted on the Temple Pyx

A 15th century depiction of the Archangel Michael with a kiteshield

A kite shield is a large, almond-shaped shield rounded at the top and curving down to a point or rounded point at the bottom.

Geometrical construction of the Reuleaux triangle style of heater shield, for use as an heraldic escutcheon

The heater shield or heater-shaped shield is a form of European medieval shield, developing from the early medieval kite shield in the late 12th century in response to the declining importance of the shield in combat thanks to improvements in leg armour.

Knight

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Person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity.

A Norman knight slaying Harold Godwinson (Bayeux tapestry, c. 1070). The rank of knight developed in the 12th century from the mounted warriors of the 10th and 11th centuries.

The battle between the Turks and Christian knights during the Ottoman wars in Europe

The miles Christianus allegory (mid-13th century), showing a knight armed with virtues and facing the vices in mortal combat. The parts of his armour are identified with Christian virtues, thus correlating essential military equipment with the religious values of chivalry:
The helmet is spes futuri gaudii (hope of future bliss), the shield (here the shield of the Trinity) is fides (faith), the armour is caritas (charity), the lance is perseverantia (perseverance), the sword is verbum Dei (the word of God), the banner is regni celestis desiderium (desire for the kingdom of heaven), the horse is bona voluntas (good will), the saddle is Christiana religio (Christian religion), the saddlecloth is humilitas (humility), the reins are discretio (discretion), the spurs are disciplina (discipline), the stirrups are propositum boni operis (proposition of good work), and the horse's four hooves are delectatio, consensus, bonum opus, consuetudo (delight, consent, good work, and exercise).

Tournament from the Codex Manesse, depicting the mêlée

Elements of a harness of the late style of Gothic plate armour that was a popular style in the mid 15th to early 16th century (depiction made in the 18th century)

Page from King René's Tournament Book (BnF Ms Fr 2695)

The Battle of Pavia in 1525. Landsknecht mercenaries with arquebus.

Fortified house – a family seat of a knight (Schloss Hart by the Harter Graben near Kindberg, Austria)

The Battle of Grunwald between Poland-Lithuania and the Teutonic Knights in 1410

Pippo Spano, the member of the Order of the Dragon

The English fighting the French knights at the Battle of Crécy in 1346

Miniature from Jean Froissart Chronicles depicting the Battle of Montiel (Castilian Civil War, in the Hundred Years' War)

A modern artistic rendition of a chevalière of the Late Middle Ages.

A battle of the Reconquista from the Cantigas de Santa Maria

Elements of the knightly armour included helmet, cuirass, gauntlet and shield.

Scutum

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Reenactment of an early imperial legionary shield array

The testudo performed during a siege, as shown on Trajan's Column. There are faint eagle-wing and thunderbolt motifs on the scuta.

A selection of shield designs from the Notitia Dignitatum, with each shield representing a different unit.

The scutum (plural scuta) was a type of shield used among Italic peoples in antiquity, and then by the army of ancient Rome starting about the fourth century BC.

Effigy of William Longespée the Younger (d.1250) in Salisbury Cathedral, showing an early triangular heater shield, the shape used as the "canvas" for the display of arms during the classical age of heraldry

Escutcheon (heraldry)

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Pippa Middleton's coat of arms (granted 2011), based on those of her father. This lozenge shaped version, supported by a blue ribbon, denotes an unmarried woman.

Male (shield-shaped) and female (lozenge-shaped) coats of arms in relief in Southwark, London.

Points of an escutcheon or heraldic shield

Simple example of incorporating an heiress's arms as an escutcheon of pretense

Pelta escutcheon as used in the diplomatic emblem of France

"Square Iberian" or Iberian style (square top, rounded base), 15th century<ref>Codex Figdor, Tiroler Landesarchiv, Innsbruck (c. 1400).</ref>

Bouched or bouché side ("German" or "Dutch" style), 15th century.{{efn |text=The gap or bouche represents the opening for the lance in specialised jousting shields, attested (in depictions of actual shields) from the mid 14th century, occasional use as a shape of heraldic escutcheons from the mid-15th century.{{sfn |Grazebrook|1890|loc=p31–35}}}}

Scroll-eared top, lobed base, 16th century

Square eared, nicked top, rounded base, 16th century

"Polish" style, 17th century <ref>{{cite book|title=Nauki Pomocnicze Historii|last= Szymański |first= Józef|orig-year=2001|year=2001|location=Warsaw}}</ref>

"French" style, 17th century{{efn|text=Used in the Armorial général de France (1696).<ref>{{cite book |title=Armorial général, ou Registres de la noblesse de France |url=https://archive.org/details/armorialgnralou03hozi/page/406 |last= d'Hozier |first=Louis Pierre |orig-year=1696 |year=1865 |location= Paris |publisher=Firmin Didot |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> The "French" shape of the base is found earlier, in French and English heraldry, from c. 1600 ("Stuart" type).}}

"Cardiodid" shape,{{Example needed|date=September 2021}} 18th century

Two engrailed top, 19th century{{efn|text=called ecu suisse in some French sources of the 19th century,{{citation needed|date=November 2018}} as this shape was used in coats of arms on some coins of the Swiss mediation period (1803–1815).}}

Escutcheons as mobile charges, as borne by the French family of Abbeville.

Inescutcheons for style in the arms of the Swedish Collegium of Arms.

An escutcheon of pretence, as borne by the French family de Champagne-La Suze.

Inherited arms borne en surtout over territorial arms. (Arms of Eric of Pomerania as monarch of the Kalmar Union, c.15th century)

In heraldry, an escutcheon is a shield that forms the main or focal element in an achievement of arms.

Spear

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Pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head.

Wooden spear point from about 420,000 years ago. Natural History Museum, London

Hunting spear and knife, from Mesa Verde National Park

Sumerian spearmen advancing in close formation with large shields – Stele of the Vultures, c.2450 BCE

Athenian warrior wielding a spear in battle

Re-enactor outfitted as a Late Roman legionary carrying a pilum

Assyrian soldier holding a spear and wearing a helmet. Detail of a basalt relief from the palace of Tiglath-pileser III at Hadatu, Syria. 744–727 BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul

A bronze spear, notice the ears on the side of the socket.

Engraving of a Maratha soldier with spear by James Forbes, 1813.

Ukiyo-e print of a samurai general holding a yari in his right hand

A Filipino warrior holding a Sibat (spear) in the Boxer Codex.

A photograph of an American native, a Hupa man with his spear – by Edward Sheriff Curtis, dated 1923

Spear Case, Crow (Native American), late 19th century, Brooklyn Museum

Peruvian fisherman spearfishing with a multi-pronged spear

The Norse god Odin, carrying the spear Gungnir on his ride to Hel

Statue of the Hindu God of War, Murugan, holding his primary weapon, the Vel. Batu Caves, Malaysia.

This weapon was typically used with one hand while the off hand held a cowhide shield for protection.

The German Hyghalmen Roll was made in the late 15th century and illustrates the German practice of repeating themes from the arms in the crest. (See Roll of arms).

Heraldry

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Discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings , as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree.

Enamel from the tomb of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, one of the earliest depictions of modern heraldry.

Two pursuivants wearing tabards, Windsor Castle, 2006.

A shield parted per pale and per fir twig fess. Coat of arms of former Finnish municipality of Varpaisjärvi.

An extravagant example of marshalling: the 719 quarterings of the Grenville Armorial at Stowe House

German heraldry has examples of shields with numerous crests, as this arms of Saxe-Altenburg featuring a total of seven crests. Some thaler coins display as many as fifteen.

Flags as supporters and orders in the armory of the Prince of Vergara.

The coat of arms of Mikkeli, a city of South Savonia, Finland, has been drawn up in honour of the headquarters of the Finnish Army led by Marshal C. G. E. Mannerheim; this was stationed in the city during the Winter War, the Continuation War and the Lapland War. The coat of arms was originally used without the Mannerheim Cross, and is the third coat of arms affixed to the city.

Coat of Arms of the Turiec county in Slovakia.

State Emblem of the Soviet Union (1956-1991 version)

Arms created in 1977, featuring a hydrocarbon molecule

Military coat of arms, depicting a red locomotive.

Reverse of the Narmer Palette, circa 3100 BC. The top row depicts four men carrying standards. Directly above them is a serekh containing the name of the king, Narmer.

Fresco depicting a shield of a type common in Mycenaean Greece.

Vase with Greek soldiers in armor, circa 550 BC.

A reconstruction of a shield that would have been carried by a Roman Legionary.

Shields from the "Magister Militum Praesentalis II". From the Notitia Dignitatum, a medieval copy of a Late Roman register of military commands.

The death of King Harold, from the Bayeux Tapestry. The shields look heraldic, but do not seem to have been personal or hereditary emblems.

The field of a shield in heraldry can be divided into more than one tincture, as can the various heraldic charges.

Aspis

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An aspis (, plural aspides, ἀσπίδες), or porpax shield, sometimes mistakenly referred to as a hoplon (ὅπλον)( a term actually referring to the whole equipment of a hoplite), was the heavy wooden shield used by the infantry in various periods of ancient Greece.