Helmet (heraldry) in the context of Burgher arms

Heraldry (also known as armory) is a discipline relating to the design, display, study and transmission of armorial bearings. A full heraldic achievement may include a coat of arms on a shield, helmet and crest, together with accompanying devices, such as supporters, badges, heraldic banners and mottoes. Heraldic achievements are formally described in a blazon.

Although the use of various devices to signify individuals and groups goes back to antiquity, both the form and use of such devices varied widely, as the concept of regular, hereditary designs, constituting the distinguishing feature of heraldry, did not develop until the High Middle Ages. It is often claimed that the use of helmets with face guards during this period made it difficult to recognize one's commanders in the field when large armies gathered together for extended periods, necessitating the development of heraldry as a symbolic language, but there is little support for this view.

In heraldry, an achievement, armorial achievement or heraldic achievement (historical: hatchment) is a full display or depiction of all the heraldic components to which the bearer of a coat of arms is entitled. An achievement comprises not only the arms displayed on the escutcheon, the central element, but also the following elements surrounding it (from top to bottom):

• Slogan or war-cry
• Mantle and pavilion
• Crest placed atop a:
• Torse (or cap of maintenance as a special honour)
• Mantling
• Helm of appropriate variety; if holder of higher rank than a baronet, issuing from a:
• Coronet or crown (not used by baronets), of appropriate variety.
• Console (decorative or aesthetic in purpose, and not officially part of the armorial grant)
• Supporters (if the bearer is entitled to them, generally in modern usage not baronets), which may stand on a compartment
• Motto, if possessed
• Order, if possessed
• Badge, if possessed

A crest is a component of a heraldic display, consisting of the device borne on top of the helm. Originating in the decorative sculptures worn by knights in tournaments and, to a lesser extent, battles, crests became solely pictorial after the 16th century (the era referred to by heraldists as that of "paper heraldry").

A normal heraldic achievement consists of the shield, above which is set the helm, on which sits the crest, its base encircled by a circlet of twisted cloth known as a torse. The use of the crest and torse independently from the rest of the achievement, a practice which became common in the era of paper heraldry, has led the term "crest" to be frequently but erroneously used to refer to the arms displayed on the shield, or to the achievement as a whole.

In heraldry, an achievement, armorial achievement or heraldic achievement (historical: hatchment) is a full display or depiction of all the heraldic components to which the bearer of a coat of arms is entitled. An achievement comprises not only the arms displayed on the escutcheon, the central element, but also the following elements surrounding it (from top to bottom):

• Slogan or war-cry, if possessed
• Mantle and pavilion
• Crest placed atop a:
• Torse (or cap of maintenance as a special honour)
• Mantling
• Helm of appropriate variety; if holder of higher rank than a baronet, issuing from a:
• Coronet or crown (not used by baronets), of appropriate variety.
• Console (decorative or aesthetic in purpose, and not officially part of the armorial grant)
• Supporters (if the bearer is entitled to them, generally in modern usage not baronets), which may stand on a compartment
• Motto, if possessed
• Order, if possessed
• Badge, if possessed

Typical of British heraldry, a cap of maintenance, known in heraldic language as a chapeau gules turned up ermine, is a ceremonial cap of crimson velvet lined with ermine, which is worn or carried by certain persons as a sign of nobility or special honour. It is worn with the high part to the fore, and the tapering tail behind. It may substitute for the torse (a twisted roll of fabric) in the heraldic achievement of a person of special honour granted the privilege by the monarch. It thus appears in such cases on top of the helm and below the crest. The ceremonial form of a Cap of Maintenance does not, however, feature in the present royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, which shows the royal crest upon the royal crown, itself upon the royal helmet; the derivative Crown Lining Cap does, however, feature inside the Crown on that present Achievement of the UK.

In heraldry, mantling or "lambrequin" (its name in French) is drapery tied to the helmet above the shield. In paper heraldry it is a depiction of the protective cloth covering (often of linen) worn by knights from their helmets to stave off the elements, and, secondarily, to decrease the effects of sword-blows against the helmet in battle, from which it is usually shown tattered or cut to shreds; less often it is shown as an intact drape, principally in those cases where clergy use a helmet and mantling (to symbolise that, despite the perhaps contradictory presence of the helmet, they have not been involved in combat), although this is usually the artist's discretion and done for decorative rather than symbolic reasons.

Generally, mantling is blazoned mantled x, doubled [lined] y; the cloth has two sides, one of a colour and the other of a metal. The mantling is usually in the main colours of the shield, or else in the livery colours that symbolize the entity bearing the arms, though there are exceptions, with occasional tinctures differing from these, or occasional examples in which the outside of the mantling is per pale of two colours or both the inside and outside are per pale, and even rarer examples of other divisions, and there is a perhaps unique example in which the lining of the mantling is per pale of the two metals or of the entire mantling being of a single tincture. The mantling of the Black Loyalist Heritage Society is a unique example in which the mantling is of two furs (ermines, lined ermine). There is also the unique example of the mantling of Bruce Douglas Bolton, which is tartan on the outside. The coat of arms of Canada is mantled white and red, or argent doubled gules; furthermore, the current standard rendering of the Canadian arms has mantling in the shape of maple leaves. The arms of sovereigns are a common exception. The arms of the United Kingdom are or, lined ermine, such a mantling often being held to be limited to sovereigns.