ORGANISATION OF A BLAZON

So far, a lot of the information presented here has been simply terminology. To blazon a coat of arms, though, it is also necessary to know how all of this information was (and is) organised. In other words, it is necessary to know the proper word order and "grammar" of the language of Blazon.

In the beginning a "coat of arms" often would have been a real shield (covered in metal, coloured cloth or fur) and having placed on it various real objects. That also makes a good analogy for thinking about the organisation of a blazon. Think of everything as a layer placed onto the shield.

Order for Blazoning:
1. Field. 
-divisions: type of division, type of lines
-Note: in early heraldry, the term "party per _____" was used, later this was simplified to "per _____"
-tinctures
-The tinctures of the fields are named in the following order. Top (chief) first then bottom (base), then dexter, then sinister.
2. Primary charges. 
-this is the most important charge (usually the biggest and most central) charge or group of charges
-order of primary charges:
-from the field upwards
-centre outwards
-chief to base
-dexter to sinister
3. Secondary charges immediately around #2. 
4. Tertiary charges on #2 or #3. 
-historically, these were usually added to a coat of arms as a "cadency". For example, a family might have a specific coat of arms. Branches of the family might add a single secondary (or tertiary) charge to distinguish it from the others. In this case, the coat of arms would have been written out as in the main coat of arms, and then the secondary charge (or charges) would be added to the end of the blazon.
-the joiner "and" after the main blazon could be used to add a secondary charge
5. Peripheral secondary charges. 
-these include the chief, bordure, and quarter. These are charges which (like #3 above) were added to the original blazon.
-if more than one of these charges exist, the order of blazoning is thus:
-bordure, then the chief, then the canton
6. Tertiary charges on #5. 
-tertiary charges placed upon any of the secondary charges from #5 are blazoned along with the secondary charge upon which they are placed. Thus the whole ordering becomes:
-bordure
-tertiary charges on the bordure
-chief
-tertiary charges on the chief
-quarter
-tertiary charges on the quarter
7. Brisures. 
-these are marks of cadency. They show that they the bearer(s) of the coat of arms is related to (probably a child of) the bearers of the original coat of arms.
8. Augmentations. 
-these are awards given to the bearer of the coat of arms.

Diagram - Organisation of a blazon

If all of the steps from the example are put together, we would get the following blazon. Sable, a roundel Or, in the dexter chief a sun Or, and in the sinister chief an increscent argent, on the roundel, a fish naiant vert, a chief indented argent, on the chief three lozenges sable (in fess), on the centre middle lozenge a chalice Or, on the dexter lozenge a goutte Or. This is likely how the coat of arms would be blazoned in the middle ages. A reader of this article might notice that this does not exactly follow the chief to base, dexter to sinister rules and some of the charges and tinctures are mentioned more than once. A modern blazon would probably be written something like the following. Sable, on a roundel Or accompanied by a sun Or to the dexter chief and an increscent argent to the sinister chief, a fish naiant vert, on a chief indented argent three lozenges sable, on the dexter lozenge a goutte Or, on the middle lozenge a chalice Or. This is a modern blazon. In the middle ages, it was more difficult to edit blazons, so they instead simply added amendments to the end of the previous version of the blazon. 


Order of Details for Describing a Charge or Group of Charges

In describing a charge or group of charges, the details are given in the following order: 
1. Number of charges. ("a", "two" or whatever.) 
-For a single charge, use "a". If there are two or more use the number (e.g. "two", "three", etc.)
2. Type of charge. 
-For example, "fess", "roundel", "lion"
3. Posture of charge. 
-If it is an animal or some inanimate objects, it's posture needs to be stated. (e.g. "rampant", "passant", "displayed", "naiant")
-Most inanimate objects have a default method of displaying them. If they are in the default arrangement then the posture does not need to be stated.
4. Treatment of charge. 
-These are special changes to charge. For example "indented", "embattled", 
5. Tincture of charge. 
-This has already been discussed at the beginning of this article.
6. Placement on the shield.
-This is the location of the charge(s) on the shield and their arrangement relative to each other. For example, "in pale", "in bend", "five and three". If there are only three charges, then the default placement is "two and one".

Layering Fields and Charges
If there are charges that are completely located on another charge (or charges) and they do not touch the field then they are essentially another layer. Blazoning from the field up the upper layer are blazoned after the lower layer. For example, if there is an argent roundel with a red leaf on top of it, then the roundel will be blazoned first and the leaf second. We can use the term "on" to describe the position. With one pale and one leaf the blazon would be "on a pale argent, a leaf gules". The same arrangement with three leaves would be "on a pale argent, three leaves gules (in pale)". If there are multiple charges on the bottom, instead of a single charge, then the phrase "each charged with" may be used. For example, if this time there are three billets (instead of the single pale), and layered on top of each billet are three lozenges, then it may be blazoned as "three billets argent each charged with three lozenges gules in pale".

Diagram - Layering (fields and charges)

Diagram - Examples of complete coats of arms and their blazons

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