Mantling

Lore & Background

Mantling is a depiction of the protective cloth covering worn by knights from their helmets to stave off direct sunlight and decrease the effects of sword-blows. It is usually shown tattered or cut to shreds, but may be shown intact, especially when clergy use a helmet and mantling.

Reader's Guide

Mantling is generally blazoned 'mantled x, doubled y'; the cloth has two sides, one of a colour and the other of a metal. It is usually in the main colours of the shield or livery colours, though exceptions exist. The mantling of the Black Loyalist Heritage Society is of two furs (ermines, lined ermine). The coat of arms of Canada is mantled white and red (argent doubled gules), often rendered in the shape of maple leaves. The arms of the United Kingdom are or, lined ermine, a mantling often limited to sovereigns.

Did You Know?

• In early heraldry, before the torse was developed, the crest often continued into the mantling.
• There are rare examples where mantling mimics the ordinaries and charges on the escutcheon.
• From about the 1500s, mantlings were drawn increasingly intricate and tattered, with many wound strands.