It was only natural that if French should be the lingua franca of the worldly gentleman, just as Latin was of the churchman and the scholar, Heraldry would also speak that language. There was a movement in England around 1400 to substitute English words for old French terms in Heraldry, Silver instead of Argent, Gold instead of Or and so on, but this movement died out and the French terms are used to this day. This is not surprising, Norman French was used in the English Law Courts for pleading until 1735, so it’s use to the present day in Heraldry is understandable.Now to the terms used in Heraldry. A shield, which is the main and essential part of the...
Located in Ghent, Belgium, the present castle was built in 1180 by count Philip of Alsace and was modeled after the crusaders castles the count encountered while he participated in the second crusade. Before its construction, there stood a wooden castle on the same location, built in the ninth century. Work was begun on the current Gravensteen building in 1180, on the site of an earlier castle. The building was modeled on the crusader castles in the Holy Land, and the massive fortifications still ooze power. The fortress was left empty and semi-derelict for some time, and during the industrial revolution some of its vast halls were used as loom-filled factories for the local cloth industry. It has now been restored...
