Heralds The World Over (#9: Flanders [Belgium])

6 Replies

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We see here the Flemish herald Andre Vandewalle. Flanders is the northern Dutch-speaking part of modern Belgium. Historically, Flanders referred to a region in the southern part of the Netherlands. A friend once asked when referring to Flemish as a language, “Is there such a place as a country called Flem?” Hardly an original, or a very funny, joke.

6 thoughts on “Heralds The World Over (#9: Flanders [Belgium])”

    1. guyselvester Post author

      Not all tabards look like something off a deck of cards. The point of these posts is to illustrate how many countries BESIDES England actually have heralds, not so much to critique what they wear.

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  2. Jonathan Webster

    Also; in all fairness, what does being ‘Royal’ necessarily have to do with heraldry? Plenty of republics have heraldic authorities and/or heralds.

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    1. guyselvester Post author

      What does that have to do with the Herald from Flanders? The previous post, concerning the Herald of the Slovak Republic, already mentions a herald in a republican setting. Other than South Africa, Kenya, The Republic of Ireland and Slovakia I do not know of any other of the “plenty of republics” you refer to that have heralds. To answer your initial question, i.e. “what does being royal have to do with heraldry?”: while not all heraldry has necessarily to do with royalty all royals make use of heraldry. Therefore, royalty and heraldry are clearly linked although not exclusively.

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  3. Jonathan Webster

    That…was exactly my point. Heraldry is not exclusively confined to monarchies, and as for my comment ‘what does being ‘royal’ neccesarily have to do with heraldry’ that was in reference to Patrick’s comment ‘most unroyal’. Furthermore, I think the fact four republics have heraldic authorities also shows that republics make use of heraldry in the same way as monarchies not to mention the fact that most of the world’s republics have national and municipal arms and often have legislation to that effect as regards the national arms at the very least.

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  4. Marcus Ampe

    You better say Flanders was part of South of the Low Countries, and was situated in Germania and Belgica, having parts in the contemporary North of France, West and North of Belgium.
    Further we can speak of the province of Flanders (flăn´dərz), former county in the Low Countries, extending along the North Sea and W of the Scheldt (Escaut) River. It is divided among East Flanders and West Flanders provs., Belgium; Nord and Pas-de-Calais depts., France; and (to a small extent) Zeeland prov., the Netherlands.

    The name Flanders is also used for all the Dutch-speaking areas of Belgium. Flanders varied considerably in size in the course of its history and at one time also included Artois and parts of Picardy. In Belgian Flanders, Dutch is spoken by the majority of the inhabitants.

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