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The Civic Heraldry of France Contents

This chapter should be read in conjunction with Chapter 4, Haute-Normandie, since each was part of the former province of Normandie. I have not reproduced here the history of the région, nor repeated the section on Common Emblems. I have kept the chapters separate, however, in order to keep to the plan of dealing with individual régions.

The région comprises the départements of:

The département is divided into 4 arrondissements:

Bayeux, Caen, Lisieux and Vire.

There are 48 cantons, of which 37 are separate towns(1).

The département is divided into 4 arrondissements:

Avranches, Cherbourg, Coutances and Saint-Lô.

There are 52 cantons, of which 50 are separate towns.

The département is divided into 3 arrondissements:

Alençon, Argentan and Mortagne-au-Perche.

There are 40 cantons, of which 35 are separate towns.

I have considered the history of the former province of Normandie as a whole, and it appears in Chapter 4, Haute-Normandie.

The arms of the former province of Normandie are dealt with in Chapter 4.

I saw a representation of these arms in monochrome on a street plan in Villers-Bocage, Calvados, in December, 1989:

They have the appearance of a logo rather than a coat of arms, although they appeared within a shield.

The arms of the départements of Basse-Normandie were designed by Robert Louis: those of Calvados and Orne are symbolic in nature, with the lions of Normandie differenced by the geographical features of the coastline.

Coupé ondé d'azur et de gueules le tout chargé de deux léopards d'or, armé et lampassés d'azur.

Per fess wavy azure and gules overall two lions passant gardant or armed and langued azure.

In spite of the comment about the date of adoption above, information from the département stated that the arms were adopted as late as 1972.

In the Archives Départementales, I saw an example of the arms, which showed that the lions were in the base part of the shield, and not overall. It is, I think, a sad fact that so many of the départements are now using a logo instead of their arms.

Pays du Perche, in Calvados.

Argent three chevrons gules.

These arms were noted on a road sign in December, 1989.

Parti ondé d'azur et de gueules à deux léopards d'or armé et lampassés d'azur l'un sur l'autre brochant sur la partition.

Per pale wavy azure and gules overall two lions passant gardant in pale or armed and langued azure.

The partition(2) is an indication of the coastline of the département, and azure represents the sea.

Coupé: au 1er de gueules à deux léopards d'or armés et lampassés d'azur l'un au-dessus l'autre; au 2e d'azur à trois fleurs de lis d'or, à la bordure de gueules chargée de huit besants d'argent.

Per fess gules two lions passant gardant in pale or armed and langued azure and azure three fleurs de lis or on a bordure gules eight plates.

The base part of the shield bears the arms of the ducs d'Alençon, although the town of Alençon itself does not.

L'AIGLE, Orne. Canton, arr. Mortagne-au-Perche.

The eagle refers to the arms of Gislebert de l'Aigle from a charter of 1226(3). Delaplanche ascribed:

D'azur, a l'aigle d'or, au vol abaissé.

However, there is a legend that Fulbert de Beins, seigneur before 1010, built a fortress on the site of an eagle's nest.

Because of the early date, it may be that the story was later devised to explain the arms.

ALENCON, Orne. Chef-lieu du Departement.

D'azur, à l'aigle bicéphale éployée d'or(4).

Azure a double headed eagle displayed or.

The arms were confirmed by Louis XVIII, in 1815, with a field vert. The present arms were finally adopted in 1817, although the field azure is an error.

The correct field is not indicated, although presumably it should be sable. The Armorial Général gave the field as azure. There are many arms taken from the Armorial Général, which confuse azure and sable. I believe that it may be to do with the deterioration of the paint on the document of registration.

It is said that the use of an eagle in the arms of the town comes from a wish to remember Mathilde, granddaughter of the Conqueror, who was married to Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor. The arms of the emperors bore a double headed eagle from 1433. This seems to be a fairly tenous link(5).

According to one source, the arms used by the commune were those of Pierre II, duc d'Alençon, 1367-1404. They are similar to those of Argentan, Orne, but it is also said that they are a rebus on "ales (ailes) en sont", with the meaning "they have wings"(6).

The first duc d'Alençon was Pierre I, the fifth son of Louis IX, Saint Louis, who was granted the title in 1268. His arms were:

Azure three fleurs de lis or a bordure sable twelve bezants,

but they were never used by the commune.

AMAYE-SUR-SEULLES, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

De sinople à trois jumelles ondées d'argent posées en fasce, accompagnées de trois quintefeuilles d'or.

Vert three bars wavy argent between as many cinquefoils or.

The arms were adopted in 1966. There was no other information(7).

The three jumelles are simple bars, and not the English bars gemelles.

ARGENCES, Calvados. Communes, arr. Caen.

These were the arms of the Abbaye de la Trinité de Fécamp, former seigneurs. The only other information is from a black and white illustration on the notepaper of the Marie, where the hatchings indicate a field azure(8).

For a comment on the use of the branches of laurel, see the entry on Le Fournet, Calvados.

ARGENTAN, Orne. Arrondissement.

D'argent, à l'aigle bicéphale de sable au vol déployé, nimbée du champ(9).

Argent a double headed eagle displayed sable with a halo of the field.

It has been argued that the arms date back as far as the marriage of Mathilde, granddaughter of William the Conqueror, to the German Emperor, Henry V. Because of the early date of this marriage, it is more likely that they derive from those of Pierre II, duc d'Alençon, who built the château at Argentan. The arms were first displayed in their present form in 1951, after a design by Robert Louis. The nimbus is the same tincture as the field, showing only in outline. The crown is that of a count, and not the more normal mural crown.

The town of Alençon, Orne, is also said to bear the arms of the ducs d'Alençon: certainly the commune bears the eagle, but with different tinctures.

ARROMANCHES-LES-BAINS, Calvados. Commune, arr. Bayeux.

D'azur, à l'ancre d'or chargée d'une étoile d'argent accompagnée de deux chaînes brisées au naturel mouvant des cantons du chef vers l'étoile; au chef de gueules chargé d'un léopard d'or armé et lampassé d'azur(10).

Azure on an anchor or a mullet argent in chief two broken chains proper issuant in bend and in bend sinister a chief gules a lion passant gardant or armed and langued azure.

The arms were designed by Robert Louis and adopted in 1947.

The arms as shown on a cloth "badge"(11), have the addition in the main part of the shield of:

...overall a mullet between the figures 6.6 in dexter and 44 in sinister in fess argent,

which is a reference to the Normandy invasion of 6 June 1944. This appears as a scroll under the shield in the arms as blazoned above.

AUNAY-SUR-ODON, Calvados. Canton, arr. Vire.

Barry of twelve gules and argent.

There has been an attempt to discover the date and origin of the arms, with no success. The illustration of the arms is from the notepaper of the mairie, and shows a typical shape of the shield which is found throughout French civic heraldry.

AVRANCHES, Manche. Arrondissement.

D'azur à un château d'argent, flanqué de deux tours crénelées du même, accosté de deux fleurs de lys d'or; sommé d'un dauphin contourné et couché d'argent, surmonté d'une fleur de lys d'or, la fleur de lys accostée de deux croissants d'argent.

Azure a double towered castle argent between two fleurs de lis or in chief a dolphin contourned of the second ensigned by a fleur de lis of the third between two crescents also of the second.

A later version, designed by Robert Louis, omits the fleurs de lis, and has not been used(12).

In Larousse, the blazon is given as:

D'azur à deux tours rondes jointes par un entremur, une porte au milieu d'argent, surmonté d'un dauphin countourné et couché du même, accosté de deux croissants d'or.

These were the arms ascribed to the commune by the Armorial Général(13).

Saint-Allais added a fleur de lis, ensigning the dolphin. In 1811, under the Empire, the arms were modified, so that they were then blazoned:

D'azur à un château d'argent, flanqué de deux tours crénelées de trois pièces du même, ouvertes ajourées et maçonnées de sable; au chef cousu de gueules, chargé de deux croissants; franc quartier des villes de second ordre(14).

There is no mention of the later coat in the information supplied by the town. Delaplanche gave:

D'azur à trois sautoirs alésés d'argent, posés en bande.

BARFLEUR, Manche. Commune, arr. Cherbourg.

De gueules à un bar contourné d'argent, la tête surmontée d'une fleur de lys d'or.

Gules a barbel contourned argent ensigned by a fleur de lis or.

The arms are a rebus on the name of the commune, bar and fleur de lis, and have therefore no connection with the barbel which is so common in the civil heraldry of Lorraine. The charges also appear in the arms of the Officiers de l'Amirauté de Barfleur, registered in the Armorial Général(15).

Here, the term bar contourné means that the charge is facing to the dexter, and not as implied by the French blazon.

BARNEVILLE-CARTERET, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

De gueules à la tour d'argent, maçonnée de sable, surmontée de quatre fusées ou fuseaux d'argent.

Gules a tower argent masoned sable in chief four lozenges in fess of the second.

The arms were adopted in 1985, and are those of the ancient local family of de Carteret, differenced with the tower of the eleventh century church of Barneville. The commune was unable to discover the arms of the family of Banneville, which seem to have disappeared during the thirteenth century.

The two communes of Barneville and Carteret were amalgamated in 1964, the previous arms of the communes having been respectively:

De gueules, à trois fermaux ou boucles d'or,

which were those of Malet de Graville; and:

Coupé au 1er de gueules, à quatre fusées d'argent posées en fasce; au 2e de gueules, à trois fermaux ou boucles d'or.

The matter is confused by the fact that Barneville, which no longer exists as a commune, is said to have adopted in 1985, after the date of its reorganisation:

De gueules à la tour d'argent maçonnée de sable(16).

BAYEUX, Calvados. Arrondissement.

De gueules au léopard d'or, accompagné en chef d'un B à dextre et d'un X à senestre du même(17).

Gules a lion passant gardant in chief the capital letters B and X or.

It is probable that the Ducs of Normandie had allowed the use of the lion in the arms of the town.

The letters B and X were added by the Armorial Général in 1696, and in 1809 the town council asked the Emperor for confirmation of their arms.

Delaplanche gives:

Léopard couronné(18).

BEAUMONT-HAGUE, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

D'azur au chevron d'argent, chargé de trois merlettes de sable et accompagné de trois trèfles d'or, deux en chef et une en pointe.

Azure on a chevron argent between three trefoils or three martlets sable.

These appear to be the arms of Thomasse de Beaumont who married Raoul d'Argouges in 1332, although elsewhere it is claimed that they are those of Jallot(19).

The arms were adopted in 1979.

BELLEME, Orne. Canton, arr. Mortagne-au-Perche.

De sable à une forteresse crénelée à trois tours d'or.

There was no further information from the commune.

Delaplanche gives the field sable, but the arms were entered in the Armorial Général with a field azure(20), which gives more weight to my theory of azure deteriorating to sable. See the Glossary, under the entry on azure, for an exposition of the theory.

I have used the more familiar castle triple towered, rather than the French forteresse, because the illustration made the blazon clear.

BENERVILLE-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

The only information was from a black and white illustration on the notepaper of the Mairie(21).

The charge in the main part of the shield is a château, and not a castle.

BERNIERES-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

The only information was from a black and white illustration on the notepaper of the Mairie(22).

BEUVRON-EN-AUGE, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

The only information was from a black and white illustration on the notepaper of the Mairie(23).

BISSIERES, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

D'or au lion de gueules, au chef d'azur chargé d'un croissant d'argent accosté de deux étoiles du champ.

Or a lion rampant gules a chief azure a crescent argent between two mullets or.

There was no further information(24).

The French blazon picks up the tincture of the mullet from that on the field in the main part of the shield. I prefer to blazon the chief separately, especially as it so often contains completely different arms to the main part.

BLAINVILLE-SUR-ORNE, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

The only information was from a black and white illustration on the notepaper of the Mairie(25).

The second and third quarters are unclear, but I believe them to be as blazoned. The inescutcheon appears to bear the arms of Colbert, which also appear in the arms of the communes of Châtenay-Malabry, Le Plessis-Robinson and Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine.

BLONVILLE-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

D'azur à une bande de gueules portant un léopard d'or, en senestre en chef une étoile d'argent; en dextre trois besants d'or.

Azure on a bend gules between in chief a seven pointed star argent and in base three bezants a lion passant gardant bendwise or.

The seven pointed star, rare in heraldry, is stella maris, symbolising the Virgin, and the bezants are said to indicate richness, with no further explanation(26).

BONNEBOSQ, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

The only information was from a black and white illustration on the notepaper of the Mairie. The arms have the appearance of belonging to a family, rather than bearing local symbols.

BRECEY, Manche. Canton, arr. Avranches.

D'hermine, au lion de gueules rampant.

Ermine a lion rampant gules.

These were the arms of Brecey, seigneurs until the fifteenth century(27).

This is a rare example of an ermine field in the civil heraldry of Normandie, although a few can be found in the communal arms of Haute-Normandie.

BREHAL, Manche. Canton, arr. Coutances.

Coupé, au 1er, de gueules au léopard d'or passant accompagné de huit fleurs de lys d'or; au 2e, d'azur à trois coquilles d'or 2 et 1.

Per fess gules semy de lis a lion passant gardant or and azure three escallops or.

The arms were adopted in about 1970.

The element of semy de lis has been placed on a field gules in order to accommodate the symbol of Normandie. The escallops are a reference to the fishing industry, although it is also said that they refer to the pilgrim journeys to Mont-Saint-Michel(28).

BRICQUEBEC, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

D'or au lion de sinople, armé et lampassé de gueules, couronné d'argent.

Or a lion rampant vert armed and langued gules crowned argent.

These were the arms of Bertran, seigneurs of Bricquebec, and are mentioned in Canel, as being the arms of the commune. The arms of Robert IV Bertrand, baron de Bricquebec, are found in the Wijbergen Roll, No328.

There is a variant:

D'or au lion de gueules (ou de sinople),

which derives from a design by Robert Louis, although it is not clear why the tinctures are indistinct.

The mairie uses both arms(29).

BRIOUZE, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

A l'oiseau et aux roseaux d'argent sur un marais de sable au-dessus d'une foi d'or sur fond d'azur, entourée d'hermine à six losanges de gueules, posées 3,2,1.

Azure a bird and reeds argent on a bar wavy couped issuant from the sinister flank sable in base two hands clasped or on a bordure ermine six lozenges gules.

The arms were devised in 1980, following a request by the SNCF, the national railway, who wished to depict the arms of towns in their trains(30).

The bird and the reeds are symbols of the local marshes; the foi is the "top-là" or the shaking of hands at the conclusion of a deal in the markets; and the bordure derives from the arms of Orglandes, seigneurs from 1592 to 1790.

CABOURG, Calvados. Canton, arr. Caen.

Per pale gules a sailing ship in line ahead sable with sail argent on the sea azure and azure the plan of the commune showing sand dunes or and a bend in the River Dives of the field with indications of a customs post and a fishermen's hamlet with a church in the centre sable overall a chief azure a fish in fess argent(31).

This is the first time that I have come across the representation of a map in the arms of commune. In the dexter part of the shield the sailing ship is shown sailing directly towards the viewer, and not in the more normal way of sailing across the shield.

The tinctures of the arms were confirmed on a postcard bearing the arms of several towns of Calvados.

CAEN, Calvados. Siège de la Région.

De gueules à la tour donjonnée d'or, maçonnée de sable.

Gules a tower or masoned sable.

The French donjonné appears to mean a castle of a single tower, that is a simple tower in English blazon.

Elsewhere, the arms are blazoned:

De gueules au château, donjonné d'une tour crénelée d'or, le tout ouvert, ajouré et maçonné de sable(32).

There have been many changes in the arms of the town. Originally, they were:

Gules a castle or surrounded by fleurs de lys (also or?),

which was taken from a fourteenth century seal. Gules is from the coat of Normandie; the fleurs de lys, which are shown slipped on the seal, are a symbol of the authority of the throne of France. Henry V of England, then Duc de Normandie, was prepared to permit this emblem, since he claimed the throne of Charles VI.

Later, there appeared:

Per fess azure and gules three fleurs de lys or.

When Charles VII took the town from the English, it is said that he granted these arms as a mark of gratitude for the fidelity of the townspeople. Caen was at this time one of the forty "bonnes villes de France" whose mayors were privileged to attend the coronation of the King.

At the Revolution the arms disappeared, to appear again during the first Empire as:

Gules, a tower or voided and masoned sable a chief gules (sic) three bees volant in fess or.

The number of "bonnes villes" was at this time reduced to thirty six, and Caen was ranked number twenty one. The field gules with a chief gules is an example of the pièce cousu which is relatively common in French heraldry: the town had in fact asked for a chief azure.

In 1809, the town requested the grant of:

Coupé d'azur et de gueules à l'aigle brochant sur le tout,

in order to retain as much of the former arms as possible; if these were not permitted, then the château donjonné d'or was requested instead.

The Restoration enabled the town, in 1816, to return to the arms first granted by Charles VII, but in 1830, for what reason is not stated, it adopted its present arms.

During the reign of Napoleon III, those of 1811 were taken up again; after his fall in 1870, the town reverted to those of 1830 which it bears today. The arms have no legal character since they were not the subject of a grant or concession.

I have dealt with the history of the arms at length, because they serve as a good example of the ways in which a commune may change its arms over a long period of time. There seems to have been a good deal of political manoeuvering during the nineteeth century.

CAHAGNES, Calvados. Commune, arr. Vire.

The only information was from a black and white illustration on the notepaper of the Mairie(33).

The lion is, unusually, holding the sword by the blade and not by the hilt.

CANISY, Manche. Canton, arr. Saint-Lô.

Vairy or and gules on a bend azure a millrind between two hemp brakes argent?.

The arms are those of Kergorlay, who were seigneurs of the commune at some time during the fourteenth century, differenced by the bend on which there appear emblems of local industries of milling and weaving.

Neither the illustration supplied by the town nor the information in the Armorial Communale de la Manche gives the tinctures of the charges on the bend.

The present arms were adopted in 1963, and replaced:

Coupé de gueules et d'azur, à trois besants d'hermine, deux en chef et un en pointe,

which were the arms of Carbonnel, seigneurs from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, and which were ascribed to the commune by Canel(34). I have shown a slightly different version of the arms of Richard de Carbonnel, which appear in the Wijnbergen Roll, No394.

CARENTAN, Manche. Canton, arr. Saint-Lô.

D'argent, à l'aigle de gueules accompagnée de neuf billettes du même, posées en orle, au chef d'azur chargé de trois fleurs de lys d'or en fasce.

Argent an eagle displayed nine billets in orle gules a chief azure three fleurs de lis or.

The illustration is from the notepaper of the Mairie.

The arms were granted by Louis XVIII in 1817. Over the years different authors have ascribed different arms to the commune. Delaplanche gave:

D'azur au sautoir d'argent;

and Saint d'Allais:

D'azur à trois mats d'argent, sans voiles.

Conversely, the Armorial Général ascribed:

D'azur à un navire sans mats, d'or, sur des ondes d'argent, et en chef, une étoile d'or.

Each of these has been rejected in its turn. In 1812, under the Empire, the arms had to be modified, because the eagle was an Imperial symbol. In consequence, the arms then became:

D'hermine, au coq de gueules, chef d'azur chargé de trois étoiles d'argent; franc quartier des villes de troisième ordre(35).

Le Prevost, in 1860, gave:

D'argent, semé de billettes de gueules, à l'aigle éployée du même.

The chief of France was, however, depicted on the church bell in 1775, and in any case the arms had been officially granted in 1817.

The chief is something of a mystery, since traditionally it is granted only to those communes whose mayors attended the coronation of the king. Canel gives no explanation for it in this case, and neither is there any satisfactory explanation for the emblems in the arms. The most common on the seal of the Vicomte de Carentan is the rose, although an eagle does appear on the dexter side of a seal of 1326.

CARROUGES, Orne. Canton, arr. Alençcon.

De gueules fleurdelisé d'argent.

Gules semy de lis argent.

There was no further information.

It is possible that the field gules, rouge, is a rebus on the name of the commune.

CAUMONT-L'EVENTE, Calvados. Canton, arr. Bayeux.

D'azur à la croix d'argent, chargée en coeur d'une gelinotte de sable allumee d'or et cantonnée de quatre besants d'or.

Azure on a cross argent cantonned by four bezants a hen sable the eyes or.

The gelinotte is a breed of chicken, famous in the area, but there is no explanation of the main charge.

The date of the arms is unknown. The illustration is to be found on the notepaper of the Mairie.

CERISY-LA-SALLE, Manche. Canton, arr. Coutances.

De sinople à la bande d'argent, accostée de deux cotices de même, et sommée d'un lion d'or passant.

Vert a bend cotised argent in chief a lion passant or.

These were the arms of Richier, seigneurs from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries(36).

CHERBOURG, Manche. Arrondissement.

D'azur a la fasce d'argent chargee de trois etoiles a six rais de sable, accompagnee de trois besants d'or(37).

Azure on a fess argent between three bezants as many estoiles sable.

The Armorial Général and de la Planche both gave:

D'azur à la fasce d'argent accompagnée de trois besants de même, deux en chef et un en pointe.

The bezants are a rebus on Cherbourg, the French cher meaning dear; the fess and the three estoiles represent the Holy Trinity and the girdle of the Virgin, stella maris, patron of Cherbourg(38).

The municipal records were destroyed by fire during the Middle Ages, and the first mention of the arms was in 1532, when François I visited the town. They probably date from the last years of the twelfth century.

The bezants were also used in heraldry as a symbol of ransom for Crusaders, and many of the townspeople of Cherbourg went to the Crusades. The coins themselves were common in Normandie, and several Norman seigneurs bore them on their arms. For example Espinay bore:

D'argent, au chevron d'azur, chargé d'onze besants d'or.

In 1811, the arms were augmented with the canton of villes de la seconde classe:

D'azur à un N d'or, surmonté d'une étoile rayonnante du même, brochant au neuvième de l'écu.

In 1814, under the restoration, all towns were ordered to return to their original arms. In 1858, Napoleon III restored the canton, following a request from the commune, also this no longer appears to be used(39).

COLLEVILLE-MONTGOMERY, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Per fess argent a chevron gules between in dexter chief a lion passant gardant in sinister chief a landing craft sable and in base a fortress or with smoke azure ensigned by the head of a soldier sable of the third wearing a beret vert and barry wavy argent and azure.

These arms were noted on a street sign in December, 1989. The charges were drawn in black on a white field. The base part of the shield per fess may in fact be a disproportionate rendering of a champagne barry wavy, and would make more sense if it were so.

The arms refer to the Allied landings in the area in June, 1944, and although the commune has obviously wished to commemorate the event, I feel that it would have been possible to do so in conventional heraldic terms, and with more visual force.

Just two random examples of events of the Second World War depicted in pure and vivid heraldic terms can be seen in the neighbouring arms of Arromanches, Calvados, which also commemorate the Landings; and in the tragic reminder of the massacre which can be seen in the arms of Oradour-sur-Glane, Haute-Vienne.

COLOMBELLES, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

D'azur à trois colombelles d'argent posées deux et une et à la roue dentée d'or posée en coeur, au chef de gueules chargé d'un léopard d'or.

Azure a cogwheel or between three young doves volant argent a chief gules a lion passant gardant or.

The arms, which were adopted in 1957, are based upon a coat found in the church; the origin of these is unknown(40).

The doves, which are a rebus on the name of the commune, are depicted as though they were hovering kestrels. Colembelle is, strictly speaking, a young dove, but there is no difference between them in the drawing of the arms.

CONDE-SUR-NOIREAU, Calvados. Canton, arr. Vire.

D'azur à la fleur de lys d'argent.

Azure a fleur de lis argent.

The arms date from the fourteenth centry, when Blanche de Navarre was seigneur. Presumably, these were her arms or those of her husband, although Canel does not make this clear.

CONDE-SUR-VIRE, Manche. Commune, arr. Saint-Lô.

In 1980, expert advice was sought on the matter of a coat of arms for the commune. Two projects were put forward, and they are reproduced below. It is sad to record that a change in the muncipality then caused the projects to be scrapped, since I believe that they good heraldic practice.

One of the projects submitted was:

D'or à un pairle d'azur, accompagné en chef d'un boeuf affarouché de sable, et flanqué de deux barattes d'azur cerclées d'argent.

Or a pall azure in chief a bullock rampant sable and in the flanks two milk churns azure bound argent.

The pall, very rare in the civic heraldry of France, is an allusion to the name of the commune, which derives from the Gallic condate, confluence. The Y shape of the pall indicates the position of the commune at the confluence of the Vire and the Nonains.

The bullock is from the canting arms of Brebeuf:

D'argent au boeuf affarouché de sable, armé de pointes d'or;

and the milk churns are an allusion to the dairy industry of the area.

The alternative project for the coat of arms for the commune was:

D'or à une bande ondée d'argent, accompagnée en chef d'un boeuf affarouché de sable et en pointe d'une baratte d'azur cerclée d'argent(41).

COTTUN, Calvados. Commune, arr. Bayeux.

De sable à la croix échiquetée d'or et de gueules, de deux tires, cantonnée de quatre têtes d'aigle d'argent.

Sable a cross gobonny counter gobonny or and gules cantoneed by four eagle's heads argent.

The arms were adopted in 1976, but there was no further information(42).

The French blazon uses echiqueté... de deux tires, which can be translated as checky of two; this rendered as gobonny counter gobonny in the English. See the Glossary under the entry on échiqueté, for further comment.

COUTANCES, Manche. Arrondissement.

D'azur à trois colonnes d'argent rangées en pal, au chef de gueules charge d'un léopard d'or(43).

Azure three columns palewise in fess argent a chief gules a lion passant gardant or.

The arms were ascribed by the Armorial Général. It is said that the columns are a reference to the name of the commune, which is derived from the Latin constantia: the column is a symbol of solid power and constancy(44).

CREULLY, Calvados. Canton, arr. Caen.

D'argent à trois lionceaux de gueules, 2 et 1.

Argent three lions rampant gules.

These were the arms of Creully, seigneurs from the twelfth century. Robert de Caen, 1107-47, bore the same arms, and it is claimed that they can be traced, at least as symbolic figures, as far back as 1046(45).

CREVECOEUR-EN-AUGE, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Or a cross throughout voided gules.

I believe that this is the only example that I have come across of a cross voided. The arms were noted on a road sign in December, 1989.

The cross voided has been found in examples dating from before 1300, and Glover's Roll has the arms, under the name of Hamund Crevequer:

De or une croiz persé(46).

CULEY-LE-PATRY, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Trois quintefeuilles d'hermine avec besants d'or sur gueules.

Gules three cinquefoils ermine pierced or.

These were the arms of Patry, former seigneurs(47).

There was no illustration accompanying the French blazon, which is not clear. I believe that the English version is accurate, with the cinquefoils charged with the bezants, which would then be blazoned cinquefoils pierced. However, the illustration, which has been added to this website edition, appears to prove the opposite. The arms shown here are those of Raoul Patry, who appears in the Chifflet-Prinet Roll, No91.

DEAUVILLE, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

D'azur au pal d'argent chargé de trois tours crénelées de gueules et accompagné de quatre pattes de lion d'or mouvant des flancs de l'écu, deux à dextre en barre et deux à senestre en bande; au chef de gueules chargé d'un léopard d'or armé et lampassé d'azur.

Azure on a pale argent between four gambs two in dexter in pale bend sinisterwise and as many in sinister also in pale bendwise or three towers in pale gules a chief gules a lion passant gardant or.

The arms, without the chief, were those of Brancas, seigneurs in the eighteenth century.

The present arms were adopted by the commune in 1878(48).

DIVES-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

De gueules à la tour crénelée d'argent, au chef d'azur chargé d'une couronne ducale d'or, accompagnée de deux besants de même(49).

Gules a tower argent a chief azure a ducal crown or between two bezants.

Canel gives:

De sable, à trois pals d'or, avec un trèfle de sinople, brochant sur le tout,

but says that he is not confident that these are correct.

DOMFRONT, Orne. Canton, arr. Alençon.

De gueules, à trois tours jointes, chacune avec sa porte ouverte, d'or, maçonnées de sable, sur une terrasse de sinople.

Gules three towers conjoined or pierced and masoned sable a champagne vert.

In the fourteenth century, the arms were:

De gueules, à une tour d'argent maçonnee de sable, crénelée de cinq pièces percées du champ.

The present arms were fixed during the course of the seventeenth century, probably by the Armorial Général. The illustration here is from the notepaper of the Mairie.

The English blazon might be ...a castle triple towered..., but in this case each of the towers is distinct with its own gateway.

The arms are very similar to those of Falaise, Calvados.

DONVILLE-LES-BAINS, Manche. Commune, arr. Avranches.

Un cheval marin d'or, avec un soleil de même, rayonnant de huit pièces en chef, le tout sur un fond de gueules.

Gules a seahorse in chief the sun in his splendour or.

The arms have no historical connotation, but are merely symbolic of the seaside resort. There is no indication of the date of adoption(50).

It is interesting to note the apparent supremacy of the colours of Normandie: it might have been considered obvious anywhere but in Normandie that the field should be azure to denote the sky.

The only other example of the seahorse in French civic heraldry that I have come across is also in Normandie, in the arms of Merville-Franceville-Plage, Calvados.

DOUVRES-LA-DELIVRANDE, Calvados. Canton, arr. Caen.

Tranché, à dextre, de gueules à l'aigle d'or à double tête avec les ailes déployées; à senestre, d'azur, à la madonne d'argent.

Per bend gules a double headed eagle displayed or and azure a Virgin argent.

The arms were adopted in 1936.

The eagle is from the arms of the Chapter of the Cathedral of Bayeux, which owned the lands on which was built the Chapelle du Pélerinage. It was this chapel which contained a miraculous statue, which is indicated by the Virgin in the arms.

The arms shown here were sent to me by the commune.

DUCEY, Manche. Canton, arr. Avranches.

Ecartelé: au 1er et 4e quartiers de gueules chargés de trois fleurs de lys d'or; au 2e et 3e de gueules chargé de trois coquilles d'or.

Quarterly first and fourth gules three fleurs de lis or second and third gules three escallops or.

The arms were adopted in 1952, and were those of Montgommery, former seigneurs of the commune(51).

The effect of this blazon is to show a shield with groups of charges on a field of gules. However, see the arms below, where the second and third quarters are azure.

The arms of Bernay, Eure, which are:

Azure a lion rampant gules;

are said to be those of Montgommery, although in the arms of the communes of Ducey, Manche, and Ecouche, Orne, they are given as:

Quarterly first and fourth gules three escallops or second and third azure three fleurs de lis or.

ECOUCHE, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

Ecartelé aux 1er et 3e de gueules à trois coquilles d'or, et aux 2e et 4e d'azur à trois fleurs de lis d'or.

Quarterly first and fourth gules three escallops or second and third azure three fleurs de lis or.

These were the arms of Montgommery, who was Baron d'Ecouche after 1609. There is an unexplained label reversed, that is, upside down, in a chief overall. The information from the town does not mention it, even though it appears in the illustration accompanying the correspondence.

See also the entry on Ducey, Manche.

EQUEURDREVILLE-HAINNEVILLE, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

Coupé, mi-parti en chef au 1er d'azur à trois coquilles d'or posées en bande, au 2e de gueules à une tour d'or et en pointe de gueules à un pont d'or à quatre arches sur une mer de sinople.

Per fess per pale azure three escallops in bend or and gules a tower or and gules a bridge embowed of four arches or masoned sable a champagne vert.

The first quarter contains the arms of the Abbaye de Voeu, formerly seigneurs of the area, with the difference of the substitution of escallops for fleurs de lis. This is because the name Equeurdreville has been said to derive from scheldel, covered with shells. The second quarter indicates the territorial rights of the abbey over Cherbourg and the surrounding area; the third alludes to the Ile du Hommet, where the abbey was built.

The arms were adopted in 1938(52). The illustration is from a sticker sent to me by the commune.

EVRECY, Calvados. Canton, arr. Caen.

The illustration received from the town was in black and white.

The arms were adopted in about 1946-7, and contain elements of local history. The crozier and mitre indicate the links with the bishopric of Bayeux; the tower is a local castle; the scales alludes to the judiciary function of the town as seat on the vicomté et sergenterie; the Croix de Guerre was awarded for bravery in the summer of 1944.

The inclusion of the Croix de Guerre in the shield is unheraldic, and several communes have had fierce disagrrement within their councils as to the correctness of its inclusion. Most append their decorations to the shield.

I have seen the arms as:

... three chevrons couped ....(53)

EXMES, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

D'azur à deux lévriers d'argent, passants et l'un au-dessus de l'autre.

Azure two greyhounds passant in pale argent.

According to Canel(54) these arms appear in an heraldic tableau. However, I received no information from the commune and on passing through the town in December 1989, I saw no sign of arms displayed. I have included them here with reservation.

FALAISE, Calvados. Canton, arr. Caen.

Gules a castle triple towered argent masoned a champagne sable.

The arms date from the thirteenth century. The champagne is a rebus on the derivation of the name of the town, which derives from the Germanic/Frankish falisia, rock. The castle is a reference to that in which William the Conqueror was born.

The Armorial Général gave:

D'argent à trois tours de gueules, 2 et 1, et un chef d'azur de gueules, chargé de trois fleurs de lys d'argent(55).

The chief is not used by the commune. Other examples of the arms show the champagne as a mount vert or argent. The illustration here is on a postcard sent to me by the commune. It is a reproduction of an original painted by Robert Louis.

LA FERTE-FRESNEL, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

Or an eagle displayed gules.

These were the arms of the family of Ferté Fresnel, but from the information received it is not possible to decide whether the town has officially adopted the arms as its own.

LA FERTE-MACE, Orne. Canton, arr. Alençon.

De gueules à une ruche d'or en ruche et à une navette de tisserand d'argent posée en barre en pointe.

Gules in chief a beehive and in base a weaver's shuttle in bend sinister argent.

These have been the traditional arms of the commune since the nineteenth century.

FLERS, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

De gueules à deux navettes d'or posées en sautoir, accompagnées de trois bobines d'argent 2 et 1, au chef de France.

Gules two weaver's shuttles in saltire three bobbins two in chief and one in base or a chief azure three fleurs de lis or.

In 1863, Canel noted that the town did not possess arms. This prompted interest amongst the people, and in 1868 the present arms were adopted.

It is interesting to note that, at this time, there was some difficulty in gaining acceptance for the chief of France. This chief was traditionally in the gift of the monarchy, and given to bonnes villes.

See the entry on Caen, Calvados.

LE FOURNET, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

The only information was from a black and white illustration on the notepaper of the Mairie(56).

The branches are drawn in the same way as those which would normally support the shield. See also the entry on Argence, Calvados.

GACE, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

Azure two towers in fess or.

I received no information from the commune, but these arms were noted on a road sign, in August 1987.

GIBERVILLE, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Azure a cogwheel sable (sic) enfilading three ears of wheat in bend sinister or a chief gules two lions passant gardant or(57).

The symbolism is that of industry and agriculture, with the lions of Normandie.

LA GLACERIE, Manche. Commune, arr. Cherbourg.

D'azur au chevron d'argent chargé en chef d'une rose de gueules, sommé d'une fleur de lys d'or et accompagné en chef de deux miroirs d'argent garnis d'or, et en pointe d'un clocheton de chapelle d'argent soutenu d'une trangle de gueules.

Azure on a chevron argent between in chief two mirrors of the second trimmed or and in base a bell also of the second a rose gules ensigned by a fleur de lis also or.

The mirrors and the fleur de lis are a reference to the royal glass manufacture of the commune; and the bell to the Chapelle de Verriers, or glass makers. The other charges are from the arms of three local familes: the rose gules of Caqueray; the chevron argent of Lucas de Nehou; and the barrulet gules of Oury.

The arms were adopted in 1984(58).

GRANDCAMP-MAISY, Calvados. Commune, arr. Bayeux.

Azure a trawler a champagne wavy argent a chief azure an escallop a garb an oyster and a milk churn in fess or(59).

The ship is a chalutier, a trawler or drifter. The chief bears, unusually, four different charges in fess, all of which are presumably local symbols of occupation.

A postcard, which blazons the arms of several other communes of Calvados accurately, shows all the charges shown on a plain field bleu céleste.

GRANVILLE, Manche. Canton, arr. Avranches.

D'azur au dextrochère armé d'or, mouvant d'une nuée du même, et tenant une épée d'argent, la garde et la poignée d'or, surmontée d'un soleil du même(60).

Azure a dexter arm armed issuant from a cloud in the sinister flank or holding a sword in pale argent pommelled ensigned by a sun in his splendour of the second.

The arms are those ascribed to the town by the Armorial Général. Previously, the town had borne the sword between three mullets. During the Revolution, the tinctures were changed and the sun and the stars disappeared.

During the Empire, the town bore:

D'azur à la fasce nuagée d'argent accompagnée de trois étoiles d'or, deux en chef et une en pointe, chargée d'un dextrochère armé, de sable, mouvant du flanc senestre de l'écu et tenant une épée haute d'or, franc quartier des villes de second ordre.

The arms of the Armorial Général were restored in 1816. Canel states that the arms were granted to the town by Charles VII, and that the dextrochère is a symbol of his intention that it should always be ready to defend itself(61).

The dextrochere, which is rare in most régions of France, appears most commonly in Lorraine.

LA HAYE-DU-PUITS, Manche. Canton, arr, Coutances.

De gueules à l'aigle éployée d'argent becquée et membrée d'or, et accompagnée en pointe d'une branche d'arbre de même.

Gules an eagle displayed argent beaked and membered in base the branch of a tree or.

The arms, which were adopted before 1962, are based on those of Magneville, seigneurs from 1511.

There has been a problem in tracing these arms, although the most likely are:

De gueules à l'aigle éployée d'argent becquée et membrée d'or(62).

There is no explanation for the adoption of the branch to difference the arms. It is possibly a rebus on Haye, the French word haie, hedge.

LA HAYE-PESNEL, Manche. Canton, arr, Avranches.

D'or à deux fasces d'azur, le champ orné de neuf merlettes de gueules 4,2,3 en orle.

Or two bars azure nine martlets in orle gules.

The seigneurs of the area were the family Pesnel or Paynel, who date from the Conqueror, and whose English connections may be seen in Newport Pagnell(63). The arms shown here are those of Thomas Paynel, who died in 1314, and who appears in St George's Roll, No208.

However, the arms of the town of Newton Pagnall, in Buckinghamshire, which were granted in 1951, are:

Or two lions passant in pale and in base two bars wavy azure within a bordure gyronny of eight gules and sable.

Here, the lions are from the arms of the Paganell family, from whom the town derived its name, while the other elements are symbolic of the River Ouse with the county colours in the bordure(64).

None of this helps to explain the derivation of the arms of the commune.

HONFLEUR, Calvados. Canton, arr. Lisieux.

De gueules à la tour d'argent, accostée de deux fleurs de lys d'or, et au chef d'azur, chargé de trois autres fleurs de lys, aussi d'or.

Gules a tower argent between in chief two fleurs de lis or a chief azure three fleurs de lis or.

Canel states that the earliest description of the arms is on a document of 1730, but the chief of France indicates that they are of earlier origin, perhaps from the time of Louis XI, in the middle of the fifteenth century.

The illustration here is the reproduction of a painting, sent to me by the commune. Elsewhere, a postcard makes it plain that the the two fleurs de lis are in chief, but also gives the chief itself as:

Azure three mullets or,

and not fleurs de lis.

HOULGATE, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

De gueules aux deux léopards passant d'or, à la barre d'argent chargée de trois coquilles de sable.

Gules on a bend sinister between two lions passant or three escallops sable.

The arms have been in use since at least 1947(65).

The lions are passant and not gardant. The normal French blazon for lions passant gardant is simply léopard.

ISIGNY-SUR-MER, Calvados. Canton, arr. Bayeux.

D'azur au chevron d'argent, accompagné en chef de deux ancres d'or, et en pointe d'une vache passant du même; au chef parti: au 1er de gueules à la mitre d'or; au 2e palé d'or et de gueules(66).

Azure a chevron argent between in chief two anchors and in base a cow passant or a chief per pale gules a mitre or and paly of six or and gules.

There was no further information.

The fact that the sinister side of the chief is paly of six is omitted in the French blazon.

JULLOUVILLE, Manche. Commune, arr. Avranches.

D'argent à trois canettes de sable, 2 et 1, becquées et membrées d'or.

Argent three ducks sable beaked and membered or.

The arms were adopted in 1960, and were inspired by those of Martin, seigneurs of Bouillon, who bore:

D'argent à trois pies de sable(67).

The pie in the seigneurial arms is a magpie.

LANGRUNE-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

D'azur aux trois coquilles d'argent, à la bordure de gueules chargée de huit besants d'argent.

Azure three escallops argent on a bordure gules eight plates.

There was no further information(68).

LESSAY, Manche. Canton, arr. Coutances.

Azure a battleaxe in pale the blade to the sinister or(69).

LION-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Burelé-ondé d'argent et d'azur de dix pièces, à l'ancre, dont la tige retient une vergue posée légèrement en bande, surmontée d'une hune, le tout de sable, la tige pavillonnée à dextre d'une flamme d'or, la vergue retenant une voile carrée de gueules chargée d'un lion d'or, attaché au bec des pattes de l'ancre; le tout brochant sur le burelé-ondé.

Barry wavy of ten argent and azure overall an anchor supporting a yard arm with a crow's nest sable a pennant flying to the dexter or and a sail attached to the yard and flukes of the anchor gules a lion rampant or(70).

The arms are unusual, but most effective. The yard bearing the sail is hanging from the anchor, which in the design is serving as a mast.

LISIEUX, Calvados. Arrondissement.

D'argent, à deux clés passées en sautoir cantonnées de quatre étoiles, le tout de sable; au chef d'azur chargé de trois fleurs de lis d'or(71).

Argent two keys in saltire the wards upwards and outwards cantonned by four mullets sable a chief azure three fleurs de lis or.

Pierre Delaplanche gave:

D'azur à deux clefs d'argent passées en sautoir, cantonnées de quatre estoiles d'or; au chef de gueules, à trois fleurs de lys d'or.

Here, the field of the chief is gules.

Many communes have added a chef cousu of France to their arms when the field of the original arms is azure, but in this case the commune has changed the tincture of the field for the sake of the appearance of the arms.

In the Armorial des Villes de France, the commune bears:

D'azur à une crosse d'or posée en pal, accostée de deux fleurs de lys de même.

These arms, without the chief, appear on the oldest document known by the commune, dating from 1477, and are cited by Canel, who states that the seal of the vicomte de Lisieux in the fourteenth century shows the keys and the crozier. The chief was probably added during the sixteenth century.

The present arms were authorised by Louis XVIII in 1817.

LIVAROT, Calvados. Canton, arr. Lisieux.

D'azur au chef parti: au 1er losangé d'argent et de gueules, au 2e coticé d'or et de gueules, à la crosse abbatiale d'or en pal, brochant sur le tout, chargée d'un écusson en abîme d'argent, au lion de gueules, armé, lampassé et couronné d'or, l'écusson flanqué de deux fleurs de lis d'or.

Azure two fleurs de lis or a chief per pale lozengy argent and gules and bendy of ten or and gules overall a crozier or overall an inescutcheon argent a lion rampant gules armed langued and crowned or.

The crozier is a reference to a Benedictine Abbey which existed in the locality, and which was founded by the family of Gouyon-Matignon, whose arms are in the inescutcheon. The fleurs de lis are a reminder of the royal barony of Livarot, and the arms of two former seigneurs form the chief: dexter, Crespin, and sinister, Neufbourg.

The illustration is from a card sent to me by the commune, and is a reproduction of a design by Robert Louis.

Guillaume V Crespin, Connétable de Normandie, bore lozengy gules and argent. His arms appear in the Wijnbergen Roll, No39.

LONGNY-AU-PERCHE, Orne. Canton, arr. Mortagne-au-Perche.

The only information was from a black and white illustration.

LUC-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Taillé, au 1er de gueules à la lettre L et aux deux lions léopardés d'or; au 2e d'azur au drakkar d'argent une coquille en pointe.

Per bend sinister gules two lions passant ensigned by the capital letter L or and azure a viking ship in base an escallop argent.

The partition cuts across the foot of the letter L and the rear of the lower of the two lions passant.

See the Glossary for information on the different positions of the lion in French heraldry.

MARIGNY, Manche. Canton, arr, Saint-Lô.

D'azur au chevron d'or, accompagné de deux roses en chef et d'un lion en pointe, le tout d'or.

Azure a chevron between in chief a rose and in base a lion rampant or.

These were the arms of the last Marquis de Marigny, Hyacinthe-Julien-Anne de Marnieres de Guer, and were adopted by the commune in 1963(72).

See also the entry on Le Mesnilbus, Manche.

MAY-SUR-ORNE, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

De gueules à la représentation symbolique du travail à la mine (deux pics entrecroisés chargés d'une lampe et d'un casque de mineur) et des travaux des champs (un soc de charrue); au chef d'azur chargé de la devise en lettres d'argent: PRO.LABOR.

Gules a ploughshare overall two miner's picks in saltire and overall a miner's lamp and overall a miner's helmet ... a chief azure the capital letters PRO.LABOR argent.

These arms are very similar to those of Potigny, Calvados, both in their symbolism and in the use of words in the chief. Here, however, a symbol of the work in the fields is added to those of the mines.

The tinctures of the charges are omitted in the French blazon and are not indicated in the black and white illustration.(73)

In the design the charges are piled one on top of the other: the order, from the top of the pile, is the helmet, the lamp, the picks and the ploughshare. In addition, there is a small indecipherable charge in the chief part of the main shield.

LE MERLERAULT, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

D'argent à un merle de sable, à un chef d'azur chargé d'un coeur d'argent accosté de deux fleurs de lis d'or.

Argent a blackbird sable a chief azure a heart argent between two fleurs de lis or.

It is said that these are the arms of the commune, adopted in 1893, but the notepaper of the mairie shows a semy field and a bordure, with the blackbird overall. In addition, the chief is of France.

MERVILLE-FRANCEVILLE-PLAGE, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

D'azur à quatre fasces ondées d'argent chargé d'un hippocampe de gueules.

Azure four bars wavy argent overall a seahorse in pale gules(74).

There was no further information.

For another rare example of the seahorse as a charge, see the entry on Donville-les-Bains, Manche.

LE MESNIL-DURAND, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Azure a chevron argent between in chief two lions rampant affronty ... and in base three ears of wheat or.

The only information was from a black and white illustration on the notepaper of the Mairie(75).

LE MESNILBUS, Manche. Commune, arr. Coutances.

D'azur au chevron d'or, accompagné en chef de trois étoiles de même et en pointe d'une pointe de lance d'or.

Azure a chevron between in chief three mullets and in base a fer de lance or.

These were the arms of Hellouin, seigneurs in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They bore the fer de lance argent and reversed.

Portbail, Manche, has adopted the same arms, according to the Armorial Communale de la Manche, but in fact those of Portbail have the fer de lance argent, as in the original arms of the seigneurs.

There is a similarity to the arms of Marigny, Manche, which may be only coincidence.

MESSEI, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

Coupé de gueules à la tour crénelée d'argent, et d'azur à la navette d'or.

Per fess gules a tower argent and azure a weaver's shuttle in fess or.

The arms date from at least 1912.

The blazon refers to the important castle, and to the weaving industry, which flourished in the eighteenth century.

MEUVAINES, Calvados. Commune, arr. Bayeux.

D'azur au chevron d'or aux deux léopards passant de gueules et à l'image de Saint Mauvieu d'argent en pointe.

Argent a chevron or between in chief two lions passant and in base the figure of Saint Mauvieu argent.

There was no further information(76).

See the Glossary for information on the stance of the lion.

MEZIDON-CANON, Calvados. Canton, arr. Lisieux.

De gueules à neuf étoiles d'or.

Gules nine mullets 3,3,3.

There was no further information(77).

MONDEVILLE, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Per bend sinister vert two lions passant gardant ensigned by a mitre or and or five bars wavy argent (sic) traced sable overall a wide bend sinister gules two factory chimneys argent with smoke encircled by a cogwheel sable pierced of the field and charged with twelve mullets or.

These arms were noted on a road sign.

The commune is a suburb of Caen and situated in an industrial estate, which accounts for the chimneys. I believe that the cogwheel is another industrial symbol, designed to appear like the symbol of the commune d'Europe, which is displayed by many communes in the form of twelve stars in a circle on a blue background.

The wide bend sinister might mean that the arms should be blazoned as tierced. See the entry on Ver-sur-Mer, Calvados.

The unheraldic base part of the shield contains an example of the peculiar French practice of drawing lines over a field to indicate water.

MONTEBOURG, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

De gueules à une croix ancrée d'or (ou d'argent).

Gules a cross moline or (or argent).

The arms were adopted before 1970, and were inspired by those of the Abbey, which were:

D'or, à une croix ancrée de sable(78).

MONT-SAINT-MICHEL, Manche. Commune, arr. Avranches.

De sable à six coquilles d'argent, 3, 2 et 1; au chef d'azur, à trois fleurs de lys d'or.

Sable six escallops argent a chief azure three fleurs de lis or.

The arms are noted in Canel, with a variant of ten escallops instead of six(79).

There was no other information, although it is obvious that the escallops refer to the commune as a centre of pilgimage.

MORTAGNE-AU-PERCHE, Orne. Arrondissement.

D'or à trois fougères de sinople.

Or three branches of bracken vert.

There was no further information.

In Canel, the branches are shown in pale pale, whereas here, they are placed 2,1, as is normal. He also states that the tinctures of the field are confusing. In the Armorial Général, the field is azure, although the bracken remains vert. Traversier gives or, which has been accepted by the commune, and Delaplanche gives argent(80).

MORTAIN, Manche. Canton, arr. Avranches.

D'azur semé de fleurs de lis d'or sans nombre, à la bande componée d'argent et de gueules.

Azure semy de lis or a bend gobonny argent and azure.

These were the arms of the Comtes d'Evreux, who were seigneurs of Mortain. The arms first appeared officially in 1874. Previously, the last seigneurs of the town, Orléans, had displayed their own arms on public buildings from 1626:

D'azur à trois fleurs de lis d'or surmontées d'un lambel.

The Armorial Général had given:

D'azur à une ville d'argent surmontée de trois fleurs de lis d'or, rangées en chef(81).

See also the entry on Evreux, Eure.

MOULINS-LA-MARCHE, Orne. Canton, arr. Mortagne-au-Perche.

The town does not possess arms, although at the time of writing in 1989 a project for the adoption of arms by the commune was in progress.

NOCE, Orne. Canton, arr. Mortagne-au-Perche.

D'or au sautoir de gueules, accompagné de quatre lions de sable.

Or a saltire gules cantonned by four lions rampant sable.

These were the arms of Barville, seigneurs.

OCTEVILLE, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

De sinople, mantelé d'argent, l'argent chargé, à dextre, de la lettre capitale O, et, à senestre, de la lettre capitale V, de sable; au chef de gueules, au léopard d'or armé et lampassé d'azur.

Per chevron argent the capital letters O and V sable and vert a chief gules a lion passant gardant or armed and langed azure.

The arms were adopted in 1970.

The field is a representation of a hill pointing into the sky, which is depicted as grey (argent) because of the weather in the area! The letters refer to Othevilla, which dates from William the Conqueror, and the chief alludes to Normandie(82).

ORBEC, Calvados. Canton, arr. Lisieux.

D'azur, à trois annelets d'or, posés deux et un, et une fleur de lys, de même, posée en coeur.

Azure a fleur de lis between three annulets or.

Canel states that these arms were entered into the Armorial Général.

They are the differenced arms of the Vicomté:

Azure three annulets and in chief as many fleurs de lis in fess or,

as are those of the Bailiwick:

Azure an annulet between three fleurs de lis or.

The three coats provide an interesting example of how arms can differenced in an effective way.

OUISTREHAM-BELLA-RIVA, Calvados. Canton, arr. Caen.

Tiercé d'Angleterre, de Normandie et de Flandre, le lion de Flandre chargé en pal d'une crosse d'or, au chef d'azur chargé d'une coquille d'argent, d'une nef et d'une étoile à six branches de même.

Tierced in pale first gules three lions passant gardant or dimidiating second two lions passant gardant or third or on a lion rampant sable a crozier in pale of the field overall a chief azure a sailing ship between an escallop and an estoile argent.

The arms are those of the Abbaye de la Sainte Trinité, Caen, differenced by the chief. The abbey had itself differenced the arms of Queen Mathilde with the crozier on the lion of Flandre.

The modern version of the arms, as shown here, was sent to me by the commune.

PERCY, Manche. Canton, arr. Saint-Lô.

De sable au chef d'or dentelé.

Sable a chief indented or.

These were the arms of the Percy family, and are sculpted on the doorway of the mairie, dated 1868(83)

A branch of the family became powerful in England.

PERIERS, Manche. Canton, arr. Coutances.

D'argent à la bande d'azur, chargée de trois molettes d'éperon d'or et accostée de deux lionceaux de sable, celui en pointe contourné, un poirier arraché de sinople brochant, charge a la pointe d'une berelle abaissée de gueules.

Argent a pear tree eradicated vert fructed gules between two lions rampant one in sinister chief contourned and one in dexter base sable a barrulet abased gules overall on a bend azure three estoiles or pierced of the field.

Information from the commune stated that the derivation of its name may be from the French poirier, a pear tree, although this is not certain, and the pear tree is intended as a rebus(84).

The differences between the English and French blazon arise from the error in the written French, where the pear tree is blazoned overall. Two separate illustrations show the bend overall. The illustration shows the pear tree fructed. The barrulet is drawn almost across the bottom of the shield. If the shield were of the heater type, it would be impossible to show it.

LES PIEUX, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

D'azur aux sept pieux d'or posés en pal, au chef de gueules chargé d'un léopard d'or passant.

Azure seven pallets couped fitchy in pale or a chief gules a lion passant gardant or.

According to information received, the commune does not possess arms, although the notepaper from the Mairie bears those blazoned above.

The way in which it is depicted is unheraldic: the seven pallets couped are placed alternately higher and lower on the shield, giving the effect of a staggered fess(85).

The pallets are a rebus; the French blazon uses pieux, which has the meaning of stakes or posts, and which are depicted as pallets couped.

PONT-D'OUILLY, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Gules in chief a lion passant gardant or in base a bridge of five arches argent.

The arms were noted on a road sign in December, 1989.

They could be blazoned:

Per fess gules... and gules...,

since the lion occupies the whole of the top half of the shield, and not the portion normally reserved for charges placed in chief.

PONT-L'EVEQUE, Calvados. Canton, arr. Lisieux.

Gules two cows statant or a chief azure three fleurs de lis or(86).

Canel states that the preferred arms are:

De sinople à la vache d'or,

which accords with the local tradition that the name of the commune derives from the French pont à la vache. He also gives:

De pourpre, à deux boeufs d'or, au chef cousu de France,

where the oxen are those of the pays d'Auge, where they were bred.

The present arms show the desire which is present in many communes of Normandie to bear the colours of the province. Here, the cows or oxen are a direct exchanges for the leopards.

PONTORSON, Manche. Canton, arr. Avranches.

De gueules, à un pont de trois arches d'argent à la rivière de sable sommé d'un escusson de même semé de fleurs de lys d'or et accosté de deux cygnes d'argent.

Gules a bridge of three arches argent a champagne sable in chief an inescutcheon sable semy de lis or between two swans also argent.

The following are given by Delaplanche:

De gueules, à un pont d'argent de cinq arches, haut esleve, avec deux cygnes dessus, et un escusson d'azur semé de fleurs de lys d'or, en chef.

Later, according to Canel, the Armorial Général ascribed:

D'or à un pont de sable, sommé d'un ours passant, de même,

using the bear as a rebus on the name of the town: French ours, bear.

The town appears to be uncertain of its arms: the number of arches has changed; an illustration shows the inescutcheon with a label of three points; and the field of the inescutcheon is shown as sable. The arms are said to be those of the Vicomte and the town of Pontorson(87).

PORT-EN-BESSIN-HUPPAIN, Calvados. Commune, arr. Bayeux.

Tierced per fess gules the head of a crozier issuant or argent and azure three fish contourned fesswise in pale sable between two quaysides issuant from dexter and sinister point argent masoned overall a two masted sailing ship of the second.

There was no further information(88).

The sailing ship is overall on the whole shield and not a charge on the centre. An illustration on a postcard indicates a shield:

PORTBAIL, Manche. Commune, arr. Cherbourg.

D'azur, au chevron d'or, accompagné en chef de trois étoiles de même, et en pointe d'un fer de lance d'argent.

Azure a chevron between in chief three mullets or and in base a fer de lance argent.

These were the arms of Hellouin, seigneurs in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They bore the fer de lance argent and reversed.

See also the entry on Le Mesnilbus, Manche. There is a similarity with to arms of Marigny, which may be only coincidence.

POTIGNY, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Gules in chief a lion passant gardant in base a miner's pick and miner's lamp in saltire or.

I saw these arms on a road sign in December, 1989.

The whole shield was surrounded by a bordure or which also enclosed a chief argent the capital letters POTIGNY or. I do not believe that this is intended to be a chief, but that the arms have been incorporated into a larger design, which is a common occurrence in representation of communal arms on signs and ephemera. The appearance of letters or on a field argent would in any case be unheraldic.

There are references to mining activity in several communes of the area, but I do not know of what type. See also the entry on May-sur-Orne, Calvados.

PREAUX-SAINT-SEBASTIEN, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

D'azur au coeur enflammé et aux deux flèches entrecroisées d'argent; au chef de gueules chargé d'un léopard d'or.

Azure two arrows in saltire in chief a heart argent enflamed gules.

There was no further information(89), although the arrows are presumably a reference to Saint Sebastian.

PUTANGES-PONT-ECREPIN, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

D'or au lion de sinople, armé, lampassé et couronné d'argent, soutenu d'un pont à trois arches de sable, maçonné d'argent, sur une rivière d'azur.

Or in chief a lion rampant vert armed langued and crowned argent in base a bridge of three arches sable masoned argent a champagne wavy azure.

There was no further information.

QUATRE-PUITS, Calvados. Commune, arr. ?

Mi-parti; 1) d'azur fretté d'or à six pièces (de Courcy); 2) de gueules à la tour d'argent maçonné de sable, cantonnée par quatre puits de même, à une rivière d'azur en campagne.

Per pale azure fretty of six or and gules a tower argent masoned sable cantonned by four wells of the second a champagne azure.

The French blazon gives mi-parti, which is an error for the simple parti. The arms appear to be a marshalling of the seigneurial arms of Courcy and a rebus on the name of the commune.

I cannot identify this commune, although it appears in research done in the département(90).

QUERQUEVILLE, Manche. Commune, arr. Cherbourg.

De gueules à une chapelle d'or trifoliée, au chef d'azur chargé de trois abeilles d'or.

Gules a chapel trifoliated or a chief azure three bees or.

The arms evoke the ancient Chapelle Saint-Germain, which was built on a trefoil plan(91).

QUETTEHOU, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

Taillé, au 1er, d'azur à l'église d'argent; au 2e, de gueules au chaudron d'or.

Per bend sinister azure a church in perspective argent and gules a cauldron or.

The arms were adopted in 1984.

The church is that of Saint Vigor de Qhettehou; the cauldron is a reference to the name of the commune, which was founded by the Vikings. The name comes from the dialect ketilholm, the hill of the cauldron, and it is said that the cauldron was used to collect blood during sacrifices. It is rare in the heraldry of France, but appears commonly in Spain.

REMALARD, Orne. Canton, arr. Mortagne-au-Perche.

D'argent fretté de sable, à un écu de France à l'antique, à la bande componnée d'argent et de gueules.

The arms are said to be based on a seal of the Châtellenie de Rémalard of 1478.

The notepaper from the mairie gives a picture which is very near to the English blazon.

The French blazon does not make sense, since there is no inescutcheon, and there are plainly two fleurs de lis and not three. It is possible that the blazon and the illustration refer to different coats.

ROTS, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

De gueules aux cinq léopards passants, mal ordonnés d'or(92).

Gules five lions passant gardant three in dexter in pale and two in sinister also in pale or.

This is the first time that I have seen five lions placed on the shield in this fashion. The French blazon does not give a detailed description, but merely says that they are mal ordonnés.

SAINT-AUBIN-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

D'azur aux trois colonnes antiques d'argent posées sur une mer de sinople, au chef cousu d'azur chargé de trois coquilles d'argent.

Azure three antique columns in pale argent a champagne vert a chief azure three escallops argent.

There was no further information(93).

The use of the column as a charge is more common in French heraldry than in English, and there are several examples in the civic heraldry of France.

SAINT-CHARLES-DE-PERCY, Calvados. Commune, arr. Vire.

De sable; au chef denché d'or.

Sable a chief dancetty or.

These were the arms of Charles de Percy, founder of the commune in 1780(94).

There was no illustration, so the precise form of the chief is unclear. The term denché is used when the indentations are more marked than in endenté, in the same way as dancetty and indented in English blazon.

SAINT-DENIS-DE-MAILLOC, Calvados. Commune, arr. ?

Gules three mallets or.

I cannot identify this commune, although it appears in research done in the département(95).

The mallets appear in the canting arms of Mailly, although there is no evidence that the commune belonged to the family. It may be that the mallets here are simply a rebus on the name of the commune.

The arms of Mailly appear in several places in Picardie. See the entries in that chapter on the communes of Essigny-le-Grand and Beaurepaire, Aisne; and Mailly-Maillet and Monchy-Lagache, Somme.

SAINT-DESIR-DE-LISIEUX, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Per fess two croziers in pile reversed addorsed issuant from the partition their heads extending above the edge of the shield (sic) between in chief a mullet argent with rays sable and in the flanks two mitres also argent each charged with a cross couped also sable and gules a cross couped argent pendant on a cord sable overall an axe and a sword in saltire also argent and overall the partition a bar argent.

These arms were noted on a road sign in December, 1989.

The complicated blazon is due to the fact that although the arms are placed largely within a shield, they are not truly heraldic. For example, this is the first time that I have seen charges on a shield extending beyond its edges, and the arms were obviously designed without a knowledge of heraldic custom. The cross in base is in the form of a piece of jewellery, which if it were necessary to the achievement would normally be pendant from the shield. The mullet is in the form of a star with it rays traced in the form of lines sable.

Similar thinking is shown in the placing of war decorations actually on the shield in the arms of some communes; however, in each of these cases, the decoration has been seen as a charge, without a pendant. See for example, in this chapter, the entry on Vire, Calvados.

I have repeated the tinctures where I have felt it necessary to avoid confusion.

SAINT-FROMOND, Manche. Commune, arr. Saint-Lô.

D'argent à trois fleurs de lys de gueules.

Argent three fleurs de lis gules.

These were the arms of the elder branch of the du Hommet family, and as arms of the commune date from 1985(96).

SAINT-HILAIRE-DU-HARCOUET, Manche. Canton, arr. Avranches.

De gueules à une tour d'or, au chef chargé de trois mullets, le tout d'or.

Gules a tower or masoned sable in chief three mullets in fess of the second.

The arms were adopted in 1965.

The main part bears the arms of the family of Bourgblanc d'Apreville, simplified; the mullets are from those of Harcouet who founded the commune. They were first created by a maire of the commune during the Second Empire(97).

The effect of the blazon of the arms which I have accepted is to show the mullets in chief on a field gules which already possesses the tower: in fact, the French blazon indicates that there is a separate chief, which also has the field gules. To blazon such a chief would be meaningless in English.

It is interesting to note that information from the Archives Départementales omitted the chief.

SAINT-JAMES, Manche. Canton, arr. Avranches.

De gueules à une porte d'argent flanquée de deux tours crénelées d'or, celle de senestre plus élevée que l'autre, accompagnée de quatre coquilles d'argent, une en chef et trois en pointe, posées deux et un.

Gules a gateway flanked by two towers the sinister higher that the dexter or between four escallops one in chief and three in base argent.

The arms date from 1975. Before this time, the commune bore:

De gueules à un Saint-Jacques d'or(98).

The representation of Saint Jacques in the older arms has been replaced by the rebus of the pilgrim's shell.

SAINT-JULIEN-LE-FAUCON, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Coupé, à la bordure d'or; au 1er coupé d'argent au nom de SAINT-JULIEN-LE-FAUCON d'or (sic), et d'azur aux trois quintefeuilles d'argent; au 2e de gueules aux trois faucons d'or au nom latinisé SANCTUS JULIANUS DE FALCONE de même(99).

Per pale per pale argent the capital letters SAINT-JULIEN-LE-FAUCON or (sic) and azure three cinquefoils argent and gules three falcons the capital letters SANCTUS JULIANUS DE FALCONE in orle or overall a bordure of the last.

There was no further information.

The arms of the commune have a good deal in common with others in the area. They are modern in style, with a bordure around the whole of the shield, which is not made plain in the French blazon; and there is a chief bearing the name of the commune, which perhaps would have looked better if it had not been part of the arms.

See also the entry on Potigny, Calvados.

SAINT-LO, Manche. Chef-lieu du Département.

De gueules, à la licorne saillante d'argent; au chef d'azur chargé de trois fleurs de lis d'or(100).

Gules a unicorn salient argent a chief azure three fleurs de lis or.

The presence of the unicorn is explained by its symbolism. It was thought that it could only be approached and tamed by a virgin; by an extension of this, a savage male animal became associated with the Virgin. The first church in the town was dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Information from the Archives Départementales gave:

Gules a unicorn salient argent a canton azure a mullet or four lines in bend issuant from sinister base sable.

This peculiar canton can be explained as a rendering of a Napoleonic dexter canton:

azure a capital letter N ensigned by a mullet or(101).

Canel states that the arms with the canton were verified under the Empire, in 1811.

The only other example that I know of the unicorn in French civic heraldry, is in the arms of Saverne, Bas-Rhin.

The arms of Saint-Lô are shown on a postage stamp(102).

SAINT-PAIR-SUR-MER, Manche. Commune, arr. Avranches.

D'azur, à cinq annelets d'or posés trois et deux en chef, et deux ondes d'argent en pointe.

Azure in chief five annulets or in base two bars wavy argent.

There is no explanation for the derivation of the arms(103).

SAINT-PIERRE-EGLISE, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

The commune does not possess arms, but the Union Sportive de Saint-Pierre-Eglise has devised the following unofficial coat:

Per bend sinister azure a castle argent issuant from the partition and gules a Latin cross reversed between two keys in pale the wards upwards and outwards argent.

This combines the emblems of Saint Pierre, the patron of the parish, and the Tour de Saint-Pierre.

The latin cross reversed, that is, with the cross bar towards the base of the upright, serves as a support for the keys. It is not a normal heraldic symbol, but is blazoned in the most convenient way.

I have not included this coat in the List of Arms.

SAINT-PIERRE-SUR-DIVES, Calvados. Canton, arr. Lisieux.

Azure two keys in saltire the wards downwards and outwards argent.

The only information was from a black and white illustration on the notepaper of the Mairie(104).

The keys are most unusual in that the wards are placed downwards. I have blazoned the keys as argent, although the illustration is too small to indicate or.

SAINT-SAUVEUR-LE-VICOMTE, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

De gueules à deux fasces d'or accompagnées d'un château à trois tours d'or au coeur de l'écu et de six bars d'or adossés et accolés deux à deux, quatre en chef et deux en pointe.

Gules between two bars a castle double towered in chief four and in base two barbels addorsed in pairs or.

The arms of d'Harcourt, seigneurs from the Middle Ages, were:

De gueules à deux fasces d'or.

Those shown here were borne by John Harcourt, who died in 1288, and who appears in Walford's Roll, No173, the Chifflet-Prinet Roll, No89, and the Wijnbergen Roll, No322.

The barbels are from the arms of the writer, Barbey d'Aureville; here they are used as a rebus on Barbey, and not as a local emblem. The castle double towered is said to indicate the importance of the commune in the Middle Ages.

The arms were adopted in 1962(105).

SAINT-SEVER-CALVADOS, Calvados. Canton, arr. Vire.

D'azur aux trois gerbes d'or, deux en chef et une en pointe.

Azure three garbs or.

The Abbey of Saint Séver was founded in 1070 by Hugues le Loup, vicomte d'Avranches and Earl of Chester, the latter title having been given to him by William the Conqueror after the Battle of Hastings. His descendants owned the land until 1204, when Normandie was attached to France by Philippe-Auguste. Ranulphe III was the last seigneur, and the town bears his arms.

The Earls of Chester in England bore the same arms. Those shown here are to be found in Walford's Roll, No65, the Camden Roll, No219, St George's Roll, No16, and Glover's Roll, No16.

SAINTE-MERE-EGLISE, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

D'azur à l'église d'argent, essorée d'or, chargée des lettres onciales de sable A à dextre, M à senestre, accostée en chef de deux parachutes aux suspenses desquels est appendue une étoile, le tout d'argent; à la champagne cousue de gueules chargée d'un léopard d'or, armé et lampassé d'azur(106).

Azure a church argent roofed or the capital letters A on the dexter and M on the sinister sable on a champagne gules a lion passant gardant or in chief two parachutes with a mullet pendant of the second.

The arms were designed by Robert Louis and adopted in 1948. They refer to the first Normandy landings of 6 June 1944 by an American Division of parachute troops. The mullets were the symbol of the invading forces; the letters A M, ave Maria, are a rebus on the name of the commune. The lion is from the arms of Normandie.

Elsewhere, the arms are blazoned as:

D'azur à une àglise d'argent couverte d'or portant au bras du transept les lettres alpha et omega, de sable, et de chaque côté du clocher de l'église, un parachute d'argent; à la champagne de gueules, chargée d'un léopard d'or, armé et lampassé d'azur(107).

SEES, Orne. Canton, arr, Alençon.

D'azur à la foi en fasce, sur laquelle se repose un coeur enflammé: le tout surmonté d'une fleur de lis d'or en chef.

Azure two hands clasped ensigned by a heart enflamed and in chief a fleur de lis or.

The origin of the arms is unknown, but they were first noted in 1829.

While in the town in August 1985, I noted:

Per bend sinister azure and gules overall a bend sinister argent,

which turned out to be an interesting a way of depicting the tricolore. At the time, there was no sign of the official arms.

SOURDEVAL, Manche. Canton, arr. Avranches.

D'or fretté de sable à un franc-quartier de sable.

Or fretty a canton sable.

These were the arms of Lemoygne, the first seigneurs of the commune(108).

TESSY-SUR-VIRE, Manche. Canton, arr. Saint-Lô.

De gueules à un pont d'argent? de trois arches, mouvant d'une rivière d'azur.

Gules a bridge of three arches argent? a champagne azure.

The arms first appeared in 1968(109).

My blazon is from a black and white illustration, and I have no further information.

TINCHEBRAY, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

D'azur à une clé accompagné de quatre navettes de tisserand, deux à dextre et deux à senestre, passées en sautoir, le tout d'argent au chef cousu de gueules chargé d'un lion passant accosté de deux fleurs de lis d'or.

Azure a key in pale the wards upwards and to the dexter between two pairs of weaver's shuttles in saltire or a chief gules a lion passant between two fleurs de lis or.

There was no further information. The chief is a combination of Normandie and France.

TORDOUET, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

De sable au sautoir d'argent, accompagné de quatre aiglettes de même.

Sable a saltire cantonned by four eaglets argent.

These were the arms of Saint-Ouen, former seigneurs(110).

TORIGNI-SUR-VIRE, Manche. Canton, arr. Saint-Lô.

D'azur, au château d'argent, surmonté de deux tours, que couronne une flamme, aussi d'argent.

Azure a castle double towered enflamed argent.

Although the derivation of the name of the town is from that of a local Gallic tribe, the arms are a learned Latin rebus on turris, tower, and ignis, fire(111).

Canel draws the castle argent, with its base and the base and the tops of the towers al shown by a band gules. The towers have three windows and the castle itself four, all gules. In addition, the gateway of the castle is shown as though it were bricked up.

TOURLAVILLE, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

D'azur à une tour d'argent, au chevron d'or brochant sur le tout.

Azure a tower argent overall a chevron or.

The arms were adopted in 1960. There is no explanation concerning their derivation, and reference is made to a document dating from the Revolution, which bears:

Coupé d'azur et de gueules à une tour d'argent brochant sur le tout(112).

TOUROUVRE, Orne. Canton, arr. Mortagne-au-Perche.

Coupé en chef d'azur à trois têtes de boeuf d'or posées deux et une, pointe d'or à trois feuilles d'érable de sinople.

Per fess azure three bull's heads or 2,1 and or three maple leaves vert.

The arms were adopted in 1955.

The chief part of the shield bears the arms of Tourneboeuf, the first seigneurs of the commune who date from 920. The maple leaves are in recognition of the eighty families who sailed to Canada from the area in 1640.

TREVIERES, Calvados. Canton, arr. Bayeux.

De sable aux trois cotices d'or.

Sable three bendlets or.

These are the arms of Pellet, comtes de Trévières in the seventeenth century.

They were adopted by the commune in 1920.

TROARN, Calvados. Canton, arr. Caen.

D'azur aux trois fleurs de lys d'or, posées deux et une, à l'orle de gueules chargée de huit besants d'argent.

Azure three fleurs de lis or on an orle gules eight plates.

The date of adoption is unknown.

The arms are those of Alençon, from whom descended Roger II de Montgomeri, founder of the the Abbey of Troarn.

In the entry on Ducey, Manche, the arms of Montgommery are given as:

Quarterly first and fourth gules three fleurs de lis or second and third gules three escallops or.

TROUVILLE-SUR-MER, Calvados. Canton, arr. Lisieux.

D'azur à la barque trouvillaise, équipée d'argent, voguant sur une mer de sinople mouvant de la pointe; au chef de gueules chargé de trois étoiles d'or(113).

Azure a trouvillaise fishing boat argent a champagne vert a chief gules three mullets or.

The "barque trouvillaise" is a type of fishing boat, and is evidently a symbol of the local industry.

URVILLE-NACQUEVILLE, Manche. Commune, arr. Cherbourg.

De gueules à un léopard d'or armé et lampassé de gueules, accompagné en chef de deux lettres gothiques d'or, U à dextre, N à senestre.

Gules a lion passant gardant or armed and langued gules (sic) in chief two gothic letters U and N of the second.

The arms were adopted following a competition in 1977, and combine a reference to the arms of Normandie with the initials of the commune(114).

It is unusual to find the lion armed and langued gules, when this is invisible on the field gules.

VALOGNES, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

D'azur au lynx courant d'argent, surmonté de deux épis de blé d'or en sautoir, et accosté de deux épis du même, mis en pal(115).

Azure a lynx courant argent in chief two ears of wheat in saltire between two in pale or.

The arms were ascribed by the Armorial Général(116).

I know of know other use of the lynx in French civil heraldry.

Delaplanche gave:

D'azur au léopard d'or,

and although Hozier is defended by Canel, who says that Delaplanche was in error, I think it more likely that that the present arms are a misreading of the original(117), especially in view of the rarity of the charge.

The arms were confirmed in their present form in 1811, when they were augmented by a Napoleonic canton. The information received did not specify which canton: see the Glossary under the entry on Napoléon.

VER-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Bayeux.

Tiercé en barre; à la fasce chargée de quatre quintefeuilles de ..., au 1er de ... à l'église de ..., au 2e de ... aux flots d'azur chargé d'un bouée de ...(118).

The French blazon in unclear. The writer appears to have been describing a black and white illustration. I believe that the word fasce should replaced by barre in order to keep the idea of tierced in bend sinister.

I have approached the English blazon from a different point of view from the French, a literal translation of which would be:

It is not uncommon for a shield bearing a wide bend or fess to be interpreted as tierced, and sometimes an exaggerated drawing of the arms makes this more likely.

This is the only example of the use of a buoy as a charge that I have come across, although it does not seem to be an unusual charge for the arms of a sea port.

VIERVILLE-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Bayeux.

D'azur à trois merlettes d'argent, au chef de gueules chargé de trois fleurs d'or séparé d'une fasce ondée d'argent.

Azure three martlets argent on a chief gules supported by a filet wavy argent three flowers or.

There was no further information(119).

The flowers on the chief are not specified. The filet is to avoid the effect of the chief gules on a field azure. Normally, in order to prevent the difficulty of placing colour on colour, the French blazon uses the expression chef cousu, that is, a chief sewn to the shield rather than placed upon it. In English blazon, such devices are not considered necessary.

VIEUX-BOURG, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

De gueules à la tour d'argent.

Gules a tower argent.

These were the arms of Cormeilles, former seigneurs(120).

VILLEDIEU-LES-POELES, Manche. Canton, arr. Saint-Lô.

Parti, dextre d'argent à la croix alésée de gueules; senestre d'or aux dix-huit billettes de sable posées, 4,5,4,3,2; au chef d'azur à la croix alésée d'argent.

Per pale argent a cross couped gules and or eighteen billets, 4,5,4,3,2 sable a chief azure a cross couped argent.

These arms appear on the vault of the fortified gate of Pont-de-Pierres. They form two coats in the form of cartouches, and bear the date 1696, which may or may not be be significant as far as the Armorial Général is concerned.

The dexter coat:

contains the arms of the Order of the Knights of Saint John, first adopted by Pope Innocent II in 1130.

The sinister coat appears to have a barry wavy field and the chief indicates possession by the Ordre Hierosolopytain: there was no further explanation concerning these arms.

The arms of the town were adopted in 1860, and were designed by Mme Jules Tetrel. She impaled the arms, reversed the tinctures of the dexter part, and substituted billets in the sinister(121).

VILLERS-BOCAGE, Calvados. Canton, arr. Caen.

Gules six cinquefoils argent.

Canel suggested the arms, based on those of Bacon, former seigneurs, who bore:

Gules six roses on as many cinquefoils argent.

I am not sure how roses argent would be seen on cinquefoils of the same tincture.

The illustration here, sent to me by the commune, shows roses rather than cinquefoils. In the middle ages, the rose was used as a generic term for any flower, and in heraldry the cinquefoil, or sextefoil, was used as the symbol.

VILLERS-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Per bend sinister or a Viking drakkar ... on waves ... and vert an ammonite ... overall on the partition in sinister chief a seven pointed star counterchanged(122).

The tinctures of the charges are not clear.

These are local symbols, and the star is a reference to the Greenwich meridian which passes through the commune. By placing the star over the partition, the idea of the line crossing through the commune is cleverly shown.

VILLIERS-FOSSARD, Manche. Commune, arr. Saint-Lô.

D'azur au chevron d'or, accompagné de trois aigles d'argent; à la bordure d'or.

Azure a chevron or between three eagles displayed argent a bordure of the second.

These were the arms of Le Jolis de Villiers(123), and although they have simply been adopted by the Club Sportif and not official arms, they are worthy of a place here, to indicate the civic pride of a commune of no more than 417 inhabitants.

VIMOUTIERS, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

D'azur à la croix d'or, cantonnée de quatre clefs d'argent adossées(124).

Azure a cross or cantonned by four keys addorsed the wards upwards argent.

The arms were adopted in 1947, and were those of the Abbaye de Jumièges, seigneur of the town from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

During the nineteenth century, the arms of the commune were for some time:

D'azur à deux clés d'or en sautoir, au chef de gueules à trois abeilles d'or.

The chief is that of a bonne ville, under Napoléon I.

VIRE, Calvados. Arrondissement.

De gueules à la flèche d'argent, posée en pal, la pointe en bas, accostée de deux tours du même maçonnées et créneléees de sable(125).

Gules an arrow in pale point downwards between two towers argent masoned sable.

The arms were ascribed by the Armorial Général, although they had been in existence before this time. They were confirmed by Louis XVIII in 1817.

The town was one of the best fortified places in Normandie, and this is indicated by the towers. The arrow is a rebus, since in Old French vire and vireton have the meaning of arrow.

A postcard shows the Croix de Guerre, 1939-45, placed overall. See the entry on Saint-Désir-de-Lisieux, Calvados, for a comment on the placing of decorations on the shield.

This aspect of the civic heraldry of the area has been dealt with in Normandie as a whole, in Chapter 4, Haute-Normandie.

ECCLESIASTIC

Abbaye de Jumièges

Abbaye de Voeu

Abbaye de la Sainte Trinité de Caen

Abbaye de la Trinité de Fécamp

Chapitre de la Cathédrale de Bayeux

FEUDAL

Alençon

Barville

Beaumont, Thomasse de

Bertran

Bourgblanc d'Apreville

Brancas

Brecey

Carteret, de

Chester, Earls of

Cormeilles

Crespin

Creully

Crevequer, Hamund.

Evreux, comtes d'

Ferté Fresnel

Gouyon-Matignon

Livarot, Calvados.

Hellouin

Hommet, du

Jolis de Villiers, le

Kergorlay

Marnieres de Guer, Hyacinthe-Julien-Anne de

Montgommery

Neufbourg

Patry

Pellet

Percy, Charles de

Richier

Saint-Ouen

Tourneboeuf

The purpose of the list to to enable some comparative study to be made, although I have restricted it to contain only the arms of the communes themselves. I have not included seigneurial arms, where they are not those of the communes, nor the arms of départements, pays or provinces. The list is also incorporated into the Chapter: List of Arms, where the picture is as complete as I can make it.

... a chevron masoned ... from which depends the Croix de Guerre proper between in chief dexter a crozier and a mitre ... sinister a tower ... in base a pair of scales ... EVRECY, Calvados. Canton, arr. Caen.

... a lion rampant ... holding in his paws a sword in pale ... a chief ... three roses ... CAHAGNES, Calvados. Commune, arr. Vire.

... three bars wavy ... a canton ... a key in pale the wards upwards and to the dexter ... in base a pair of pincers in fess ... overall two branches of ... crossed in base in saltire ... LE FOURNET, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

... three buckles ... BONNEBOSQ, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Argent a blackbird sable a chief azure a heart argent between two fleurs de lis or. LE MERLERAULT, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

Argent a chevron or between in chief two lions passant and in base the figure of Saint Mauvieu argent. MEUVAINES, Calvados. Commune, arr. Bayeux.

Argent a pear tree eradicated vert fructed gules between two lions rampant one in sinister chief contourned and one in dexter base sable a barrulet abased gules overall on a bend azure three estoiles or pierced of the field. PERIERS, Manche. Canton, arr. Coutances.

Argent an eagle displayed nine billets in orle gules a chief azure three fleurs de lis or. CARENTAN, Manche. Canton, arr. Saint-Lô.

Argent fretty sable overall a bend gobonny argent and gules between two fleurs de lis or? REMALARD, Orne. Canton, arr. Mortagne-au-Perche.

Argent three ducks sable beaked and membered or. JULLOUVILLE, Manche. Commune, arr. Avranches.

Argent three fleurs de lis gules. SAINT-FROMOND, Manche. Commune, arr. Saint-Lô.

Argent three lions rampant gules. CREULLY, Calvados. Canton, arr. Caen.

Argent two keys in saltire the wards upwards and outwards cantonned by four mullets sable a chief azure three fleurs de lis or. LISIEUX, Calvados. Arrondissement.

Azure a bird and reeds argent on a bar wavy couped issuant from the sinister flank sable in base two hands clasped or on a bordure ermine six lozenges gules. BRIOUZE, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

Azure a castle double towered enflamed argent. TORIGNI-SUR-VIRE, Manche. Canton, arr. Saint-Lô.

Azure a chevron argent between in chief two anchors and in base a cow passant or a chief per pale gules a mitre or and paly of six or and gules. ISIGNY-SUR-MER, Calvados. Canton, arr. Bayeux.

Azure a chevron argent between in chief two lions rampant affronty ... and in base three ears of wheat or. LE MESNIL-DURAND, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Azure a chevron between in chief a rose and in base a lion rampant or. MARIGNY, Manche. Canton, arr. Saint-Lô.

Azure a chevron between in chief three mullets and in base a fer de lance or. LE MESNILBUS, Manche. Commune, arr. Coutances.

Azure a chevron between in chief three mullets or and in base a fer de lance argent. PORTBAIL, Manche. Commune, arr. Cherbourg.

Azure a chevron or between three eagles displayed argent a bordure of the second. VILLIERS-FOSSARD, Manche. Commune, arr. Saint-Lô.

Azure a church argent roofed or the capital letters A on the dexter and M on the sinister sable on a champagne gules a lion passant gardant or in chief two parachutes with a mullet pendant of the second. SAINTE-MERE-EGLISE, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

Azure a cogwheel or between three young doves volant argent a chief gules a lion passant gardant or. COLOMBELLES, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Azure on a bend gules between in chief a seven pointed star argent and in base three bezants a lion passant gardant bendwise or. BLONVILLE-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Azure a cogwheel sable (sic) enfilading three ears of wheat in bend sinister or a chief gules two lions passant gardant or. GIBERVILLE, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Azure a cross or cantonned by four keys addorsed the wards upwards argent. VIMOUTIERS, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

Azure a dexter arm armed issuant from a cloud in the sinister flank or holding a sword in pale argent pommelled ensigned by a sun of the second. GRANVILLE, Manche. Canton, arr. Avranches.

Azure a double headed eagle displayed or a chief azure three fleurs de lis or. L'AIGLE, Orne. Canton, arr. Mortagne-au-Perche.

Azure a double headed eagle displayed or. ALENCON, Orne. Chef-lieu du Département.

Argent a double headed eagle displayed sable with a halo of the field. ARGENTAN, Orne. Arrondissement.

Azure a double towered castle argent between two fleurs de lis or in chief a dolphin contourned of the second ensigned by a fleur de lis of the third between two crescents also of the second. AVRANCHES, Manche. Arrondissement.

Azure a fleur de lis argent. CONDE-SUR-NOIREAU, Calvados. Canton, arr. Vire.

Azure a fleur de lis between three annulets or. ORBEC, Calvados. Canton, arr. Lisieux.

Azure a key in pale the wards upwards and to the dexter between two pairs of weaver's shuttles in saltire or a chief gules a lion passant between two fleurs de lis or. TINCHEBRAY, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

Azure a lynx courant argent in chief two ears of wheat in saltire between two in pale or. VALOGNES, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

Azure a tower argent overall a chevron or. TOURLAVILLE, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

Azure a trawler a champagne wavy argent a chief azure an escallop a garb an oyster and a milk churn in fess or. GRANDCAMP-MAISY, Calvados. Commune, arr. Bayeux.

Azure a trouvillaise fishing boat argent a champagne vert a chief gules three mullets or. TROUVILLE-SUR-MER, Calvados. Canton, arr. Lisieux.

Azure four bars wavy argent overall a seahorse in pale gules. MERVILLE-FRANCEVILLE-PLAGE, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Azure in chief five annulets or in base two bars wavy argent. SAINT-PAIR-SUR-MER, Manche. Commune, arr. Avranches.

Azure on a chevron argent between in chief two mirrors of the second trimmed or and in base a bell also of the second a rose gules ensigned by a fleur de lis also or. LA GLACERIE, Manche. Commune, arr. Cherbourg.

Azure on a chevron argent between three trefoils or three martlets sable. BEAUMONT-HAGUE, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

Azure on a cross argent cantonned by four bezants a hen sable the eyes or. CAUMONT-L'EVENTE, Calvados. Canton, arr. Bayeux.

Azure on a fess argent between three besants as many estoiles sable. CHERBOURG, Manche. Arrondissement.

Azure on a pale argent between four gambs two in dexter in pale bend sinisterwise and as many in sinister also in pale bendwise or three towers in pale gules a chief gules a lion passant gardant or. DEAUVILLE, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Azure on an anchor or a mullet argent in chief two broken chains proper issuant in bend and in bend sinister a chief gules a lion passant gardant or armed and langued azure. ARROMANCHES-LES-BAINS, Calvados. Commune, arr. Bayeux.

Azure semy de lis or a bend gobonny argent and azure. MORTAIN, Manche. Canton, arr. Avranches.

Azure seven pallets couped fitchy in pale or a chief gules a lion passant gardant or. LES PIEUX, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

Azure three antique columns in pale argent a champagne vert a chief azure three escallops argent. SAINT-AUBIN-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Azure three columns palewise in fess argent a chief gules a lion passant gardant or. COUTANCES, Manche. Arrondissement.

Azure three fleurs de lis or on an orle gules eight plates. TROARN, Calvados. Canton, arr. Caen.

Azure three garbs or. SAINT-SEVER-CALVADOS, Calvados. Canton, arr. Vire.

Azure three martlets argent on a chief gules supported by a filet wavy argent three flowers or. VIERVILLE-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Bayeux.

Azure two arrows in saltire in chief a heart argent enflamed gules. PREAUX-SAINT-SEBASTIEN, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Azure two fleurs de lis or a chief per pale lozengy argent and gules and bendy of ten or and gules overall a crozier or overall an inescutcheon argent a lion rampant gules armed langued and crowned or. LIVAROT, Calvados. Canton, arr. Lisieux.

Azure two greyhounds passant in pale argent. EXMES, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

Azure two hands clasped ensigned by a heart enflamed and in chief a fleur de lis or. SEES, Orne. Canton, arr. Alençon.

Azure two keys in saltire the wards downwards and outwards argent. SAINT-PIERRE-SUR-DIVES, Calvados. Canton, arr. Lisieux.

Azure two towers in fess or. GACE, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

Azure? a three masted sailing ship argent? on a sea ... BERNIERES-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Barry of twelve gules and argent. AUNAY-SUR-ODON, Calvados. Canton, arr. Vire.

Barry wavy of ten argent and azure overall an anchor supporting a yard arm with a crow's nest sable a pennant flying to the dexter or and a sail attached to the yard and flukes of the anchor gules a lion rampant or. LION-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Ermine a lion rampant gules. BRECEY, Manche. Canton, arr. Avranches.

Gules a barbel contourned argent ensigned by a fleur de lis or. BARFLEUR, Manche. Commune, arr. Cherbourg.

Gules a bridge of three arches argent a champagne sable in chief an inescutcheon sable semy de lis or between two swans also argent. PONTORSON, Manche. Canton, arr. Avranches.

Gules a bridge of three arches argent? a champagne azure. TESSY-SUR-VIRE, Manche. Canton, arr. Saint-Lô.

Gules a castle triple towered argent masoned a champagne sable. FALAISE, Calvados. Canton, arr. Caen.

Gules a chapel trifoliated or a chief azure three bees or. QUERQUEVILLE, Manche. Commune, arr. Cherbourg.

Gules a cross moline or (or argent). MONTEBOURG, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

Gules a gateway flanked by two towers the sinister higher that the dexter or between four escallops one in chief and three in base argent. SAINT-JAMES, Manche. Canton, arr. Avranches.

Gules a lion passant gardant in chief the capital letters B and X or. BAYEUX, Calvados. Arrondissement.

Gules a lion passant gardant or armed and langued gules (sic) in chief two gothic letters U and N of the second. URVILLE-NACQUEVILLE, Manche. Commune, arr. Cherbourg.

Gules a ploughshare overall two miner's picks in saltire and overall a miner's lamp and overall a miner's helmet ... a chief azure the capital letters PRO.LABOR argent. MAY-SUR-ORNE, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Gules a seahorse in chief the sun in his splendour or. DONVILLE-LES-BAINS, Manche. Commune, arr. Avranches.

Gules a tower argent between two fleurs de lis or a chief azure three fleurs de lis or. HONFLEUR, Calvados. Canton, arr. Lisieux.

Gules a tower argent masoned sable in chief four lozenges in fess of the second.

BARNEVILLE-CARTERET, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

Gules a tower argent. VIEUX-BOURG, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Gules a tower or masoned sable in chief three mullets in fess of the second. SAINT-HILAIRE-DU-HARCOUET, Manche. Canton, arr. Avranches.

Gules a tower or masoned sable. CAEN, Calvados. Siège de la Région.

Gules a unicorn salient argent a chief azure three fleurs de lys or. SAINT-LO, Manche. Chef-lieu du Département.

Gules an arrow in pale point downwards between two towers argent masoned sable. VIRE, Calvados. Arrondissement.

Gules an eagle displayed argent beaked and membered in base the branch of a tree or. LA HAYE-DU-PUITS, Manche. Canton, arr. Coutances.

Gules between two bars a castle double towered in chief four and in base two barbels addorsed in pairs or. SAINT-SAUVEUR-LE-VICOMTE, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

Gules five lions passant gardant three in dexter in pale and two in sinister also in pale or. ROTS, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Gules in chief a beehive and in base a weaver's shuttle in bend sinister argent. LA FERTE-MACE, Orne. Canton, arr. Alençon.

Gules in chief a lion passant gardant in base a miner's pick and miner's lamp in saltire or. POTIGNY, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Gules in chief a lion passant gardant or in base a bridge of five arches argent. PONT-D'OUILLY, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Gules nine mullets 3,3,3. MEZIDON-CANON, Calvados. Canton, arr. Lisieux.

Gules on a bend sinister between two lions passant or three escallops sable. HOULGATE, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Gules semy de lis argent. CARROUGES, Orne. Canton, arr. Alençcon.

Gules six cinquefoils argent. VILLERS-BOCAGE, Calvados. Canton, arr. Caen.

Gules three cinquefoils ermine pierced or. CULEY-LE-PATRY, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Gules three mallets or. SAINT-DENIS-DE-MAILLOC, Calvados. Commune, arr. ?

Gules three mitres argent between that in the centre overall a branch of laurel in pale in base two branches of laurel in saltire vert? ARGENCES, Calvados. Communes, arr. Caen.

Gules three towers conjoined or pierced and masoned sable a champagne vert. DOMFRONT, Orne. Canton, arr. Alençon.

Gules two bars sable? BEUVRON-EN-AUGE, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Gules two cows statant or a chief azure three fleurs de lis or. PONT-L'EVEQUE, Calvados. Canton, arr. Lisieux.

Gules two weaver's shuttles in saltire three bobbins two in chief and one in base or a chief azure three fleurs de lis or. FLERS, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

Or a cross throughout voided gules. CREVECOEUR-EN-AUGE, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Or a lion rampant gules a chief azure a crescent argent between two mullets or. BISSIERES, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Or a lion rampant vert armed and langued gules crowned argent. BRICQUEBEC, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

Or a saltire gules cantonned by four lions rampant sable. NOCE, Orne. Canton, arr. Mortagne-au-Perche.

Or an eagle displayed gules. LA FERTE-FRESNEL, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

Or fretty a canton sable. SOURDEVAL, Manche. Canton, arr. Avranches.

Or in chief a lion rampant vert armed langued and crowned argent in base a bridge of three arches sable masoned argent a champagne wavy azure. PUTANGES-PONT-ECREPIN, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

Or three branches of bracken vert. MORTAGNE-AU-PERCHE, Orne. Arrondissement.

Or two bars azure nine martlets in orle gules. LA HAYE-PESNEL, Manche. Canton, arr. Avranches.

Per bend gules a double headed eagle displayed or and azure a Virgin argent. DOUVRES-LA-DELIVRANDE, Calvados. Canton, arr. Caen.

Per bend sinister ... a church ... and waves ... a buoy ... overall a bend sinister ... four cinquefoils ... VER-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Bayeux.

Per bend sinister azure a church in perspective argent and gules a cauldron or. QUETTEHOU, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

Per bend sinister gules two lions passant ensigned by a capital letter L or and azure a viking ship in base an escallop argent. LUC-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Per bend sinister or a Viking drakkar ... on waves ... and vert an ammonite ... overall on the partition in sinister chief a seven pointed star counterchanged. VILLERS-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Per bend sinister vert two lions passant gardant ensigned by a mitre or and or five bars wavy argent (sic) traced sable overall a wide bend sinister gules two factory chimneys argent with smoke encircled by a cogwheel sable pierced of the field and charged with twelve mullets or. MONDEVILLE, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Per chevron argent the capital letters O and V sable and vert a chief gules a lion passant gardant or armed and langed azure. OCTEVILLE, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

Per fess argent a chevron gules between in dexter chief a lion passant gardant in sinister chief a landing craft sable and in base a fortress or with smoke azure ensigned by the head of a soldier sable of the third wearing a beret vert and barry wavy argent and azure. COLLEVILLE-MONTGOMERY, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Per fess azure three bull's heads or 2,1 and or three maple leaves vert. TOUROUVRE, Orne. Canton, arr. Mortagne-au-Perche.

Per fess gules a tower argent and azure a weaver's shuttle in fess or. MESSEI, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

Per fess gules semy de lis a lion passant gardant or and azure three escallops or. BREHAL, Manche. Canton, arr. Coutances.

Per fess per pale azure three escallops in bend or and gules a tower or and gules a bridge embowed of four arches or masoned sable a champagne vert. EQUEURDREVILLE-HAINNEVILLE, Manche. Canton, arr. Cherbourg.

Per fess two croziers in pile reversed addorsed issuant from the partition their heads extending above the edge of the shield (sic) between in chief a mullet argent with rays sable and in the flanks two mitres also argent each charged with a cross couped also sable and gules a cross couped argent pendant on a cord sable overall an axe and a sword in saltire also argent and overall the partition a bar argent. SAINT-DESIR-DE-LISIEUX, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Per pale ... three escallops in pale ... and ... a château ... a chief gules? two lions passant in fess or? BENERVILLE-SUR-MER, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Per pale argent a cross couped gules and or eighteen billets, 4,5,4,3,2 sable a chief azure a cross couped argent. VILLEDIEU-LES-POELES, Manche. Canton, arr. Saint-Lô.

Per pale azure fretty of six or and gules a tower argent masoned sable cantonned by four wells of the second a champagne azure. QUATRE-PUITS, Calvados. Commune, arr. ?

Per pale gules a sailing ship in line ahead sable with sail argent on the sea azure and azure the plan of the commune showing sand dunes or and a bend in the River Dives of the field with indications of a customs post and a fishermen's hamlet with a church in the centre sable overall a chief azure a fish in fess argent. CABOURG, Calvados. Canton, arr. Caen.

Per pale per pale argent the capital letters SAINT-JULIEN-LE-FAUCON or (sic) and azure three cinquefoils argent and gules three falcons the capital letters SANCTUS JULIANUS DE FALCONE in orle or overall a bordure of the last. SAINT-JULIEN-LE-FAUCON, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Quarterly first and fourth ... a chevron couped between three crosses also couped ... second ... three bars wavy ... third ... a lion rampant ... between three hammers in pale ... LONGNY-AU-PERCHE, Orne. Canton, arr. Mortagne-au-Perche.

Quarterly first and fourth azure three fleurs de lis or second and third ... a saltire fimbriated engrailed? ... overall and inescutcheon ... a viper swallowing a child ... BLAINVILLE-SUR-ORNE, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

Quarterly first and fourth gules three escallops or second and third azure three fleurs de lis or. ECOUCHE, Orne. Canton, arr. Argentan.

Quarterly first and fourth gules three fleurs de lis or second and third gules three escallops or. DUCEY, Manche. Canton, arr. Avranches.

Sable a castle triple towered or, the towers covered and with pennons ... BELLEME, Orne. Canton, arr. Mortagne-au-Perche.

Sable a chief dancetty or. SAINT-CHARLES-DE-PERCY, Calvados. Commune, arr. Vire.

Sable a chief indented or. PERCY, Manche. Canton, arr. Saint-Lô.

Sable a cross gobonny counter gobonny or and gules cantoneed by four eagle's heads argent. COTTUN, Calvados. Commune, arr. Bayeux.

Sable a saltire cantonned by four eaglets argent. TORDOUET, Calvados. Commune, arr. Lisieux.

Sable six escallops argent a chief azure three fleurs de lis or. MONT-SAINT-MICHEL, Manche. Commune, arr. Avranches.

Sable three bendlets or. TREVIERES, Calvados. Canton, arr. Bayeux.

Tierced in pale first gules three lions passant gardant or dimidiating second two lions passant gardant or third or on a lion rampant sable a crozier in pale of the field overall a chief azure a ship between an escallop and an estoile argent. OUISTREHAM-BELLA-RIVA, Calvados. Canton, arr. Caen.

Tierced per fess gules the head of a crozier issuant or argent and azure three fish contourned fesswise in pale sable between two quaysides issuant from dexter and sinister point argent masoned overall a two masted sailing ship of the second. PORT-EN-BESSIN-HUPPAIN, Calvados. Commune, arr. Bayeux.

Vairy or and gules on a bend azure a millrind between two hemp brakes argent? CANISY, Manche. Canton, arr. Saint-Lô.

Vert a bend cotised argent in chief a lion passant or. CERISY-LA-SALLE, Manche. Canton, arr. Coutances.

Vert three bars wavy argent between as many cinquefoils or. AMAYE-SUR-SEULLES, Calvados. Commune, arr. Caen.

All works are cited in the main bibliography, but two of special importance to the study of the région are cited below:

Armorial Communale de la Manche, Société d'Archéologie de la Manche, Fascicule 71, 1987.

Canel, A: Armorial des Villes et Corporations de la Normandie, comprenant les municipalités, les évêchés, Rouen, 1863.

The following cantons do not possess a coat of arms. Where there is no *, the commune itself has stated that it has no arms.

Morteaux-Couliboeuf

Balleroy*

Le Bény-Bocage*

Blangy-le-Château*

Bourguebus*

Bretteville-sur-Laixe*

Cambremer*

Dozulé*

Ryes*

Thury-Harcourt*

Tilly-sur-Seulles*

Vassy*

According to the Archives du Departement du Calvados, there are only 58 communes in the departement which bear arms(126).

Athis-de-l'Orne*

Barenton

Gavray

Isigny-le-Buat*

Juvigny-le-Tertre*

Montmartin-sur-Mer

Saint-Clair-sur-l'Elle*

Saint-Jean-de-Daye*

Saint-Malo-de-la-Lande*

Saint-Pierre-Eglise

Saint-Pois

Saint-Sauveur-Lendelin*

Sartilly*

Le Teilleul*

* There are no arms recorded in Armorial Communale de la Manche, and so it is assumed that the commune does not possess arms.

Bazoches-sur-Hoene*

Courtemer*

Juvigny-sous-Andaine*

Le Mêle-sur-Sarthe*

Mortrée*

Moulins-la-Marche

Passais*

Pervenchères*

Le Theil*

Trun*

* I visited each of these cantons in December 1989, and could find no sign of arms. Since the Mairie did not reply, I have assumed that they do not bear arms.