Heraldry is the study of symbols that are used to represent families, countries, and to identify solders in a war. The shiny [most times] armor the knights wore over their body did not help the knights tell if they were fighting someone on their team or fighting someone on the other side. Most noble families had shields called coat of arms. People in the middle class, called peasants, could earn a coat of arms by doing a great deed. Most peasants had coats of arms but they were not given to them by the Heraldry College.

At the Heraldry College all the heralds learned their heraldic skills. Heralds went to school at a very young age, like you, and learned how to read and write. They had to memorize all the coats of arms that were used. They helped in wars by finding the positions of the enemy knights and allied knights on the battle field. The heralds had their own language for describing shields, called Blazon.

Today Heraldry has been stopped in most places, but in Great Britain and in Africa they still use coats of arms to show their ancestry. In England, the college chooses who has the right to have a coat of arms, like in the Medieval Times.