Page "Coat of arms" Paragraph 5

In the heraldic traditions of England and Scotland an individual, rather than a family, had a coat of arms.

In those traditions coats of arms are legal property transmitted from father to son ; wives and daughters could also bear arms modified to indicate their relation to the current holder of the arms.

Undifferenced arms are used only by one person at any given time.

Other descendants of the original bearer could bear the ancestral arms only with some difference: usually a color change or the addition of a distinguishing charge.

One such charge is the label, which in British usage ( outside the Royal Family ) is now always the mark of an heir apparent or ( in Scotland ) an heir presumptive.