List of oldest heraldry

This list of oldest heraldry aims to include the oldest documented, non-attributed heraldic achievements for individuals, families, locations or institutions.

A problem with determining early occurrence of heraldry stems from the fact that many early heraldic charges and compositions emerged in emulation of prior visual identifications, as seen in ante-heraldic seals and standards of individuals, authorities and towns, well before traditional heraldic custom was established. Visual culture and identity naturally predated heraldry. Notably, lions that would subsequently appear in coat of arms of royal dynasties, such the Kingdom of León, predated heraldry well enough in the early Middle Ages.

In an extreme comparison, some elements today commonly associated with heraldry have even been traced in Western civilisation to antiquity, such as to the Lions gate of Mycenae from the 13th century B.C. A reoccuring, less distant perception of proto-heraldic appearances is that of the Bayeux tapestry in Normandy.

Yet, in any case, several studies of British heraldry has traditionally taken into account the early seal of King Richard Lionheart of the House of Plantagenet as a manifestation of heraldry, due to its visual replication in documented actual coat of arms shortly afterwards.

Notably, similarly, the proposal of earliest occurrence of heraldry of Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou has been a subject of controversy since it has variously been perceived as merely post-mortal, attributed coat of arms, although if so a pioneer as such in any way.

List of oldest heraldry

Year	Heraldry	Type	Armiger/attribution	Occasion	Grant	Location	Notes
1155-1160		Personal, then family coat of arms	Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou			Le Mans Cathedral, Le Mans, France	Commissioned by Geoffrey's widow Mathilda of England between 1155 and 1160 for his tomb. Often described as the first documented personal coat of arms. A chronicler wrote that in 1127, King Henry I presented to Geoffrey a badge of a gold lion. Some scholars represent this as an earlier description of the same coat.
1198		Personal, then family coat of arms	King Richard the Lionheart; House of Plantagenet; arms appearing on the First (left) and Second (right) Great Seals, first documented royal coats of arms of the United Kingdom		Likely self-assumed		Possibly the first indicated family (royal dynasty) coat of arms, colors are unknown, but that of the Second Seal likely matched the coat used by his successors, with three gold lions on red.
1281–1294?		Papal coat of arms	Pope Boniface VIII		Likely self-assumed		Supposedly the first documented Papal coat of arms (although older undocumented are indicated), likely assumed sometimes as Cardinal (1281–1294).
1290's		Ecclesiastical heraldry	Diocese of Ely				Possibly the earliest documented coat of arms for a diocese.
1369		Civic heraldry	Košice, Slovakia		King Louis I of Hungary	Castle of Diósgyőr near present-day Miskolc	Claimant to be the oldest coat of arms of a town.
1441		Academic heraldry	King's College (Cambridge)		King Henry VI	Cambridge, England	Possibly earliest documented coat of arms for an academic institution, at least in England.