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The beasts, plants, objects and celestial figures placed on a shield. Two things are worth knowing before browsing them. First, heraldic animals are drawn to convention rather than from life: the dolphin is an arched spiny fish, the griffin is fixed at eagle-above and lion-below, and a male griffin has no wings at all. Second, most charges have no inherent meaning — they were chosen for appearance, for a pun on the bearer's name, or for difference from a neighbour's arms. Where an association is genuinely documented, as with the escallop and pilgrimage, the record says so; where it is not, nothing is invented to fill the gap.
A stylised lion, the commonest beast in European heraldry.
A stylised eagle, usually shown displayed with wings spread.
A creature with an eagle's head, wings and forelegs on a lion's body.
A four-legged winged reptile with a barbed tail.
A horse-like beast with a single spiral horn, cloven hooves and a lion's tail.
A male deer with branched antlers, borne in its own set of attitudes.
A wild boar with prominent tusks and a bristled back.
A bear, frequently muzzled and collared in blazon.
A wolf, distinguished from a heraldic dog by its bushy tail and pointed ears.
A small stylised bird drawn without feet.
A scallop shell, shown with its ribbed outer face toward the viewer.
A snake, often borne coiled or knotted.
A stylised fish-like dolphin, drawn arched with a spiny crest.
A star of five straight points, and the cadency mark of a third son.
A star of six wavy rays.
A crescent moon with its horns pointing upward.
A sun with a human face, surrounded by alternating straight and wavy rays.
A stylised five-petalled rose shown from the front, with sepals between the petals.
A thistle head with spiny leaves, the plant badge of Scotland.
The stylised lily charge as used in blazon, and the cadency mark of a sixth son.
A plain ring, and the cadency mark of a fifth son.
A narrow horizontal bar with short depending tags, marking an eldest son.
A single masonry tower with battlements and a door.
Two towers joined by an embattled wall with a gateway between them.
A latticed gate with spiked feet and chains at its upper corners.
A circlet with raised ornaments, borne as a charge or worn by another charge.
A straight double-edged sword, borne point upward by default.
A key with a ringed bow and a toothed bit, often borne in crossed pairs.
A ship's anchor with a ring, stock, shank and two flukes.
A bound sheaf of wheat.