badge decorative device identifying a family often borne by retainers, e.g. on livery

baillond used of a lion holding a staff in its mouth

banded encircled with a band or riband

bar a horizontal division occupying one fifth of the shield

barbed the leaves surrounding a full-blown rose are called barbs

barnacles instruments used by farriers to curb horses (see breys)

baron and femme (per) the impalement of the arms of husband and wife

bars gemel two bars or barrulets placed parallel to each other (see gemel)

barrulet diminutive of bar

barry or barruly used of a field or charge divided by horizontal lines

base the lower part of a shield

basilisk a monster like a wyvern or cockatrice but with a dragon's head at the end of its tail

basnet or basinet a helmet

baton a shape like a truncheon, generally a mark of bastardy, unlike a bend it is couped or cut short of the shield's edges

battled arrondie denotes that a battlement is rounded at the top

battled-imbattled one battlement on another

beacon anciently used to warn against the approach of an enemy and to alarm the country, it is represented as an iron grate or basket containing fire on the top of a high pole or pillar against which a ladder is placed (see fire beacon)

beaked (see armed)

bearing applicable to any single charge or heraldic device

beaver the part of a helmet which protects the face (see visor)

bend a division of a shield formed by two diagonal lines from the dexter chief to the sinister base

bend sinister a bend issuing from the sinister chief

bendlet half-size diminutive of bend

bendy used of a field or charge divided diagonally into four or more even-numbered parts

bezant a Byzantine gold coin represented as a round flat piece of gold without impress

bezanté semée of bezants

billets rectangles

billeté semée of billets

bird-bolt a small blunt-headed arrow

blazon rules under which coats of arms are drawn up and also used to describe a coat of arms in correct heraldic language

bordure a uniform edge to a shield occupying one fifth of the field

botonnée used of a cross whose tips resemble trefoils

bouget a vessel to carry water (see gorge or gurge and water bouget)

bowed embowed or arched braced linked together (see interlaced)

breys instruments used by farriers to curb horses (see barnacles)

brimsey a gad-fly

brassarts or brassets armour for the elbows and arms

burgonet a steel cap worn in battle