A red shield,
is the origin of the name Rotschild. In their arms, the actual shield is argent (gules, an oval target with pointed center argent per bend-sinister). This is the first in a series of post that treats Jewish heraldry.
The name Rothschild comes from the red shield on their house in the Frankfurt ghetto; their name in the 16th century was N. zum Roten Schild. When they moved out of the house they kept the name. In the 18th century, Amschel Rothschild founded the banking house. He had 5 sons: Amschel, Salomon, Nathan, Carl and James, who founded branches in Vienna, London, Naples and Paris. They all provided great financial services to the enemies of Napoleon, and were consequently rewarded after Waterloo. The Austrian minister of finance, count Stodion, proposed that they be ennobled as a way to get better interest rates on a loan. Metternich approved and, while the Frankfurt Jews still did not enjoy full civil rights, four of the brothers were granted German hereditary nobility (Sep. 25 and Oct. 21, 1816). Nathan was not included because he was a foreign subject (in London). The Rothschilds were asked to submit a coat of arms, which Solomon did: it consisted in quarterly: 1) or an eagle sable surcharged in dexter by a field gules, 2) gules a leopard passant proper, 3) a lion rampant, 4) azure, an arm bearing 5 arrows; in center a shield of gules. The supporters were a greyhound and a stork, the crest a coronet with a lion issuant.
The Austrian Herald’s College was very nitpicky. They said that, as untitled nobility, the R. could have a helmet but not a coronet. The eagle alluded to Austria, the lion to Hesse-Kassel, and the leopard to England: the College said it was not in its power to use charges from other sovereign countries’ arms. The 5 arrows symbolize the 5 brothers: but since Nathan was excluded they could only have 4 arrows. The supporters were rejected, as well as the shield in center, as the privilege of the titled nobility. All of these excuses seem pretty lame, and I suspect that these were all intended slights. A patent for the modified arms was finally granted on March 25, 1817.
Barons Rotschild
Five years and many loans later, the Austrian emperor made all 5 brothers hereditary barons (for them and all legitimate descendants through either sex), on Sep. 29, 1822. A revised coat of arms was registered, the one I blazoned in my previous post, with the lion and the 5 arrows restored, and the escutcheon in center, gules with oval target argent per bend sinister. The full blazon is as follows (this is the entry in Rietstap):
Quarterly: 1) Or, an eagle displayed sable. 2) Azure, an arm issuing from the sinister flank proper, holding five arrows points downward argent. 3) As in 2), the arm issuing from dexter. 4) Or, a lion gules. Over all an escutcheon: gules, an oval target with pointed center argent per bend-sinister. 3 crests: 1) a mullet or enhanced or between two horns per fess alternately or and sable, sable and or; 2) an eagle disp. sable; 3) 3 ostrich feathers, one argent and two azure. Motto: concordia, integritas, industria.
Nathan was authorized in 1838 to bear his Austrian title in England. His elder son Lionel was offered a British baronetcy in 1847, but he turned it down: it went to his brother Anthony. In 1885, the 2d baronet was made baron Rothschild of Tring, the first Jew in the House of Peers.
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