Why were coats of arms suppressed during the French Revolution?

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During the French Revolution, coats of arms were suppressed because they were viewed as symbols of feudalism and the ancien régime.1

In the years leading up to the revolution, the French royal government had attempted to regulate the use of arms, including an ordinance in 1760 that sought to exclude lesser townsfolk, artisans, and peasants from bearing them—despite these groups having used such insignia for centuries. When the revolution began in 1789, the new government moved to dismantle the structures of the old order, which included abolishing noble privileges in 1789 and titles in 1790. Because heraldic insignia were deeply associated with the aristocratic caste and the hierarchical privileges of the past, they were targeted for suppression as part of the broader effort to establish civil equality and eliminate the remnants of the feudal system.12