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maiden's head the head and neck of a woman couped below the breast, the head wreathed with roses and crowned with an eastern crown

mail protective clothing made of small close rings, linked together as if woven and shown as being like fish scales mailed clothed in mail main a hand

maintenance (see cap of maintenance)

manche or maunche a sleeve with long hanging ends

maned used of an animal when the mane is of a different colour from the body

mantelle or chappe used when the two upper angles to the field are cut off by two lines issuing from the middle chief point to either side of the shield, forming two triangles of a different colour from the field, as if a mantle were thrown over it and the ends drawn back

man-tiger a monster with a lion's body, the head and face of an old man and horns like an ox

mantle or lambrequin the cloak on which achievements are painted

mantlings ornamented foliage-work for adorning helmets in painting armorial bearings

marined used of any monster with the lower body like a fish marine wolf a seal

marshal to arrange charges, ordinaries etc in correct order on a coat of arms

martlet or merion a mythical bird shared like a martin with feathers in place of its legs, the mark of a fourth son 

mascle a hollowed-out lozenge 

masculy covered with mascles

masoned, masony or masçonné used when the field, charge or crest is divided like a wall by lines of a given colour

membered (see legged)

meslé mingled

metal one of the basic types of tincture or colour used in heraldry: white and yellow, for instance, are described not as themselves but as argent and or (silver and gold)

millpick an instrument used by millers and millwrights to dress millstones

millrind (see fer-de-moline)

modilion, cotoose or scroll the foliage ornament of a pillar

mooted or moulted (see eradicated)

morion a steel cap or helmet prevalent particularly in the 16th century, its upper half curving downwards, its edges curving upwards

morné or mortné (French 'stillborn') a lion rampant without tongue, teeth or claws

morse a sea-lion

mort a skull, usually placed on the hatchment of the last of a family 

mortier a cap of state

mound (French monde, Latin mundus, the world) a globe encircled with a horizontal band of diamonds and other precious stones, from the upper edge of which springs a similarly studded semicircular band, and having on the top across; the mound forms part of the regalia of an emperor or king

mount when the bottom or base of the shield is represented as a field, and curved mourned blunted

mullet the rowel of a spur, in English heraldry with five straight points and in French heraldry with six

mullet pierced a mullet with a hole in the centre, allowing the colour on which it is borne to appear through it

muraillé walled

mural crown a circle of gold, crenellated like a battlement

murrey blood-coloured

muschetors or mushetours the black tail of the ermine, but without the three spots used to depict ermine

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