House Stålhandske

The noble name Stålhandske ("steel gauntlet") is one of the most visually transparent in Swedish heraldic culture, and it is echoed in the gauntlet motif used in the present Lord of Coley's crest. The introduced noble house Stålhandske (no. 98) is of Finnish origin, with early seats associated with south-western Finland and Åland.

Two brothers were ennobled in the sixteenth century (1574 and 1578), and the family was later introduced at the Riddarhuset under no. 98 in the first wave of introduced nobility. The Stålhandske name is also famous for the early-modern "seat dispute" between similarly named houses in the Riddarhuset context—an episode that illustrates how status, precedence, and record-keeping could become intensely contested in seventeenth-century noble society.

In genealogical terms the introduced line is regarded as extinct in the male line, while descent continues through female lines. Within the present Lord of Coley's arms, Stålhandske is therefore best understood as an ancestral strand and a symbolic vocabulary of service and honour rather than as a modern surname line.

Further Reading:

• Riddarhuset (MINERVA): Stålhandske (no. 98).
• Elgenstierna, Gustaf (ed.). Den introducerade svenska adelns ättartavlor.
• Adelsvapen-Wiki: Stålhandske nr 98.