Coat of arms - The de Burgh coat of arms is blazoned as Or, a cross gules (a red cross on a gold shield). Legend says that the red cross started with the First Crusade. One story is that a de Burgh recovered a gold shield from a slain Saracen and marked a red cross on it with his own blood. Another story said that Richard I dipped his finger in the blood of a slain Saracen king, put a red cross on the gold shield of de Burgh, and said "for your bravery this will be your crest".
The crest, a seated and chained 'mountain cat', is said to represent liberty and
courage and is believed to be awarded for a de Burgh's courage and skill
in battle during the Crusades. The motto has varied between A cruce Salus (Latin: 'salvation
from the cross'), which would have originated in the Crusades, and ung roy, ung
foy, ung loy (archaic French: 'one king, one faith, one law'), originating when the family moved to Ireland.