page_title: Five-pointed star
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Five-pointed star / History of use / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: Coat of arms of the earls of Oxford (de Vere family). Note that this is the modern coat of arms, the Camden Roll (c. 1280) gives the arms of the counts of Oxford with inverted tinctures, i.e. 1st and 4th quarters or, 2nd and 3rd quarters gules, but Matthew Paris (c. 1250) depicts it as shown here.
context_page_description: A five-pointed star, geometrically a regular concave decagon, is a common ideogram in modern culture.
  Comparatively rare in classical heraldry, it was notably introduced for the flag of the United States in the Flag Act of 1777 and since has become widely used in flags.
  It has also become a symbol of fame or "stardom" in Western culture, among other uses.
  If the collinear edges are joined together a pentagram is produced.
context_section_description: The Egyptian hieroglyph representing "star" had five points ( N14), while the "star" sign in Mesopotamian cuneiform had eight.
   
  Sopdet, the Egyptian personification of the star Sirius, is always shown with the five-pointed star hieroglyph on her head.
  The  star (or mullet) is comparatively rare in medieval heraldry, but from an early time, the five-pointed star was preferred in English and Scottish heraldry (e.g. in the Dering Roll, c. 1270), while the preferred number of points in German heraldry was six.
  The star in the coat of arms of the De Vere family was in legend attributed to the First Crusade, when 
  "a white star [...] did light and arrest upon the standard of  Aubre de Vere".
  The de Vere star is notorious in English history, because in the Battle of Barnet in 1471, the white star of the Earl of Oxford was mistaken for the white rose of Edward IV by the Earl of Warwick, so that he erroneously attacked his own ally, losing the battle, which probably changed the outcome of the entire War of the Roses.
caption: Arms Hugh de Vere, 4th Earl of Oxford (d. 1263) as shown by Matthew Paris (c. 1250)
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