I like the overall graphic--the stag shield pops out well, and it all has a nice old-world aesthetic to it. My thoughts for improvement:
I agree with the other posters, the text blends far too much. I would consider altering the color of the text or surrounding it in a very small field of a contrasting color (in both cases, I'd suggest using the red you used in the shield). I don't think a drop shadow will help here, since it's already black.
Don't know if you have the capability, but the image has a fair amount of aliasing (jaggedy/pixely edges) and would probably benefit quite a bit if those could be smoothed out.
The words "red" and "stag" are rotated a bit too much to be easily readable as part of the name. Generally, 45 degrees or less is preferable.
Could just be me, but I'm not so hot on the background color. Perhaps bump up the blue a little bit to bring it more into the purple range?