When the shield or charge is divided palewise down the middle into two
tinctures it is said to be "party." "Party silver and gules" are the
arms of the Waldegraves. Bermingham bore "Party silver and sable
indented." Caldecote bore "Party silver and azure with a chief gules."
Such partings of the field often cut through charges whose colours
change about on either side of the parting line. Thus Chaucer the poet
bore "Party silver and gules with a bend countercoloured."
[Illustration: Gascoigne. Ferlington. Strelley. Rothinge.]
The Fesse is a band athwart the shield, filling, according to the rules
of the heraldic writers, a third part of it. By ancient use, however, as
in the case of the chief and pale, its width varies with the taste of
the painter, narrowing when set in a field full of charges and
broadening when charges are displayed on itself. When two or three
fesses are borne they are commonly called Bars. "Ermine _four_ bars
gules" is given as the shield of Sir John Sully, a 14th-century Garter
knight, on his stall-plate at Windsor: but the plate belongs to a later
generation, and should probably have three bars only. Little bars borne
in couples are styled Gemels (twins). The field divided into an even
number of bars of alternate colours is said to be barry, barry of six
pieces being the normal number. If four or eight divisions be found the
number of pieces must be named; but with ten or more divisions the
number is unreckoned and "burely" is the word.
[Illustration: Bermingham. Caldecote. Colevile. Fauconberg.]
Colevile of Bitham bore "Gold a fesse gules."
West bore "Silver a dance (or fesse dancy) sable."
Fauconberg bore "Gold a fesse azure with three pales gules in the
chief."
Cayvile bore "Silver a fesse gules, flowered on both sides."
[Illustration: Cayvile. Devereux. Chamberlayne. Harcourt.]
Devereux bore "Gules a fesse silver with three roundels silver in the
chief."
Chamberlayne of Northamptonshire bore "Gules a fesse and three
scallops gold."
Harcourt bore "Gules two bars gold."
Manners bore "Gold two bars azure and a chief gules."
Wake bore "Gold two bars gules with three roundels gules in the
chief."
Bussy bore "Silver three bars sable."
Badlesmere of Kent bore "Silver a fesse between two gemels gules."
Melsanby bore "Sable two gemels and a chief silver."
[Illustration: Manners. Wake. Melsanby. Grey.]
Grey bore "Barry of silver and azure."
Fitzalan of Bedale bore "Barry of eight pieces gold and gules."
Stutevile bore "Burely of silver and gules."
The Bend is a band traversing the shield aslant, arms with one, two or
three bends being common during the middle ages in England. Bendy
shields follow the rule of shields paly and barry, but as many as ten
pieces have been counted in them. The bend is often accompanied by a
narrow bend on either side, these companions being called Cotices. A
single narrow bend, struck over all other charges, is the Baston, which
during the 13th and 14th centuries was a common difference for the
shields of the younger branches of a family, coming in later times to
suggest itself as a difference for bastards.
[Illustration: Fitzalan of Bedale. Mauley. Harley. Wallop.]
The Bend Sinister, the bend drawn from right to left beginning at the
"sinister" corner of the shield, is reckoned in the heraldry books as a
separate Ordinary, and has a peculiar significance accorded to it by
novelists. Medieval English seals afford a group of examples of Bends
Sinister and Bastons Sinister, but there seems no reason for taking them
as anything more than cases in which the artist has neglected the common
rule.
Mauley bore "Gold a bend sable."
Harley bore "Gold a bend with two cotices sable."
Wallop bore "Silver a bend wavy sable."
Ralegh bore "Gules a bend indented, or engrailed, silver."
[Illustration: Ralegh. Tracy. Bodrugan. St Philibert.]
Tracy bore "Gold two bends gules with a scallop sable in the chief
between the bends."
Bodrugan bore "Gules three bends sable."
St Philibert bore "Bendy of six pieces, silver and azure."
Bishopsdon bore "Bendy of six pieces, gold and azure, with a quarter
ermine."
Montfort of Whitchurch bore "Bendy of ten pieces gold and azure."
[Illustration: Bishopsdon. Montfort. Lancaster. Fraunceys.]
Henry of Lancaster, second son of Edmund Crouchback, bore the arms of
his cousin, the king of England, with the difference of "a baston
azure."
Adam Fraunceys (14th century) bore "Party gold and sable bendwise with
a lion countercoloured." The parting line is here commonly shown as
"sinister."
The Cheveron, a word found In medieval building accounts for the
barge-boards of a gable, is an Ordinary whose form is explained by its
name. Perhaps the very earliest of English armorial charges, and
familiarized by the shield of the great house of Clare, it became
exceedingly popular in England. Like the bend and the chief, its width
varies in different examples. Likewise its angle varies, being sometimes
so acute as to touch the top of the shield, while in post-medieval
armory the point is often blunted beyond the right angle. One, two or
three cheverons occur in numberless shields, and five cheverons have
been found. Also there are some examples of the bearing of cheveronny.
The earls of Gloucester of the house of Clare bore "Gold three
cheverons gules" and the Staffords derived from them their shield of
"Gold a cheveron gules."
Chaworth bore "Azure two cheverons gold."
Peytevyn bore "Cheveronny of ermine and gules."
St Quintin of Yorkshire bore "Gold two cheverons gules and a chief
vair."
Sheffield bore "Ermine a cheveron gules between three sheaves gold."
Cobham of Kent bore "Gules a cheveron gold with three fleurs-de-lys
azure thereon."
Fitzwalter bore "Gold a fesse between two cheverons gules."
[Illustration: Chaworth. Peytevyn. Sheffield. Cobham.]
Shields parted cheveronwise are common in the 15th century, when they
are often blazoned as having chiefs "enty" or grafted. Aston of Cheshire
bore "Party sable and silver cheveronwise" or "Silver a chief enty
sable."
The Pile or stake (_estache_) is a wedge-shaped figure jutting from the
chief to the foot of the shield, its name allied to the pile of the
bridge-builder. A single pile is found in the notable arms of Chandos,
and the black piles in the ermine shield of Hollis are seen as an
example of the bearing of two piles. Three piles are more easily found,
and when more than one is represented the points are brought together at
the foot. In ancient armory piles in a shield are sometimes reckoned as
a variety of pales, and a Basset with three piles on his shield is seen
with three pales on his square banner.
Chandos bore "Gold a pile gules."
Bryene bore "Gold three piles azure."
The Quarter is the space of the first quarter of the shield divided
crosswise into four parts. As an Ordinary it is an ancient charge and a
common one in medieval England, although it has all but disappeared from
modern heraldry books, the "Canton," an alleged "diminutive," unknown to
early armory, taking its place. Like the other Ordinaries, its size is
found to vary with the scheme of the shield's charges, and this has
persuaded those armorists who must needs call a narrow bend a "bendlet,"
to the invention of the "Canton," a word which in the sense of a quarter
or small quarter appears for the first time in the latter part of the
15th century. Writers of the 14th century sometimes give it the name of
the Cantel, but this word is also applied to the void space on the
opposite side of the chief, seen above a bend.
[Illustration: Aston. Hollis. Bryene. Blencowe.]
Blencowe bore "Gules a quarter silver."
Basset of Drayton bore "Gold three piles (or pales) gules with a
quarter ermine."
Wydvile bore "Silver a fesse and a quarter gules."
Odingseles bore "Silver a fesse gules with a molet gules in the
quarter."
Robert Dene of Sussex (14th century) bore "Gules a quarter azure
'embelif,' or aslant, and thereon a sleeved arm and hand of silver."
Shields or charges divided crosswise with a downward line and a line
athwart are said to be quarterly. An ancient coat of this fashion is
that of Say who bore (13th century) "Quarterly gold and gules"--the
first and fourth quarters being gold and the second and third red. Ever
or Eure bore the same with the addition of "a bend sable with three
silver scallops thereon." Phelip, Lord Bardolf, bore "Quarterly gules
and silver with an eagle gold in the quarter."
[Illustration: PLATE III.
SHIELDS OF ARMS OF "LE ROY DARRABE," "LE ROY DE TARSSE," AND OTHER
SOVEREIGNS. MOSTLY MYTHICAL. TAKEN FROM A ROLL OF ARMS MADE BY AN
ENGLISH PAINTER IN THE TIME OF HENRY VI.
_Drawn by William Gibb._
_Niagara Litho. Co., Buffalo, N. Y._]
[Illustration: Basset. Wydvile. Odingseles. Ever.]
With the 15th century came a fashion of dividing the shield into more
than four squares, six and nine divisions being often found in arms of
that age. The heraldry books, eager to work out problems of blazonry,
decide that a shield divided into six squares should be described as
"Party per fesse with a pale counterchanged," and one divided into nine
squares as bearing "a cross quarter-pierced." It seems a simpler
business to follow a 15th-century fashion and to blazon such shields as
being of six or nine "pieces." Thus John Garther (15th century) bore
"Nine pieces erminees and ermine" and Whitgreave of Staffordshire "Nine
pieces of azure and of Stafford's arms, which are gold with a cheveron
gules." The Tallow Chandlers of London had a grant in 1456 of "Six
pieces azure and silver with three doves in the azure, each with an
olive sprig in her beak."
Squared into more than nine squares the shield becomes checky or
checkered and the number is not reckoned. Warenne's checker of gold and
azure is one of the most ancient coats in England and checkered fields
and charges follow in great numbers. Even lions have been borne
checkered.
Warenne bore "Checky gold and azure."
Clifford bore the like with "a fesse gules."
Cobham bore "Silver a lion checky gold and sable."
Arderne bore "Ermine a fesse checky gold and gules."
[Illustration: Phelip Lord Bardolf. Whitgreave. Tallow Chandlers.
Warenne.]
Such charges as this fesse of Arderne's and other checkered fesses,
bars, bends, borders and the like, will commonly bear but two rows of
squares, or three at the most. The heraldry writers are ready to note
that when two rows are used "counter-compony" is the word in place of
checky, and "compony-counter-compony" in the case of three rows. It is
needless to say that these words have neither practical value nor
antiquity to commend them. But bends and bastons, labels, borders and
the rest are often coloured with a single row of alternating tinctures.
In this case the pieces are said to be "gobony." Thus John Cromwell
(14th century) bore "Silver a chief gules with a baston gobony of gold
and azure."
The scocheon or shield used as a charge is found among the earliest
arms. Itself charged with arms, it served to indicate alliance by blood
or by tenure with another house, as in the bearings of St Owen whose
shield of "Gules with a cross silver" has a scocheon of Clare in the
quarter. In the latter half of the 15th century it plays an important
part in the curious marshalling of the arms of great houses and
lordships.
Erpingham bore "Vert a scocheon silver with an orle (or border) of
silver martlets."
Davillers bore at the battle of Boroughbridge "Silver three scocheons
gules."
The scocheon was often borne voided or pierced, its field cut away to a
narrow border. Especially was this the case in the far North, where the
Balliols, who bore such a voided scocheon, were powerful. The voided
scocheon is wrongly named in all the heraldry books as an orle, a term
which belongs to a number of small charges set round a central charge.
Thus the martlets in the shield of Erpingham, already described, may be
called an orle of martlets or a border of martlets. This misnaming of
the voided scocheon has caused a curious misapprehension of its form,
even Dr Woodward, in his _Heraldry, British and Foreign_, describing the
"orle" as "a narrow border detached from the edge of the shield."
Following this definition modern armorial artists will, in the case of
quartered arms, draw the "orle" in a first or second quarter of a
quartered shield as a rectangular figure and in a third or fourth
quarter as a scalene triangle with one arched side. Thereby the original
voided scocheon changes into forms without meaning.
Balliol bore "Gules a voided scocheon silver."
Surtees bore "Ermine with a quarter of the arms of Balliol."
[Illustration: Clifford. Arderne. Cromwell. Erpingham.]
The _Tressure_ or flowered tressure is a figure which is correctly
described by Woodward's incorrect description of the orle as cited
above, being a narrow inner border of the shield. It is distinguished,
however, by the fleurs-de-lys which decorate it, setting off its edges.
The double tressure which surrounds the lion in the royal shield of
Scotland, and which is borne by many Scottish houses who have served
their kings well or mated with their daughters, is carefully described
by Scottish heralds as "flowered and counter-flowered," a blazon which
is held to mean that the fleurs-de-lys show head and tail in turn from
the outer rim of the outer tressure and from the inner rim of the
innermost. But this seems to have been no essential matter with medieval
armorists and a curious 15th-century enamelled roundel of the arms of
Vampage shows that in this English case the flowering takes the more
convenient form of allowing all the lily heads to sprout from the outer
rim.
Vampage bore "Azure an eagle silver within a flowered tressure
silver."
The king of Scots bore "Gold a lion within a double tressure flowered
and counterflowered gules."
Felton bore "Gules two lions passant within a double tressure flory
silver."
[Illustration: Davillers. Balliol. Surtees. Vampage.]
The Border of the shield when marked out in its own tincture is counted
as an Ordinary. Plain or charged, it was commonly used as a difference.
As the principal charge of a shield it is very rare, so rare that in
most cases where it apparently occurs we may, perhaps, be following
medieval custom in blazoning the shield as one charged with a scocheon
and not with a border. Thus Hondescote bore "Ermine a border gules" or
"Gules a scocheon ermine."
Somerville bore "Burely silver and gules and a border azure with
golden martlets."
Paynel bore "Silver two bars sable with a border, or orle, of martlets
gules."
The Flaunches are the flanks of the shield which, cut off by rounded
lines, are borne in pairs as Ordinaries. These charges are found in many
coats devised by 15th-century armorists. "Ermine two flaunches azure
with six golden wheat-ears" was borne by John Greyby of Oxfordshire
(15th century).
The Label is a narrow fillet across the upper part of the chief, from
which hang three, four, five or more pendants, the pendants being, in
most old examples, broader than the fillet. Reckoned with the
Ordinaries, it was commonly used as a means of differencing a cadet's
shield, and in the heraldry books it has become the accepted difference
for an eldest son, although the cadets often bore it in the middle ages.
John of Hastings bore in 1300 before Carlaverock "Gold a sleeve (or
maunche) gules," while Edmund his brother bore the same arms with a
sable label. In modern armory the pendants are all but invariably
reduced to three, which, in debased examples, are given a dovetailed
form while the ends of the fillet are cut off.
[Illustration: Scotland. Hondescote. Greyby. Hastings.]
The Fret, drawn as a voided lozenge interlaced by a slender saltire, is
counted an Ordinary. A charge in such a shape is extremely rare in
medieval armory, its ancient form when the field is covered by it being
a number of bastons--three being the customary number--interlaced by as
many more from the sinister side. Although the whole is described as a
fret in certain English blazons of the 15th century, the adjective
"fretty" is more commonly used. Trussel's fret is remarkable for its
bezants at the joints, which stand, doubtless, for the golden nail-heads
of the "trellis" suggested by his name. Curwen, Wyvile and other
northern houses bearing a fret and a chief have, owing to their fashion
of drawing their frets, often seen them changed by the heraldry books
into "three cheverons braced or interlaced."
Huddlestone bore "Gules fretty silver."
Trussel bore "Silver fretty gules, the joints bezanty."
Hugh Giffard (14th century) bore "Gules with an engrailed fret of
ermine."
Wyvile bore "Gules fretty vair with a chief gold."
Boxhull bore "Gold a lion azure fretty silver."
[Illustration: Trussel. Giffard. Wyvile. Mortimer.]
Another Ordinary is the Giron or Gyron--a word now commonly
mispronounced with a hard "g." It may be defined as the lower half of a
quarter which has been divided bendwise. No old example of a single
giron can be found to match the figure in the heraldry books. Gironny,
or gyronny, is a manner of dividing the field into sections, by lines
radiating from a centre point, of which many instances may be given.
Most of the earlier examples have some twelve divisions although later
armory gives eight as the normal number, as Campbell bears them.
Bassingbourne bore "Gironny of gold and azure of twelve pieces."
William Stoker, who died Lord Mayor of London in 1484, bore "Gironny
of six pieces azure and silver with three popinjays in the silver
pieces."
A pair of girons on either side of a chief were borne in the strange
shield of Mortimer, commonly blazoned as "Barry azure and gold of six
pieces, the chief azure with two pales and two girons gold, a scocheon
silver over all." An early example shows that this shield began as a
plain field with a gobony border.
With the Ordinaries we may take the Roundels or Pellets, disks or balls
of various colours. Ancient custom gives the name of a bezant to the
golden roundel, and the folly of the heraldic writers has found names
for all the others, names which may be disregarded together with the
belief that, while bezants and silver roundels, as representing coins,
must be pictured with a flat surface, roundels of other hues must needs
be shaded by the painter to represent rounded balls. Rings or Annelets
were common charges in the North, where Lowthers, Musgraves and many
more, differenced the six rings of Vipont by bearing them in various
colours.
[Illustration: Campbell. Bassingbourne. Stoker. Burlay.]
Burlay of Wharfdale bore "Gules a bezant."
Courtenay, earl of Devon, bore "Gold three roundels gules with a label
azure."
Caraunt bore "Silver three roundels azure, each with three cheverons
gules."
Vipont bore "Gold six annelets gules."
Avenel bore "Silver a fesse and six annelets (_aunels_) gules."
Hawberk of Stapleford bore "Silver a bend sable charged with three
pieces of a mail hawberk, each of three linked rings of gold."
Stourton bore "Sable a bend gold between six fountains." The fountain
is a roundel charged with waves of white and blue.
[Illustration: Courtenay. Caraunt. Vipont. Avenel.]
The Lozenge is linked in the heraldry book with the Fusil. This Fusil is
described as a lengthened and sharper lozenge. But it will be understood
that the Fusil, other than as part of an engrailed or indented bend,
pale or fesse, is not known to true armory. Also it is one of the
notable achievements of the English writers on heraldry that they should
have allotted to the lozenge, when borne voided, the name of Mascle.
This "mascle" is the word of the oldest armorists for the unvoided
charge, the voided being sometimes described by them as a lozenge,
without further qualifications. Fortunately the difficulty can be solved
by following the late 14th-century custom in distinguishing between
"lozenges" and "voided lozenges" and by abandoning altogether this
misleading word Mascle.
[Illustration: Hawberk. Stourton. Charles. Fitzwilliam.]
Thomas of Merstone, a clerk, bore on his seal in 1359 "Ermine a
lozenge with a pierced molet thereon."
Braybroke bore "Silver seven voided lozenges gules."
Charles bore "Ermine a chief gules with five golden lozenges.
thereon."
Fitzwilliam bore "Lozengy silver and gules."
Billets are oblong figures set upright. Black billets in the arms of
Delves of Cheshire stand for "delves" of earth and the gads of steel in
the arms of the London Ironmongers' Company took a somewhat similar
form.
Sir Ralph Mounchensy bore in the 14th century "Silver a cheveron
between three billets sable."
Haggerston bore "Azure a bend with cotices silver and three billets
sable on the bend."
With the Billet, the Ordinaries, uncertain as they are in number, may be
said to end. But we may here add certain armorial charges which might
well have been counted with them.
First of these is the Molet, a word corrupted in modern heraldry to
Mullet, a fish-like change with nothing to commend it. This figure is as
a star of five or six points, six points being perhaps the commonest
form in old examples, although the sixth point is, as a rule, lost
during the later period. Medieval armorists are not, it seems, inclined
to make any distinction between molets of five and six points, but some
families, such as the Harpedens and Asshetons, remained constant to the
five-pointed form. It was generally borne pierced with a round hole, and
then represents, as its name implies, the rowel of a spur. In ancient
rolls of arms the word Rowel is often used, and probably indicated the
pierced molet. That the piercing was reckoned an essential difference is
shown by a roll of the time of Edward II., in which Sir John of Pabenham
bears "Barry azure and silver, with a bend gules and three molets gold
thereon," arms which Sir John his son differences by piercing the
molets. Beside these names is that of Sir Walter Baa with "Gules a
cheveron and three rowels silver," rowels which are shown on seals of
this family as pierced molets. Probably an older bearing than the molet,
which would be popularized when the rowelled spur began to take the
place of the prick-spur, is the Star or Estoile, differing from the
molet in that its five or six points are wavy. It is possible that
several star bearings of the 13th century were changed in the 14th for
molets. The star is not pierced in the fashion of the molet; but, like
the molet, it tends to lose its sixth point in armory of the decadence.
Suns, sometimes blazoned in old rolls as Sun-rays--_rays de soleil_--are
pictured as unpierced molets of many points, which in rare cases are
waved.
Harpeden bore "Silver a pierced molet gules."
Gentil bore "Gold a chief sable with two molets goles pierced gules."
Grimston bore "Silver a fesse sable and thereon three molets silver
pierced gules."
Ingleby of Yorkshire bore "Sable a star silver."
Sir John de la Haye of Lincolnshire bore "Silver a sun gules."
[Illustration: Mounchensy. Haggerston. Harpeden. Gentil.]
The Crescent is a charge which has to answer for many idle tales
concerning the crusading ancestors of families who bear it. It is
commonly borne with both points uppermost, but when representing the
waning or the waxing moon--decrescent or increscent--its horns are
turned to the sinister or dexter side of the shield.
Peter de Marines (13th century) bore on his seal a shield charged with
a crescent in the chief.
William Gobioun (14th century) bore "A bend between two waxing moons."
Longchamp bore "Ermine three crescents gules, pierced silver."