QUARTERING AND MARSHALLING
In these "Peeps at Heraldry," we can only glance at much that should
still be mentioned if space permitted.
We must say something, however, about quartering and marshalling, two
very important departments in heraldry.
Hitherto, we have dealt with shields bearing only one coat of arms,
but now we must speak of those which bear more than one.
Quartering means dividing the shield into quarters, so that several
coats of arms may be represented on the same escutcheon. Fig. 54 shows
the simplest form of quartering--viz., by two lines, fess-wise and
pale-wise. This arrangement gives room for four different coats of
arms, but if it is necessary to represent more than four, the shield
is further cut up into the requisite number of divisions, then
blazoned according to that number--_e.g._, "quarterly by eight," "by
twelve," and so forth. It also sometimes happens that in a shield
already quartered, each quarter has to be quartered again, and this
arrangement is known in heraldry as "compound quartering." The four
original quarters are then blazoned as "grand quarters," the secondary
ones as "quarterly quarterings."
[Illustration: FIG. 54.]
One of the chief uses of quartering is to record the alliances between
different families, generally made through marriage.
(The arms of the Duke of Portland afford a good example of a shield
bearing a record of such alliances. For in the first and fourth grand
quarters quarterly we find the arms of the Bentincks--the original
family arms; in the second and third quarterlies the Cavendish arms
appear; whilst on the second and third grand quarters the arms of
Scott are represented, thus recording the alliance of the house of
Bentinck with those of Cavendish and Scott.)
A husband may only add the arms of his wife's family to his own when
she is heiress or co-heiress of her own line. He then bears those arms
on what is called an "escutcheon of pretence," which he charges on
his own family coat. All the sons of an heiress or co-heiress may use
their mother's arms after she is dead as quarterings with those of
their father, dividing the shield as in Fig. 54 and placing their
paternal arms in the first and fourth quarters and their maternal in
the second and third.
When three coats of arms are to be represented on a shield, the most
important occupies the first and fourth quarters. A familiar example
of this is furnished by the royal arms of Great Britain, where we
see the lions of England in the first and fourth quarters, the lion
rampant of Scotland in the second, and the harp of Ireland in the
third.
The Earl of Pembroke, in 1348, was the first subject, so Mr. Hulme
tells us, who quartered his arms.
When a great number of quarterings are charged upon the shield, the
order in which these quarterings are marshalled[1] or arranged is very
important, the original arms being always placed in the upper dexter
of the field--that being the most honourable point--and the other
arms following in the sequence in which they were introduced into the
family coat of arms.
[Footnote 1: _Marshalling_ means the art of grouping or
arranging various coats of arms on one and the same shield.]
[Illustration: PLATE 6.
SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL.
_Arms._--Arg. on mount vert, representation of the 40 ft.
reflecting telescope with its apparatus ppr. on a chief
az: the astronomical symbol of Uranus irradiated or.
_Crest._--A demi terrestrial sphere ppr. thereon an eagle, wings
elevated or.
_Motto._--C[oe]lis exploratis.]
There were two methods of marshalling in early heraldry. One was
known as "dimidation," which means cutting a coat of arms in half,
pale-wise, and matching it with another half of another coat of arms,
so as to make one achievement of the two joined halves. Thus, when
a wife's arms were to be represented on the same shield as her
husband's, both coats were halved, and then placed upon the shield,
the husband's arms occupying the right side, and those of the wife the
left.
As you can imagine, however, the result of this chopping and joining
was seldom satisfactory and sometimes very comical, as, for example,
in the arms of Yarmouth, where half a lion is running to join half a
herring!
The second method of marshalling was by impalement. This term means
the joining together of different coats of arms by a pale.
[Illustration: FIG. 55.]
In this arrangement the shield was divided pale-wise as before (Fig.
55 shows the shield divided ready to receive the two coats), but the
whole of each coat was crowded respectively into each side of the
shield, the right side being charged with the husband's arms, the
left with his wife's. Naturally, however, in order to suit this
arrangement, the arms suffered a certain amount of alteration.
Nowadays, according to Mr. Fox-Davies, the following rules are
observed with regard to the arms of man and wife--viz.: "If the wife
is not an heraldic heiress the two coats are impaled. If the wife be
an heraldic heiress or co-heir, in lieu of impalement, the arms of
her family are placed on an escutcheon, being termed an 'escutcheon of
pretence,' because ... the husband _pretends_ to the representation of
her family."
A widow may have the coat of arms borne by her husband and herself
marshalled, not on a shield, but on a lozenge, whilst an unmarried
daughter may bear her father's arms on a lozenge also, but without a
crest.
Finally, under the head of marshalling comes the arrangement of all
the accessories, of the shield of which we spoke in our last chapter.