HERALDRY. 



HERALDRY. 



870 



was the ornament worn upon the helmet, and consequently the helmet 

 itself was generally represented with it upon the seal of the knight or 

 nobleman. The crest from Richard II.'s time was rarely worn, except 

 upon the tilting helmet, and then upon a wreath which was generally a 

 twisted roll of silk of two colours, being those of the family of the 

 wearer. Beneath this wreath was frequently worn, as a sort of hood 

 to the helmet, a piece of silk or velvet lined with ermine, which floated 

 with jagged ends on the [shoulders : these are by the French called 

 hachemens, and by us mantlings or lambrequins. Supporters are of 

 later origin, and are supposed to have taken their rise from the fanciful 

 devices of the early seal-engravers, who filled up the space not occupied 

 by the shield with all sorts of monsters or natural animals, by way of 

 ornament. They did not become common till the close of the 

 fourteenth century, and Henry VIII. was the first monarch who 

 formally granted supporters to peers of the realm and knights of the 

 garter and of the bath. No person under the rank of a knight of the 

 Kith has a right to supporters, unless by special grant of the sovereign. 



Mottoes had their origin probably in the war-cries of the different 

 knights. There are several instances however of a motto being borne 

 in addition to the eri de guerre. 



The badge or device is frequently confounded with the crest ; but it 

 was altogether independent of the armorial bearings of the family, 

 although in many instances it became hereditary. It is frequently, 

 but very incorrectly, placed upon a wreath. 



The arrangement and description of all the above insignia in proper 

 heraldic order and terms are styled the marshalling and blazoning of 

 arms. 



We shall speak first of blazoning. The verb "to blazon" is 

 generally derived from the German blaten, to blow or sound a horn or 

 trumpet, such being usually the practice before proclaiming the style 

 or arms of any personage on his arrival in the camp, the lists, or the 

 banqueting hall. The term however was scon applied to the pro- 

 clamation itself, and finally used as synonymous with description 

 generally : thus we find in the old book on hunting written by 

 Jacques de Fouilloux, and presented to Charles IX. of France, the 

 description of the hare entitled ' Le Blason du Lievre.' To spread the 

 fame or the disgrace of any person was also to blazon it. Favine, in 

 his ' Theatre d'Honneur,' says, " Les habitans disent pour blasonner 

 leur ville ; " and in the Chronicle of Louis I., duke of Bourbon, the 

 knights of the order of the crown are commanded not to suffer any 

 person to defame (blazonner et medire) the ladies. 



The principal rules of blazoning are as follows : 



1. In blazoning a coat the herald begins with the field, noticing the 

 lines, if any, by which it is divided, the difference of those lines, and 

 then the colours, next the charges, beginning with the immediate 

 charge, that is, the one which lieth nearest the field, such as any 

 ordinary, and nearest the centre of the field if a common charge, and 

 lastly, the more remote or inferior charges. 



Thus the accompanying coat would be blazoned : 

 Party per pale, indented, azure, and gules ; on a feu 

 argent, a crescent of the frit between tico mullets table. 



2. All tautology is to be strictly avoided, and the repetition particu- 

 larly of such words as of, or, and irith, is considered a great fault. In 

 the above blazon, " a crescent of the first ' is said, in order to avoid the 

 repetition of the word azure ; so, if it were gules, we should say " a 

 crescent of the second." For the same reason, when the field is undi- 

 vided, and the charges, though of more than one description, of only 

 one colour or metal, it would be blazoned in this way : " Argent, a 

 chevron between three mullets sable," by which the chevron is under- 

 stood to be sable as well as the mullets. 



3. It is accounted by English heralds false heraldry to put metal 

 upon metal, or colour upon colour; but instances of such blazoning 

 frequently occur in foreign arms, particularly in those of German 

 f.iniilies. The objection is notwithstanding a sound one, as the charges 

 should be rendered as distinct as possible, which can only be done by 

 adhering to the English rule. 



4. When a charge is represented of its natural colour, it is to be 

 blazoned proper. 



5. In blazoning animals, the teeth and claws, or talons, of the 

 ravenous beasts are called their arms ; and when they are to be repre- 

 sented of a different colour or metal from that of their bodies, they 

 must be blazoned as " armed, Or," ol- " Gules," as the case may be. If 

 th f tongue is shown the beast Is said to be langued of such or such a 

 colour, as " a Lion, argent, armed and laagucd, azure." More docile 

 animals, the stag and deer, for instance, are said to be " attired," and 

 not " armed." Beasts of prey are, according to their attitude, blazoned, 

 Rampant, Rampant-yuardant, Rampant-rtyanlant, statant, passant, 



'i-ttartt, dormant, naissant, istuant, combattant, endorsed, 

 erased, Ac. Stags are said to be trippant, at gaze, &c. 



Birda of |,r. y arc also blazoned as "armed" of such a colour, but 

 such as have no talons are described as " beaked and memberert." Tie 

 CW- is said to be armed, crested, and jelloped, the latter term 

 to tho wattles, or gills. 



Birds, according to their attitudes, are blazoned Volant, Displayed, 

 Preifing, &c. 



Fish, when placed horizontally, are termed " naiant ; " when per- 

 pendicularly, " hauriant ; " when bent (ag the dolphin is generally 

 represented), " embowed ;" if face to face, "respecting each other;" if 

 back to back, " endorsed." 



The sun must be blazoned according to his condition, full, or in his 

 eclipse. The moon, defined as crescent, increscent, or rfccrescent : the 

 first being, when represented with the horns upwards; the second, 

 when the horns point to the dexter or right side of the shield ; and the 

 third, when to the left or sinister side. If downwards, it is called a 

 crescent reversed. 



The human figure is blazoned either vested or noted. Parts of the 

 human figure, if cut off, are said to be couped ; if ragged or torn 

 off, erased. Heads are also blazoned icreathed or banded, as the case 

 may be. 



Flowers are blazoned jessant, slipped, seeded, &c. 



When the field of an escutcheon is covered with flowers of the same 

 colour or metal, or any other pattern with flowers or scroll work inter- 

 mixed, it is said to be diapered ; but when it is filled with flowers, 

 crosses, or any other device of another colour or metal, repeated, as 

 the French say, sans nombre, it is then blazoned as sem4e. An animal 

 so covered with flowers or crosses should be blazoned as powdered. 

 When the field, charge, or supporter is covered with rjoutes, or drops, 

 it is called gutty ; and if of gold or yellow, gutty cfor; of argent gutty 

 d'eau ; of gules, gutty de sang ; of azure, gutty de larmes ; of vert, gutty 

 de rert ; and of sable, gutty de poix. When a bend, f ess, or any other 

 ordinary passes over an animal, the animal is said to be deiruised. 

 When the charge is divided by any of the partition lines, and the 

 colours of the field are reversed upon it, it is said to be counterchanged. 



By marshalling of anus we understand the orderly disposition of 

 sundry coats, belonging to distinct families, in their proper places 

 within one shield, by impaling or quartering ; and the joining of en- 

 signs of honour and dominion with the paternal arms of the bearer, &c. 



When a man marries he impales his wife's paternal arms, by placing 

 them upright on the left side of his own in the same escutcheon, such 

 impalement being also called arms en baron et femme. If that wife 

 should be or become an heiress, the husband may bear her arms on an 

 escutcheon of pretence over his own ; Legh says, however, that this 

 should not be done till he has begotten an heir of that heiress. In 

 Scotland the husband frequently quarters the arms of his wife with 

 his own when she is an heiress. In England this is only done by the 

 children of such a marriage. If the mother be no heiress, the children 

 cannot quarter her coat. 



Another mode of impalement was by taking only half of each coat, 

 and joining them in one escutcheon. This was called dimidiation ; 

 but the practice has long fallen into disuse. 



The complete escutcheon of a family should never, according to 

 some authorities, consist of more than six or eight quarterings ; others 

 admit of sixteen ; and the Germans marshal sometimes twenty and 

 thirty coats in one shield. 



The best mode of marshalling so many is to begin by placing the 

 arms of the first heiress who married into the family next to the 

 paternal coat, and next to them the several coats which that heiress 

 brought in ; then the arms of the second heiress, followed by those 

 which she brought in, and so on in rotation. When the royal arms 

 are brought in by any match, it is usual however to give that match 

 the second quarter next to the paternal coat, and some say it should 

 even take precedence of that. 



The arms of a widow are composed of her husband's and her father's 

 impaled within a lozenge. 



Those of a maid are her father's only, borne in a lozenge also, with- 

 out any difference, except she be of the royal family, in which case a 

 distinction is expressly furnished by the heralds for the individual 

 coat by the command of the sovereign. 



If the widow be an heiress, she may wear her paternal coat in an 

 escutcheon of pretence over that of her husband, the latter however 

 being in a lozenge, and her daughter, while unmarried, may quarter 

 her mother's arms with her father's in a lozenge ; but if the mother be 

 no heiress, then, says Legh, the daughter has no further right to the 

 arms of her mother's family, except to set them up pale-ways in her 

 house to show her descent. 



If the husband be a knight of the garter, or of any other order, 

 the arms of the wife must not be impaled, but placed in a separate 

 shield. 



Such are the principal rules and terms of the science of heraldry : 

 for further detail we must refer our readers to the works of Edmonson, 

 Nisbett, Berry, &c., cautioning them, at the same time, against the 

 Scylla and Charybdis of the heraldic inquirer, the absurd and mis- 

 directed enthusiasm of the champions of the art, and the undeserved 

 contempt of its depreciators. By the latter it has been stigmatised as 

 " the science of fools with long memories." It should rather be 

 designated as a science which, properly directed, would make fools 

 wise. It is, we repeat, a key to history which may yet unlock stores 

 of information ; at present its most learned professors have studied 

 the art itself more than the use which may be made of it. They have 

 wasted their time and their learning* upon idle controversies, and still 

 more idle speculations. A mysterious signification has been given to 



