There are seldom more figures than seven, but no matter the number; they are placed in the same way, commencing with the figures at the top of the shield, or in chief. If the field was strewed all over with roundlets, this would be expressed by the word _seme_.
_Marshalling coats of arms_, is the act of disposing the arms of several persons in one escutcheon, so that their relation to each other may be clearly marked.
In Heraldry, the husband and wife are called _baron and femme_; and when they are descended from distinct families, both their arms are placed in the same escutcheon, divided by a perpendicular line through the centre of the shield. As this line runs in the same direction, and occupies part of the s.p.a.ce in the shield appropriated to the ordinary called the pale, the shield is in heraldic language said to be _parted per pale_. The arms of the baron (the husband) are always placed on the dexter side of the escutcheon; and the femme (the wife), on the sinister side, as in the annexed example.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Parted per pale, baron and femme, two coats]
Parted per pale, baron and femme, two coats; first, or, a chevron gules; second, barry of twelve pieces, azure and argent.
If a widower marries again, the arms of both his wives are placed on the sinister side, which is parted per fess; that is, parted by an horizontal line running in the direction of the fess, and occupying the same place. The arms of the first wife are placed in the upper compartment of the shield, called the chief; the arms of the second wife in the lower compartment, called the base.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Parted per pale, baron and femme, three coats]
Parted per pale, baron and femme, three coats;--first, gules, on a bend azure, three trefoils vert: second, parted per fess, in chief azure, a mascle or, with a label argent for difference. In base ermine, a fess, dancette gules. The same rule would apply if the husband had three or more wives; they would all be placed in the sinister division of the shield.
Where the baron marries an heiress, he does not impale his arms with hers, as in the preceding examples, but bears them in an escutcheon of pretence in the centre of the shield, showing his pretension to her lands in consequence of his marriage with the lady who is legally ent.i.tled to them. The escutcheon of pretence is not used by the children of such marriage; they bear the arms of their father and mother quarterly, and so transmit them to posterity. Annexed is an example of the arms of the femme on escutcheon of pretence.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Baron and femme, two coats]
Baron and femme, two coats; first, gules, a saltier argent; second, on an escutcheon of pretence, azure, a chevron, or.
If a peeress in her own right, or the daughter of a peer, marries a private gentleman, their coats of arms are not conjoined paleways, as baron and femme, but are placed upon separate shields by the side of each other; they are usually inclosed in a mantel, the shield of the baron occupying the dexter side of the mantel, that of the femme the sinister; each party has a right to all the ornaments incidental to their rank. The femme claiming the arms of her father, has a right to his supporters and coronet. The baron, who only ranks as an esquire, has no right to supporters or coronet, but exhibits the proper helmet, wreath, and crest.
The peeress, by marrying one beneath her in rank, confers no dignity on her husband, but loses none of her own. She is still addressed as "your ladyship," though her husband only ranks as a gentleman; and it is for this reason that the arms cannot be conjoined in one shield as baron and femme.
Ex. Baron and femme, two atchievements. First, azure, a pile or, crest a star of six points, argent; second, gules, a cross flory argent, surmounted by an earl"s coronet: supporters, on the dexter side a stag ducally gorged and chained, on the sinister side a griffin gorged and chained; motto, Honour and Truth.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Baron and femme, two atchievements]
In the arms of the femme joined to the paternal coat of the baron, the proper differences by which they were borne by the father of the lady must be inserted.
If the arms of the baron has a bordure, that must be omitted on the sinister side of the shield.
Archbishops and bishops impale the paternal arms with the arms of the see over which they preside, placing the arms of the bishopric on the dexter, and their paternal arms on the sinister side of the shield; a bishop does not emblazon the arms of his wife on the same shield with that which contains the arms of the see, but on a separate shield.
Arms of augmentation are marshalled according to the direction of the College of Heralds: they are usually placed on a canton in the dexter chief of the shield; in some cases they occupy the whole of the chief.
The mark of distinction denoting a baronet is usually placed on an escutcheon, on the fess point of the shield.
The rules here laid down apply to funeral atchievements, banners, &c.
The only difference, as will be seen by the annexed examples, is, that the ground of the hatchment is black, that surrounds the arms of the deceased, whether baron or femme, and white round the arms of the survivor.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 1]
In fig. 1. the black is left on the dexter side, showing that the husband is deceased, and that his wife survives him.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 2]
Fig. 2. shows that the husband survives the wife.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 3]
Fig. 3. shows that the husband and his first wife are deceased, and that the second wife is the survivor.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 4]
Fig. 4. The shield on the dexter side of the hatchment is parted per pale; first, the arms of the bishopric; second, the paternal arms of the bishop. The shield on the dexter (sic) side is the arms of the bishop impaling those of his wife as baron and femme; the ground of the hatchment is black round the sinister side of this shield, showing that it is the wife that is dead.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 5]
Fig. 5. is the hatchment of a lady that has died unmarried. The arms of females of all ranks are placed in a lozenge-shaped shield.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 6]
Fig. 6. is the hatchment of the widow of a bishop; the arms are the same as those displayed at fig. 4.: here the lozenge-shaped shield is parted per pale. Baron and femme:--first, parted paleways, on the dexter side the arms of the bishopric, on the sinister side the paternal arms of the bishop. Second, the arms of the femme: the widow of a bishop has a right to exhibit the arms of the see over which her husband presided, as though (sic) his death has dissolved all connection with the see. She has a right to emblazon all that will honour her deceased husband.
For banners, pennons, guidons, cyphers, hatchments, &c., and all other matters where heraldic emblazonment is used in funeral processions, the reader is referred to the Dictionary.
CHAP. VII.
ORDER OF PRECEDENCY.
The order of precedency to be observed in England was settled by an act of parliament pa.s.sed in the thirty-first year of the reign of Henry VIII. The order has been varied at different periods to accord with the alterations in the families of the reigning monarchs, and the creation of new offices. The following table shows the order of precedency at the present time, viz. the eighth year of the reign of Queen Victoria.
The Queen.
The Prince of Wales.
The Queen"s Children.
Prince Albert of Saxe Cobourg and Gotha.
The Queen"s Uncles.
The Children of the Queen"s Uncles.
The following dignitaries precede all Dukes, except those of the blood royal:--
Archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England.
Lord High Chancellor or Keeper.
Archbishop of York, primate of England.
Lord High Treasurer.
Lord President of the Privy Council.
Lord Privy Seal.
The following dignitaries precede all of their own degree:--
The Earl Marshal.
Lord Steward of her Majesty"s household.
Lord Chamberlain.