From: mittle@watson.ibm.com (Josh Mittleman)
Subject: marshalling (was Re: partitioned achievements)
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 21:29:13 GMT
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

genetic+@pitt.edu (Dr. Dave) writes:

> ...the arms of France (Azure three fleurs-de-lis or?  Or was it "Azure
> fleury or"?  I can't recall offhand...)

Both, actually.  Before the Hundred Years War, the French kings usually
used three fleurs, but sometimes used more.  When the English kings
started quartering that device, the French changed their arms to a semy in
order to reduce the propaganda value of the English usage.

> A more bizarre form of quartering is "dimidiation", in which the left half
> of one armorial bearing is juxtaposed with the right half of another.

Dimidiation is a form of marshalling, but it is inaccurate to call it
quartering.  Dimidiation was never common, and disappeared from English
usage by the late 13th century.  The most common remnant of dimidiation is
the arms of the Cinque Ports, which dimidates the English royal "Gules,
three lions passant guardant Or" with "Azure, three ships hulks Or".

There were many other forms of marshalling:

Impalement: The shield is divided per pale (vertically).  One device
displayed on the dexter side, the other on the sinister.  Most often used
to display an alliance by marriage, but other uses can be found, most
notably in the Spanish royal arms.  In Italy, one can find similar forms of
marshalling where the field is divided "per fess" or "per bend"
(horizontally or diagonally).  

Inescutcheons of pretense: An escutcheon (shield-shape) bearing one device
is placed at the center of the other.  This was common only among the
royalty, and usually showed alliances by marriage.  The British royal arms
in the 19th century show examples of pretense.

Chiefs and bases: In Germany, marshalling on a chief or a base was not
uncommon.  One example is the arms of the Hanoverian royalty of England.  

There are also examples of marshalling of three devices in three
horizontal, vertical, or diagonal strips, into the three parts of field
"per pall" or "per pale and the sinister half per fess", mostly in Germany
and Italy.  In Sweden, the quarters of a marshalled device were often
divided by the legs of a thin cross formy; when it became necessary to
quarter more than four devices, more arms were added to the cross to create
more radial segments.  I've seen examples with five parts, where one of the
lower quartered is further parted "per bend", and also one where the lower
leg of the cross has been replaced by two legs bendwise and bendwise
sinister, dividing the base into three roughly equal segments.  The English
dealt with the same problem by re-quartering the quarters of a device, and
sometimes by quartering these "sixteenths".  The whole process is sometimes
taken to ridiculous extremes, dividing the field into dozens of parts.

===========================================================================
Josh Mittleman (mittle@watson.ibm.com)
J2-C28 T.J. Watson Research Center, PO Box 704, Yorktown Heights, NY  10598
Newsgroups: rec.heraldry