From: mittle@watson.ibm.com (Josh Mittleman)
Subject: Re: partitioned achievements
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 17:37:36 GMT
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

Stephen Sample writes:

> As I recall, you can use family crests which are not your own (but which
> were your direct ancestors') by successive partitioning of the field with
> increasingly remote ancestors' devices on smaller and smaller segments.
> Your own device (you must have one) goes in the upper right quarter I
> believe.

Your recollection is partially right, but inaccurate in some important
details.  The practice of combining several devices into one is called
"marshalling".  When this is done in the manner you recall, it is called
"quartering".  In its original form, quartered arms arose when a single
person inherited more than one device.  It wasn't just that his ancestors
held those devices; they were _both_ his.  In the modern world, we think of
a device as representing a family line; in the ages in which heraldry was a
functional part of life, a device represented an individual.  In the first
couple centuries of heraldry, a device represented possession of land.
There are examples where a man was granted a new estate by the king, and
adopted the device that had been held by the previous owner of that land.
The practices of marshalling and quartering grew out of this interpretation
of heraldry: When a man was granted a second piece of land, or when he
gained it by marriage or inheritence, he might choose to display that fact
by combining the two devices into one.  Both devices were his, and he might
also display them separately (and frequently did).

By the late Middle Ages, quartering had been carried to some very strange
extremes, sometimes with dozens of devices combined.  Particularly in the
highest noble ranks, it was important to show all relationships that might
be the basis of a claim to a piece of land or a throne, so many members of
the royalty added elements to their arms that would not have been included
under a strict interpretation of right of inheritence.  For example, during
the 100 Years War, the Kings of England quartered the arms of England with
those of France.  They were claiming the Crown of France by right of
inheritence, and quartering was a way to advertise that claim.  Similarly,
the modern British royal arms quarter England with Scotland and Ireland
(except when the Queen is in Scotland, when she displays Scotland quartered
with England and Ireland), to indicate that the Queen rules all three
kingdoms.  

Exactly how the quarters are combined has varied from era to era and from
place to place.  If you want a detailed description of modern English
practice, you can probably find it in A. C. Fox-Davies "Encyclopedia of
Heraldry."  However, you must realize that this description only applies to
modern English heraldry; other countries do things in their own ways.

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