page_title: Heraldry
section_title: Marshalling
hierarchical_section_title: Heraldry / Heraldic achievement / Elements of an achievement / Marshalling
caption_attribution_description: English: The Stowe Armorial coat of arms is the centrepiece of the Gothic Library at Stowe [1]. The Library was commissioned by George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham (See Viscount Cobham [2]), and built to a design by Sir John Soane [3] between 1805 and 1807. The armorial is a 1.4m diameter heraldic painting of the 719 quarterings of the Temple, Nugent, Brydges, Chandos and Grenville families, including ten variations of the English Royal arms, the arms of Spencer, De Clare, Valence, Mowbray, Mortimer and De Grey. The painting is signed and dated P. Sonard 1806. [1] Français&#160;: Stowe Armorial ou Armorial Grenville à Stowe&#160;; réalisé entre 1822 et 1839 pour Richard Temple-Grenville, marquis de Chandos et fils du premier duc de Buckingham et de Chandos, afin de mettre en valeur les 719 quartiers de la famille. Il est considéré comme exemple extravagant de triage héraldique. Ce blasonnement est la pièce maîtresse de la Bibliothèque néogothique de Stowe_House commanditée par George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1er marquis de Buckingham (Voir Vicomte Cobham), et construit selon les plans de Sir John Soane entre 1805 et 1807. Cet armorial est une peinture héraldique large de 1,4 m des 719 quartiers des familles Temple, Nugent, Brydges, Chandos et Grenville, incluant dix variations des armoiries royales anglaises, les armes de Spencer, de De Clare, de Valence, de Mowbray, de Mortimer et De Grey. Cette oeuvre est signée et (datée) P. Sonard, 1806.
context_page_description: Heraldry is a broad term, encompassing the design, display, and study of armorial bearings, as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank, and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch of heraldry, concerns the design and transmission of the heraldic achievement. The achievement, or armorial bearings usually includes a coat of arms on a shield, helmet, and crest, together with any accompanying devices, such as supporters, badges, heraldic banners, and mottoes.
  Although the use of various devices to signify individuals and groups goes back to antiquity, both the form and use of such devices varied widely, and the concept of regular, hereditary designs, constituting the distinguishing feature of heraldry, did not develop until the High Middle Ages. It is very often claimed that the use of helmets with face guards during this period made it difficult to recognize one's commanders in the field when large armies gathered together for extended periods, necessitating the development of heraldry as a symbolic language, but there is very little actual support for this view.
context_section_description: To marshal two or more coats of arms is to combine them in one shield, to express inheritance, claims to property, or the occupation of an office. This can be done in a number of ways, of which the simplest is impalement: dividing the field per pale and putting one whole coat in each half. Impalement replaced the earlier dimidiation – combining the dexter half of one coat with the sinister half of another – because dimidiation can create ambiguity between, for example, a bend and a chevron. "Dexter" (from Latin dextra, right) means to the right from the viewpoint of the bearer of the arms and "sinister" (from Latin sinistra, left) means to the left. The dexter side is considered the side of greatest honour (see also Dexter and sinister).
  A more versatile method is quartering, division of the field by both vertical and horizontal lines. This practice originated in Spain (Castile and León) after the 13th century. As the name implies, the usual number of divisions is four, but the principle has been extended to very large numbers of "quarters".
  Quarters are numbered from the dexter chief (the corner nearest to the right shoulder of a man standing behind the shield), proceeding across the top row, and then across the next row and so on. When three coats are quartered, the first is repeated as the fourth; when only two coats are quartered, the second is also repeated as the third. The quarters of a personal coat of arms correspond to the ancestors from whom the bearer has inherited arms, normally in the same sequence as if the pedigree were laid out with the father's father's ... father (to as many generations as necessary) on the extreme left and the mother's mother's...mother on the extreme right.  A few lineages have accumulated hundreds of quarters, though such a number is usually displayed only in documentary contexts. The Scottish and Spanish traditions resist allowing more than four quarters, preferring to subdivide one or more "grand quarters" into sub-quarters as needed.
  The third common mode of marshalling is with an inescutcheon, a small shield placed in front of the main shield. In Britain this is most often an "escutcheon of pretence" indicating, in the arms of a married couple, that the wife is an heraldic heiress (i.e., she inherits a coat of arms because she has no brothers). In continental Europe an inescutcheon (sometimes called a "heart shield") usually carries the ancestral arms of a monarch or noble whose domains are represented by the quarters of the main shield.
  In German heraldry, animate charges in combined coats usually turn to face the centre of the composition.
caption: An extravagant example of marshalling: the 719 quarterings of the Grenville Armorial at Stowe House
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