Heraldry Group Meeting

Why not come along and learn how to interpret the various coats of arms in stained glass windows, church monuments, etc, and discover who married who, together with their family history.

Today’s information covered the following:

Heraldry Group – 28th April 2026

1. Marshalling Arms (Combining Families)

• • Impaling: Splitting the shield down the middle. This usually shows a husband’s arms on the left (dexter) and his wife’s father’s arms on the right (sinister). As noted, it’s also used for office—where an individual (like Colonel Swinnerton) impales their personal arms with the arms of the society they preside over.
  • Escutcheon of Pretence & Quartering: If the wife has no brothers, she becomes an heraldic heiress. Her husband places her arms on a tiny shield in the center of his own. Their children then quarter the arms, blending the lineages permanently. This is how families like the Bowes-Lyons wound up with beautifully complex, multi-quartered shields.

2. Cadency (Spotting the Sons)

                    Marks of Cadency are used to tell who is who in a family, so you “kill the right bloke” in battle:

• • Eldest Son: Wears a label (a bar with three drops) while his father is alive, which “peels off” when he inherits the main, undifferenced arms.
  • Second Son: Wears a crescent.
  • The “Silly” Factor: When younger sons have younger sons, stacking marks on top of marks gets chaotic. As mentioned, the College of Arms often steps in to simplify this by adding a bordure (a border) around the shield to denote a cadet branch of the family (like the Martineau example in Birmingham).

3. The Rule of Tincture

                    This is the cardinal law of heraldic design ensuring high visibility from a distance:

• • Metals: Or (Gold/Yellow) and Argent (Silver/White).
  • Colours: Gules (Red), Azure (Blue), Sable (Black), Vert (Green), Purpure (Purple).
  • The Rule: You never place a colour on a colour, or a metal on a metal. Putting black on silver or gold on blue creates sharp contrast; putting blue on red blends into mush at a distance.

4. Status, Helms, and Orders

                     You can read a person’s exact rank just by looking around the shield:

• • The Helm (Helmet):  Open with gold bars: A Peer (Duke, Earl, Baron, etc.).
    • Open/Facing forward: A Knight or Baronet.
    • Closed/Profile: An Esquire or Gentleman.
  • Chivalric Orders: Suspended beneath or wrapped around the shield (like the Tria Juncta In Uno ribbon for the Order of the Bath, or the insignia for a CBE).
  • The Order of St. John vs. Malta: A great distinction made here! The Venerable Order of St. John features the little lions/unicorns between the cross whiskers, while the sovereign, Catholic Order of Malta uses the plain, crisp eight-pointed Maltese cross.