ANST - The burden of the Crown

Tim McDaniel tmcd at crl.com
Thu Feb 19 19:43:19 PST 1998


Sir Lyonel wrote:
> Now, let's see--the Crown Prince's arms have a label, and
> I think the thrid heir gets a martlet.  What was the
> charge for a second heir???

According to Brooke-Little's _An Heraldic Alphabet_, for
legitimate sons of one father starting in the 15th Century
in England they are: 1st, label; 2nd, crescent; 3rd, mullet
(star); 4th, martlet (legless bird); 5th, annulet (ring);
6th, fleur-de-lys; 7th, rose; 8th, cross moline (a cross
with a certain type of fancy arms); 9th, octofoil
(eight-lobed flower).  The Nth son of an Mth son get his N
mark on the M mark he inherited.

"The absurdity of such a system is manifest and consequently
it is more honored in the breach ... being invoked only
where the use of a mark of difference is really necessary;
for example if two brothers were both Knights of the Garter,
the younger would need to difference ... as there would be
no other way to tell whose was whose."

Scotland has a different system.  From my photocopy of
_Simply Heraldry Cheerfully Illustrated_ (a wonderful
book!), the 1st gen guy has a pale (a vertical stripe).  The
2nd generation 1st son, call him X, gets a label, 2nd son
gets a bordure, 3rd son get a checky bordure, 4th son gets
another color of botdure (his eldest gets a temporary label
and his 2nd gets a bordure engrailed).  The 3rd gen sons of
X get a five-pointed-label (call him Y), an engrailed pale,
and an invected pale, in order.  The 4th gen has an
English-like system.

In other countries and earlier times, differences were noted
by changing colors, adding another charge, rearranging
charges, et cetera.

Daniel Lindicolino
-- 
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com; if that fail, tmcd at austin.ibm.com
is work address.  tmcd at tmcd.austin.tx.us is wrong tool.  Never use this.
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