[ANSTHRLD] strange question

[Tim McDaniel]

On Wed, 4 Apr 2007, ravenrux at cox.net <heralds at lists.ansteorra.org> wrote:
>> Can you have a bend couped?
>
> Yes, it's called a baton,

Our messages crossed in the ether.  I not did a morsulus.org search
and hit <http://www.sca.org/heraldry/loar/2002/04/02-04lar.html>,
which says

     Lucia Francesca de Valencia. Badge. (Fieldless) A baton argent
     overall an apple slipped and leaved vert.

         Some commenters suggested that we explicitly define the
         orientation of the baton. A baton in heraldry is, by
         definition, a bend couped.

> and in English heraldry is a mark of bastardy.

A baton *sinister* is often said to be *the* mark of bastardy, but it
is by no means *the* mark, and may not have even been the most
frequent mark.

"FREQUENTLY GIVEN ANSWERS (That Are Wrong)"
by Master Gawain of Miskbridge
(with assistance from Lady Alanna of Volchevo Lesa, Master Dmitrii
Volkovich, and Master Da'ud ibn Auda)
<http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/wrong.html>

     6.  A bar sinister on a coat of arms shows that the bearer is a
     bastard.

     This is wrong in at least two ways. First, there is no such thing
     as a "bar sinister" in heraldry. A bar is a narrow horizontal
     stripe, so there is no way for it to be sinister. Second, one of a
     number of marks of illegitimacy, well-known because it was used by
     some acknowledged bastards of the French crown, was the "bendlet
     sinister couped overall", also called a "baton sinister". This is
     definitely not the only mark of illegitimacy used in period
     heraldry.

Dankyn de Linccolne
-- 
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com