[ANSTHRLD] strange question
Jay Rudin
rudin at ev1.net
Wed Apr 4 09:08:10 PDT 2007
Tim McDaniel" wrote:
> 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.
It does appear, for that exact purpose, in the arms of the Dukes of Grafton,
who descend from an illegitimate son of Charles II. Based on a unclear
drawing, those arms appear to be "In 1 and 4 France quartered with England,
in 2, Scotland and in 3 Ireland, overall a baton sinister compony azure and
argent", which is to say the arms of the Crown at that time, differenced
with a baton sinister.
But it is certainly not the only mark of bastardy.
> "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.
According to Parker, "N.B. In French heraldic works the word barre is used
as equivalent to a bend sinister, and this is supposed in many cases to be a
mark of bastardy, Hence the expression is often found of a bar sinister,
meaning a bend sinister." Fassler is said to be listed in Riestapp with a
blue field charged with a silver barrel on a gold barre sinister. According
to the Glossary of Heralid Terms available at
http://www.nyrond.org/university/heraldry/www.demon.co.uk/apl385/gilling/herldref.htm,
the word barre is "sometimes used to mean a bend sinister. A term used in
French heraldry to mean a bend (usually dexter, but apparently occasionally
also sinister). Historically it seems that barre, bande and bend(e) were
interchangeable, and probably simply meant a stripe"
The mistake is believing that a French barre is the same as an English bar.
Perhaps we need a clear term to define it -- we could identify a
specifically English bar as a "pub".
Elsewhere, I have read that the bar sinister is heraldic illiteracy first
introduced by Sir Walter Scott.
Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin
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