The Bend is a band traversing the shield aslant, arms with one, two or three bends being common during the middle ages in England. Bendy shields follow the rule of shields paly and barry, but as many as ten pieces have been counted in them. The bend is often accompanied by a narrow bend on either side, these companions being called Cotices. A single narrow bend, struck over all other charges, is the Baston, which during the 13th and 14th centuries was a common difference for the shields of the younger branches of a family, coming in later times to suggest itself as a difference for bastards.
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| Fitzalan of Bedale.Mauley.Harley.Wallop. |
The Bend Sinister, the bend drawn from right to left beginning at the “sinister” corner of the shield, is reckoned in the heraldry books as a separate Ordinary, and has a peculiar significance accorded to it by novelists. Medieval English seals afford a group of examples of Bends Sinister and Bastons Sinister, but there seems no reason for taking them as anything more than cases in which the artist has neglected the common rule.
Mauley bore “Gold a bend sable.”
Harley bore “Gold a bend with two cotices sable.”
Wallop bore “Silver a bend wavy sable.”
Ralegh bore “Gules a bend indented, or engrailed, silver.”
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| Ralegh. | Tracy. | Bodrugan. | St Philibert. |
Tracy bore “Gold two bends gules with a scallop sable in the chief between the bends.”
Bodrugan bore “Gules three bends sable.”
St Philibert bore “Bendy of six pieces, silver and azure.”
Bishopsdon bore “Bendy of six pieces, gold and azure, with a quarter ermine.”
Montfort of Whitchurch bore “Bendy of ten pieces gold and azure.”
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| Bishopsdon. | Montfort. | Lancaster. | Fraunceys. |
Henry of Lancaster, second son of Edmund Crouchback, bore the arms of his cousin, the king of England, with the difference of “a baston azure.”
Adam Fraunceys (14th century) bore “Party gold and sable bendwise with a lion countercoloured.” The parting line is here commonly shown as “sinister.”
The Cheveron, a word found In medieval building accounts for the barge-boards of a gable, is an Ordinary whose form is explained by its name. Perhaps the very earliest of English armorial charges, and familiarized by the shield of the great house of Clare, it became exceedingly popular in England. Like the bend and the chief, its width varies in different examples. Likewise its angle varies, being sometimes so acute as to touch the top of the shield, while in post-medieval armory the point is often blunted beyond the right angle. One, two or three cheverons occur in numberless shields, and five cheverons have been found. Also there are some examples of the bearing of cheveronny.
The earls of Gloucester of the house of Clare bore “Gold three cheverons gules” and the Staffords derived from them their shield of “Gold a cheveron gules.”
Chaworth bore “Azure two cheverons gold.”
Peytevyn bore “Cheveronny of ermine and gules.”
St Quintin of Yorkshire bore “Gold two cheverons gules and a chief vair.”
Sheffield bore “Ermine a cheveron gules between three sheaves gold.”
Cobham of Kent bore “Gules a cheveron gold with three fleurs-de-lys azure thereon.”
Fitzwalter bore “Gold a fesse between two cheverons gules.”
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| Chaworth. | Peytevyn. | Sheffield. | Cobham. |
Shields parted cheveronwise are common in the 15th century, when they are often blazoned as having chiefs “enty” or grafted. Aston of Cheshire bore “Party sable and silver cheveronwise” or “Silver a chief enty sable.”
The Pile or stake (estache) is a wedge-shaped figure jutting from the chief to the foot of the shield, its name allied to the pile of the bridge-builder. A single pile is found in the notable arms of Chandos, and the black piles in the ermine shield of Hollis are seen as an example of the bearing of two piles. Three piles are more easily found, and when more than one is represented the points are brought together at the foot. In ancient armory piles in a shield are sometimes reckoned as a variety of pales, and a Basset with three piles on his shield is seen with three pales on his square banner.
Chandos bore “Gold a pile gules.”
Bryene bore “Gold three piles azure.”
The Quarter is the space of the first quarter of the shield divided crosswise into four parts. As an Ordinary it is an ancient charge and a common one in medieval England, although it has all but disappeared from modern heraldry books, the “Canton,” an alleged “diminutive,” unknown to early armory, taking its place. Like the other Ordinaries, its size is found to vary with the scheme of the shield’s charges, and this has persuaded those armorists who must needs call a narrow bend a “bendlet,” to the invention of the “Canton,” a word which in the sense of a quarter or small quarter appears for the first time in the latter part of the 15th century. Writers of the 14th century sometimes give it the name of the Cantel, but this word is also applied to the void space on the opposite side of the chief, seen above a bend.
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| Aston. | Hollis. | Bryene. | Blencowe. |
Blencowe bore “Gules a quarter silver.”
Basset of Drayton bore “Gold three piles (or pales) gules with a quarter ermine.”
Wydvile bore “Silver a fesse and a quarter gules.”
Odingseles bore “Silver a fesse gules with a molet gules in the quarter.”
Robert Dene of Sussex (14th century) bore “Gules a quarter azure ‘embelif,’ or aslant, and thereon a sleeved arm and hand of silver.”
Shields or charges divided crosswise with a downward line and a line athwart are said to be quarterly. An ancient coat of this fashion is that of Say who bore (13th century) “Quarterly gold and gules”—the first and fourth quarters being gold and the second and third red. Ever or Eure bore the same with the
