706 HERALDRY [MARSHALLING ARMS. For a time armorial bearings were purely personal, and intended to supply a want only felt by the wearer of armour. Hence, at first, females do not seem to have used them, find when a place was found for "them on armorial seals, the coat was regarded as that of their father, and therefore not differenced. For a time they seem to have had a separate shield. On one of the seals of Margaret of France, queen of Edward I., his three lions are displayed upon the point of her tunic, and on her right hand is a shield of France, on her left, one with a lion rampant. On the reverse is a shield of England, and around it, outside, a border of France. Margaret Bruce of Skelton married Robert de Ros. Her seal (1280) bears her effigy, somewhat defaced, so that nothing can be distinguished on her dress, but on her right is a shield of Ros, on her left one of Bruce. A well-known seal, date about 1347, is that of Joan, daughter of Henry count of Bar, by Eleanor daughter of Edward I. by Eleanor of Castile. Joan was widow of Warren, earl of Surrey. Her seal is circular, with nine compartments. In the centre is Warren for her husband ; above and below, England for her grandsire ; right and left are two barbels for her father. These four are on lozenges. In the four corner compartments are (1) and (4) a lion for Leon, and (2) and (3) a castle for Castile, for hsr grandmother. This is a sort of nebulous quartering. To this succeeded the allotment to the wife of the sinister half of the husband s shield, displayed as though two shields had been divided vertically and united, omitting therefore the adjacent half of each coat. This is called dimidiation, and the shields so joined constitute an im palement. Another seal of Margaret of France illustrates this practice. In it half of England impales half of France. There is a good example of dimidiation in the tomb of William de Valence at Westmin ster, where Valence impales Clermont-Nesle, both dimidiated. An early German seal combines half an eagle with half a lion in this way. The arms of the Cinque Ports are remarkable examples of dimidiation. In each, F g- 125 - the lions of England are dimidiated with the arms of the special Port. That of Hastings (fig. 125) is party per pale dimidiated, Dexter, gules, three lions passant gardant or ; Sinister, azure, three demi-hulks of ships argent. Sometimes one of the coats only was dimidiated. Eleanor (Montendre) was widow of Guy Ferre. Her seal (1348) has a shield of Ferre, a cross moline and over it a baton, dimidiated, impaling Montendre, a lion within an orle of trefoils. The lion is whole. The seal of Elizabeth, wife of Sir Lawrence Berkerolles (fig. 126), azure, a chevron or, between three crescents argent, impaling a lion rampant, is a good example of an impalement without dimidiation (date 1392). Usually the lady has the sinister side, but in the seal of Marion, wife of Sir William Dalziel (1392) this is reversed, as it is in the im paled shield of John of Gaunt, where his wife, a daughter of Peter of Castile and Leon, has the dexter side. Dimidi ation is not applicable to all coats. A canton on the sinister coat would be lost, and a chevron be converted into a bend. The tressure, orle, and border were usually, not always, dimidiated : and although this form of im- Fig. 126. palement has fallen into disuse, these charges are still borne dimidiated, as may be seen with the border and tressure on the tomb of Mary, queen of Scots. When the lady was the last of her race, various modes were devised for the conservation of her name and arms. j Thus on the death (1193) of Robert de Lacy, last of the
- line of Pontefract, John, constable of Chester, half-brother
to Robert by his mother, took the name and arms of Lacy, , and was ancestor of the earls of Lincoln of that name. In
- the same century Isabel, heiress of Earl Warren, married
Hamelin Plantagenet, who took the name, and their chil dren bore the arms of Warren; and so with the Mandevilles, earls of Essex. Sometimes a coat was compounded of the two families. Thus Mr Planch6 is of opinion that the bend was added to the paternal coat of Bohun, on the inarriage with the heiress of Milo, earl of Hereford. Scottish seals show many examples of such composition. Eustacea Colvile, widow of Reginald le Chein, in 1316, bore a cross moline, square pierced, for Colvile, between four cross crotslets | fitchy for Chein. About the middle of the 14th century j began the practice of placing the arms of females upon a lozenge. As early as 1347 Elizabeth D Arcy so bears her arms, as in 1356 does Maud Fitz Payne. The seal of Joan Beaufort, widow of James I., affords the earliest Scottish example. The first step towards a regular method of preserving heraldically the memory of a family extinct in the male line seems to have been taken in Spain by a process now known as quartering. Eleanor of Castile, queen of Edward I., has upon her tomb a shield divided into four quarters, in the first and fourth of which is Castile, and the second and third Leon. The practice, though not finally regulated, was approved, for on the seal of the "She-wolf of France," queen of Edward II., the shield is quartered (1) Eng land, (2) France, (3) Navarre, (4) Champagne, mixing up confusedly the arms of husband and wife, as they also ! are upon the shield of Philippa of Hainault, queen of Ed- | ward TIL, who bore quarterly, (1) and (4) England, (2) and (3) Hainault and Holland. A very early instance of regular quartering occurs in the will of Humphrey Bohun, earl of Hereford, dated llth August 1319, by which he be queaths a courte-point quartered with the arms of England and Bohun. This is five years before the accession of Edward III., and makes it probable that the quartered coat of William de Foix at Winchester is original. Under Edward III. quartering came into general use. The king led the way by quartering France and England, and the earl of Pembroke followed, quartering Hastings and Valence. John Hastings, his son, commemorated on his shield his father s match with Ann daughter of Margaret, duchess of Norfolk, a co-heir of Thomas of Brotherton, and this affords an early instance of the precedence often given in quartering to the royal arms. John Hastings bore quar terly of four (1) and (4) Brotherton (Plantagenet), (2) Hastings, (3) Valence ; and, on another example (1) and (4) Brotherton, (2) and (3) Hastings quartering Valence. This latter arrangement of sub-quartering shows a consider able advance in the system. Henry IV. combined quarter ing with dimidiation in a shield long preserved in the window of Christ Church, Newgate, which bore France and England quarterly, impaling France with a bend gobonny, and Navarre quarterly, dimidiated, for Joan of Navarre. In this case the 1st and 3d quarters were removed, and the sinister bearings thus reduced to what may be better blazoned as party per fess, (1) Navarre, (2) France. The French sometimes quartered diagonally, called " Ecartele en sautoir." The old kings of Sicily thus divided their shield : party per saltire, (1) and (4) Aragon, (2) and (3)
Swabia. This plan never found favour in England, where
