Rules applied to marshaling German Arms

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Fred Siler
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Rules applied to marshaling German Arms

Beitrag von Fred Siler » 28.04.2017, 22:05

I am in the process of developing information regarding the practice of splitting the arms to recognize the wife or mother of the bearer.
(1) For example, if the shield is split vertically does this indicate that arms inherited arms of the wife or mother is on the sinister side.
(2) If the arms are quartered will the 2nd and 3rd quarters indicate arms of the female side?
(3) With regard to multiple crests will the crest on sinister always reconginze the female branch? Are there exceptions to this?

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Jochen
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Re: Rules applied to marshaling German Arms

Beitrag von Jochen » 29.04.2017, 09:08

Hi Fred,

in modern German heraldry, marshalling virtually does not exist.

Arms are bound to a family name. A person who takes the name of his/her spouse still may bear the paternal arms by courtesy, but their descendents bearing a different name, should not do that.

The concept of a "heiress", such as under the jurisdiction of the Earl Marshall does not exist in Germany. Every person is a heir or heiress - unless he/she changes his/her family name.

Thus, the only correct way of marshalling would be that both spouses bear, as a common coat of arms an empaled shield, husband on the dexter side, wife on the sinister, the helm being that of the husband.

The arms of their children would follow the family name.

Kind regards

Jochen
Ne suy plus vil que les aultres

jochen

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kalex1946
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Re: Rules applied to marshaling German Arms

Beitrag von kalex1946 » 29.04.2017, 11:55

Hello Jochen,

I understand this this is the accepted practice in modern Germany heraldry, but what about in past centuries, for instance, during the existence of the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) or subsequent German and Austro-Hungarian empires following dissolution of the HRE in 1806? I have read about nobles augmenting their original, generally rather simple family arms (Stammwappen) on acquisition of an additional fief (Lehen) with the arms associated with that fief. I have read about cases where a daughter (Erbtochter) inherited an estate (Gut) when there were no sons as heirs. Since the daughter bore her family arms while still unmarried, when she finally married, was her new husband allowed to marshal her family arms (or possibly a charge therefrom) with his family arms, e.g. through quartering or possibly impaling, upon acquisition of her family's fief/estate, thus creating augmented family arms under his family name?

Regards from South Carolina
Kurt

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Jochen
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Re: Rules applied to marshaling German Arms

Beitrag von Jochen » 30.04.2017, 08:50

Hello Kurt,

you are absolutely right, that practice existed for centuries, demonstrating (or just pretending) power. I seem to remember a very early example of empaled arms on Holy Roman/German terrotory – Austria and Styria. But, unlike an English marital coat, I guess, that empaled double-arms was meant to last "forever" (or until the next addition of a fief, perhaps).

Should we really call that merely territorial and non-systematic practice of quartering and great-great-grandquartering "marshalling"?
Ne suy plus vil que les aultres

jochen

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kalex1946
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Re: Rules applied to marshaling German Arms

Beitrag von kalex1946 » 30.04.2017, 13:45

Hello Jochen,
Thanks for the response. As I am not really familiar with British/English/Scottish/Irish heraldic practice, having started my reading in German writings available online, including older literature published in 'Fraktur', I cannot give a knowledgeable answer to your (rhetorical?) question as to whether the practice you described is really 'marshaling'. What are the rules for marshaling in British/English/Scottish/Irish heraldry?

Regards from SC (where the only marshal anyone here knows is Marshal Wyatt Earp of Wild West fame, whose true life story is actually quite fascinating)

Kurt

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Fred Siler
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Re: Rules applied to marshaling German Arms

Beitrag von Fred Siler » 01.05.2017, 13:01

Hello Jochen and kalex;
Thank-you both for responding to my query regarding the marshalling of arms during the Holy Roman Empire. Jochen, your reference to a "non-systematic practice of quartering" pretty much sums this subject up.
Have A good Day
Fred

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Jochen
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Re: Rules applied to marshaling German Arms

Beitrag von Jochen » 02.05.2017, 18:23

Hello Kurt (and, of course, everybody else),

since you asked for a comprehensive overview of the British rules of marshalling, I made a drawing.

Bild

There are, in principle, two main simple cases – if the wife is a heiress or a co-heiress, and if she is not.

A woman or a girl is a heiress if she does not have any brothers who could inherit the paternal arms. If there are more than one heiresses, they are co-heiresses of equal rights.

We have here two simple shields, the husband's (aka „H“): „Azure a bend Argent“, and the wife's (aka „W“): „Per fess embattled Argent and Gules“.


Case 1: W has two brothers, H is entitled to empale his paternal coat of arms with that of hers.

W uses her paternal arms alone, displayed on a lozenge.

Their common children use H's unchanged arms.


Case 2: W has three sisters, but no brothers. Thus, W is a (co-)heiress and, H is entitled to charge his paternal arms with that of W – on a normal small shield (escutcheon), not a lozenge. That escutcheon would then be called "inescutcheon of pretence".

W uses her paternal arms alone, displayed on a lozenge.

The common children of H and W are entitled to bear a quartered shield: "Quarterly 1 and 4 Azure a bend Argent 2 and 3 per fess embattled of the second and Gules".

However, for the children and the offspring of the latter, quartering is not compulsory, they may also use the simple paternal shield of H alone, without any augmentation.

Of course, those two simple cases can easily be made extremely confusing by introducing marks of cadency, but that is another story....

Hopefully that is helpful.

Kind regards

Jochen
Ne suy plus vil que les aultres

jochen

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kalex1946
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Re: Rules applied to marshaling German Arms

Beitrag von kalex1946 » 02.05.2017, 18:52

Hello Jochen,
Thanks for the illustration and explanation.
Regards from South Carolina
Kurt

Joachim v. Roy
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Rules applied to marshaling German Arms

Beitrag von Joachim v. Roy » 02.05.2017, 18:53

Wonderful, Jochen. Thank you so much.

I have sent your convincing drawing to my children.

Regards

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Fred Siler
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Re: Rules applied to marshaling German Arms

Beitrag von Fred Siler » 03.05.2017, 14:58

Joachim
Thanks for the for the illustrations and specific explanations. I see that you've taken some time to address my attempt at clarifying the marshalling of German arms as a method for family historians to use in their research. The following paragraph is from my upcoming book entitled WAGNER Heraldry and Genealogy: A Geographical Perspective. I would appreciate it if you would take read it and provide comments.

Discerning marital unions, inheritance or other similar familial relationships
The expression of connecting families through marriage or the birthrights of offspring in a coat-of-arms may be of particular interest to the family historian. It was not uncommon for armorial bearings of the Germanic peerage to address both the maternal and paternal lineages. Although there were no systematic rules in German heraldry about how this was to be accomplished, there were several commonly utilized methods. The three predominate practices were the splitting the shield vertically through the center (called impaling), placing the two shields side-by-side, or by dividing the shield into four equal segments (called quartering). By placing the arms next to each other either in the form of two separate shields or on one shield, the husband’s arms will always be on the dexter side, (viewer’s left) and the female’s arms on the sinister side (the viewer’s right). Another method is combining two or more armorial bearings into one shield. When the shield is split into four equal segments called quarters, the first and fourth quarters usually show the paternal arms, whereas the second and third quarters could apply to the maternal lineage. In German heraldry, where multiple crests frequently appear after the 16th century, the crest on the left (viewer’s right) usually represents the bearer’s wife or maternal family. Be advised that just because a coat-of-arms has been presented as split, quartered, etc., this does not always convey a reference to paternal or maternal lineage. The rules on marshalling arms were not as rigid during the times of the Holy Roman Empire as they are today.

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