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In heraldry, an escutcheon (/ɪˈskʌtʃən/) is a shield that forms the main or focal element in an achievement of arms. The word can be used in two related senses. In the first sense, an escutcheon is the shield upon which a coat of arms is displayed. In the second sense, an escutcheon can itself be a charge within a coat of arms.

Escutcheon shapes are derived from actual shields that were used by knights in combat, and thus are varied and developed by region and by era. Since shields have been regarded as military equipment appropriate for men only, British ladies customarily bear their arms upon a lozenge, or diamond-shape, while clergymen and ladies in continental Europe bear their arms upon a cartouche, or oval. Other shapes are also in use, such as the roundel commonly used for arms granted to Aboriginal Canadians by the Canadian Heraldic Authority, or the Nguni shield used in African heraldry (likewise, Christian organisations and Masonic bodies tend to use the same shape, also known as a vesica piscis).

Although an escutcheon can be used as a charge on its own, the most common use of an escutcheon charge is to display another coat of arms as a form of marshalling. Such escutcheon charges are usually given the same shape as the main shield. When there is only one escutcheon charge, it is sometimes called an inescutcheon.

The word escutcheon (late 15th century) is based on Old North French escuchon ('shield').

Shapes

The earliest depictions of proto-heraldic shields in the second half of the 12th century still have the shape of the Norman kite shield used throughout the 11th and 12th centuries. By about the 1230s, shields used by heavy cavalry had become shorter and more triangular, now called heater shields.

Transitional forms intermediate between kite and heater are seen in the late 12th to early 13th centuries. Transition to the heater was essentially complete by 1250. For example, the shield of William II Longespée (d. 1250) shown with his effigy at Salisbury Cathedral is triangular, while the shield shown on the effigy of his father William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury (d. 1226) is still of a more elongated form.

The shield on the enamel monument to Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou (d. 1151) is of almost full-body length. The heater was used in warfare during the apogee of the Age of Chivalry, at about the time of the Battle of Crecy (1346) and the founding of the Order of the Garter (1348). The shape is therefore used in armorials from this "classical age" of heraldry.

Beginning in the 15th century, and even more throughout the early modern period, a great variety of escutcheon shapes develops. In the Tudor era the heraldic escutcheon became more square, taking the shape of an inverted Tudor arch. Continental European designs frequently use the various forms used in jousting, which incorporate "mouths" used as lance rests into the shields; such escutcheons are known as à bouche. The mouth is correctly shown on the dexter side only, as jousting pitches were designed for right-handed knights. Heraldic examples of English shields à bouche can be seen in the spandrels of the trussed timber roof of Lincoln's Inn Hall, London.

The shape of the top, the sides and the base may be separately described, and these elements may be freely combined. The highly complex Baroque style shields of the 17th century come in many artistic variations.

• Kite shield, 12th/13th century
• "Norman" style, 13th century
• "Heater" shape, 13th/14th century
• Square ("Old French") shape
• "Square Iberian" or Iberian style (square top, rounded base), 15th century
• Bouched or bouché side ("German" or "Dutch" style), 15th century.
• Scroll-eared top, lobed base, 16th century
• Square eared, nicked top, rounded base, 16th century
• "Wedge" top
• "Polish" style, 17th century
• Eared top, French base
• "French" style, 17th century
• Two engrailed top, 19th century
• oval or "Iberian" shape
• Lozenge shape (see Lozenge section)

Lozenge

In English heraldry, the lozenge has been used by women since the 13th century for the display of their coats of arms instead of the escutcheon or shield, which are associated with warfare. In this case the lozenge is shown without crest or helm. For the practical purpose of categorisation the lozenge may be treated as a variety of heraldic escutcheon.

Traditionally, very limited categories of women would have been able to display their own arms, for example a female monarch—who uses an escutcheon as a military commander, not a lozenge—and suo jure peeresses, who may display their own arms alone on a lozenge even if married. In general a woman was represented by her paternal arms impaled by the arms of her husband on an escutcheon as a form of marshalling.

In modern Canadian heraldry, and certain other modern heraldic jurisdictions, women may be granted their own arms and display these on an escutcheon. Life peeresses in England display their arms on a lozenge. An oval or cartouche is occasionally also used instead of the lozenge for armigerous women.

As a result of rulings of the English Kings of Arms dated 7 April 1995 and 6 November 1997, married women in England, Northern Ireland and Wales and in other countries recognising the jurisdiction of the College of Arms in London (such as New Zealand) also have the option of using their husband's arms alone, marked with a small lozenge as a difference to show that the arms are displayed for the wife and not the husband; or of using their own personal arms alone, marked with a small shield as a brisure for the same reason. Divorced women may theoretically until remarriage use their ex-husband's arms differenced with a mascle. Widowed women normally display a lozenge-shaped shield impaled, unless they are heraldic heiresses, in which case they display a lozenge-shaped shield with the unaltered escutcheon of pretence in the centre. Women in same-sex marriages may use a shield or banner to combine arms, but can use only a lozenge or banner when one of the spouses dies.

Points

The points of the shield refer to specific positions thereon and are used in blazons to describe where a charge should be placed.

1. Chief: very top of the shield, corresponding to where the ordinary chief begins
2. Dexter: right side of shield when worn (viewer's left)
3. Sinister: left side of shield when worn (viewer's right)
4. Base: very bottom
5. Dexter Chief: top-right corner
6. Middle Chief: top-middle
7. Sinister Chief: top-left corner
8. Honour Point: halfway between the middle chief and fess point
9. Fess Point: exact middle
10. Nombril Point: halfway between the base and the honour point or between the middle base and the fess point
11. Dexter Base: bottom-right
12. Sinister Base: bottom-left
13. Middle Base (seldom used): bottom-middle

Inescutcheon

An inescutcheon is a smaller escutcheon that is placed within or superimposed over the main shield of a coat of arms. In practice, the words inescutcheon and escutcheon are often used interchangeably.

Pelta escutcheon

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The current diplomatic emblem of France incorporates the pelta escutcheon, a wide form of shield (or gorget) with a small animal head pointing inward at each end. This is Roman in origin; although not the shape of their classic shield, many brooches of this shape survive from antiquity. A form of pelta appears as a decoration above the head of every official on the Austerlitz table, commissioned by Napoleon for propaganda purposes.

Console

The term "console" in architecture is generally used for elements which provide support, such as corbels on a console table. A console in heraldry is a decorative frame or support, generally in an architectural or illustrative context, surrounding a heraldic shield or escutcheon, which serves to add interest to and mitigate the harshness of the stark outline of the shield.

Notes

1. Ultimately from Vulgar Latin scūtiōn-, Latin scūtum, 'shield'. From its use in heraldry, the term escutcheon can be a metaphor for a family's honour. The idiom "a blot on the escutcheon" is used to mean a stain on somebody's reputation.
2. The gap or bouche represents the opening for the lance in specialised jousting shields, attested (in depictions of actual shields) from the mid 14th century, occasional use as a shape of heraldic escutcheons from the mid-15th century.
3. Used in the Armorial général de France (1696). The "French" shape of the base is found earlier, in French and English heraldry, from c. 1600 ("Stuart" type).
4. called ecu suisse in some French sources of the 19th century, as this shape was used in coats of arms on some coins of the Swiss mediation period (1803–1815).
5. The term derives from the compound Latin verb consolor "to alleviate, lighten", from the verb solor, "to assuage, soothe, relieve, mitigate", plus the preposition con/com/cum, "with".

References

1. "Escutcheon". American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. Houghton Mifflin Company. 2000. Archived from the original on 8 April 2008. Retrieved 22 March 2009.
2. "escutcheon". Oxford English Dictionary. Archived from the original on 12 April 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2009.
3. Grazebrook 1890, p.38.
4. Grazebrook 1890, plate I.
5. Codex Figdor Archived 21 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Tiroler Landesarchiv, Innsbruck (c. 1400).
6. Grazebrook 1890, p31–35.
7. Szymański, Józef (2001) . Nauki Pomocnicze Historii. Warsaw.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
8. d'Hozier, Louis Pierre (1865) . Armorial général, ou Registres de la noblesse de France. Paris: Firmin Didot – via Internet Archive.
9. "Royal wedding: Kate Middleton coat of arms unveiled". BBC News. 19 April 2011. Archived from the original on 19 April 2011. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
10. Bates, Stephen (19 April 2011). "Kate Middleton gets coat of arms". The Guardian. UK. Archived from the original on 12 February 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
11. Grazebrook (1890), p. 20.
12. ^ The Arms of Women (2002), paragraph 10.
13. "The Arms of Women, a Decree". Coat of Arms. No. 199. The Heraldry Society. Autumn 2002. Archived from the original on 15 April 2024.
14. The Arms of Women (2002), paragraph 6.
15. The Arms of Women (2002), paragraph 3.
16. The Arms of Women (2002), paragraph 9.
17. Fearn, Jacqueline (1980). Discovering Heraldry. Shire. p. 61.
18. Thomas Woodcock, Garter King of Arms; Patric Dickinson, Clarenceux King of Arms; H Bedingfeld, Norroy and Ulster King of Arms (29 March 2014). "The Arms of Individuals in Same-Sex Marriages". college-of-arms.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 9 July 2019. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
19. Boutell (1914), p. 33, figure 27; Woodward & Burnett (1892), p. 58
20. Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. Springfield, Mass: G. & C. Merriam. 1913. ISBN 0760749752. Archived from the original on 28 June 2022. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
21. Friar, Stephen (1987). "Inescutcheon". A New Dictionary of Heraldry. London: Alphabooks. p. 194. ISBN 0-906670-44-6.
22. "The Austerlitz or 'Maréchaux' Table". Archived from the original on 4 December 2021. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
23. Cassell's Latin Dictionary, Marchant, J.R.V, & Charles, Joseph F., (Eds.), Revised Edition, 1928

Further reading

• Boutell, Charles (1914). Fox-Davies, A.C. (ed.). The Handbook to English Heraldry (11th ed.). London: Reeves & Turner. OCLC 81124564 – via Project Gutenberg.
• Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1909). A Complete Guide to Heraldry: Illustrated by Nine Plates and Nearly 800 Other Designs. London: T.C. & E.C. Jack. ISBN 0-517-26643-1. LCCN 09023803.
• Grazebrook, George (1890). The dates of variously-shaped shields with coincident dates and examples. Liverpool: Brakell.
• Woodward, John; Burnett, George (1892) . A treatise on heraldry, British and foreign: with English and French glossaries. Edinburgh: W. & A. B. Johnson. LCCN 02020303 – via Internet Archive.

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