Charges associated with warfare and military defences are frequently to be found both in English and foreign heraldry.
| Fig. 502.—Pheon. | Fig. 503.—Broad arrow. | Fig. 504.—Battle-axe. | Fig. 505.—Caltrap. |
Battle-Axes (Fig. 504), for example, may be seen in the shield of Firth and in that of Renty in Artois, which has: "Argent, three doloires, or broad-axes, gules, those in chief addorsed." In blazoning a battle-axe care should be taken to specify the fact if the head is of a different colour, as is frequently the case.
The somewhat infrequent device of a Battering-Ram is seen in the arms of Bertie, who bore: "Argent, three battering-rams fesswise in pale proper, armed and garnished azure."
An instrument of military defence consisting of an iron frame of four points, and called a Caltrap (Fig. 505) or Galtrap (and sometimes a Cheval trap, from its use of impeding the approach of cavalry), is found in the arms of Trappe ["Argent, three caltraps sable">[, Gilstrap and other families; while French armory supplies us with another example in
the case of the family of Guetteville de Guénonville, who bore for arms: "D'argent, semée de chausse-trapes de sable." Caltraps are also strewn upon the compartment upon which the supporters to the arms of the Earl of Perth are placed.
As the well-known badge of the Royal House of Tudor, the Portcullis (Fig. 506) is familiar to any one conversant with Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster Abbey, but it also appears as a charge in the arms of the family of Wingate ["Gules, a portcullis and a chief embattled or">[, where it forms an obvious pun on the earliest form of the name, viz. Windygate, whilst it figures also as the crest of the Dukes of Beaufort ["A portcullis or, nailed azure, chained of the first">[. The disposition of the chains is a matter always left to the discretion of the artist.
| Fig. 506.—Portcullis. | Fig. 507.—Beacon. | Fig. 508.—Grenade. |
Examples of Beacons (Fig. 507) are furnished by the achievements of the family of Compton and of the town of Wolverhampton. A fire chest occurs in the arms of Critchett (vide p. [261]).
Chains are singularly scarce in armory, and indeed nearly wholly absent as charges, usually occurring where they do as part of the crest. The English shield of Anderton, it is true, bears: "Sable, three chains argent;" while another one (Duppa de Uphaugh) has: "Quarterly, 1 and 4, a lion's paw couped in fess between two chains or, a chief nebuly of the last, thereon two roses of the first, barbed and seeded proper (for Duppa); 2 and 3, party fess azure and sable, a trident fesswise or, between three turbots argent (for Turbutt)." In Continental heraldry, however, chains are more frequently met with. Principal amongst these cases maybe cited the arms of Navarre ("Gules, a cross saltire and double orle of chains, linked together or"), while many other instances are found in the armories of Southern France and of Spain.