“Marshalling is a conjoining of diverse Coats in one Shield.” —Guillim.
Upon this concise definition, Guillim, in another part of his work, adds the following comment:—“Marshalling is an orderly disposing of sundry Coat Armours pertaining to distinct Families, and their contingent ornaments, with their parts and appurtenances, in their proper places.” Hence it is apparent that this term, “Marshalling,” implies—
1. First, the bringing together and the disposition of two or more distinct “Coats in one Shield”:
2. Secondly, the aggroupment of two or more distinct Coats to form a single heraldic composition, the Shields being still kept distinct from one another: and,
3. Thirdly, the association of certain insignia with a Shield of arms, so as to produce a complete heraldic achievement.
The association of “Arms” with Names, Dignities, and Estates would necessarily require, at an early period in the history of Heraldry, the establishment of some regular and recognised system for the combination and aggroupment of various distinct coats and insignia, whenever a single individual became the representative of more than one family, or was the hereditary possessor of several dignities and properties.
Again: it would be equally necessary that this system should extend to the becoming heraldic declaration and record of Alliances of every kind, including (a matter of no little importance in the Middle Ages) feudal dependence.
In another, and a secondary sense, this same term, Marshalling, is used by Heralds to denote the general arrangement and disposition of heraldic charges and insignia in blazon upon the field of a Shield.
In its simplest form, Marshalling is effected by Aggroupment without Combination—by placing two or more Shields of arms, that is, in such positions as to form a connected group of distinct Shields, either with or without various accessories. Seals afford excellent examples of Marshalling of this order. These Seals may be classified in two groups,—one, in which an effigy appears; and a second, in which the composition does not include any effigy. Here I may observe that the same armorial blazonry that was displayed upon their military surcoats by Princes, Nobles, and Knights, was adopted by Ecclesiastics for the decoration of their official vestments, and also (towards the close of the thirteenth century) by Ladies of rank, as an appropriate style of ornamentation for their own costume: and many examples of the effigies of Ladies, with a few of Ecclesiatics, adorned in this manner with heraldic insignia, exist in Seals and in Monumental Memorials. In Beverley Minster there is a noble effigy of a priest, a member of the great family of Percy (about A.D. 1330), the embroideries of whose vestments are elaborately enriched with numerous allied shields of arms. Upon his episcopal seal, Lewis Beaumont, Bishop of Durham from 1317 to 1333, has his effigy standing between two Shields of Arms (to the dexter, England; to the sinister, a cross potent between four groups of small crosses patées, three crosses in each group), while his chasuble is semée de lys and also charged with a lion rampant—the arms of the house of Beaumont.