Heraldry as art: An account of its development and practice, chiefly in England

by G. W. Eve

The fact that the chief surmounts a bordure lends probability to the assertion that chiefs like cantons were at first honorific additions to pre-existing arms.

Flanches are represented in Fig. 78, and their diminutives, Flasques and Voiders, are sometimes met with in old works.

Fig. 78.

A shield of arms is said to be charged with the figures upon it, but the term charge is usually understood to mean some object other than the ordinaries just described.

Before proceeding further, however, it will be well to consider the various ways in which charges may be arranged with regard to the shield, to the ordinary and to each other.

A single charge whose position is not otherwise fixed by the blazon naturally occupies the whole shield, but when charges are repeated the arrangement is, of course, more complex.

The most usual number of repeated charges in a coat of arms is three, two in chief and one in base, an arrangement obviously suggested by the space available on a pointed shield, and in blazoning they are said to be two and one. As a rule, however, this distribution is assumed to exist unless another is specified. When the charges are more than three their disposition must always be mentioned, as: Gules six horse-shoes, three two a one, Arg. and so on for ten or more, counting always from the chief or top of the shield.

An indefinite number of charges equally distributed over a surface, whether of field, ordinary or charge, is said to be Semée, as in the Arms of France that were assumed by Edward III and his successors, az. semée-de-lis or. As in this instance, a field semée of anything was depicted as though cut from a large surface similarly decorated, so that here and there at the edges a part only of the figures remained. This early method has been relinquished in favour of what was anciently called Geratting, by so arranging the powdering of charges that they do not touch the sides of the shield or any other object with which they are associated. Considerable management is required to so arrange them that they shall be equally distributed, and care must be taken that they do not appear to be in orle, as is explained below.