Quartering (heraldry)

Quartering in heraldry is a method of joining several different coats of arms together in one shield by dividing the shield into not more than four equal parts and placing different coats of arms in each division.

Typically, a quartering consists of a division into four equal parts, two above and two below. An example is the arms of the Queen of England, which consist of four quarterings, displaying arms for England, Scotland and Ireland, with the coat for England repeated at the end to make the number up to four.

However, there is no limit on the number of divisions allowed, and the records of the College of Arms include a shield of 323 quarterings for the family of Lloyd of Stockton. Another example of a shield of many quarterings is the coat of arms of the Powys-Lybbe family, which contains 64 quarterings and can be seen here.

The arms of the Queen of England are arms of dominion, which join together the arms of her kingdoms. However, the vast majority of quarterly coats of arms display arms which are claimed by descent: in other words, they join together coats of arms of the ancestors of the bearer of the arms.

Strict rules apply, both as to what arms may be displayed by way of quarterings, and the order in which they may be displayed. Men and women are always entitled to display the arms of their paternal line but are not usually entitled to display by way of quartering the arms of families from whom there is descent only through a female line (for example, the arms of a mother or grandmother or great-grandmother). An exception is made, however, if the female who breaks the male line of descent is a heraldic heiress. A heraldic heiress is a woman who has no brothers, or whose brothers have died without issue. Such a woman is entitled to transmit her father's arms to her own children, who add them as a quartering. If her father was himself entitled to one or more quarterings, these will pass to his heiress daughters' children as quarterings as well. Quarterings are displayed in the order in which they are acquired by a family by marriage, starting with those acquired by the earliest marriage to bring in quarterings. It is permissible to omit quarterings, but if a quartering was brought in by a later quartering, it is essential to show the whole chain of quarterings leading to the quartering displayed, or else to omit the chain altogether.

The larger the number of quarterings, the smaller the space available for each coat of arms, so that most families entitled to many quarterings make a selection of those they ordinarily use. The Duke of Norfolk, for example, uses only four quarterings, which can be seen here, although he is entitled to many more. The Powys-Lybbe family, likewise, usually use only the quartering of Powys and Lybbe, which can be seen here.