A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

Or THE BEND-SINISTER.
for before and about that time, if natural children carried any figures belonging
to their father, they were placed in fields of various partitions, dinerent and situations.
positions
ANTIGONE, natural daughter of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, the fourth son of
within a bordure
Henry IV. whose arms were France and England, quarterly,
gobonated ardent and sable, carried her father's arms, over which she placed a batton-sinister
azure: and this is the first instance which Sandford gives of that figure.
The next was that of ARTHUR PLATAGENET, natural son of Edward IV. who car-
ried his father's royal arms bruised, with a batton-sinister azure.
It cannot then be precisely determined when the natural children began to use
the arms of their supposed fathers, with the now known marks of illegitimation :
For in some countries the practice was sooner than in others ; and some tell
us it is but rare yet in Germany.
The practice of natural children carrying the arms of their fathers with brisures
had its rise and progression from a custom, says Sir John Feme, which began from
the presumption of natural children, and the acts of legitimations of sovereigns.
How soon this practice was in France, I cannot be positive ; but that the lawful
younger sons of sovereigns there, were not in use to carry their father's arms, till
about the thirteenth century, is certain; much less could the natural children, even
for a long time after. Menestrier tells us, that it is the custom of France, for bas-
tards not to take their surnames from their supposed fathers, but from their seigniories
and titles and ; when they began to carry their arms with a sinister traverse,
or baton peri, he does not tell us, but says, that a bastard cannot cancel nor alter
the batton, without the consent of the chief of the family, unless the bastard
carry them in a faux escu, i. e. a cartouch, or false shield : and the son of a bastard,
procreate in lawful marriage with a gentlewoman, may use
father and mother, quarterly, having always
the arms of his
the batton-sinister on his paternal
quarter.
As for the continuance of this mark of illegitimation in arms, some are of opinion,
that it should always continue with the bastards descendants by lawful marriages,
until the sovereign or chief of the family dispense with it.
Gerard Leigh says, The legitimate of a bastard, may, with consent of the prince,
change the batton-sinister to the right side, keeping still the just quantity of the
batton ; and that it should be broken, of which he gives us an example in his ac-
cidents of armories, and blazons it thus, azure, a bend double duncette argent.
But I find none has followed him as to the form of this traverse.
It is usual for princes to dispense with this known mark of illegitimation even
to bastards themselves, either by carrying it dexter, or cancelling it. Charles VIL
of France allowed John the bastard of Orleans, for his valour against the English,
to turn his sinister traverse to the dexter, with which he and his issue afterwards
bruised the arms of Orleans as DUKES of LONGUEVILLE.
I have observed in a book of arms illuminated in the reign of Mary Queen of
Scotland, the arms of JAMES Earl of MURRAY, natural son to King James V. hav-
ing the t
sinister traverse turned to the dexter, bruising
the lion and tressure of
Scotland ; and quartered with the feudal arms of the Earldom of Murray, which
I suppose were dispensed with by the Queen: and the arms of Scotland, carried
by this family since, are surrounded with a bordure gobonated, argent and azure.
The general opinion, and most commonly received, is, that the bastard bar,
after three lawful generations, may be borne to the right, or omitted without the
sovereign's consent ; and, in place thereof, some remote mark of cadency added ;
but what these remote remarks are, I cannot determine here, not being to my pre-
-ent purpose, and therefore shall only name the bordure gobonated, which is fre-
quently carried in place of the batton-sinister with us and the English, not only
by the lawful issue of bastards, but by bastards themselves ; as in the late practice
of the natural children of King Charles II.
JAMES Duke of MONMOUTH and BUCCLEUGH carried the arms of Great Britain,
with a batton-sinister or.
HENRY FITZROY Duke of GRAFTON, natural son of King Charles II. begot on
Lady Barbara Villiers, Dutchess of Cleveland, carried over the arms of Britain a