In England, the assumption of arms by private persons was first restrained by a proclamation of Henry V., which prohibited every one who had not home arms at Agincourt to assume them, except in virtue of inheritance or a grant from the crown. To enforce the observance of this rule, heralds' visitations or processions through the counties were instituted, and continued from time to time till the reign of William and Mary. See VISITATIONS, HERALDS'.
Jurisdiction in questions of arms is executed by the heralds' college-in England, lyon court in Scotland, and the college of arms in Ireland. No one within the United Kingdoin is entitled to bear arms without a hereditary claim by descent, or a grant from the competent authority; and the wrongful assumption of arms is an act which the assumer may be subjected to penalties. See HERALDS' COLLEGE and LYON COURT. The use of arms, whether rightfully or wrongfully, subjects the bearer of them to an annual tax. It is illegal to use without authority not only a coat of arms, but even a crest. Any figure or device placed on a heraldic wreath (see WREATH) is considered a crest in questions with the heralds' college or Lyon court, as well 'As in questions with the commissioners of inland revenue. It shows how deeply the passion for outward distinction is implanted in human nature, when we find people in countries such as the United States, where all differences of rank are theoretically repudiated, assuming heraldic devices, each man at his own hand.
Besides individuals, communities and states • are entitled to the use of arms, and heralds have classified arms, in respect of the right to bear them, under 4he following ten heads: 1. Arms of dominion; the arms borne by sovereigns as annexed to their terrb- tories. 2. Arms of pretension, which sovereigns have borne, who, though not in posses sion, claim a right to the territories to which the arms belong. Thus, England bore the arms of France from the time of Edward III. till 1801. 3. Arms of community; the arms of bishops' sees, abbeys, universities, towns, and corporations. 4. Arms of assumption; arms which one has a right to assume with the approbation of the sovereign. Thus, it is said, the arms of a prisoner at war may be borne by his captor, and transmitted by him to his heirs. 5. Arms of patronage; added by governors of provinces, lords of the manor, patrons of benefices, etc., to their family arms, as a of superiority, right, or jurisdiction. 0. Arms of succession, borne quartered with the family arms by those who inherit fiefs or manors, either by will, entail, or donation.
Thus, the dukes of Athole, as having been lords of the Isle of Man, quarter the arms of: that island, and the duke of Argyle quarters the arms of the lordship of Lorne. 7. Arms of alliance, taken up by the issue of heiresses, to show their maternal descent. 8. Arms of adoption, borne by a stranger in blood, to fulfill the will of a testator. The-last of a family may adopt a stranger to bear his name and arms and possess his estate. Arms of adoption can only be borne with permission of a sovereign or king-at-arms. 9. Arms of concession; augmentations granted by a sovereign of part of his royal arms, as a mark of distinction, a usage which, we have already observed, obtained in tire earliest days of heraldry; and hence the prevalence among armorial bearings of the lion, the fleur- de-lis, and the eagle, the bearings of the sovereigns of England and Scotland, of France, rind of Germany. 10. Paternal or hereditary arms, transmitted by the first possessor to his descendants.
A coat of arms is composed of charges depicted on an escutcheon representing the old knightly shield. The word escutcheon is derived from the French ecusson, which signified a shield with armorial bearings, in contradistinction from ecu, a shield ally. The shields in use in England and France in the 11th and 12th centuries were in shape not unlike a boy's kite, a form which seems to have been borrowed from the Sicilians; but when they became the recipients of armorial bearings, they were gradu ally flattened and shortened. From the time of Henry HI., the escutcheon has been most frequently represented on seals as of some thing approaching to a triangular form, with the point downwards, the chief exceptions being that the shield of a lady is lozenge shaped, and of a knight-banneret square. To facilitate description, the surface or field of the escutcheon has been divided into nine points (fig. 1), technically distinguished by the following names: A, the dexter chief point; B, the middle chief; C, the sinister chief; D, the honor Or collar point: E, the fess point; F, the nombril or navel point; GI, the dexter base, point; II, the middle baSe; and I, the sinister base point. it will be observ6d that the dexter and sinister sides of the shield-are So called from their relation not to the eye of the spectator, but of the supposed bearer of the shield.