[Illustration: No. 359.--Henry, Earl of Worcester.]
When the composition of the paternal Shield would admit of such an arrangement, the field not being argent, an illegitimate son sometimes bore his father's arms marshalled fesse-wise, so as to leave both the chief and the base of his Shield plain white. HENRY, Earl of WORCESTER, whose father was an illegitimate son of HENRY BEAUFORT, third Duke of SOMERSET, bore the arms of Beaufort couped in this manner in chief and in base, as if they were charged upon a very broad fesse on the field: No. 359.
[Illustration: No. 360.--Beaufort before 1397.]
[Illustration: No. 361.--Beaufort after 1397.]
JOHN DE BEAUFORT (great-grandfather of HENRY, Earl of WORCESTER), eldest illegitimate son of Prince JOHN of GHENT, _before_ the Act for his legitimation was passed in the year 1397, bore his father's hereditary arms of _Lancaster_--_England with a label of France_, No. 249--_on a broad bend_, the field being _per pale arg. and az._, the Lancastrian livery colours: No. 360. After their legitimation act had become a law, this same JOHN DE BEAUFORT, with his brothers, sons, and grandsons, bore the Royal quartered shield of France and England, No. 361, differenced, not with labels, but with _a bordure componée arg. and az._ (the Lancastrian colours): the different members of the Beaufort family slightly varied the bordure, but by the head of their house it was borne as in No. 361. It will be seen that this is the coat that HENRY, Earl of WORCESTER (himself the legitimate son of an illegitimate son), bore fesse-wise, as in No. 359. The father of this Earl HENRY, CHARLES SOMERSET, Earl of WORCESTER (illegitimate son of the third Duke of SOMERSET), differenced _Beaufort_, No. 361, with a _silver bendlet sinister_, as in No. 362, the bendlet covering the quarterings, but being included within the bordure.
[Illustration: No. 362.--Charles, Earl of Worcester.]
[Illustration: No. 363.--Sir Roger de Clarendon.]
[Illustration: No. 364.--Radolphus de Arundel.]
Since the fifteenth century, in English Heraldry, a narrow bendlet or baton sinister, couped at its extremities, either plain or charged, has usually been the mark employed as difference by the illegitimate descendants of the Royal Family. It was borne by ARTHUR PLANTAGENET, Viscount LISLE, son of EDWARD IV.: by HENRY FITZ ROY, Duke of RICHMOND, son of HENRY VIII., and, variously differenced, by illegitimate descendants of CHARLES II.--that is, it is borne at the present day, _argent_, by the Duke of BUCCLEUCH; _ermine_, by the Duke of CLEVELAND; _componée arg. and az._, by the Duke of GRAFTON; and, _gules charged with three white roses_, by the Duke of ST. ALBANS.