The husband of an _Heiress_ or a _Co-heiress_, instead of impaling the arms of his wife, marshals them upon his Shield charged as an _Escutcheon of Pretence_. The son of an heiress, as heir to his maternal grandfather through his mother, as well as to his own father, _quarters_ on his Shield, and transmits to his descendants, _the arms of both his parents_, his father's arms generally being in the first quarter. The Shield of RICHARD BEAUCHAMP, K.G., Earl of WARWICK (died in 1439), is a good example of the use of an Escutcheon of Pretence; it is represented in No. 329, drawn from the garter-plate of the Earl, in St. George's Chapel, Windsor. The Earl himself, as his hereditary coat, quarters _Beauchamp_ with _Newburgh_--_chequée or and az., a chevron erm._: upon this, for his Countess, ISABELLE, daughter and heiress of THOMAS LE DESPENCER, Earl of GLOUCESTER, he marshals an Escutcheon of Pretence charged with _De Clare_, No. 124, quartering _Le Despencer_--_quarterly arg. and gu., in the second and third quarters a frette or, over all a bend sa._ In the monument of this great Earl, at Warwick, upon the Escutcheon of Pretence the arms of Bohun are quartered with those of Clare and Despencer.
[Illustration: No. 329.--Shield of Earl Richard Beauchamp.]
A few very simple diagrams will clearly elucidate the principle of Marshalling the arms of Husband and Wife. Suppose B (_Baron_) to represent the Husband, and F (_Femme_) the Wife: then, No. 330 B may represent the arms of the Husband, and No. 330 F the arms of the Wife. If F be _not_ an heiress, the arms of B and F, as husband and wife, are borne impaled, as in No. 330 B F; and their son bears No. 330 B only. If F _be an heiress_, the arms of B and F, as husband and wife, are borne as in No. 331--the arms of the wife on an Escutcheon of Pretence; and, in this case, the son of B and F quarters the arms of both his parents, as No. 332. Now, suppose this son, whose arms are No. 332, to marry a lady, _not_ an heiress, whose arms are No. 330 F F, he would simply impale the arms of his wife, as in No. 333, and his son would bear No. 332 only, as his father bore that quartered shield before his marriage. But if the wife of the bearer of No. 332 were to _be an heiress_, he would charge the arms of his wife in pretence upon his own hereditary paternal Shield, as in No. 334; and his son, by this heiress, as before, would quarter the arms of both his parents, as in No. 335. It is obvious that Marshalling on this system (of which I here give the general outline) admits of a widely-extended application. Younger sons in all cases place over all the quarterings of their Shield their own distinctive Mark of Cadency, until they inherit some different quartering from those to which the head of their house is entitled, and the quartering itself then forms sufficient difference.