Cross fusilly (Period)
The “cross of fusils”, or “cross fusilly”, was originally another way of drawing a cross indented. The cross is throughout; the number of fusils, if unspecified, is left to the artist.
Rose Otter bears: Per pale argent and azure, a cross fusilly counterchanged.
Cross of flames (Disallowed)
The “cross of flames” is a Society invention, which (like most charges composed of flame) is no longer registerable.
Fillet cross (Disallowed)
The “fillet cross” is said by some modern texts to be the “diminutive” of the ordinary cross. In medieval and Society usage, diminutive terms are only used when there is more than one of the charge in question. The term “fillet” was therefore used in some early Society blazons to denote to the artist that the cross was to be drawn very thin; but no difference was counted. The usage is no longer permitted: the cross’s width, while left to the artist, must be enough to let it dominate the design.
Cross of Coldharbour (Disallowed)
The “cross of Coldharbour” was a Society invention when it was first registered; it has since been deemed equivalent to (and blazoned as) a “Celtic cross throughout”. Since it is of the “gunsight” depiction of the Celtic cross, it is no longer permitted.
Henry of Coldharbour bears: Argent, a cross of Coldharbour gules.
Cross arrondi (SFPP)
The “cross arrondi” is a Society invention, based on the shield designs on the Bayeux Tapestry, c.1070. Its use is deemed a step from period practice.
Ælric Kyrri bears: Azure, a cross arrondi between four roundels, a bordure argent.
Cross of annulets braced (Accepted)
The “cross of annulets braced” is negligibly different from a “cross of chain“. The latter is found in the canting arms of Chene, c.1395 [DBA3 111].
Aldric Greystone bears: Azure, a cross of annulets braced throughout Or.
Cross (Period)
The cross is an heraldic ordinary, a vertical lath conjoined to a horizontal lath. As an ordinary, it is throughout by default, and subject to all the usual treatments – e.g., embattled, wavy, voided, cotised – but as the symbol of Christianity, it was elaborated and varied by the medievals more often than any other charge. Medieval heralds were familiar with roughly twenty types of cross, according to Brault [Coat of Arms, I(90), Summer 74, pp.54-64]; more than three hundred types may be found in Victorian heraldry books.
Of these latter, some were distinctions made only after period, which medievally were considered simple artistic variants (e.g., cross crosslet vs. cross bottony). Others were constructed of other charges, conjoined in the shape of a cross (e.g., cross of ermine spots); this was a period method of construction. Most of the crosses in Victorian texts, however, were never actually used in armory, but were the invention of heraldic writers.
The term “crusilly” refers to a field or charge semy of crosses crosslet. If another type of semy cross is desired, it must be specified, e.g., “crusilly couped” or “crusilly Maltese”.
The crosses illustrated in the following entries are all found in Society heraldry. Some were used medievally; some were constructed from four or five other charges; some were taken from Victorian texts, before those were deemed untrustworthy; some are taken from other contexts, such as jewelry; and some are Society inventions. Though the cross is normally throughout as an ordinary, most of its “discrete” forms are not throughout unless specifically blazoned so. Some variations can be combined in simple cases: e.g., a “cross flory nowy pierced” would combine those three treatments into a single cross.
Crosses that were found in period include:
cross of annulets braced, cross annulety, cross avellane, cross bottony, cross of Calatrava, cross of Calvary, cross clechy, cross couped, cross crescenty, cross crosslet, cross doubly pommeled, cross of ermine spots, cross fitchy, cross flory, cross formy, cross fouchetty, cross fourchy, cross of fusils, cross glandular, cross gringoly, cross of Jerusalem, key cross, Latin cross, Maltese cross, cross moline, cross parted and fretted, cross patonce, cross patriarchal, cross pomelly, cross portate, cross potent, cross quarter-pierced, cross rayonnant, cross of Santiago, cross swallowtailed, tau cross, cross of Toulouse, cross tripartite and fretted.
Crosses that are accepted in the Society, as of this writing:
Bowen cross, cross of Canterbury, Celtic cross, cross of Coldharbour, Coptic cross, cross estoile, cross humetty, cross of lozenges, cross of mascles, Norse sun cross, cross of pheons, cross pointed, cross quadrate, Russian Orthodox cross, cross of Samildanach, crux stellata.
Crosses which carry a step from period practice:
ankh, cross arrondi, cross nowy, cross of Saint Brigid.
Crosses which have been disallowed:
cross alisee, cross barby, cross of Cerdana, fillet cross, cross of flames, fylfot, cross gurgity, Non cross, Papal cross, star cross, Ukrainian sun cross.
For related charges, see chi-rho, crucifix, saltire. See also cypher charges, knot.
The King of Lochac bears: Quarterly azure and argent, on a cross gules a crown between four mullets of six points, in canton a laurel wreath argent.
Rulff Sørensøn bears: Gyronny azure and Or, a cross vert.
Elizabeth Feythe bears: Azure, a cross engrailed erminois.
Giovanni di Milano bears: Ermine, a cross cotised purpure.
Bend cotised (Period)
Cotising is the addition to either side of an ordinary of a stripe parallel to the ordinary’s edge; these stripes are usually termed “cotises”. The bend was the earliest ordinary to be cotised in medieval heraldry, but the fess and the pale quickly followed; and any double-sided ordinary may be cotised in Society heraldry.
Cotising an ordinary is considered the addition of secondary charges: “a bend between two cotises” is another ways of saying “a bend cotised”. (Alternatively, cotising an ordinary is equivalent to placing it inside another of the same ordinary voided; e.g., “a cross cotised” and “a cross within a cross voided” yield the same emblazon.) In some ways, however, cotising is comparable to a complex line of division; certainly the cotises cannot exist without the central ordinary, and they have nothing to do with any other secondary charges.
Cotises follow the line of their central ordinary by default; e.g., “a fess wavy cotised” will have a fess wavy between cotises wavy. It’s also possible for the cotises to have a different line than their ordinary: e.g., the “bend plain cotised dancetty” in the arms of Clopton, c.1420 [Hope2 46]. Cotises can also be a different tincture than their ordinary, as in the “bend argent cotised Or” in the arms of Cone, 1308 [ANA2 161].
Cotises might have a complex line on the outer edge only: e.g., the “bend plain cotised trefly on the outer edges” in the arms of Lower Alsace, 1493 [Neubecker 188]. Double cotises, as in the arms of Badlesmere, c.1300 [ANA 77], and even triple cotises are also possible, although the latter in only the simplest of armory.
Some ordinaries have special terms for cotising: the cotises for a pale are called “endorses”, and the whole is blazoned “a pale endorsed” or “between endorses”. The cotises for a chevron may also be called “couple-closes”.
Giulia Isabella da Venezia bears: Counter-ermine, a bend cotised argent.
Margriet van Middelburg bears: Gules, two chevronels ermine cotised Or.
Riocus de Uuenetia bears: Azure, a pale Or endorsed argent.
Muiredach MacGregor bears: Vair, a cross cotised gules.
Thomas of Eastbrook bears: Pean, a fess doubly cotised Or.
Rhiannon Annsachd bears: Gules, a saltire cotised Or.
Chief-pale (Period)
The chief-pale (French chef-pal) is an heraldic ordinary used in Continental armory, consisting of a chief and a pale conjoined with no seam. It is, however, a single charge, described as such in period heraldic tracts [e.g., de Bara 37], and found as early as 1415, in the Concilium zu Constenz [fo.clxxxi].
The chief-pale has no diminutives. Like the chief, it may not be voided, fimbriated, or cotised; if charged with tertiary charges, they must fill the entire chief-pale, both the horizontal and vertical portions.
Renzo di Ilario di Federigo Venturius bears: Vert, a chief-pale ermine.
Praxilla Taurina bears: Or, a chief-pale potent.
Lina Arinbjarnardottir bears: Azure estencely Or, a chief-pale argent.
Chief (Period)
Chief triangular (Period)
The chief is an heraldic ordinary, occupying the upper one-third to one-fourth of the shield. It is subject to most of the standard treatments – embattled, nebuly, &c – though, because no period examples have been attested, the “chief fleury” is considered a step from period practice. However, because it has only one edge, a chief may not be “dancetty”, nor may it be fimbriated, cotised, or voided.
A “chief triangular” is formed by lines from the upper points of the shield, drawn to a point. The name is a translation of chef triangulaire, the French term for the charge; but the charge is found in English armory (under the blazon chefe entte pycche) as early as 1460, in the arms of Thorpe [RH].
Chief enarched (Accepted)
Chief double-arched (SFPP)
A “chief enarched” is drawn with a concave arch; it was originally meant to depict the convexity of the shield, and consequently carries no heraldic difference. The “chief double-arched”, with two concavities, is first found in 19th Century British armory [Guide 75]; the “chief triple-arched”, with three concavities, seems to be a Society invention. The chief double-arched has been ruled a step from period practice; presumably the chief triple-arched is similarly anomalous.
Chief surmounted by a fillet counterchanged (Accepted)
A “fillet” is a narrow bar overlying the edge of a chief; though attested in heraldic tracts [Legh 81], it does not seem to have been actually used in period armory. It is considered the diminutive of the chief; but unlike the diminutives of other ordinaries, the fillet cannot be used except with its parent chief. Since the fillet’s prescribed usage is equivalent to a fimbriated chief, the only permitted way it may be used in the Society is “a chief charged with a fillet counterchanged”, as in the illustration.
Elizabeth of Hadley Hall bears: Lozengy Or and vert, a chief sable.
Phillip of the Valley of Sleep bears: Argent, a chief indented purpure.
Gavin MacRobert bears: Or, on a chief triangular gules a hawk argent.
Soraya Evodia bears: Gules, an escarbuncle and a chief indented Or surmounted by a fillet dancetty floretty counterchanged.