Inescutcheon

Inescutcheon
An Inescutcheon

In heraldry, an inescutcheon is a smaller escutcheon that is placed within or superimposed over the main shield of a coat of arms, similar to a charge. This may be used in the following cases:

  • as a simple mobile charge, for example as borne by the French family of Abbeville, illustrated below; these may also bear other charges upon them, as shown in the arms of the Swedish Collegium of Arms;
  • in pretence (as a mark of a hereditary claim, usually by right of marriage), bearing assumed arms over one's own hereditary arms;
  • in territorial claim, bearing a monarch's hereditary arms en surtout over the territorial arms of his domains.

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