Impalement (heraldry)

Escutcheon of King Richard II of England. The King has impaled his paternal Plantagenet arms with the mythical arms of Edward the Confessor (who lived in the pre-heraldic era), for whom he had a particular devotion. The arms of the Confessor have been allocated the dexter position of honour, to the viewer's left

In heraldry, impalement is a form of marshalling (heraldic combination) of two coats of arms side-by-side in one shield or escutcheon to denote union, most often that of a husband and wife, but also for ecclesiastical use. An impaled shield is bisected "in pale", that is by a vertical line.

Marital

The husband's arms are shown in the dexter half (on the right hand of someone standing behind the shield, to the viewer's left), being the place of honour, with the wife's in the sinister half. For this purpose alone the two halves of the impaled shield are called baron and femme, from ancient Norman-French usage. Impalement is not used when the wife is an heraldic heiress, in which case her arms are displayed in an escutcheon of pretence within her husbands' arms, denoting that the husband is a pretender to the paternal arms of his wife, and that they will descend to the couple's male issue.

Ecclesiastical

Banner of Cardinal Wolsey as Archbishop of York. His personal arms in sinister (to viewer's right) are impaled with the arms of his see of York, in dexter (to viewer's left), the position of honour.

In ecclesiastical heraldry, a bishop's arms are impaled with those of his diocese or see, the arms of the see in dexter, and the incumbent's arms in sinister.

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  Example of two coats impaled

See also

• Dimidiation (historically earlier method of combining two coats of arms)
• Division of the field