Escutcheon (heraldry) - Inescutcheon (Escutcheon of Pretence)

Inescutcheon (Escutcheon of Pretence)

An inescutcheon is a smaller escutcheon that is placed within or superimposed over the main shield of a coat of arms. This may be used for style, in pretence, for territorial claims, or as a simple charge as borne for example by the Mortimers.

Inescutcheons may be placed within the field of a shield as a choice of heraldic style, such as in the arms of the Swedish Collegium of Arms (pictured at far left below) which bears the three crowns of Sweden, each upon its own escutcheon within the field of the main shield.

Inescutcheons may also be used to bear another's arms in "pretense". In English Heraldry the husband of an heraldic heiress – a lady without any brothers – may place her father's arms in an escutcheon of pretence in the centre of his own shield as a claim ("pretence") to be the head of his wife's family. In the next generation the arms would then be quartered. In similar fashion, a monarch's personal arms may be borne on an inescutcheon en surtout over the territorial arms of his/her domains, as in the arms of the Danish Royal Family, the greater coat of arms of Sweden, or the arms of the Commonwealth of England 1649–1660.

Inescutcheons also appear in personal and civic armory as simple common charges (for example, see the arms of the noble French family of Abbeville, pictured at far right below).