A Complete Guide to Heraldry by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies
CHAPTER XLII
598 words | Chapter 95
"SEIZE-QUARTIERS"
PROOF OF ANCESTRY
If any heraldic term has been misunderstood in this country,
"Seize-Quartiers" is that term. One hears "Seize-Quartiers" claimed right
and left, whereas in British armory it is only on the very rarest occasions
that proof of it can be made. In England there is not, and never has been,
for any purpose a real "test" of blood. By the statutes of various Orders
of Knighthood, esquires of knights of those orders are required to show
that their grandparents were of gentle birth and entitled to bear arms, and
a popular belief exists that Knights of Justice of the Order of the
Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England need to establish some test of
birth. The wording of the statute, however, is very loose and vague, and in
fact, judging from the names and arms of some of the knights, must be
pretty generally ignored. But Peer, K.G., or C.B., alike need pass no test
of birth. The present state of affairs in this country is the natural
outcome of the custom of society, which always recognises the wife as of
the husband's status, whatever may have been her antecedents, unless the
discrepancy is too glaring to be overlooked. In England few indeed care or
question whether this person or that person has even a coat of arms; and in
the decision of Society upon a given question as to whether this person or
the other has "married beneath himself," the judgment results solely from
the circle in which the wife and her people move. By many this curious
result is claimed as an example of, and as a telling instance to
demonstrate, the broad-minded superiority of the English race, as evidenced
by the equality which this country concedes between titled and untitled
classes, between official and unofficial personages, between the
land-owning and the mercantile communities. But such a conclusion is most
superficial. We draw no distinction, and rightly so, between titled and
untitled amongst the few remaining families who have held and owned their
lands for many generations; but outside this class the confusion is great,
and to a close observer it is plainly enough apparent that great
distinctions are drawn. But they are often mistaken ones. That the rigid
and definite dividing {619} line between patrician and plebeian, which
still exists so much more markedly upon the Continent, can only be traced
most sketchily in this country is due to two causes--(1) the fact that in
early days, when Society was slowly evolving itself, many younger sons of
gentle families embarked upon commercial careers, natural family affection,
because of such action, preventing a rigid exclusion from the ranks of
Society of every one tainted by commerce; (2) the absence in this country
of any equivalent of the patent distinguishing marks "de," "van," or "von,"
which exist among our neighbours in Europe.
The result has been that in England there is no possible way (short of
specific genealogical investigation) in which it can be ascertained whether
any given person is of gentle birth, and the corollary of this
last-mentioned fact is that any real test is ignored. There are few
families in this country, outside the Roman Catholic aristocracy (whose
marriages are not quite so haphazard as are those of other people), who can
show that all their sixteen great-great-grandparents were in their own
right entitled to bear arms. That is the true definition of the "Proof of
Seize-Quartiers."
In other words, to prove Seize-Quartiers you must show this right to have
existed for
Self. Parents. Grand- Gt.-grand- Gt.-gt.-grand-
parents. parents. parents.
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