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Arms of Admiral Horatio Nelson, an example of debased heraldry, including such non-heraldic features as "a disabled ship" and "a battery in ruins"
Debased heraldry is heraldry containing complex, non-standard and non-heraldic charges. They cannot be correctly drawn from the blazon alone, as is the case with the purest form of heraldry. Most debased heraldry was created after the 17th century, and in general early heraldry dating from the start of the heraldic era (c. 1200–1215), deemed the purest and best, utilises simple and standard charges. However some early heraldry was debased, for example the arms of the Bishop of Chichester, overly complex in nature. The original purpose of heraldry was for a knight to identify himself clearly by a unique and clear design on his shield. Debased heraldry treats the shield rather as a canvas for the display of complex art work. The small space available on a shield is thus not ideally suited to this function.
George Thomas Clark (1809–1898) wrote as follows on the subject in his well-regarded article on heraldry in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th & 10th editions):[1]
"Of debased heraldry there is no lack of examples, and a few are ancient. Thomas de Insula (Thomas de Lisle (c. 1298–1361)), Bishop of Ely (1345–61), bore Gules, three bezants, on each a crowned king, robed sable, doubled ermine, sustaining a covered cup in his right hand and a sword in his left, both or. No doubt, like the arms of the Sees of Chichester and Salisbury, this extraordinary coat was meant to be painted on a banner. Camden (1551–1623) granted a great number of coats, mostly of a complex character, and since his time heraldic taste has not improved. Tetlow (granted 1760 (of Houghton, Manchester, Lancashire[2][3]) bore (as crest): On a book erect gules, clasped and leaved or, a silver penny argent, thereon written the Lord’s Prayer; at the top of the book a dove proper, in his beak a crowquill pen sable. Other grants show negroes working in a plantation, Chinese porters carrying cinnamon, etc. The grants to Lord Nelson (d.1805) and his gallant captains, and to the elder Herschel (William Herschel (1738–1822)), are utterly unheraldic. Lord Chesterfield (Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773)), correcting the Garter of his day, remarked, "You foolish man, you don’t understand your own foolish business."[citation needed]
Arms of William Herschel (1738–1822), an example of debased heraldry, including the non-heraldic complex feature of his Herschelian telescope
Notoriously debased crest of Tetlow (1760), with the Lord's Prayer written on a penny
^"Heraldry - Debased Heraldry".
^Burke, General Armory, 1884[1]; Fairburn's Book of Crests, Vol. 1, 1905, p. 545 (blazon)[2]; vol. 2, plate 93, image 5[3]
^Release and feoffment, 1705, Jn Tetlow of Houghton, p. of Manchester, Lancs, yeo., and My his wife[4]
Debasedheraldry is heraldry containing complex, non-standard and non-heraldic charges. They cannot be correctly drawn from the blazon alone, as is the...
Press. ISBN 9780190622558. George Thomas Clark (1809–1898), article on heraldry in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th & 10th editions)[1] Holmes 2008, pp...
Ordinaries in heraldry are sometimes embellished with stripes of colour alongside them, have lumps added to them, shown with their edges arciform instead...
intersects a road at a level crossing. The saltire is important both in heraldry, being found in many coats of arms, and in vexillology, being found as...
Blazon: Gules, a chevron debased in Or, in chief to dexter two weaver's shuttles of argent saltirewise, to sinister a dolphin the same, in base three...
efforts to revive the Byzantine economy resulted in severe inflation and a debased gold currency. The army was seen as both an unnecessary expense and a political...
intelligible. By the end of the Third Age, Orcs mostly communicated using a debased Westron. Tolkien described one Orc's utterances as being in "the Common...
lost all support when he tried to buy the loyalty of other mamluks with debased coins. Sayf ad-Din Inal, who Barsbay had made his atabeg al-asakir, won...
just a little more in the lethal game of politics, even while each moral debasement divorced it just a little more from the vast body of Christians from whom...
in height overall consisting of a shield blazoned: Gules, a chevronel debased Azure fimbriated Or, below three shell bursts one and two of the third...
was one of the languages used in Barad-dûr. The soldiers there used a debased form of the tongue. In The Lord of the Rings "Barad-dûr," "Lugbúrz," and...
and azure, in chief a mullet of five points of the second and in fess debased two fleurs-de-lis or. Crest: On a wreath of the colors, argent and gules...
which was really the mildest in the world; which did not rest on acts of debasement and disenfranchisement, but elevated the African, and was in the interest...
criticism against Keynes – Minsky has argued that Keynesian economics had been debased by excessive mixing with neoclassical ideas from the 1950s, and that it...
158th Field Artillery Regiment on 19 July 1972. Blazon Shield: Per chevron debased Gules and Vert, three broad arrows one and two, points meeting at apex...
the six color-coded combat teams that would become part of modern Ranger heraldry, they fought against the Japanese during the Burma Campaign. In February...
output (£3,985,591). Bowes was responsible for around one quarter of the debased testoon production, in which £385,000 worth of good silver currency were...
in gold. This trend was in part attributable to Florence's reluctance to debase the gold florin, which was internationally esteemed for its stable value...
William (2006), "An Economic Explanation of the Early Bank of Amsterdam, Debasement, Bills of Exchange, and the Emergence of the First Central Bank", Federal...
Bruce M. (2010). "Use of Non-Traditional Evidence: A case study using heraldry to examine competing theories for Canada's Confederation". British Journal...
his armies and by his servants in his tower of Barad-dûr. A sample of debased Black Speech can be found in The Two Towers, where a "yellow-fanged" guard...
Arms of William Herschel (1738–1822), an example of debased heraldry, including the non-heraldic complex feature of his Herschelian telescope
Notoriously debased crest of Tetlow (1760), with the Lord's Prayer written on a penny
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