Marks of cadency
Small marks added to a coat of arms to show a son’s place among his brothers. In England a label marks the eldest son, a crescent the second, a mullet (a star) the third, and so on to the ninth. Scotland differences arms with borders instead.
Meaning
Marks of cadency let the sons of a family bear their father’s arms without bearing them exactly. In the English system Fox-Davies sets out, the eldest son, in his father’s lifetime, puts a label of three points across the top of the shield. Then come a crescent for the second son, a mullet for the third, a martlet for the fourth, an annulet (a ring) for the fifth, a fleur-de-lis for the sixth, a rose for the seventh, a cross moline for the eighth and a double quatrefoil for the ninth. Boutell notes that the mullet of cadency is unpierced. The College of Arms says the system, adopted from the fifteenth century, is little used today: family members tend to bear their arms undifferenced, the context showing who is meant.
Origin and history
Fox-Davies found the duty of younger lines to difference their arms recognised almost everywhere in the fourteenth century. The first six marks of the English list are already in Bossewell’s Workes of Armorie of 1572. The label is the oldest: Boutell found it as a mark of cadency in the earliest rolls of arms. Edward I, II and III each bore the arms of England with a blue label while their fathers lived, and the Black Prince marked his father’s shield with a silver label, which has been the mark of every heir to the English throne since.
The crescent and the mullet
The crescent and the mullet mark the second and third sons, or, as Boutell puts it, the second and third houses of a family. Fox-Davies gives a tale told of the martlet: that it marks the fourth son because by then there is no land left for him, and he must fly away to make his living. He would not say whether it was true.
Marks on marks
The system multiplies. The second son of a second son puts a crescent on a crescent, the third son of a second son a mullet on a crescent, and so on. Carried far, Fox-Davies admitted, it becomes absurd, the crescents piled on each other too small to see.
Scotland
British heraldry has two systems, the English (which Ireland shares) and the Scottish. In the account of Scottish practice that Fox-Davies prints, Scotland usually differences a younger son’s arms with a bordure, a border round the shield, which can distinguish many more generations: as a general rule the second son bears a plain bordure in the colour of the main charge. The Court of the Lord Lyon is strict: a coat of arms belongs to one person at a time, and “even the heir to a coat of arms has to bear it with a sign of difference.” The arms themselves belong to individuals, not families; see Family crest.
Read next
- Next in HeraldryCrosses in heraldryHeraldry names dozens of crosses. The commonest are the cross moline, its ends split and curled back; the patonce and the fleury, ending in flared or lily-shaped tips; the crosslet, with each arm crossed; and the botonny, with trefoil ends. A cross with a pointed foot is fitchy.
- The same shape in Catholic symbolsMonstranceA vessel of gold or silver with a glass window at its centre, usually ringed with rays like the sun, in which the consecrated host is shown for adoration and carried in procession.
See also
Family crest, Coat of arms, Tinctures (heraldic colours), Ordinaries, Lion rampant, Eagle displayed.
Sources
- A Complete Guide to Heraldry, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, 1909 (Project Gutenberg ebook 41617), T. C. & E. C. Jack, via Project Gutenberg, Chapter XXXI, Marks of Cadency, pp. 477–490; Chapter XIV, Birds: the martlet, pp. 244–245
- The Handbook to English Heraldry, Charles Boutell, 11th edition, revised by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, 1914 (Project Gutenberg ebook 23186), Reeves & Turner, via Project Gutenberg, Chapter XII, Cadency: the label; Chapter X, Glossary: Crescent, Mullet
- FAQs: heraldry, Resources (Internet Archive copy, 17 May 2026), College of Arms, Q. What are cadency marks?
- FAQs, Sistema Plastics, What is my family coat of arms?
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from circles, crosses, curves and waves or stars.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research
Added .