Impaled Coat of Arms

Impalement was a method used to combine the arms of two individuals, for marital purposes, but occasionally for academic or religious purposes. This method combined the individual arms into one. Arms were split into halves and placed side by side or one atop the other. Over time, the side-by-side method became common practice because it maintained identification of the original arms. From the front, the left side of the shield (dexter side) displayed the husband’s arms and the right side (sinister side) displayed the wife’s. If the wife was a heraldic heiress the method used to display the couples’ arms was an escutcheon (shield) in pretence.