Abatement (heraldry)

An abatement (sometimes termed rebatement) is a modification of a coat of arms, representing a less-than honorable augmentation, imposed by an heraldic authority (such as the Court of Chivalry in England) or by royal decree for misconduct. The practice of inverting the entire escutcheon of an armiger found guilty of high treason has been attested since the Middle Ages and is generally accepted as reliable, and medieval heraldic sources cite at least one instance of removing an honourable charge from a coat of arms by royal decree as an abatement of honour. Other abatements of honour implied by the addition of dishonourable stains and charges, appearing in late 16th-century texts, have never been reliably attested in actual practice. Additionally, as many heraldic writers note, the use of arms is not compulsory, so armigers are more likely to relinquish a dishonored coat of arms than to advertise their dishonor.

The earliest mention in heraldic writing of a dishonorable display of arms (and, according to Fox-Davies, the only one reliably attested in actual use; see historical examples below) was inverting the entire shield, first documented by Johannes de Bado Aureo in his heraldic treatise Tractatus de armis (c. 1394). Contemporary accounts of executions for treason describe the traitor being marched to his execution in a paper tabard displaying his inverted arms, and other accounts tell of displaying the inverted arms of prisoners, released on parole, who refuse to pay their ransom.

Eight other abatements were introduced in the late 16th century, each prescribing a specific charge in a specific stain for a specific offense; though the charges themselves were uncommon but no less honourable than any other charge (if colored in any standard tincture or fur), it was only when displayed in the prescribed position and stain that these charges were supposed to be considered dishonourable.

Leigh (1562) enumerated the nine abatements thus:

Scottish herald Thomas Innes of Learney mentioned abatements in marital situations: "The law of arms provides for abating the arms of an adulterer by two gussets sanguine, and where the bearing of arms is necessary this, and one gusset (they will be close-gussets) for non-adulterous divorcees, are, at least in Patents, applied in the case of divorcees."

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