In
English law, baron and feme is a phrase used for
:husband and
:wife, in relation to each other, who were accounted as one person by
coverture
Coverture (sometimes spelled couverture) was a legal doctrine in the English common law in which a married woman's legal existence was considered to be merged with that of her husband, so that she had no independent legal existence of her own. U ...
. Hence, by the old law of evidence, the one party was excluded from giving evidence for or against the other in
civil
Civil may refer to:
*Civic virtue, or civility
*Civil action, or lawsuit
* Civil affairs
*Civil and political rights
*Civil disobedience
*Civil engineering
*Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism
*Civilian, someone not a membe ...
questions, and a relic of this is still preserved in
criminal law.
Heraldry
In
heraldry, baron and femme are terms denoting the two-halves of an
heraldic escutcheon used when the
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...
of a man and the paternal arms of his wife are
impaled (or anciently dimidiated), that is borne ''per pale'' within the same escutcheon.
The position of the husband's arms, on the
dexter side (to viewer's ''left''), the position of honour, is referred to as baron whilst the paternal arms of the wife are shown in
sinister, referred to as femme. The resultant shield is used by the husband, as in general females are not entitled to display heraldry, unless ''
suo jure
''Suo jure'' is a Latin phrase, used in English to mean 'in his own right' or 'in her own right'. In most nobility-related contexts, it means 'in her own right', since in those situations the phrase is normally used of women; in practice, especi ...
'' peeresses. This is the normal way of displaying the arms of a married man. Impalement is not used when the wife is an
heraldic heiress
In English heraldry a heraldic heiress is a daughter of a deceased man who was entitled to a coat of arms (an armiger) and who carries forward the right to those arms for the benefit of her future male descendants. This carrying forward only applie ...
, in which case her paternal arms are displayed on an
inescutcheon of pretence within her husbands' arms, denoting that the husband is a
pretender
A pretender is someone who claims to be the rightful ruler of a country although not recognized as such by the current government. The term is often used to suggest that a claim is not legitimate.Curley Jr., Walter J. P. ''Monarchs-in-Waiting'' ...
to the paternal arms of his wife, and that they will be
quartered by the couple's issue and later descendants. Where arms are impaled for reasons other than ''conjugal'' marriage, for example the ''spiritual'' marriage of a bishop to his see or the ''mystical'' marriage of King Richard II to Saint
Edward the Confessor, the halves of the shield are referred to as simply
dexter and sinister.
Etymology
In
Late Latin
Late Latin ( la, Latinitas serior) is the scholarly name for the form of Literary Latin of late antiquity.Roberts (1996), p. 537. English dictionary definitions of Late Latin date this period from the , and continuing into the 7th century in t ...
''barō, barōnis'', meant man (a borrowing from
Frankish
Frankish may refer to:
* Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture
** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages
* Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany
* East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...
*''barō''). Later, in Western Europe, the word was used to refer to a ruler's leading henchmen (e.g. a baron was the King's Man). Later, it came to have a specific, legal definition as the
tenant-in-chief
In medieval and early modern Europe, the term ''tenant-in-chief'' (or ''vassal-in-chief'') denoted a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as opp ...
of the early Norman kings, which class developed into
feudal barons who held their lands from the king by the
feudal tenure and were entitled to attend
parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
.
The Norman-French word ''feme/femme'' simply denotes "woman" or "wife".
See also
*
Feme sole
*
Women in heraldry
References
Sources
#
External links
*{{cite web , accessdate = 1 June 2012 , publisher = Florida Center for Instructional Technology , title = Baron and Femme , quote = 'Parted per pale, baron and femme, two coats; first, or, a chevron gules; second, barry of twelve pieces, azure and argent. In Heraldry, the husband and wife are called baron and femme; ... the shield is in heraldic language said to be parted per pale.' -Hall, 1862 , url = http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/67900/67932/67932_baron&femme.htm
English law
Heraldry