Bend (heraldry)

The bend sinister, reduced in size to that of a bendlet (narrow) or baton (ending short of the edge of the shield), was one of the commonest brisures (differences) added to the arms of illegitimate offspring of European aristocratic lords.

[9] It also appears in the arms of Antoine de Bourgogne, illegitimate son of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy.

[10] These markings were never subject to strict rules,[11] and the customary English use of the bend, bendlet, and baton sinister to denote illegitimacy in this way eventually gave way to the use of different kinds of bordures.

[12] Sir Walter Scott is credited with inventing the phrase bar sinister, which has become a metonymic term for bastardy.

[13] Heraldry scholar Arthur Charles Fox-Davies and others state that the phrase derives from a misspelling of barre, the French term for bend sinister.

Azure, a bend or , possibly the most famous bend in heraldic history, which was the subject of one of the earliest cases in heraldic law in England , Scrope v. Grosvenor (1389)
Heraldic achievement of Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Fortescue, showing arms of Fortescue impaling Grenville. Baron: Azure, a bend engrailled argent plain cottised or; Femme: Vert, on a cross argent five torteaux . [ 1 ]
Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle (d.1542) bore the arms of the House of York with a bendlet sinister overall.
Arms of Northcote : Argent, three crosses-crosslet in bend sable [ 16 ]
Arms of Utrecht : Party per bend, argent and gules
Arms of the first house of Burgundy : Bendy or and azure, a bordure gules