Inheraldicblazon, achief is acharge on acoat of arms that takes the form of a band running horizontally across the top edge of the shield. Writers disagree in how much of the shield's surface is to be covered by the chief, ranging from one-fourth to one-third. The former is more likely if the chief isuncharged, that is, if it does not have other objects placed on it. Ifcharged, the chief is typically wider to allow room for the objects drawn there.
The chief is one of theordinaries in heraldry, along with thebend,chevron,fess, andpale. There are several other ordinaries and sub-ordinaries.
The chief may bear charges and may also be subject to variations of the partition lines. It cannot, however, becotised. The chief may be combined with another ordinary, such as a pale or a saltire, but is almost never surmounted by another ordinary. The chief will normally be superimposed over a bordure, orle and tressure, if they share the same shield.
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In somemedieval andRenaissance drawings of coats of arms, the chief is drawn even deeper, so that it fills almost all the top half of the shield. In some cases, it is drawn so wide that it will look as though the shield is dividedparty per fess.
There is adiminutive version of the chief, called acomble, but this does not occur in English and Scottish heraldry.[1]
Achief triangular can be found in French and English armory. This ordinary begins in the corners and extends to a point that is one quarter to one third the way down the shield. It is a complex line division variant of a chief. Achief enarched is drawn with a concave arch. There is also adouble-arched version of a chief.
The chief can be used as a mark ofcadency, in order to difference the coat of arms in a minor line of a family, though this is rare and practically confined to cases in which a system of bordures is the usual method of showing cadency and the undifferenced coat of the family already has a bordure. In civic heraldry, achief of allegiance may be added to the top of the shield, particularly inGerman heraldry. This is a form of the ruling state's armory compressed into the space of a chief.
In Italy, chiefs are added to the coats of arms of families or locales to indicate political orientation. For example, many Italian coats of arms have a chief containing a version of the arms of theKingdom of Naples or of theHoly Roman Empire, to denoteGuelph or Ghibelline alignment respectively. More recently, a chiefgules charged with afasces, called the Chief of theLictor, indicated allegiance to theNational Fascist Party; it was no longer in use by 1945.[2]
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