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Fret; Fretty & Heater

 Joseph Foster in his book 'Feudal Coats of Arms' describes the coat of arms borne bySir Nicholas de Audley, Baron of Heleigh, at the battle of Falkirk in 1298 as 'gules a fret (vel fretty) or'. That is  a gold interwoven lattice on a red background. The lattice is described as a fret (alternatively a fretty).The purpose of this page is to explain the difference  between a 'Fret' and a 'Fretty' as these shields form the basis of the coats of arms used by other members of the Audley Family. This explanation is based on information in 'Heraldry' by Henry Bedingfield, Rouge Croix Pursuivant & Peter Gwynn-Jones, Lancaster Herald published in 1993

       A Fret
    The definition of a Fret: A mascle interlaced with a bendlet and a bendlet sinister
   bend    losenge    bendsinister
  A bend    A lozenge (a diamond)    A bend sinister
   bendelet    mascule    benseletsinister
  A bendlet    A mascle (a voided lozenge)    A bendlet sinister
       Combining the above three 'Ordinaries' onto a single shield gives the following three versions of a fret
   fret2    fret3    fret1
  Fretty 
       The definition of a Fretty: Bendlets and Bendlets sinister interlaced throughout the shield. This looks like netting.
   bendelet  

 Left

A Bendlet

 

Right

A Bendlet sinister

   benseletsinister
   By combining bendlets and bendlets sinister one can produce a number of different designs of a Fretty depending upon the number of  bendlets and bendlets sinister used and the way they are interlaced as shown below.
   fretty51    fretty53    fretty52
   fretty41    fretty43    fretty42
   fretty31    fretty33    fretty32
  Heater     
  The shape of the shield used on this page is known as a 'heater’ the relative dimensions are shown below
       heater    

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