Achievement (heraldry)

An achievement, armorial achievement or heraldic achievement (historical:

hatchment) in heraldry is a full display or depiction of all the heraldic components
to which the bearer of a coat of arms is entitled.[2] An achievement comprises not
only the arms themselves displayed on the Escutcheon, the central element, but also
the following elements surrounding it:

Crest placed atop a:

Torse (or Cap of Maintenance as a special honour)
Mantling
Helm of appropriate variety; if holder of higher rank than a baronet,
issuing from a:
Coronet or Crown (not used by baronets), of appropriate variety.
Supporters (if the bearer is entitled to them, generally in modern usage
not baronets), which may stand on a Compartment)
Motto, if possessed
Order, if possessed
Heraldic achievement forming the
Badge, if possessed Garter stall plate of John
Beaufort, 1st Duke of
Somerset(d.1444), KG, St.
Contents George's Chapel, Windsor. The
earliest garter plate with
Coat of arms
supporters.[1] It includes the
Hatchment badge of an ostrich feather, here
References shown as a pair, blazoned:
feather argent pen gobonne
External links
argent and azure

Coat of arms
Sometimes the term coat of arms is used to refer to the full achievement, but this usage is wrong in a strict sense of heraldic
terminology, as a coat of arms refers to a garment with the escutcheon or armorial achievement embroidered on it.[3][4]

Hatchment
The ancient term used in place of "achievement" was "hatchment", being a corruption (through such historic forms as
atcheament, achement, hathement, etc.) of the French achèvement,[5] from the verb achever, a contraction of à chef venir ("to
come to a head"), ultimately from Latin ad caput venire, "to come to a head",[6] thus to reach a conclusion, accomplish, achieve.
The word "hatchment" in its historical usage is thus identical in meaning and origin to the English heraldic term "achievement".
However, in recent years the word "hatchment" has come to be used almost exclusively to denote "funerary hatchment", whilst
"achievement" is now used in place of "hatchment" in a non-funereal context. An example of the historic use of "hatchment" in a
non-funerary context to denote what is now termed "achievement" is in the statute of the Order of the Garter laid down by King
Henry VIII (1509-1547) concerning the regulation of Garter stall plates:[7]
 It is agreed that every knyght within the yere of his stallation shall
cause to be made a scauchon of his armes and hachementis in a plate
of metall suche as shall please him and that it shall be surely sett
upon the back of his stall.

References
1. Planche, J.R., Pursuivant of Arms, 1851, p.xx
2. Boutell, Charles & Charles Fox-Davies, Arthur (1914), The handbook to
English heraldry (https://books.google.com/books?ei=mK7QTYGGMI7Yi
ALWv-2ZBg&ct=result&output=text&id=_xdMAAAAMAAJ&dq=abatemen
t+heraldry&q=achievement#v=snippet&q=achievement&f=false),
Reeves & Turner, p. 100, "Achievement, or Achievement of Arms. Any
complete composition of Arms."
3. A.G. Puttock, A Dictionary of Heraldry and Related Subjects, Exeter Garter stall plate of John Russell,
1985. Blaketon Hall. ISBN 0 907854 93 1. P. 40 1st Earl of Bedford (c.1485-
4. Stephen Friar (ed.), A New Dictionary of Heraldry, London 1987. 1554/5), installed as a Knight of
Alphabooks/A&C Black. ISBN 0 906670 44 6. P. 96. the Garter 18 May 1539, showing
5. Collins Dictionary of the English Language, London, 1986 his "achievement", at that time
termed "hatchment"
6. Larousse Dictionnaire de la Langue Francaise, Paris, 1979: "lat. pop.
capum, class. caput
7. Round, J. Horace, Family Origins and Other Studies, Page, William, (ed.), London, 1930, pp.174-189, The Garter
Plates and Peerage Styles, p.174

External links
"What is an Achievement?" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110420025929/http://antirheralds.org/display/achieve
ments/achievements.html). An Tir College of Heralds. Archived from the original (http://www.antirheralds.org/displ
ay/achievements/achievements.html) on 20 April 2011. Retrieved 16 May 2011. "An 'achievement' is a full formal
display of a coat of arms."

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This page was last edited on 5 May 2019, at 17:14 (UTC).

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