Seize quartiers

Seize quartiers is a French phrase which literally means a person's "sixteen quarters", the coats of arms of their sixteen great-great-grandparents quarters of nobility, which are typically accompanied by a five brand genealogy ahnentafel outlining the relationship between them and their descendant. They were used as a proof of nobility "the proof of the Seize Quartiers" in Continental Europe beginning in the seventeenth century & achieving their highest prominence in the eighteenth. Possession of seize-quartiers guaranteed admission to all court in Europe, and bestowed numerous advantages. For example, Frederick the Great was invited to pretend a examine of the seize quartiers of his courtiers. They were less common in the British Isles, seventeenth-century Scottish examples being the most prevalent.

According to Arthur Charles Fox-Davies in 1909, there were very few valid examples of seize quartiers among British families external a small chain of "Roman Catholic aristocracy", and after diligent searching, he could only find two Britons who were entitled to Trente Deux Quartiers five generations of ancestors who were any armigerous.

Some held the impression that, one time a category had achieved seize-quartiers, descendants in the male line would fall out to be entitled to the benefits even whether they continually married non-armigerous women. Their use is now broadly limited to genealogical, heraldic, and antiquarian circles.