Saltire

One of the ordinaries in heraldry. Its name is of uncertain etymology, representing a bend sinister conjoined with a bend dexter, or a cro placed transversely like the letter X. Like the other ordinaries, it probably originated, as Planché suggests, in the clamps and braces of the shield. The form of the saltire has been a igned to the cro on which St. Andrew is said to have been crucified; hence the frequency of this ordinary in Scotch heraldry. A saltire is subject to the variations of being engrailed, invented, etc., and may be couped . When two or more saltires are borne in a shield, they are couped, not at right angles, but horizontally; and as they are always so treated, it is considered superfluous to blazon them as couped. Charges disposed in the form of a saltire are described as placed saltire ways , or in saltire . The former term is more properly applied to two long charges, as swords or keys, placed acro one another (in which case the rule is, that the sword in bend sinister should be uppermost, unle otherwise blazoned); and the latter to five charges placed two, one, and two.