A heraldic term for a narrow horizontal stripe or band used in coat-of-arms designs.
From Old French 'baton' (stick or rod), the batlon is a diminutive form referring to a thin stripe. In heraldry, it evolved as a variation of the ordinary 'bendlet' to represent reduced or altered noble status.
In medieval heraldry, a batlon on a coat of arms could silently communicate family secrets—illegitimate children or disgraced relatives might have their family symbols marked with these thin stripes as a kind of visual footnote to their legitimacy.
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