Crancelin

{{Short description|Heraldic figure}}

File:Coat of arms of Saxony.svg]]

File:Arms of Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.svg (1819–1861), Duke of Saxony, husband and consort of Queen Victoria]]

Crancelin (or "crown of rue") is a charge in heraldry, usually seen in the bend on a shield. It depicts a band of a stylized trefoil leaves, representing a branch of common rue (Ruta graveolens). It can be found in the coat of arms of Saxony.{{cite book|first1= Thomas|last1= Woodcock|author-link1= Thomas Woodcock (officer of arms)|first2= John Martin|last2= Robinson|authorlink2= John Martin Robinson|title= The Oxford Guide to Heraldry|location= Oxford|year= 1988|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn= 0-19-211658-4|page=199}}

Legend has it that at the investiture of Bernhard, Count of Anhalt and Ballenstedt, as Duke of Saxony, the then emperor, Frederick I Barbarossa, took the chaplet of rue he was wearing and placed it over the corner of Bernhard's shield. To commemorate this act, the crancelin vert was added to the Ballenstedt arms (barry sable and or).Karl Peter Lepsius: Kleine Schriften, Beiträge zur thüringisch-sächsischen Geschichte und deutschen Kunst und Alterthumskunde Dritter Band, Creutz, Magdeburg (1855) ([https://archive.org/details/kleineschriften00schugoog/page/n185 Ch 4 p174-181] at google books) (old German)

The Encyclopédie of 1751 defined it as a "portion of a crown placed in bend across a shield".D’Alembert, Diderot

L’Encyclopédie, 1re éd, 1751 (Tome 4, p. 430): "portion d’une couronne posée en bande à-travers l’écu"[https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/L%E2%80%99Encyclop%C3%A9die/1re_%C3%A9dition/CRANCELIN_ou_CRANCESLIN]

The French word is from the German KränzleinParker, James, Glossary of terms used in heraldry, 1894[https://www.heraldsnet.org/saitou/parker/Jpglossc.htm#Crown]) ("little garland / wreathlet"{{Cite web|url=https://www.dict.cc/german-english/Kr%C3%A4nzlein.html|title=Dict.cc dictionary :: Kr%C3%A4nzlein :: German-English translation}}).

The bearing is sometimes called "a ducal coronet in bend" or "a bend archy coronetty".Parker, James, Glossary of terms used in heraldry, 1894 It is known in German as Rautenkranz ("garland / wreath of rue"Johann Ebers, New And Complete Dictionary Of The German And English, Volume 2, Leipzig, 1798[https://books.google.com/books?id=4-9IAAAAcAAJ&dq=rautenkranz+wreath+of+rue&pg=PA1002]).