Orle (heraldry)

In heraldry, an orle is a subordinary consisting of a narrow band occupying the inward half of where a bordure would be, following the exact outline of the shield but within it, showing the field between the outer edge of the orle and the edge of the shield.

An orle can sometimes be confused with an inescutcheon or escutcheon voided (a smaller shield with a shield-shaped hole), or with a patch of the field left over between a bordure and an inescutcheon.

Orles may varied by any of the lines of variation.

Discrete charges arranged in the position of an orle are described as in orle or as "an orle of".

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  Gules, an inescutcheon argent within a bordure argent
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  An orle Gules indented on its inner edge
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  Argent, eight torteaux (roundels gules) in orle; alternatively an orle of eight torteaux
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  The arms of Dervorguilla of Galloway and her husband John de Balliol; the latter's orle is dimidiated