Seize Quartiers are literally a person's "sixteen quarters", the coat-of-arms of their sixteen great-great-grandparents, which are typically accompanied by a five generation genealogy 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 and achieving their highest prominence in the eighteenth. Possession of seize-quartiers guaranteed admission to any court in Europe, and bestowed many advantages. For example, Frederick the Great was known to make a study of the Seize Quartiers of his courtiers. They were less common in the British Isles, seventeenth-century Scottish examples being the most prevalent. Some held the view that, once a family had achieved seize-quartiers, descendants in the male line would continue to be entitled to the benefits even if they continually married non-armigerous women. Their use is now generally limited to genealogical, heraldic, and antiquarian circles.