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This article is in response to the question about the fleur de lis and its depiction as a weapon. It is not intended to answer the question, but to invite discussion.

THE FLEUR DE LIS

An article originally published in Aspects of Heraldry No 5, The Yorkshire Heraldry Society, Leeds, 1991, and in The New Zealand Armiger No 25, Auckland, 1993.

The fleur de lis is widespread in the heraldry of France, and is by far the most common of the charges. Its origin is unknown, although there are several theories(1)

Probably the most common of these is that the fleur de lis is a symbol of the Virgin Mary. In psychological terms, it does have some affinity with the trefoil, the shamrock and other tripartite forms, which Christians have always associated with the Trinity.

The botanical lily is seen as a symbol of purity, which, as well as its association with the Trinity, has led to its adoption as a representation of the Virgin Mary. Most specifically, this plant is the White or Madonna lily, lillum candidum. It is, however, difficult to see a connection between the shape of the fleur de lis and any form of lily.

Sometimes the fleur de lis is drawn à pied nourri, that is, with the bottom parts of the flowers, and occasionally the bar connecting them, removed. This term can be used in French blazon of any plant where the roots are not shown, although in practice, apart from describing the fleur de lis, it is rare. The idea meant to be conveyed Is that the plant is cultivated, or nourri, that is, below the ground, and that the roots are therefore invisible. It may be, therefore, that the fleur de lis is indeed intended to represent a plant.

The fleur de lis is thought by some to be the interpretation of the head of a weapon, such as the pike. An heraldic charge which appears to support this theory is the leopard's head jessant de lis, which only seems to make sense if the animal's head is pierced by a weapon(2). This term is rare In English blazon, and I have not come across an example of it in French. One theory is that the original fleur de lis was the head of a weapon known as the javelot or francisque, which later came to be used as a sceptre, and then as the French arms(3).

It is possible that the Crusaders borrowed the fleur de lis from the Saracens, although earlier examples in France have been found on Gallic coins. A similar emblem was in common use as a decoration, long before the Crusades, and early examples of it have been found In Egypt, Crete, Greece and Rome(4).

In spite of the theories, plausible or not, the origin of the fleur de lis can only be guessed at. In the same way, the date of its adoption by the kings of France has been a matter of conjecture, quarrelled over by many writers. It has been said that it is the interpretation of the bee which was borne on a ring by Childéric I, c.436-481. One legend says that Clovis, the first Christian king of the Franks, who was converted in 496, received the lilies from an angel via a hermit; another, that soldiers of Clovis, after the battle of Tolbiac(5), took irises to put into their hair and thus adopted them as a royal badge(6). These stories may at least help to prove the antiquity of the fleur de lis, but there must always have been the temptation to make up a story to fit subsequent history, and the problem of the chicken and the egg has always been present for students of heraldry.

It has even been claimed that the fleur de lis is derived from toads which appeared on the royal banner of Clovis(7). On reflection, it is perhaps easier to see the connection between the shape of the fleur de lis and a toad than it is with the lily. The legends of Clovis and his adoption of the fleur de lis came into being in the fourteenth century, when the Valois claim to the throne was being established. By the end of the fifteenth century, the arms which Clovis had been ascribed before his conversion to Christianity had become three toads, instead of Azure three crescents or. Earlier heralds had assumed that the crescents of Islam were sufficient to indicate an antithesis of Christianity; later, the toads of Satan were taken to be more appropriate.

The fleur de lis was found as an ornament on the sceptres of the Carolingian kings. In a decree of Louis VII of 1147, the fleur de lis is connected with the monarchy, and at his coronation in 1179 Philippe-Auguste wore a robe of azure semy de lis. And, although it is claimed that it did not appear on the seals of France until 1223(8), a seal of Louis VII (1137-80) shows the stamens of a fleur de lis flory, possibly because of the canting "fleur de Louis"(9).

The fleur de lis first appears in French heraldry in 1199 as a rebus on a seal of the town of Lille(10), Nord, although another view is that it made its first official appearance on a seal dated 1211 of Louis, later to be Louis VIII, son of Philippe-Auguste(11). The arms of the kings of France and their descendants appear in many civic coats, usually either because the commune was a fief of the crown or of a relative of the king, or because the royal arms, usually differenced, were granted to the town for a special reason.

The first arms of France were Azure semy de lis or, and are known as France ancient. In about 1365 Charles VI reduced the number of fleurs de lis to three in a coat which is known as France modern. It is popularly thought that this was in homage to the Trinity, but three fleurs de lis had appeared in different places as far back as 1228(12). Edward III of England quartered the arms of France on his third Great Seal of 1340, in connection with his claim to the throne of France.

The fleurs de lis had been known in England as early as c.1050 on the coins of Harthacnut. The obverse of the first seal of Edward the Confessor shows his sceptre surmounted by a fleur de lis(13). Henry IV adopted France modern in about 1405, and the fleurs de lis were not finally removed from the English arms until 1801.

In France the fleur de lis is found everywhere, and not only in connection with the French throne. Twenty armorials of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries depict no fewer than 6,000 instances of the use of the fleur de lis, the majority from the north, and especially from the Flemish province of Brabant. Legends concerning the granting of the fleur de lis to individual persons by a grateful monarch are to be looked at with suspicion, since such concessions were in fact extremely rare. The adoption of the fleur de lis was not symbolic or mysterious, but normally followed the conventions and the popular taste of the time: the charge was considered to be no more important than the bezant or the mullet(14).

The traditional way of bearing fleurs de lis in French communal arms is in the chief of France ancient or modern. Strictly speaking this honour was reserved for the "bonnes villes de France, forty in number, whose maires were privileged to attend the coronation of the king"(15). Needless to say, there are many more than forty towns who bear the chief of France, and by no means all of them had that honour granted by the monarch. Today, however, the popularity of the fleur de lis In French civic heraldry appears to have run its course. In a republican state it is viewed with suspicion, and unless there is a clear historical reason for its use it is rarely adopted in modern coats.

NOTES

1. Two books which attempt to trace the origin of the fleur de lis are Recherches sur l'origine du blason, et en particulier sur la fleur de lis (Paris,1853), author unknown, and VAN MALDERGHEM, Les Fleurs de lis de l'ancienne monarchie française: leur origine, leur nature, leur symbolisme (Brussels and Paris, 1894).

2. D'HAUCOURT, G and DURIVAULT, G. Le blason (Que sais-je? 1982).

3. Dictionnaire universelle du XIXe siècle, which does not, in fact, consider this to be en acceptable theory.

4. CADOGAN, G. R. The ABC of heraldry, ch. 15.

5. Tradition has it that Clovis swore before the battle against the Alamani that If he won he would adopt the god of Clothilde, his Christian wife.

6. CADOGAN, loc. cit.; PARKER, A. A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, p. 268, states unequivocally, 'no doubt It represents the lily'.

7. CHEVALIER, JEAN, and GHEERBRANT, ALAIN. Dictionnaire des symboles, p.309. This work is concerned with giving interpretatIons of symbols, and in this case states that there is a confusion with the frog, which is a symbol of resurrection. And so, once again, the theory comes back to a religious point of view.
WILLS CIGARETTE CARDS. Heraldic signs and their origins, No.10 (1925). Here the note on the card suggeste that the origin is canting, from Louis, or that the fleur de lis mey derive from the toads of Pharamond.
Dictionnaire universelle du XIXe siècle states that the toad arose from the ignorance of heraldic painters, who guessed at the nature of a poorly drawn fleur de lis. This last is at least a plausible idea, since there are many examples of charges being altered for the same reason.

8. WHITTICK, A. Symbols, signs and their meanings and uses in design, p.245.; GALBREATH, D L, and JEQUIER, L. Le Manuel du blason, p.32; PASTOUREAU, M. L'Hermine et le sinople, pp.158-78.

9. D'HAUCOURT, G. , and DURIVAULT, G. , op. cit. The arms of Florence, Italy, are Argent a fleur de lis flory gules. On the seal of Liskeard, Cornwall, two birds perch on the stamens of a fleur de lis.

10. It appears most obviously in English civic heraldry in the former arms of Wakefeld: Azure, a fleur de lis or. It is claimed that the fleur de lis was granted to the town by Henrietta Maria, following their help to her during the Civil Wer. However, it must not be assumed that all examples of the fleur de lis in English civic heraldry have a connection with the French royal family. For example, in the arms of Lincoln, Argent, on a cross gules a fleur de lis or, the allusion Is probably to the Virgin Mary, and the fleurs de lis which are found in the arms of Blackpool are those of Banks. SCOTT-GILES, C. W. Civic Heraldry of England and Wales (1933). and BRIGGS, G. Civic and Corporate Heraldry (1971), give Wakefield's then arms as Azure, a fleur de lis or fimbriated ermine, granted in 1932.

11. PASTOUREAU, M., op.cit. The seal is equestrian, turned to the dexter and bearing a shield semy de lis, and is in the Archives Départementales du Pas-de-Calais, Arras.

12. Three fleurs de lis are found on a seal of this date of the town of Lens, Pas-de-Calais.

13. CADOGAN, op.cit., and WHITTICK, op.cit. This early appearance of the fleur de lis in England echoes its use by the Carolingians.

14. PASTOUREAU, M., op.cit. 15. In the time of the Empire the fleurs de lis of the chief of France were replaced by bees, and the number of "bonnes villes" was reduced to thirty six, strictly graded in order of importance: Caen, for example, was No21.

BRIAN TIMMS