Fleur de Lys and the British crownsArchived Message
Posted by Nellie on February 8, 2013, 12:55 am, in reply to "Re: Fleur de Lys"
I had been planning this for the RCMB and will duplicate the information here.
Starting with Twining here is some background to the fleur-de-lys on crowns.
“ The medieval mind was fascinated by religious symbolism and biblical formulae. It is, therefore, not surprising that a stylised fleur-de-lis motif became almost the essential ornament of royal crowns in western Europe, for men in the Middle Ages found good scriptural authority for its use as a decoration on sacred objects. According to Exodus xxv,31 ff., Moses was directed by God to adorn the candlesticks in the Tabernacle with lilies of gold. We may also note that similar floral devices were common forms of decoration in ancient Egypt and in India and that they were also used by the Persian Sassanids as a royal emblem. “
Summarising very very briefly, a trefoil type ornament formed by three stones or pearls wired together was followed by a lily-like fleuron in the second half of the ninth century. Charles the Bald first used it on a crown. The use of the lily-like device spread from the Carolingian to other realms including Germany, France and Spain. “ In England the decoration first appears on the crown of King Edgar (959-75) and it has continued in use down to the present day. “
1279 coinage in England shows the English crowns of the late 13th and 14th centuries “decorated with four large fleurs-de-lis. They continued to be so until the reign of Henry VI (1422-61) who, since he was also the King of France, alternated crosses with fleurs-de-lis on his English crown in order to make a distinction from his French crown. “
“ In the course of time almost every kingdom in Europe adopted the fleur-de-lis as its royal emblem although, in some cases, it was used only on crowns as depicted on seals and coins, and not adopted as the actual crown worn by the sovereign. The fact that the device was specifically associated with the Capetian monarchy gave rise to the mistaken idea that its use in England was deliberately indicative of Plantagenet claims to the French throne. That this was not so is clearly proved by the fact that the emblem was introduced into England by King Edgar as early as the tenth century and long before the accession of the first Plantagenet. It has been used on English crowns ever since and is still used today. “
on February 8, 2013, 12:55 am, in reply to "