Three Lions

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Arkady

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Rob
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Today:

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But:

Derived from the Lion of Geoffrey, Compte d'Anjou (1113-1151):

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Henry II, King of England, Duke of Normandy, Compte d'Anjou (1133-1189):

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Richard I (The Lionheart) King of England, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, Compte d'Anjou and Poitiers (1157-1199)

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Kings of England from 1400 - 1603

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So...French Lions, really - and worse, they were originally styled as Leopards, not Lions...:thumbsdown:
 
Rob_W said:
Surely if the were French they'd be white though ? ...
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Nope...
Geoffrey V (24 August 1113 – 7 September 1151), called the Handsome (French: le Bel) and Plantagenet, was the Compte d'Anjou, Tourane, and Maine by inheritance from 1129 and then Duke of Normandy by conquest from 1144. By his marriage to the Empress Matilda, daughter and heiress of Henry I of England, Geoffrey had a son, Henry Curtmantle, who succeeded to the English Throne and founded the Plantagenet dynasty to which Geoffrey gave his nickname...
 
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The origin of the three lions goes something like this. King Henry I (1100-1135) was known as the 'Lion of Justice', and kept a small zoo which included lions. He either used two lions on his shield (as Duke of Normandy, a state whose flag has two lions) to start with, or used one from his nickname then added the other upon his second marriage to Adeliza of Louvain (1121), whose symbol was also a lion. The two-lion shield was thus a personal one for the king, not the country as a whole. Henry's grandson later came to the throne as Henry II (1154-1189), and married the doughty Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose symbol was yet another lion. By the year 1195 their son, Richard I, had combined his parents' arms (having shoved his father off the throne) to form three lions.
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Anjou, Aquitaine, Normandy...

French...pffft...
 
Nd here was me thinking the French flag was 3 white lions on a white background.....
 
Rob_W said:
That was what i meant in my original reply ... :lol:
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Now maybe - this was 900 years ago.
England was under 'Norman' occupation and Saxons (the English) were 2nd-class citizens...

Heraldry has specific terminology to describe the stance of heraldic animals. The lions that appear on the English coat of arms are walking with three feet upon the ground, looking at the viewer. In heraldry, this position is called “passant regardant”.
The British lion is a “lion passant regardant”. In France, the same heraldic animal, if also in the passant regardant position, is called a leopard.
 
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