Few heraldic emblems have been so controversial as the fleur-de-lis
(or fleur-de-lys or flower-de-luce). Its history stretches far
back in time, allegedly into the mists of antiquity, and its quasi-mystical
origins were seemingly accepted unquestioningly by early churchmen.
One scenario identifies it as the lily given at his baptism to
Clovis, King of the Franks (from AD 481 to 511), by the Virgin
Mary, a tradition presented in evidence by the French bishops
at the Council of Trent (AD 1545-63) to support their arguments
for the precedence of their king, François I.
The lily was claimed to have sprung from the tears shed by Eve
as she left Eden (just as that unrelated flower, the lily of the
valley, was said to have grown from the tears of the Virgin at
the foot of the Cross). From its earliest records (it was the
flower of Hera, the Greek moon goddess) it has been the symbol
of purity and was accordingly readily adopted by the Church to
associate the Virgin Mary's sanctity with events of special significance.
Thus when Pope Leo III in AD 800 crowned Charlemagne as Emperor,
he is reported to have presented him with a blue banner covered
(semé) with golden fleurs-de-lis (an event which may have given
birth to the legend of the Virgin's gift to Clovis, as it undoubtedly
formed the basis of Nicolas Upton's reference, around AD 1428,
to Charlemagne having received the banner Azure semé of fleurs-de-lis Or from an angel).
Clovis is the same name as Lois, Loys and Louis, and as Loys was
the contemporary spelling used by the Kings of France until Louis
XIII (AD 1610), ":fleur-de-lys" has been claimed as a corruption
of "fleur-de-Loys". Other imaginative explanations include the
shape having been developed from the image of a dove descending,
which is the symbol of the Holy Ghost, and, as Rouge Croix Pursuivant
John Guillim explained in his Display of Heraldrie (1611), of it being a distortion of the outline of a toad.
"France Modern"
after 1376
"France Ancient"
before 1376
That the French kings long used the fleur-de-lis as an emblem
of their sovereignty is irrefutable. On his seal of AD 1060 (before
heraldry became formalised) Philip I sits on his throne holding
a short staff that terminates in a fleur-de-lis. The same staff
appears in the great seal of Louis VII (AD 1137-80), whose signet
ring was charged with a single fleur-de-lis. The great seals of
Philip II and Louis VIII show them seated, holding in one hand
a flower and in the other a sceptre on which is mounted an heraldic
fleur-de-lis within a lozenge. But long before this, although
it may perhaps be merely coincidence and unrelated to later practice,
the Roman Emperor Hadrian (AD 117-138) issued a coin which represented
Gaul (as France then was) with a woman holding a lily in her hand
Louis VII is believed to have been the first to use Azure semé of fleurs-de-lis Or (now abbreviated to Azure semé-de-lis Or and designated "France Ancient") on his shield, but its use on
a banner, and especially on the French royal standard, may have
been earlier than this. (The reduction to three fleurs-de-lis,
today designated as "France Modern", was commanded by Charles
V in 1376, reportedly in honour of the Holy Trinity. This was
copied by Henry IV of England who, following Edward III, had symbolised
the English claim to France by placing the French lilies in his
first quarter.)
King Henry IV of England followed Charles V with the change to
three lilies.
King Edward III of England quartered the French lilies to claim
the French throne.
Alexander Nisbet in 1722, after distinguishing between the natural
lily, "the lily of the garden", and the stylised lily, "the lily
of the flag", observed of the oriflamme ~
The other lilies, as those of France, so well known ....... having
only but three leaves, is by the Latins called flos iridis, and by the French fleur de l'iris; being always called the flower of the rainbow or iridis, which the French call fleur-de-lis, from the river Lis, as some will; and anciently flams or flambs, which signifies the same: Whence the Royal Standard of France
was called the oriflam or oriflambe, being a blue banner, charged with golden flower-de-luces, a
suitable figure, say some, for the Franks, who come from the marshes
of Friezland.
Lilies on the banks of the Lys (in Flanders, the Leie) to the
west of Ghent
Two points are worth noting here. First, the seeming confusion
between the iris and the lily is commonly found throughout all
the early writings on this subject, for it was only during the
19th century that the iris ceased to be known as a lily. Second
is the reference to the river Lis. Today, in France, this is the
River Lys, and its continuation downstream into Flanders is, in
Flemish, the River Leie. Here, to the west of Ghent (where it
flows through the lands once held by the Gavere family, the first
to bear the tressure flory-counterflory featuring the fleur-de-lis),
the golden iris may still be found on its banks. The heraldic
representation of the flower sweeps the upper pair of its five
petals inwards to merge with the centre one, while the lower pair
curve downwards. The photograph of the pressed and dried flower
below left shows the results.
So although the legendary origins of the fleur-de-lis have caught
imaginations down the centuries, and are still to be found in
heraldic textbooks, Nisbet's casual comment is worth more than
later writers have allowed it. The lily, now called an iris, still
grows along the Lys in lands drained by the Franks. When pressed
and dried it reveals clearly the shape of the stylised heraldic
charge. This is, on balance, its most probable origin.
A Footnote
The classical shape of the fleur-de-lis, and the shape chosen
by most artists today, is similar to that shown at the head of
this article. Between the classical period and the modern period
its design was modified by the limitations and tastes of the craftsmen
and their patrons, so that during those centuries we now call
"the decadence" the outlines could be as grotesque as the shields. During this time also there were attempts to distinguish between
small variations, so that commentators wrote of fleur-de-lis au pied coupé, and of fleur-de-lis au pied nourri, and of fleur-de-lis remplie. Such variations were introduced at the artist's whim and have
no heraldic significance. No allusion to them is made in blazon
(the precise verbal description of arms). The one variation that
is recognised is that in which two stamens separate the three
petals, as in the arms of the city of Florence.
The fleurs-de-lis of Mathew Paris in the mid-13th century illustrate
the shape modern artists copy.
Some modern artists give the fleur-de-lis a prominent 3-D effect
but, again, this is a matter of licence and is ignored in blazon.