FLEUR
DE LIS
Many
theories have been formulated about the meaning and origin of the figure
called fleur de lis. In this essay I defend the hypothesis that the fleur
de lis is in fact a thunderbolt and is a symbol of armed authority.
Unlike the single, the double and the four-fold thunderbolt the fleur de lys
is a one-and-a-half one, the upper part being larger than the lower part. Artin
Pacha has suggested that the word “lis” actually could be derived from the
word “lois” which is a younger version of the name of the first frankish king
Clovis. [1] On the other hand the word lois could
also mean law(s). I may add
that the word “floris” “florest”and “fleur” may well be
a corruption of the latin word “fulguris” or “fulgur” which
means thunderbolt or lightning. In this way “fleur de lis” would actually
mean “the lightning of law” or (in France) “the lightning of Clovis” and this
would provide us with the much longed for proof that a fleur de lis is
in fact a version of a thunderbolt and a symbol of armed authority. This, of
course is not enough to make us accept that the fleur de lis is not the
picture of a lily but actually the picture of a thunderbolt. As we
know, the fleur the lis was valued in France as the symbol of the Virgin Mary
and the fleurs de lis in the arms of France were explained by the legend of
Clovis who had received them from the Holy Virgin at his coronation. This
legend, of course, can not explain the
fleur de lis in the hands or on the heads of other European kings. As
sceptres and crowns are symbols of the authority of the European kings, it
follows that the lily-sceptre is also a symbol of authority in the European
context. On royal seals, but also in the royal images the lily-sceptre is
held in the right hand and it replaces the sword or the sceptre with an eagle
as a filial. These are clearly symbols of armed authority, the eagle being
the symbol of a Roman consul, the successor of the Roman Kings and
those who held a similar rank. For these
reasons it seems probable that the fleur de lis also symbolizes armed
authority. As the
eagle is closely associated with the Roman supreme commander, the thunderbolt
in the context of the Roman Empire is associated with the Praetorian Guard
which initially was the bodyguard of the Roman commanding general in the
field. This idea may have been adopted by Louis I the Pious as well as by
Otto I when they propagated the renaissance of the Roman Empire. Its use can
be explained when we accept that the Byzantine Emperor was considered to be
the successor of the Roman Emperors and that the rulers in the Western half
of this Empire were considered to be the Praetorian Prefects for former
Gallia. This
would explain why early lily-sceptres are found in Germany and France, the
two halves of the Frankish Empire, in itself a successor of the Praefecture
Gallia. We may be
sure that, when the Western Emperor claimed the title of consul, as
did Otto III, and the eagle as his emblem of rank, some other kings could
consider themselves equal to a praetorian prefect, thus accepting the
sovereignty of the Byzantine or Frankish Emperor. However,
there remains some confusion as, after the function of Praetorian Prefect had
become an administrative office, the emblems of these office had changed
also. We know from the Notitia Dignitatum that the insignia of the Praetorian
Prefect consisted of a table covered with a blue cloth, an ivory diptique,
four candles and a teca. Also the Praetorian Prefect had the right on
a quadriga. So, in
their choice, the rulers of the Western Half of the Empire reverted to the
office of the former, pre-constantinian praetorian prefects. |
||||||||||
Early pictures
of the fleur de lis are scarce. It is said that on a coin of the Emperor
Hadrian with the legend Restitutori Galliae there is a female figure
holding a fleur de lis in her hand. [2] Somewhat later a fleur de lis in its
characteristic form is on this piece of cloth from the end of the 3rd century
A.D.: Fragment of a reliquary cloth. Silk
twill. Iranian, 3rd - 4th century
AD. Aachen, Cathedral treasure. On this
cloth pairs of confronting peacocks support a sun, crested with lily-like
leaves; between the peacocks, pillars with foliate capitals. |
||||||||||
The fleur
de lis is certainly not of West European but of Persian or Byzantine origin.
An early example of a thunderbolt/fleur
de lis is on the seal of Caliph Abd el Malik. It would explain why the figure
is well known in the muslim world. Other specimina of this specially shaped
thunderbolts can be found on buildings in Damascus which was conquered by the
Caliphs in 635. |
||||||||||
Seal of Abd el Malik (685-705 AD) Archeological Museum,
Istanbul. |
Lily on the Bab-al-Hadid gate in Damascus. |
|||||||||
The fleur the
lis of this shape was used in the 12th and 13th century Abbasid caliphate after
the temporal sovereignty was regained from the Seljuqs (1157). According to
Mayer, fleurs de lis are on coins of: Al-Adil Abu Bakr (1200-1218), Al-Mansur Qalaun
(1279-1290), Al-Nasir Ahmad (1342), Al-Ashraf Shaban II (1363-1377),
Al-Mansur Ali II (1377-1381), Al-Muzaffar Hajji II (1389-1390), Al-Zahir
Barquq (1390-1399), Al-Ashraf Barsbay (1422-1438), Al-Zahir Khushqadam
(1461-1467) and Al-Ashraf Qaitbay (1467-1496). [3] Copper
coin of Sayf al-Din al-Muzaffar Hajji I (1346-‘47) That is to say that the fleur de lis was an emblem
of the Egyptian rulers from about 1175 until the Ottoman conquest. |
||||||||||
Going
back to the same Byzantine source the same figure occurs in relation with
Charlemagne. Fragment of a marble arch. Early 9th century. Cortona (Umbria), Academia Etrusca. In the tympanon is a square cross supported by two
peacocks. The inscription on the arch reads: IPORIBVS DN CARVLO IMPERATOR IBO P & B FI ERI FECIPRO AMORE DIE. Certainly Charlemagne is meant with
Carvlo Imperator. The square cross supported by two peacocks is
the emblem of his (christian) prefectoral government. Below the tails of the peacocks we notice two
fleurs de lis of a somewhat reduced form. Such fleurs de lis, more resembling
the 3rd century fleur de lis mentioned above are on the shield of a Carolingian warrior on
this reliquiary from the valley of the Meuse. |
||||||||||
17th century drawing of a reliquiary in the shape of a triumphal arch. Detail. Made
by Egingardus, abbot of the St. Servatius in Maastricht, about 820. Fulda, Landesbibliothek.
Domschatz cod Bonif., II. [4] |
||||||||||
The
lily-topped sceptre apparently is a creation of the 10th century and it
replaces a spear as the symbol of armed authority. In England the armed
authority was symbolized by a sword which can be seen in the right hand of
its rulers on their seals. The more recent sceptres sometimes are topped with
a clearly three-dimensional version of a thunderbolt. The french sceptres
have a fleur de lis of a flat shape and are alsmost two-dimensional. |
||||||||||
Probably
the lily-sceptre was invented by king / emperor Otto I. This can be seen on
his statue which shows him with orb and sceptre. On his head a crown of
Byzantine fashion Seal of King Robert II of France (996-1031) Almost at
the same time the fleur de lis was made an ornament of the royal crown. This can
be seen on the seal of King Robert II the Pious of France on which he is
represented crowned with a crown set with fleurs de lis. |
||||||||||
From then
on the lily-sceptre and the lily-crown was a common emblem of the German and
the French kings. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
Even when
there is an interlude of four or five centuries before the fleur de lis
appears on the sceptres of the Roman kings and on the shields of the French
bailiff Hugues de Bastons and the french Kings, its meaning as the symbol of
the armed power of a warrior protecting the integrity of the ruler was not
lost. We only may notice that through the ages the form of the symbol was as
corrupted as its name. The fleur
de lis has been used by many mediaeval rulers as a symbol of their
authority. Amongst them are the kings of Bohemia, Denmark, Sicily, Spain and Sweden.
It occurs on top of scepters, hold in hand by the king, and also on the
crowns, most of the time four of them, worn on their heads. |
||||||||||
Sceptre of the Holy Roman Empire, about 1350. Shields
with a fleur de lis are known for example from the Swedish jarl Birger
Bengtsson but also from the Italian city of Florence.[5] |
||||||||||
It may be clear
that the fleur de lis is not a French innovation, nor was it used uniquely by
the French kings. The contribution of France in the development of the fleur
de lis is the confusion about its meaning where, for need of dynastic
legitimacy, it was changed from an emblem of armed authority to an emblem of
the Holy Virgin. The fleurs de lis on the seals of some Flemish cities may
still be interpreted as emblems of armed authority. The most convincing
example of the application of the emblem as such however is the shield of the
bailiff Hugues de Bastons, showing a shield strewn with fleurs de lis. No
emblems of the Holy Virgin can be expected in such a context. This shield was later adopted, first by the
crown prince and later by the French kings as their coat of arms, thus
defining their armed authority mainly as a police service instead of in terms
of military rank. For this reason the royal arms could also be used by the
royal bailiffs in those districts under direct royal rule. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
Seals with a fleur de lis from Flanders 1199 [6] Seal of Hugues de Bastons, Bailiff of the French Domain, 1207 Arms: Six fleurs de lis 3, 2, 1. L.: X SIGILLVM VGO [ ]TVNS. D.:
1207. (Arch. Nat., Sceaux, D 5075.) For the
same reason the royal achievement of France was later on the offices of the
local bailiffs like for example this heavily damaged achievement in Amiens: |
||||||||||
From Thunderbolt to Lily |
||||||||||
The invention
of the fleur-de-lis as a symbol of the Virgin Mary, instead as of the armed authority
however is clearly a contribution of France. We do not know how the figure
was called in french before the 13th century. In written sources describing
the arms of the King of France it is referred to as: 1240 Conrad von Mure: Francus Rex in lasurio flores
liliorum 1250 Matthew Paris: Scutum regis
Francorum: scutum azureum vi gladioli floris aurei. 1273 Walford’s Roll C5: Le roy de
France, d’azure semé de florest d’or. (Cl 2, Cd 2) 1280 Camden Roll D.5: Le rey de France
....l’escu de azur floretté de or. In French, fleur
de lis literally means “lily flower”. We may suppose
that, once the name of the figure was corrupted to fleur de lis that
is to say lily-flower, the next step could easily be to make the heraldic
form of the thunderbolt into a lily, symbol of virginity and of the Holy
Virgin. This seems to have been done explicitly at the Council of Trente. About the
French fleur de lis Arthur Fox Davies writes: It is
curious - though possible in this case it may be only a coincidence - that,
on a coin of the Emperor Hadrian, Gaul is typified by a female figure holding
in the hand a lily, the legend being, “Restutori Galliæ”. The
fleur-de-lis as the finial of a sceptre and as an ornament of a crown can be
taken back to the fifth century. Fleurs-the-lis upon crowns and coronets in France are at least as old as the reign
of King Robert (son of Hugh Capet),
whose seal represents him crowned in this manner. [7] We have,
moreover, the ancient legendary tradition that at the baptism of Clovis, King
of the Franks, the Virgin (whose emblem the lily has always been) sent a lily
by an angel as a mark of her special favour. [8] It is
difficult to determine the exact date at which this tradition was invented,
but its accepted character may be judged from the fact that it was solemnly
advanced by the French bishops at the Council of Trent (1545-’63) in a
dispute as to the precedence of their sovereign. The old
legend as to Clovis would naturally identify the flower with him, and it
should be noted that the names Clovis, Lois, Loys and Louis are identical.
“Loys” was the signature of the kings of France until the times of Louis
XIII. It is worth the passing conjecture that what are sometimes termed
“Cleves lilies” may be a corrupted form of Clovis lilies. [9] There can be little doubt that
the term “fleur-de-lis” is quite as likely to be a corruption of
“fleur-de-lois” as flower of the lily. The chief point is that the desire was
to represent a flower in allusion
to the old legend, without perhaps any very definite certainty of the flower
intended to be represented. [10]
Philip I on his seal (a.d.
1060) holds a short staff terminating in a fleur-de-lis. The same object
occurs in the great seal of Louis VII.
In the
seal of his wife, Queen Constance, we find her represented as holding in
either hand a similar object, though in these last cases it is by no means certain
that figures are not attempts to represent the natural flower. A signet of
Louis VII. bears a single fleur-de-lis “florencée” (or flowered), and in his
reign the heraldic fleur-de-lis undoubtedly became stereotyped as a
symbolical device, for we find that when in the lifetime of Louis VII. his
son Philip was crowned, the king prescibed that the prince should wear “ses
chausses apelées sandales ou bottines de soye, couleur bleu azuré semée en
moult endroits de fleurs-de-lys or, puis aussi sa dalmatique de même couleur
et œuvre.” On the oval counterseal of Philip II. (d. 1223) appears a heraldic
fleur-de-lis. His great seal, as also that of Louis VIII., shows a seated
figure crowned with an open crown of “fleurons,” and holding in his right
hand a flower, and in his left a sceptre surmounted by a heraldic
fleur-de-lis enclosed within a lozenge-shaped frame. On the seal of Louis
VIII. the conjunction of the essentially heraldic fleur-de-lis (within the
lozenge-shaped head of the sceptre), and the more natural flower held in the
hand, should leave little if any doubt of the intention to represent flowers
in the French fleur-de-lis. The figure held in the hand represents a flower
of five petals. The upper pair turned inwards to touch the centre one, and the
lower pair curved downwards, leave the figure with a marked resemblance both
to the iris and to the conventional fleur-de-lis. The counter-seal of Louis
VIII. shows a Norman-shaped shield semé of fleurs-de-lis of the conventional
heraldic pattern. By then, of course, “Azure, semé-de-lis or” had become the
fixed and determined arms of France. By an edict dated 1376, Charles V.
reduced the number of fleurs-de-lis in his shield to three: “Pour symboliser
la Sainte-Trinité.” [11] í From the middle of the 14th c, when there
was a crisis of succession in France, several works (mostly designed to
legitimize the Valois claims on the throne, against Edward III of England),
explain that the king of France “bears arms of three fleur-de-lis as sign of
the blessed Trinity, sent by God through His angel to Clovis, first Christian
king... telling him to erase the three crescents (!) he bore on his arms and
replace them with the fleur-de-lis.” |
||||||||||
Counterseal
of Louis VII Archives
Nationales de France |
The
Clovis legend may be true in sofar that, according to Gregory of Tours, Clovis I (482-511), was granted the title of consul
by the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I (491-518), following the Battle of
Vouillé (507). Since Clovis's name does not appear in the consular lists, it
is likely he was granted a suffect
consulship. The insignia of this suffect consulship may have been an
eagle as an insignia of rank and of a thunderbolt as an emblem of his armed
authority. Such a combination was still on the counterseal of Louis VII. [12] In a
broader context this meant for the later kings that the kingship of France
was legitimized by Byzantium and that the thunderbolt was a symbol of this
subordination. This was the more annoying as 14th-15th century Byzantium was
slowly liquidated by the Ottoman Sultans who could pretend to be the
legitimate successors of the Byzantine Emperors. The interpretation of the
fleur de lis as a symbol of the Virgin Mary was to legitimize the French
kingship by the Holy Virgin, thus avoiding any idea that it could be of
Byzantine origin (let alone of Ottoman origin). To illustrate this, the arms
of the Kings of France were first interpreted to be a symbol of the Holy
Trinity, implying that the King of France was a reflection of the divine
majesty. [13]
They were, from the beginning
of the 15th century, supported by angels, symbolizing a heavenly mandate. |
|||||||||
The arms |
||||||||||
The arms
strewn with fleur de lys are the arms of officials holding a similar office
of armed authority as the king of France or his bailiffs (representing royal
authority, i.e. administrative, financial and judicial authority). In the
first place these were the members of the Royal family (like the heir
apparent) who held large fiefs, but also the Grand Feudataires, the
prince-archbishops of France: |
||||||||||
Artois |
Chalons |
Langres |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
Laon |
Noyon |
Reims |
||||||||
© Hubert de Vries 2011-08-10. Updated 2014-06-19
[1] Artin,
Yacoub: Contribution a l'étude du blason en Orient. Londres, 1902. Ch. IV p. 53
[2] This fleur de lys was probably ‘ínvented’ by
french scientists to make it an ancient emblem of France. In fact on the denarius of Hadrian with the legend RESTITUTORI GALLIÆ on the
reverse, there is no trace of any fleur de lys nor is the personification a
female but apparently a gaulish warrior.
[3] Mayer, L.A.: Saracenic Heraldry. A survey. Oxford, 1933/1950. XVI + 302 pp. LXXI pl..
[4] Blok, D.P.: De Franken, hun optreden in het
licht der historie. Bussum, 1968. fig. 24, p. 113.
[5]
Fleetwood, Harold.:
Svenska medeltida kungasigill. 1936. N° 5 (1180-1202)
[6] Raadt, J. de: Sceaux
Armoriés des Pays Bas et des Pays Avoisinants. (Belgique, Royaume des Pays Bas,
Luxembourg, Allemagne, France.) Receuil Historique
et Heraldique. Bruxelles,
1897.
[7] Robert II, the Pious, 996-1031.
[8] The lily was made a symbol of the Holy Virgin when a point was made of her virginity. Early statuettes of St. Mary show her with a globe in her hand and a child on her lap. In fact these were no portraits of St. Mary at all but portraits of the queen or empress with the heir apparent on her lap. They were a demonstration that the succession was guaranteed (thus avoiding successional strife). After the time of iconoclasm they could be worshipped when they were but called St. Mary. See also my Empress Irene and her Son
[9] This is the so-called Lilienhaspel in the arms of Cleve. Originally this is a carbuncle,
a version of the thunderbolt consisting of eight rays ending in fleurs de
lis. This german Cleve has nothing to do with Clovis of
course.
[10] The greek name of the thunderbolt (κεραυνός) is missing even when the emblem
originates in Byzantium. Artin op.cit.
suggests that in Byzantium the figure was also called a lily but the word
means: tulip.
[11] Fox Davies, A.F.: A Complete Guide to Heraldry
[12] A combination of an eagle and a thunderbolt
also on the shield of Sutton Hoo
belonging to the Bretwalda of England, King Rædwald of East Anglia
(600-624).
[13] Bulletin du Comité de la Langue, de l’ Histoire et des Arts de la France T. 4, 1857. p. 239-249.