Richard is also credited with having originated the English crest of a lion statant (now statant-guardant). John's elder brother, Richard the Lionheart, who succeeded his father on the throne, is believed to have been the first to have borne the arms of three lions passant-guardant, still the arms of England, having earlier used two lions rampant combatant, which arms may also have belonged to his father. Since Henry was the son of Geoffrey Plantagenet, it seems reasonable to suppose that the adoption of lions as an heraldic emblem by Henry or his sons might have been inspired by Geoffrey's shield. Įarlier heraldic writers attributed the lions of England to William the Conqueror, but the earliest evidence of the association of lions with the English crown is a seal bearing two lions passant, used by the future King John during the lifetime of his father, Henry II, who died in 1189. 1175 states that Geoffrey was given a shield of this description when he was knighted by his father-in-law, Henry I, in 1128. An enamel, probably commissioned by Geoffrey's widow between 11, depicts him carrying a blue shield decorated six golden lions rampant and wearing a blue helmet adorned with another lion.

One of the earliest known examples of armory as it subsequently came to be practiced can be seen on the tomb of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, who died in 1151. The lion as a heraldic charge is present from the very earliest development of heraldry in the 12th century. At the time, few Europeans had a chance to encounter actual lions, so that painters had to rely on traditional depictions and had no actual animals as models. It was a predecessor of the medieval bestiaries.

The characteristic of the lion as royal animal in particular is due to the influence of the Physiologus, an early Christian book about animal symbolism, originally written in Greek in the 2nd century and translated into Latin in about AD 400. Īdopted in Germanic tradition around the 5th century, they were re-interpreted in a Christian context in the western kingdoms of Gaul and Italy in the 6th and 7th centuries.

The animals of the 'barbarian' ( Eurasian) predecessors of heraldic designs are likely to have been used as clan symbols. Symmetrically paired animals in particular find continuation from Migration Period art via Insular art to Romanesque art and heraldry. The animal designs in the heraldry of the high medieval period are a continuation of the animal style of the Viking Age, ultimately derived from the style of Scythian art as it developed from c. Two tailed embroidered gold lion from the end of the 17th century, Sweden.

The lioness rampant