A Complete Guide to HeraldryFox-Davies, Arthur Charles
History
A Complete Guide to Heraldry
Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles
Heraldry -- Great Britain
A lion rampant and any other beast of prey is usually represented in
heraldry with the tongue and claws of a different colour from the animal.
If it is not itself gules, its tongue and claws are usually represented as
of that colour, unless the lion be on a field of gules. They are then
represented azure, the term being "armed and langued" of such and such a
colour. It is not necessary to mention that a lion is "armed and langued"
in the blazon when tongue and claws are emblazoned in gules, but whenever
any other colour is introduced for the purpose it is better that it should
be specified. Outside British heraldry a lion is always supposed to be
rampant unless otherwise specifically described. The earliest appearance of
the lions in the arms of any member of the Royal Family in England would
appear to be the seal of King John when he was Prince and before he {174}
ascended the throne. This seal shows his arms to be two lions passant. The
English Royal crest, which originated with Richard I., is now always
depicted as a lion statant guardant. There can be no doubt, however, that
this guardant attitude is a subsequent derivation from the position of the
lions on the shield, when heraldry was ceasing to be actual and becoming
solely pictorial. We find in the case of the crest of Edward the Black
Prince, now suspended over his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral, that the lion
upon the chapeau looks straight forward over the front of the helm (see
Fig. 271).
[Illustration: FIG. 272.]
Another ancient rule belonging to the same period as the controversy
between leopards and lions was that there cannot be more than _one lion_
upon a shield, and this was one of the great arguments used to determine
that the charges on the Royal Arms of England must be leopards and not
lions. It was admitted as a rule of British armory to a limited extent,
viz., that when two or more lions rampant appeared upon the same shield,
unless combatant, they were always formerly described as lioncels. Thus the
arms of Bohun are: "Azure, a bend argent, cottised between six lioncels
rampant or." British heraldry has, however, long since disregarded any such
rule (if any definite rule ever really existed upon the point), though
curiously enough in the recent grant of arms to the town of Warrington the
animals are there blazoned six "lioncels."
The artistic evolution of the lion rampant can be readily traced in the
examples and explanations which follow, but, as will be understood, the
employment in the case of some of these models cannot strictly be said to
be confined within a certain number of years, though the details and
periods given are roughly accurate, and sufficiently so to typify the
changes which have occurred.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account