_Fleur de lys._ The beautiful heraldic device so long identified with the history of France: No. 246 (from the monument of EDWARD III.?). The fleur de lys, derived, it would seem, from the flower of a lily resembling the iris, was adopted by LOUIS VII. (A.D. 1137-1180) as his royal ensign, and in due time it was regularly charged upon a true Shield of Arms. Originally the Royal Shield of France was--_Az., semée of fleurs de lys, or_; the fleurs de lys scattered freely over the field, and the Shield itself having the appearance of having been cut out of a larger object, over the whole surface of which the flowers had been _semée_. This Shield of France is distinguished as “_France Ancient_”: No. 247. About A.D. 1365, CHARLES V. of France reduced the number of the fleurs de lys to three; and this Shield is now known as “_France Modern_”: No. 248. In the year 1275, EDMUND, first Earl of Lancaster, the second son of HENRY III., married BLANCHE of Artois, when he differenced his shield of England with _a label of France--a blue label charged on each point with three golden fleurs de lys_. No. 249, thus, for the first time did the armorial insignia of England and France appear together upon the same Shield. In 1299 EDWARD I. married his second Queen, MARGARET of France, and then this royal lady placed on one of her Seals a Shield of England and France dimidiated: No. 250. On another of her Seals, a very noble example of the Seal-engraver’s art, Queen MARGARET displayed the Shield of King EDWARD I., her husband, _surrounded, on the field of the Seal, with her father’s fleurs de lys_: No. 251. On the Seals of ISABELLE of France, Queen of EDWARD II., the same dimidiated shield, and another shield quartering the arms of England with _France Ancient_ and two other French coats (_Navarre_ and _Champagne_) appear. Then Prince JOHN of ELTHAM charged a “bordure of France” _upon his shield_, No. 24; thus applying the suggestion of the Seal of Queen MARGARET, No. 251, in such a manner as was consistent with the advanced condition of heraldic art. On his accession in 1327, EDWARD III. placed a fleur de lys on each side of the Shield of England upon his Great Seal: and in 1340, when he claimed the crown of France, EDWARD _quartered France Ancient with his lions of England_: No. 252. Shortly after his accession, perhaps in 1405, in order to conform to the altered blazonry of the French sovereigns, HENRY IV. quartered _France Modern_ on his shield: No. 253. The position of the three fleurs de lys was more than once changed in the Royal Shield of England (as I shall hereafter show more particularly) after the accession of the STUARTS; and they were not finally removed till the first year of the nineteenth century. The fleur de lys is also borne on many English Shields, disposed in various ways. In modern cadency the fleur de lys is the difference of the sixth son, or house.