page_title: Lion (heraldry)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Lion (heraldry) / History
context_page_description: The lion is a common charge in heraldry. It traditionally symbolises courage, nobility, royalty, strength, stateliness and valour, because historically the lion has been regarded as the "king of beasts". The lion also carries Judeo-Christian symbolism. The Lion of Judah stands in the coat of arms of Jerusalem. Similar-looking lions can be found elsewhere, such as in the coat of arms of the Swedish royal House of Bjelbo, from there in turn derived into the coat of arms of Finland, formerly belonging to Sweden.
context_section_description: 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. the 7th century BC. Symmetrically paired animals in particular find continuation from Migration Period art via Insular art to Romanesque art and heraldry.
  The animals of the "barbarian" (Eurasian) predecessors of heraldic designs are likely to have been used as clan symbols.
  Adopted 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 characteristic of the lion as royal animal in particular is due 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.
  It was a predecessor of the medieval bestiaries. 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.
  The lion as a heraldic charge is present from the very earliest development of heraldry in the 12th century. 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. An enamel, probably commissioned by Geoffrey's widow between 1155 and 1160, depicts him carrying a blue shield decorated six golden lions rampant and wearing a blue helmet adorned with another lion. A chronicle dated to c. 1175 states that Geoffrey was given a shield of this description when he was knighted by his father-in-law, Henry I, in 1128.
  Earlier 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. 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. 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. Richard is also credited with having originated the English crest of a lion statant (now statant-guardant).
  Apart from the lions of the Plantagenet (England and Normandy) coat of arms, 12th-century examples of lions used as heraldic charges include the Staufen (Hohenstaufen) and Wittelsbach (Palatinate) coats of arms, both deriving from Henry the Lion, the royal coat of arms of Scotland, attributed to William the Lion,
  the coat of arms of Denmark, first used by Canute VI, the coat of arms of Flanders (Jülich), first used by Philip I, the coat of arms of León, an example of canting arms attributed to Alfonso VII (1126), and the coat of arms of Bohemia, first granted to Vladislaus II.
  Coats of arms of the 13th century include those of the House of Sverre (coat of arms of Norway), the Ludovingians (the lion of Hesse used by Conrad of Thuringia), Luxembourg, the kingdom of Ruthenia (Volhynia), the House of Habsburg (the Habsburgs all but abandoned their original coat of arms after gaining the Duchy of Austria in the 1270s, but it remained in use in derived lineages such as the House of Kyburg), the kingdom of Bulgaria and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (Rubenids).
  Unlike the eagle, which is comparatively rare in heraldry because it was reserved as an imperial symbol, the lion became a symbol of chivalry and was not restricted to royal coats of arms. The Zürich armorial (14th century) has a number of coats of arms with lions, most of them of ministeriales of the House of Habsburg.
  The lion in the coat of arms of Bohemia is depicted with two tails (à la queue fourchée)
caption: A Lion of Saint Mark, from the Echternach Gospels (late 7th century).
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