Fleur of lily

The flower of lily (or flower of lily ) is a heraldic Meuble, it is one of the four most popular figures with the multiples cross, the eagle and the lion. It is usually classified among the natural figures . Often regarded as symbol marial , it became in France starting from the Moyen-âge the emblem of the Royauté .

Origins of the royal lily

The first use of the sowing of attested lily is a Sceau of prince Louis , future Louis VIII, in 1211. Sowing which is replaced in 1375 by three flowers of lily. It is usually represented in a stylized form, yellow on blue bottom: of sown azure of lily of gold or azure with three gold lilies for the “modern” version .

The flower of lily has to see little with the Lys which one finds in the gardens (used into heraldic under the name of Lys of garden or lily of garden). It is a graphic deterioration of the Iris of the marshes (Iris pseudacorus L. or yellow iris), which is drawn here with back, upside down, and who would have been selected at the 5th century like attribute by Clovis, king of the Francs, after his victory of Vouillé gained over the Visigoths in the West of Poitiers and that one finds abundantly on the edges of the river Lys and the river Senne in Belgium (the yellow iris is besides still the Plant-emblem of the area of Brussels) . According to some, the flower-of-lily stylized resembles besides much more one iris that with a lily.

P.B. Gheusi (COp quoted below) gives to the flower of lily a more warlike origin: it would be an end of javelin Gaulois (or the Angon of the Francs) with point and hooks (see the striking analogy with this fleurdelized sceptre of the blazon of Trieste, which has four hooks, and which would be the lance of Saint Serge) .

As for the name, Gheusi allots it to Louis VII of France the first which can with certainty being quoted like having carried and raised “Fleurdelys” phonetically, if not identical, in any case very near to “Flor de Loys” (Fleur of King Louis).

Another plausible explanation of this name is purely linguistic. The spoken language by the Francs at the time of Clovis was obviously not French, but the francique one. This Germanic dialect finds are equivalence at our modern time with Dutch. However in Dutch the iris of the marshes says lisbloem or translates literally into French: “flower-of-lily”. That can explain the fact of speaking about " flower-of… " , that one never uses for another flower. One indeed never speaks about flower-of-pink or flower-of-tulip!

As for Clovis, one lends especially a blazon to him with three clamping plates (or frogs). If the modern blazon of kings de France owes something with that of Clovis, it is number 3: one can more deeply see in the reduction of 1375 of semi of lily with three lilies an attempt at enraciner a dynasty, while exploiting an ambiguity of form (in good faith or not… by equipping frogs with the Belgian rivers of capacities of remarkable imitation, to see opposite the assumption of the graphic “drift”…).

The museum of Arras has a tapestry where the weapons of France carry without ambiguity three frogs in the usual places of the lilies.

Another assumption tries to attach the base of the royalty to the Christianisme | and to give birth to the royal blazon with the Baptism from Clovis, by varied enough divine interventions according to the authors| , which makes flower of lily is the symbol of the Virgin Mary | , that is to say that of the Trinity | (with its three lobes or its triple presence).

Another relatively convergent legend is reported to us by Rickli-Large Pernette and Beatrice Obergfell in a work gone back to 2007 heading " Geneva and its mysteries - strange Dawdlings in the histoire" : in the old forest of Saint-Germain-in-Bush hammer, close to the castle of Montjoie where the tradition made remain the royal couple, close to a fountain a hermit lived that the very Christian Clotilde queen was accustomed to coming to consult. One day that it was in prayer with the saint man, an angel would have appeared to them and would have asked him to replace the escutcheon of his/her husband carrying three crescents or three clamping plates by three flowers of lilies which shone of a gold color on the plain of the current Joye-in-Valley.

“Of France”

The weapons of sown azure of flower of gold lily and of azure with three flowers of gold lily are so closely related to French monarchy that the language of the blazon uses the expressions France old (for the sown ) and of modern France (for the three flowers of lily ) to save a very well known description of all. One finds in particular the chief of France (according to the times and the cities, of France old or of modern France ) often granted in Augmentation by the kings of France to cities “faithful” to the crown, like Lyon, Angers, Tours, Poitiers, Fréjus, Le Havre, Laon, etc, but also the band of France or the rafter of France .

In France, “the good” cities, i.e. those which had the right to be made represent by their “mayeurs” (or mayors) with the sacring of king de France, had the right to carry on their blazon a chief of France, i.e. “of sown azure of flowers of lily of gold” (France old) or “of azure with three flowers of gold lily” (modern France). The chief of France is a Augmentation granted to the weapons of these cities.

A close term is the expression chief of Anjou which indicates a chief of gold flower-of-lysed azure broken of a lambel of mouths used especially in heraldic Italian. Inspired of the weapons of Anjou kings de Naples, it marks the fidelity or the political alliance of certain families with this dynasty.

It is Charles V who reduced the number of flowers of lily to three (1376), in the honor of the Holy Trinity. The old passage of France to modern to conduit with many irregular weapons, to enquerre. Indeed, the fleurdelysé primitive one is a sowing, which is not subjected to the Règle of contrariety of the colors. It can thus be associated with parts or pieces of furniture with any bottom. On the other hand, modern France is an enamel (azure) charged with pieces of furniture, which can in theory receive only money or gold loads. The loads were very often of mouths (stick of Bourbonnais, lambel of Artois, bandages Walk, chief of the Lyonese, borders of Berry, saltire of Langres…).

The flower of lily, furnishs with piece of furniture

The flower of lily intervenes rather little in the other pieces of furniture. Opposite a fleurdelysés cross and trechor or fleurdelized (but one says also Florences ). The double trechor fleurdelysé and against-fleurdelysé blazon of the kings of Scotland passed in the heraldic language of this country under the name of “royal trechor” ( royal tressure ). He is often employed like increase.

To note that for the cross as for the sceptre of Trieste, the flower of lily loses its lower part. She known as “is nourished” (one does not see his roots, if one saw them she “would not be nourished any more”), but one says also sometimes “crossed”. It is a question of appeciation…

Lille, Florence and Fleur of lily florencée

In the beginning the blazon of Lille is a iris of the marshes (of money on fields of mouths, similar to that of gold on azure of Brussels-Capital). The tranformation in lily (with the very close forms) would be due to an intervention of Louis XIV with the catch of the city, by making some, voluntarily or not, of the Armes speaking (Lille, lilium). It is not a question of a Augmentation, and besides the flower of lily inhabitant of Lille is money (the royal lily is of gold!) and florencée (recall of the primitive iris?), as that of Florence (in total symmetry as for the colors) (the lily Florence of the administration of the Stations is not very exuberant, nevertheless the small balls at the end of the sheets dissociate it royal lily).

Quebec

January 21st, 1948 new a Drapeau of Quebec carrying the flower of lily was introduced. The various French-speaking communities of the Canada use the flower of lily like testimony of their membership of the Francophonie while placing it on their flags.

St-Louis (Missouri)

The flower of Lily is reproduced on the flag of the Town of Saint Louis in the State of the Missouri in the the United States. It is a heritage of the French presence in the area of Eastern bank of the the Mississippi. Besides the town of Saint Louis owes its name with Louis IX of France.

Bosnia-Herzégovine

The Bosnian Lily or Lilium bosniacum was used as emblem with the Bosnian (population of origin Bogomile, mainly become Moslem under the Ottoman Empire) which became the Drapeau of Bosnia-Herzégovine. during the war of Balkans (1992-1995).

Elsewhere…

Other places or institutions using this symbol:

Scouting

The flower of lily traditionally indicated the direction of north on the charts. For this reason, it was selected like international symbol of the Scoutisme. The organizations and events scouts generally take again the flower of lily in their logo (see for example the Symbol of Jamboree Mondial Scout 1947).

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