A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society
A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society
A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society
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OF FLOWERS AND LEAVES.<br />
the regalia <strong>of</strong> the preceding Kings <strong>of</strong> France are known to have been adorned<br />
with flower-de-luces.<br />
The French have not been wanting to magnify highly this flower, and celebrate<br />
it with many eulogies. Guillim Nanges, in his History <strong>of</strong> St Lewis, says, that it<br />
consists <strong>of</strong> three leaves, which represent Faith, Wisdom, and Valour; and as Ho-<br />
pingius de Jure Insignium, cap. 6. N. 424. that in the middle, Faith, supported<br />
by the other two, the Wisdom and Valour <strong>of</strong> France. I<br />
Churchmen have not been wanting in their mystical applications to the honour<br />
<strong>of</strong> this flower, heaping together all the places <strong>of</strong> Holy Writ, where the lily is men-<br />
tioned, and applying them to it, from the sixth chapter <strong>of</strong> St Matthew, verse 28.<br />
and the 12th <strong>of</strong> St Luke, verse 2,7, Consider (he lilies <strong>of</strong> the field how they grow,<br />
they toil not, neither do they spin ; [Lilia non laborant, neque nentj ; whence they<br />
draw devices, and apply them to the Salique law, which excludes women from<br />
succeeding to the crown <strong>of</strong> France; and, from the other piece <strong>of</strong> Holy Writ, Considerate<br />
quomodo lilia crescunt, they magnify their Kings above Solomon, Nee Solomon<br />
in omni gloria sua coopertus est, sicut unum ex istis: And after the same manner<br />
they made use <strong>of</strong> that passage in the first chapter <strong>of</strong> the first book <strong>of</strong> Esdras, Ex<br />
onuiibus floribus orbis elegisti tibi lilium unum, which they made the inscription <strong>of</strong><br />
the reverse <strong>of</strong> that coin, called Louis d'or, where two angels carried a shield, on<br />
which was a flower-de-luce; and even from the pillars and other ornaments <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Church <strong>of</strong> Jerusalem, whereon were wrought lilies and other flowers, they bring<br />
mysterious applications and explications, to the honour <strong>of</strong> the French lilies, which<br />
gave <strong>of</strong>fence, especially to the Spaniards, who magnify their armorial figures, the<br />
Lion and Castle with the like stories.<br />
ChifHetius, a Spaniard, wrote a piece called Anastasis Childerici, after the opening<br />
<strong>of</strong> the old monument at Tournay, where the body <strong>of</strong> Childeric I. had lain for<br />
a long time, in which was found his ring, with some medals <strong>of</strong> the French Em-<br />
perors, and a great number <strong>of</strong> small things like gilded bees ; from which Chirac -<br />
tius took occasion to assert, that the arms <strong>of</strong> France were anciently bees, and that<br />
Louis le Jeune was the first king that used the flower-de-luces.<br />
Monsieur Tristan, a Frenchman, in answer to Chiflletius, takes in hand to prove<br />
that the flower-de-luce was the first and ancient bearing <strong>of</strong> France ; and besides<br />
many stories he tells, that it has been always the device <strong>of</strong> France in adorning<br />
the sceptres, crowns, royal robes, shields and standards, the regalia <strong>of</strong> France.<br />
The learned Menestrier, not fond <strong>of</strong> legends, makes it appear that Louis le<br />
Jeune was not the first king that carried the flower-de-luce, though<br />
he was termed<br />
Ludovicus F/orus, from a blessed flower that Pope Alexander presented with him ;<br />
it being a custom <strong>of</strong> the Popes <strong>of</strong> old to compliment princes with consecrated<br />
flowers ; and no doubt they were such as represent these in their arms.<br />
That the flower-d^e-luce was more ancient than Ludovicus Florus, Menestrier<br />
asserts that he has seen the armorial seal <strong>of</strong> King Philip, great-grandfather <strong>of</strong> this<br />
Louis, charged with flower-de-luces, appended<br />
to a Deed <strong>of</strong> Mortification to the<br />
abbacy <strong>of</strong> St Martins de Pointois, which ever since occasioned that abbacy to carry<br />
one <strong>of</strong> them for its arms ; and says, that the regalia <strong>of</strong> France were adorned with<br />
flower-de-luces, which were the fixed sovereign figures <strong>of</strong> France many ages before<br />
Louis le Jeune. And that those figures, for their royal antiquity, were affected by<br />
many princes ; and, among others, by our King Achaius, who took them into his<br />
imperial ensign, to adorn the double tressure, the badge <strong>of</strong> the league between<br />
him and Charlemagne. And several other writers tell us, that Edward III. <strong>of</strong> England<br />
was not so much fond <strong>of</strong>, his pretensions to the crown <strong>of</strong> France, as he was<br />
<strong>of</strong> the sovereign figures <strong>of</strong> that kingdom, which he quartered in the first place<br />
before these <strong>of</strong> England, being then azure, semt <strong>of</strong> flower-de-luces or.<br />
Charles VI. <strong>of</strong> France, who began to reign in the year 1380, reduced the inde-<br />
finite number <strong>of</strong> flower-de-luces to three, disposed two and one, upon what ground<br />
! cannot learn ; some conjecture upon account <strong>of</strong> the Trinity, others say to represent<br />
the different races <strong>of</strong> the Kings <strong>of</strong> France. These three flower-de-luces were<br />
placed by that king's order on a shield, after the form <strong>of</strong> the three crescents affronte,<br />
with these words, Lilia crescunt, to signify that, being <strong>of</strong> a smaller number than<br />
before, they would increase and ; this form <strong>of</strong> a shield gave occasion to some to al-<br />
lege, that the arms <strong>of</strong> France were crescents after that king's reducing the in-