Tag Info

They don't all seem to be the same lion. Spain and Denmark's lions aren't even yellow. This is another rendering of the Coat of Arms of Sweden: Compare it with the Coat of Arms of the Netherlands. Notice the similarities between the lions. Much of the similarities between these different lions could be because the same artist drew them. By this, I do not ...

According to Niall Ferguson in The Ascent of Money, they aren't balls, but coins. (I listened to the audiobook so I can't provide a page citation.) I'm somewhat suspicious because the blazon for the arms is "augmented coat of arms of the Medici, Or, five balls in orle gules, in chief a larger one of the arms of France (viz. Azure, three fleurs-de-lis ...

European monarchies are extremely intertwined, all European dynasties are related to each other, it's not surprising that they use very similar symbols. For example, take a look at the family tree of the German monarchs: Looking at that royal mess, and considering the hereditary nature of heraldry, I think it's quite obvious how we ended up with only two ...

They are two lions argent supporting the Royal Arms which also sports a lion. That said, Edward IV's list of approved badges includes a Wolf argent (of Mortimer). His grandmother was Anne de Mortimer.

In short, it's a Christian symbol loaded with meaning, and the symbol of the Lion representing royalty [goes back even further than that.] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_(heraldry)#Long_history_of_lion_imagery) 1) It's representative of God, indicating that God is King, and also emblematic of heavenly favor for the monarchy. 2) The lion was considered ...

I am only guessing, but I would imagine that part of the popularity of the attitude of lions rampant (so once you allow for the relatively obvious reasons for choosing a lion as opposed to some other animal) might just be that it fits a shield or the breastpiece of a tabard nicely. All the other attitudes (except salient, maybe) are less optimised to the ...