THREE LIONS

The origin of the three lions goes something like this. King Henry I (1100-1135) was known as the 'Lion of Justice', and kept a small zoo which included lions. He either used two lions on his shield (as Duke of Normandy, a state whose flag has two lions) to start with, or used one from his nickname then added the other upon his second marriage to Adeliza of Louvain (1121), whose symbol was also a lion. The two-lion shield was thus a personal one for the king, not the country as a whole. Henry's grandson later came to the throne as Henry II (1154-1189), and married the doughty Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose symbol was yet another lion. By the year 1195 their son, Richard I, had combined his parents' arms (having shoved his father off the throne) to form three lions.

It is an interesting point that heraldry swept through Europe in the twelfth century faster than any plague. In arriving so quickly it left a point of confusion. Henry I's original lion was standing up or rampant. Richard's three lions were lying down (passant or guardant), and were often referred to as leopards. A leopard was seen as very much a second-class creature, being believed to be the offspring of a union between a lion and a pard (??). Thus three lions should really be three leopards.

Somehow, I feel it's going to be hard to get it changed.

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