Editing Fleur-de-lis (section)

===France===
{{Main|Coat of arms of France#History}}

====Royal symbol: background, later legends====
The ''fleur-de-lis'' symbolic origins with French monarchs may stem from the baptismal lily used in the crowning of King [[Clovis I]] (r. c. 481–509).<ref>Ellen J. Millington, ''Heraldry in History, Poetry, and Romance'', London, 1858, pp. [https://archive.org/details/heraldryinhisto01millgoog/page/n332 332]–[https://archive.org/details/heraldryinhisto01millgoog/page/n343 343].</ref> The French monarchy may have adopted the ''fleur-de-lis'' for its royal coat of arms as a symbol of purity to commemorate the conversion of Clovis I,<ref>Lewis, Philippa & Darley, Gillian (1986) Dictionary of Ornament</ref> and a reminder of the ''fleur-de-lis'' [[ampulla]] that held the oil used to [[Anointing#Hebrew Bible#|anoint the king]]. So, the ''fleur-de-lis'' stood as a symbol of the king's divinely approved right to rule. The thus "anointed" kings of France later maintained that their authority was directly from God. A legend enhances the mystique of royalty by informing us that a vial of oil—the [[Holy Ampulla]]—descended from Heaven to anoint and sanctify Clovis as King,<ref>Ralph E. Giesey, ''Models of Rulership in French Royal Ceremonial in Rites of Power: Symbolism, Ritual, and Politics Since the Middle Ages'', ed. Wilentz (Princeton 1985), p. 43.</ref> descending directly on Clovis or perhaps brought by a dove to Saint Remigius. One version explains that an angel descended with the ''fleur-de-lis'' ampulla to anoint the king.<ref>Michel Pastoureau: ''Traité d'Héraldique'', Paris, 1979</ref> Another story tells of Clovis putting a flower in his helmet just before his victory at the [[Battle of Vouillé]].<ref name="François Velde"/> Through this propagandist connection to Clovis, the ''fleur-de-lis'' has been taken in retrospect to symbolize all the Christian [[Franks|Frankish]] kings, most notably [[Charlemagne]].<ref name="Sherman1995">{{cite book |author= Claire Richter Sherman |year= 1995 |title= Imaging Aristotle: Verbal and Visual Representation in Fourteenth-century France |publisher= University of California Press |pages= 10– |isbn= 978-0-520-08333-2 |oclc= 1008315349 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=4j72YuNSyN4C&pg=PA10}}</ref>
[[File:Image-Charlemagne-by-Durer.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Charlemagne]]'', by [[Albrecht Dürer]]. The [[anachronistic]] coats-of-arms above him show the [[German eagle]] and the French ''fleur-de-lis'']]

The graphic evolution of ''crita''{{clarify|date=November 2023}} to ''fleur-de-lis'' was accompanied by textual [[allegory]]. By the late 13th century, an allegorical poem by [[Guillaume de Nangis]] (d. 1300), written at [[Joyenval Abbey]] in [[Chambourcy]], relates how the golden lilies on an azure ground were miraculously substituted for the [[crescent]]s on Clovis' shield, a projection into the past of contemporary images of heraldry.{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}}

In the 14th century, French writers asserted that the monarchy of France, which developed from the Kingdom of the West Franks, could trace its heritage back to the divine gift of royal arms received by Clovis. This story has remained popular, even though modern scholarship has established that the ''fleur-de-lis'' was a religious symbol before it was a true heraldic symbol.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pastoureau |first=Michel |author-link=Michel Pastoureau |translator-last=Garvie |translator-first=Francisca |year=1997 |title=Heraldry: Its Origins and Meaning |series='[[Découvertes Gallimard|New Horizons]]' series |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XFfkAQAACAAJ |location=London |publisher=Thames & Hudson |pages=99–100 |isbn=9780500300749}}</ref> Along with true lilies, it was associated with the Virgin Mary, and when the 12th-century [[House of Capet|Capetians]], Louis VI and Louis VII, started to use the emblem, their purpose was of connecting their rulership with this symbol of [[saint]]liness and divine right.<ref name=ACFD>Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, ''A Complete Guide to Heraldry'', London, 1909, p. [https://archive.org/stream/completeguidetoh00foxdrich#page/274/mode/2up 274].</ref>

====First royal symbol; ''France Ancient''====
[[Louis VI of France|Louis VI]] (r. 1108–1137) and [[Louis VII of France|Louis VII]] (r. 1137–1180) of the [[House of Capet]] first started to use the emblem, on [[sceptre]]s for example. Louis VII ordered the use of ''fleur-de-lis'' clothing in his son [[Philip II of France|Philip's]] coronation in 1179,<ref name=ACFD/> while the first visual evidence of clearly heraldic use dates from 1211: a [[Seal (emblem)|seal]] showing the future Louis VIII and his shield strewn with the "flowers".<ref name="Michel Pastoureau p.100">{{cite book |last=Pastoureau |first=Michel |author-link=Michel Pastoureau |translator-last=Garvie |translator-first=Francisca |year=1997 |title=Heraldry: Its Origins and Meaning |series='[[Découvertes Gallimard|New Horizons]]' series |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XFfkAQAACAAJ |location=London |publisher=Thames & Hudson |page=100 |isbn=0-500-30074-7}}</ref>

Until the late 14th century the [[National emblem of France|French royal coat of arms]] was ''[[Azure (heraldry)|Azure]] semé-de-lis [[Or (heraldry)|Or]]'' (a blue shield "sown" (''semé'') with a scattering of small golden ''fleurs-de-lis''), the so-called ''France Ancient'', but Charles V of France changed the design to a group of three in about 1376 (see next section for ''France Modern'').{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}

[[File:Coronation of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castille 1223.jpg|thumb|upright|Coronation of [[Louis VIII]] and [[Blanche of Castile]] at Reims in 1223]]

In the reign of [[Louis IX of France|King Louis IX]] (St. Louis) the three petals of the flower were said to represent faith, wisdom and chivalry, and to be a sign of divine favour bestowed on France.<ref name="MichaudPoujoulat1836">{{cite book|author1=Joseph Fr. Michaud|author2=Jean Joseph François Poujoulat|title=Nouvelle collection des mémoires pour servir a l'histoire de France: depuis le XIIIe siècle jusqu'à la fin du XVIIIe; précédés de notices pour caractériser chaque auteur des mémoires et son époque; suivis de l'analyse des documents historiques qui s'y rapportent |url=https://archive.org/details/nouvellecollect03michgoog| access-date=27 July 2013 |year=1836|publisher=Éditeur du Commentaire analytique du Code civil}}</ref> During the next century, the 14th, the tradition of Trinity symbolism was established in France, and then spread elsewhere.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}

====English claims====
In 1328, King [[Edward III of England]] inherited a claim to the crown of France, and in about 1340 he [[Quartering (heraldry)|quartered]] ''France Ancient'' with the [[Coat of arms of England|arms of Plantagenet]], as "arms of [[Pretender|pretence]]". {{Ref label|c|c|c}} After the kings of France adopted ''France Modern'', the kings of England adopted the new design as quarterings from about 1411.<ref>Fox-Davies</ref> The monarchs of England (and later of [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]]) continued to quarter the French arms until 1801, when [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]] abandoned his formal [[English claims to the French throne|claim to the French throne]].{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}

On 29 December 1429, [[Charles VII of France|King Charles VII]] ennobled the family of [[Joan of Arc]], seen as a French hero in the ensueing [[Hundred Years' War]], with an inheritable symbolic denomination. The Chamber of Accounts in France registered the family's designation to nobility on 20 January 1430. The grant permitted the family to change their surname to du Lys.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}

====''France Moderne'' (1376–1790s, etc.)====
In about 1376, [[Charles V of France|Charles V]] changed the design from the all-over scattering of flowers to a group of three,{{Ref label|a|a|a}}{{Ref label|b|b|b}} thus replacing what is known in heraldic terminology as the ''France Ancient'', with the ''France Modern''.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}

''France moderne'' remained the French royal standard, and with a white background was the French national flag until the [[French Revolution]], when it was replaced by the [[Flag of France|tricolor]] of modern-day France. The ''fleur-de-lis'' was restored to the French flag in 1814, but replaced once again after the revolution against [[Charles X of France|Charles X]] in 1830.{{Ref label|d|d|d}} 

After the end of the [[Second French Empire]], [[Henri, comte de Chambord]], was offered the throne as King of France, but he agreed only if France gave up the tricolor and brought back the white flag with ''fleurs-de-lis''.<ref name="Goubert2002">{{cite book |author=Pierre Goubert |title=The Course of French History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1VbZMbFw89YC |access-date=27 July 2013 |date=12 April 2002|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-203-41468-2}}</ref> Curiously the French ''[[drapeau tricolore|tricolore]]'' with the royal crown and fleur-de-lys was possibly designed by the count in his younger years as a compromise.<ref>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Whitney |title=Flags: Through the Ages and Across the World |url=https://archive.org/details/flagsthroughages00smit/page/75 |url-access=registration |publisher=McGraw-Hill |location=New York |year=1975 |page=[https://archive.org/details/flagsthroughages00smit/page/75 75] |isbn=978-0-07-059093-9}}</ref> His condition that his country needed to abandon the red and blue colors that it had adopted to symbolize the ideals of the [[French Revolution]] of 1789 was rejected and France became a [[French Third Republic|republic]].

====Current use====
It remains an enduring symbol of France which appears on French postage stamps, although it has never been adopted officially by any of the [[French Republics (disambiguation)|French republics]], that unlike other republican nations, never officially adopted a coat of arms. <!--intentional link to DAB page--><ref name=Duby>Georges Duby, ''France in the Middle Ages 987–1460: From Hugh Capet to Joan of Arc''</ref>

Although the origin of the ''fleur-de-lis'' is unclear, it has retained an association with French nobility and associated cities and regions. It is widely used in French city emblems as in the coat of arms of the city of Lille, Saint-Denis, Brest, [[Clermont-Ferrand]], [[Boulogne-Billancourt]], and [[Calais]]. Some cities that had been particularly faithful to the French Crown were awarded a heraldic augmentation of two or three ''fleurs-de-lis'' on the chief of their coat of arms; such cities include Paris, [[Lyon]], [[Toulouse]], [[Bordeaux]], [[Reims]], [[Le Havre]], Angers, [[Le Mans]], [[Aix-en-Provence]], Tours, [[Limoges]], [[Amiens]], Orléans, Rouen, Argenteuil, Poitiers, [[Chartres]], and [[Laon]], among others. The ''fleur-de-lis'' was the symbol of [[Île-de-France]], the core of the French kingdom. It has appeared on the coat-of-arms of other historical provinces of France including Burgundy, Anjou, Picardy, Berry, Orléanais, Bourbonnais, Maine, Touraine, Artois, Dauphiné, Saintonge, and the County of La Marche. Many of the current French ''[[Departments of France|departments]]'' use the symbol on their coats-of-arms to express this heritage.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}

The ''fleur-de-lis'' appears for instance on the coat-of-arms of [[Guadeloupe]], an overseas département of France in the Caribbean, [[Saint Barthélemy]], an overseas collectivity of France, and [[French Guiana]]. The overseas department of [[Réunion]] in the Indian Ocean uses the same feature. It appears on the coat of [[Port Louis]], the capital of [[Mauritius]] which was named in honour of King Louis XV. On the [[coat of arms of Saint Lucia]] it represents the French heritage of the country.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}
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While the ''fleur-de-lis'' has appeared on countless European [[coat of arms|coats of arms]] and flags over the centuries, it is particularly associated with the [[French monarchy]] in a historical context and continues to appear in the arms of members of the Spanish branch of the French [[House of Bourbon]], including the [[king of Spain]] and the [[grand duke of Luxembourg]].

====Duby's interpretation====
According to French historian [[Georges Duby]], the three petals represent the [[Estates of the realm|three medieval social estates]]: the commoners, the nobility, and the clergy.<ref name=Duby/>