Why did lions feature so prominently in European heraldry despite the animals being largely confined to Africa?

by SteadyProcrastinator

I always found it strange how medieval kingdoms as far north as England or Scotland used imagery of lions so extensively despite the land's inhabitants and even their rulers probably never seeing the animals for themselves. I understand lions inhabited parts of Southern Europe historically but it appears they had largely died out by the medieval era. I know it embodies bravery making it a popular choice for heraldry, so I'm guessing they based all their knowledge of the animals from books or from word of travellers? Just seems strange to me they were more popular in Northern Europe than wolves or bears for example.

MAGolding

As a general rule lions were often the most commonly used charges on a coat of arms, so that there was a saying "if a man doesn't have a coat of arms, he uses a lion."

The most common style of heraldic lion is a lion rampant, a side view of a lion rearing up with fore paws outstretched. Lions rampant are the royal coats of arms of Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Bohemia, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Leon in Spain. A quite significant percentage of all the kingdoms that would exist in Latin Europe at any one time.

Since many nobles and countless thousands knights and commoners used lions rampant, every possible combination of the heraldic colors for the lion and the background was used many times. Thus the lions rampant in royal coats of arms often have special features to distinguish them from other coats of arms.

The Scottish lion is surrounded by a double tressure flory counter flory, the Swedish lion is on a background of wavy diagonal lines, the Norwegian Lion holds a battle ax, the Bohemia lion has a forked tail, the Nassau lion used by the Netherlands is surrounded by tiny rectangles.

One reason to use lions in a coat of arms is puns. The Scottish lion was first used in the reign of King William the Lion (1165-1216). King Richard the Lion Heart of England (1189-1199) increased the number of lions in his coat of arms. The Brunswick coat of arms with 2 lions was first used by a son of Henry the Lion (r. 1139-1180), Duke of Bavaria and Saxony.

And of course the lion coat of arms of the kingdom of Leon is a pun, like that of the kingdom of Castile.

And there may be historic reasons for the use of lions in other royal coats of arms.

Some royal coats of arms do not use lions at all, while some use a different style of lion. Among the many heraldic postures for lions and other quadrupeds is passant, a walking animal seen from the side. By an interesting coincidence 2 European royal coats of arms feature three lions passant (sometimes called leopards) in pale (one above the other) - or is it a coincidence?

In the 1190s a number of coats of arms are first recorded, though in some cases they might be older.

The dukes of Swabia, of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, used a gold coat of arms with three black lions passant in pale (vertically stacked). The Emperors, also of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty, use a gold coat of arms with a black 2 headed eagle.

The only exception to the use of the eagle coat of arms by an emperor was by Emperor Otto IV (1198-1218) of the Welf Dynasty, son of Henry the Lion and nephew of King Richard of England. He used a dimidated coat of arms that combined 2 separate coats of arms by putting half of one on the right side and half of the other on the left side. Thus his coat of arms showed half of the imperial eagle and half of the lions of England.

Otto's brother Henry and later Dukes of Brunswick used a coat of arms with a red field and 2 gold lions passant in pale, like the English coat of arms but with one fewer lion. They also came to use a coat of arms for Luneburg that was gold strewn with red hearts and with a blue lion rampant, obviously somewhat influenced by the coat of arms of Denmark.

King Richard the Lionhearted of England originally used a coat of arms with one lion rampant or two lions combatant, but later used a red coat of arms with three gold lions passant in pale.

King Canute IV of Denmark began using the Danish coat of arms about 1194, though the colors were not recorded until about 1270 and might have varied earlier. The coat of arms is gold, scattered with red water lily pads or hearts that were eventually standardize at the number nine, and with three blue lions passant in pale. The duchy of Schelswig in Denmark used a gold coat of arms with 2 blue lions passant in pale, obviously based on the Danish royal of arms.

Since Richard I started using his new coat of arms after paying ransom to Emperor Henry VI and allegedly becoming his vassal, and since the kings of Denmark had traditionally been vassals of the emperors, it has been suggested that the coats of arms of Denmark and England were based on the coat of arms of the duchy of Swabia held by Hohenstaufen relatives of the emperors.

In any case the design relationship between the coats of arms of Swabia, Denmark, England, Schleswig, Brunswick, and Luneburg suggests that some of those coats of arms with lions were inspired by others. And there are many examples of neighbors imitating the arms of their neighbors, vassals imitating the arms of their over lords, and so on, that show that one coat of arms often inspired the designs of other coats of arms.

Since:

  1. Lack of lions living in medieval Europe certainly did not prevent the adoption of thousands of coats of arms using stylized lions based of medieval books giving wacky ideas about the natural world and the moral characters of various animals.

  2. Some royal coats of arms with lions may have been inspired by puns.

  3. Some royal coats of arms with lions may have been inspired by other coats of arms as suggested above.

I don't find it so strange that many medieval kingdoms used lions in their coats of arms despite the lack of living lions in Europe.

Searocksandtrees

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