Lions would have been well known as creatures across Europe in the Medieval period, even if few people had ever actually seen them. Much of this may have stemmed from the Roman Empire, with Pliny the Elder in particular writing about lions and other big cats in his Historia Naturalis. We know this is a text that is still in circulation in eleventh and twelfth century Europe because Adam of Bremen uses sections of it to influence his Gesta Pontificum Hamburgiensis. Pliny himself attributes much study to Aristotle, according to whom, lions could be found in Syria and southern Europe as well as in Africa. While it was unlikely there were lions on the Achelous River in Richard I's day, the last known Barbary Lion, from the North African coast, went extinct as late as 1920. This all means that lions were known in, and relatively accessible from, Europe, although still exotic beasts.

Owning exotic beasts was a clear sign of wealth, power and far-reaching influence. The lions on the coat of arms are a variation of Richard I's seal, which comes from his family crest, the House of Plantaganet. Richard's father was Henry II, the son of Matilda of England and Geoffrey of Anjou, who she had married largely to secure territorial alliance at her father's behest. Richard's own mother was Eleanor of Aquitaine, in southern France.

During the medieval period, it was actually relatively common for kings and rulers to keep menageries to display their exotic creatures. Charlemagne is supposed to have had one at Aachen as early as the eighth century, likely in an attempt to emulate Roman Imperial splendour. There, he kept lions, alongside bears, camels and even an elephant, presented as a diplomatic gift by the Caliph of Baghdad. Richard's great-great-grandfather William I had a menagerie at Woodstock, later enlarged by Henry I which supposedly had both lions and leopards.

Putting the lion on your coat of arms is therefore a boast, firstly of possessing the noble and brave character of a lion which, according to Pliny is the 'only one of all the wild beasts that shows mercy to the suppliant; after it has conquered, it will spare' (8.19). Gaimar's L'Estoire des Engleis written in the 1130s portrays William II as a lion: ferocious and feared by his neighbours, but devoted and loyal to his 'pride', England. Alongside such symbolism, however, is also a boast that says 'Look at me! I can afford lions!'

Cardini (2001), Europe and Islam

Fisher (1965), Zoos of the World: The Story of Animals in Captivity

Gillingham (2000), The English in the Twelfth Century