Side question: The coat of arms of England used lions from the 12th Century, but would people from Northern Europe really have any concept of what a lion actually was?
/u/masiakasaurus answered a similar/related question 3 years ago, where it is explained why medieval Europeans would have been well familiar with the lion.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2qipdl/were_there_actual_lions_in_medieval_europe/