THE FLEUR-DE-LYS 149 



3. This flower, which we name the fleur-de- 

 lis, is the symbol of fecundity and royalty in 

 ancient Egypt; it is also the sacred plant and 

 tree of life, adopted with the same symboHcal 

 significance by the Assyrians and Persians, 

 from whom it passed to Byzantium, to arrive 

 at last in the Teutonic countries bordering on 

 the East. It came at the same time to the 

 Venetians, and the Lombards, the Spaniards 

 and the French, and this significant form orna- 

 mented sceptres and crowns, the attributes of 

 royalty. 



4. When the laws of heraldry were at last 

 established in France, after the Crusades, this 

 symbol became the arms of the Kings of France, 

 who entitled themselves rois par excellence. 

 Later, the origin being forgotten and lost, the 

 Celtic root of the word li was ignored by the 

 heralds. They regarded this symboHcal orna- 

 ment as the lilium or garden lily, in itself a 

 s3nmbol of the Virgin, which for the most 

 Christian Kings of France must have been a 

 powerful motive for its adoption. Perhaps even 

 a religious scruple may have been the cause of 

 this transformation of the heathen into the 



