396 WILD FLOWERS. 



seme, with, numberless fleurs de luce, or fleurs 

 de lys, like the escutcheon gules of the Vicomtes 

 de Chateaubriand, which was granted to Geof- 

 froy, the fifth baron, by this monarch, after the 

 battle of La Massoure in 1250 ; and that Philippe 

 III., surnamed Le Hardi, the successor of St. Louis, 

 or, according to others, a later monarch, perhaps 

 Charles V., reduced them to three, disposing them, 

 as at present borne, in two and one. It is, how- 

 ever, well known that three toads were borne as 

 the French device, and disposed in like manner in 

 two and one, long before the arrangement of the 

 fleur de lys was adopted ; and they are still borne 

 by Meulan and several other small towns of France. 

 They are said to have continued in use till the reign 

 of Louis IV. ; and are supposed by some antiquaries 

 to have been afterwards altered into, or exchanged 

 for, the more comely lilies. The shield of Clovis is, 

 therefore, represented at Inspruck bearing three 

 toads. But the modification of the toads into fleurs 

 de lys is highly improbable, as the latter, or at least a 

 similar device, had been long used as an ornament 

 on royal crowns, swords, and other objects ; and it is 

 not impossible that the introduction of the fleurs de 

 lys semees may date from the time of the new dynasty 

 of Hugues Capet, A.D. 987. In any case they can- 

 not come under the head of armorial bearings be- 

 fore these had been brought into use ; which is said 

 by some to have been in the reign of Louis VII., in 



were, its adoption as the banner of France. The oriflamme 

 only ceased to be used in the reign of Charles VIII. 



