Fleurdelis

(Fr.), the royal insignia of France, was first adopted by Louis VII. (about A. D. 1137) semée, or scattered over the field. This shield is blazoned as “France Ancient.” On the occasion of his marriage, in 1234, St. Louis instituted the order of the “Co e de Genest” (Fig. 318 ), and, as an emblem of his humility, took for his badge the broom-flower with the motto Exaltat humiles. The collar of the order was composed of broom-flowers enamelled, intermixed with fleurs-de-lis. In the reign of Charles VI. four collars of the order of the Co e de Genest were sent as presents to King Richard II. and his uncles the Dukes of Lancaster, Gloucester, and York. The fleur-de-lis entered the English insignia in 1275 with the marriage of Edmund with Blanche of Artois, and was erased on January 1, 1801.