Feathers three and fleur-de-lis…

The Welsh Rugby Union's 'three feathers' logo, left, and a stylised fleur-de-lis symbol

Somewhere, somewhen, someone told me the Prince of Wales feathers and the fleur-de-lis were the same thing. They aren’t, but I am exploring the idea to look for any connections.

I wonder if anyone else has ever been confused by the similarity of these two heraldic symbols?

This blog post has been mulled over for months. I first thought of it during the glorious early days of the 2011 Rugby World Cup, when the Wales team were doing so well down in New Zealand.

Everyone was wearing red shirts with the WRU logo and one day on the bus I saw a young woman in a maroon shirt with what looked like the three feathers. Then I realised it was a dainty fleur-de-lis. Did she think she was paying a very subtle tribute to the team?

Then Wales lost the semi-final after our captain was controversially sent off, the nation shrieked a collective “NOOOOOOOOOOO!” and suddenly my heart wasn’t in talking about the Prince of Wales feathers any more.

But as time went on I was seeing the fleur-de-lis and three feathers everywhere. Here’s how it went…

The Prince of Wales feathers diamond brooch once belonging to the Duchess of Windsor and then Elizabeth Taylor...

There was a wonderful diamond version of the Prince of Wales feathers in this brooch from Elizabeth Taylor’s jewels, up for auction. The piece formerly belonged to the Duchess of Windsor and was made around 1935. It sold for $1,314,500 (£841,280) in December 2011.

And here's a posh Edwardian fleur-de-lis brooch I found online - click on the picture to find the original

One day as I looked through the kitchen window, I saw the neighbour’s cat leap into the air to catch a magpie. The bird was only winged (or tailed, actually) – but what did I find when I rushed out to chase the cat off? Precisely THREE feathers on the ground…

Sadly a photograph can't show the 'black rainbow' sheen of these three magpie feathers...

There is currently an exhibition at the British Library called Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination and this has featured in the quality weekend newspaper magazines for months.

One of the featured works is covered with the fleur-de-lis pattern…

Robert of Anjou - with fleur-de-lis wallpaper - featured in a 14th century manuscript at the British Library

Then a Manufactum catalogue arrived. There was a glass decorated with a fleur-de-lis design…

Manufactum wine goblet with fleur-de-lis design

Sweets saleswoman Christine Gillan - there's a fleur-de-lis on that bottle of very green 'Soor Plooms' in front of her...

Gibb's sweets logo with fleur-de-lis

Then there was this Gibb fleur-de-lis label featured on a bottle of “Soor Ploom” sweeties in a Scottish sweet shop in a feature in the Observer magazine…

The fleur-de-lis is surprisingly ubiquitous. It has a long history – apparently it was used in some form by the earliest civilisations but later became very much associated with France, starting with the Capetian kings of the 12th century.

Have a look on Wikipedia for some fascinating history. Among other things, it quotes Michel Pastoureau: “It is an essentially graphic theme found on Mesopotamian cylinders, Egyptian bas-reliefs, Mycenean pottery, Sassanid textiles, Gaulish and Mameluk coins, Indonesian clothes, Japanese emblems, and Dogon totems…”

The fleur-de-lis crossed the Atlantic with the French and appears in the flag of Quebec in Canada - in fact the flag is known as the fleurdelisé

Fleur-de-lis literally means “flower of the lily” although it is a stylised
Iris pseudacorus. There is an interesting old theory on Wikipedia that the iris was chosen by the early French or Franks because the flower was (and still is) plentiful around the River Luts in the Netherlands, near which they lived before moving over to create France.

Iris pseudacorus pictured by Steffen Wohnort

Coincidentally (I know, I know, you only find connections when you are looking for them) the latest copy of The Garden (the RHS magazine) that came through my letterbox featured irises…

The Garden, from the Royal Horticultural Society, features the iris this month...

The fleur-de-lis is also the emblem of the Scout movement, founded by Robert Baden-Powell. Incidentally, he founded the movement on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, Dorset, one of my favourite places.

The original Scout emblem of Baden-Powell in 1920 and the world movement's symbol today

Why the fleur-de-lis for the Scouts? Apparently the symbol often represented compass North on maps…

But back to the three feathers…

The Tair Pluen (three feathers) pub in central Cardiff and the official Prince of Wales feathers

We were always taught at school that the Prince of Wales feathers come from Edward, the Black Prince, who took the helmet lined with ostrich feathers from the blind but brave John I of Bohemia, killed in the Battle of Crécy in 1346.

The Black Prince's 'proper' coat-of-arms includes the fleur-de-lis...

As well as the feathers, the prince took the German motto “Ich dien”, meaning “I serve”, which sounds a bit like the Welsh “Eich dyn”, meaning “your man”, which would perhaps have won friends for the young prince among the Welsh archers who probably won the battle for the English.

Alternatively, and boringly, Edward may just have inherited the symbol from one of his parents…

The three feathers, silver on black, were used as Edward’s jousting badge, rather than his “proper” coat of arms (which featured the fleur-de-lis, by the way). It is still used (not for jousting) by the Prince of Wales today.

Strangely, the three feathers also have a Polish connection, set atop many heraldic achievements. There’s more on this link, which says: “Our knowledge of the crests is seriously jeopardised because in the 16th century many then known original crests were replaced by lazy printers of the Paprocki and later the Okolski armorials with a standard form of ostrich and peacock feathers. Since then, almost one in every four heraldic achievements has some form of feathers included in its crest.”

A couple of Polish heraldic achievements with three-feather crests by Tadeusz Gajl - for Pokora and Klamry families

Are there connections between the fleur-de-lis and Wales? Well there’s a village called Fleur-de-lis in Rhymney Valley, not too far from Cardiff. I do wonder why it was called that. I thought perhaps it was from a coal mine of the same name, but haven’t been able to find out. If not, why on earth was it given a French name?

Incidentally, celebrity politician Neil Hamilton was born in Fleur-de-Lis.

Then there was the famous and sad North Wales poet Hedd Wyn, killed in World War I. He used the pseudonym Fleur de Lys when he won the Chair (posthumously) at the National Eisteddfod in 1917, which became known as “the Eisteddfod of the Black Chair”.

If you look closely at the official Prince of Wales feathers, you may notice something – the crown at the bottom features the fleur-de-lis. So they come together at last…

See the fleur-de-lis between the crosses on the crown?

You know what? I think the last straw for my obsession was the evening when I neared home and out of the darkness loomed a carpet-layer’s van. And what did it say on the side? Floor-de-Lee! It’s true – here’s his website…

Now stay alert and see how many examples of these heraldic symbols YOU can spot!