Fleur-de-lis update

I have begun to read a new article and will have to start annotating information that I have already read and find relevant to my research on the fleur-de-lis. I will posts these later so I can start to get some sort of handle on this work in progress. Anyways here is the highlights or finds for the week. Basically the article talks about what regalia is and how it is depicted and the image of prestige it creates for the person it attempts to define.

Insignia of royal authority presented to a sovereign as acknowledgement of his status.These may be divided into two categories: those worn or carried by a ruler, and those borne before or near him as tokens of his character, power and status. Regalia represent kingship and nationhood, combining military and religious symbolism and endowing the wearer with the God-given right to rule. Some regalian objects were granted to princes and to grand dukes and other ranks of nobility, as well as to religious and some civic authorities. European regalia and their usage have been little altered since c. AD 800; although regalia were made for newly created modern European states, their forms echo historical precedent, with ornament influenced by current fashion, and they were seldom worn.

Depictions of regalia in art are also an important source. These fall into three main categories: as part of the coin or seal portrait of the ruler; in paintings or sculptures of coronations; and on effigies or in state and dynastic portraits. The first category needs to be used with discrimination, since both could be copied from older or contemporary sources. Most early medieval coins, for example, were based on Roman or Byzantine prototypes and owe nothing to contemporary practice in the countries issuing them. Seals, too, were often based on a design from another country; that of Henry III of England made in 1218 was imitated in Norway and Aragon, while several Great Seals had the name altered and served more than one monarch.The earliest depictions of Western kings and emperors in their regalia are found in the Gospels and other books made for the later Carolingian and Ottonian rulers , and similar examples can be found in other countries. Chronicles often included illustrations showing the king enthroned, sometimes being crowned but more often alone, and the dress, like that on the seals, suggests that a crown-wearing rather than a coronation was intended. A special type of coronation image, originating in Byzantium, depicted the king or emperor standing, sometimes flanked by two bishops (as in the miniature of Charles the Bald; Paris, Bib. N., MS. lat. 1141, fol. 2v), being crowned by the Hand of God. Sculptures depicting coronations are rare, but Henry V is so depicted in his chantry at Westminster Abbey, London.Royal effigies normally depicted the ruler in crown-wearing robes or, more rarely, those worn at the coronation.

The 1st Bible of Charles the Bald (845–6; Paris, Bib. N., MS. lat. 1., fol. 423r) depicts him wearing a crown with fleurs-de-lis, the most common type of Western crown throughout the Middle Ages; other cresting devices could be set on the rim.

John A. Goodall. "Regalia." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. 25 Feb. 2011
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