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Theme: power & loyalty
Flowers make good emblems, and were often imbued with dynastic or group loyalties. Examples from the ancient world include the coins of Rhodes, stamped with the rose which gave the island its name.
Roses were a common symbol in heraldry during the Middle Ages. The red rose of the Counts of Champagne passed by marriage to Edmund of Lancaster, brother of Edward I. In the 15th Century a white rose was adopted by the rival House of York. The resulting Wars of the Roses ended with the marriage of the Lancastrian Henry Tudor to Elizabeth of York, when the Tudor rose united their colours.
The fleur-de-lys represented another saga of dynastic confusion. This royal flower of France was added to the English arms, signifying their claim to the French throne. The prototype of the fleur-de-lys was probably the iris, but it was generally called a lily. Florence used both irises and lilies as symbols of the city, and an orange lily became one of the flowers of the Dutch royal House of Orange.
In the 17th Century, sunflowers came to symbolise royalty; powerful and nearer to heaven than their subjects. This was the meaning behind the self-portrait that Van Dyck painted to celebrate his appointment as court painter to Charles I. The floral allegory implied that the courtier reflected his monarch's glory, just as the sunflower does with the sun. |
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