Armorial of the House of Plantagenet

Enamel portrait of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou (1113/17–1151), formerly on his tomb in Le Mans Cathedral, Anjou, France, now in the Museum of Archeology and History in Le Mans. Visible on half his shield of azure are four lions rampant or, arranged in a manner reminiscent of the full-shield of six lions rampant (3,2,1) borne by his grandson William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury

The House of Plantagenet was the first truly armigerous royal dynasty of England. Their predecessor, Henry I of England, had presented items decorated with a lion heraldic emblem to his son-in-law, Plantagenet founder Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, and his family experimented with different lion-bearing coats until these coalesced during the reign of his grandson, Richard I (1189–1199), into a coat of arms with three lions on a red field, formally Gules, three lions passant guardant or (armed and langued azure), that became the Royal Arms of England, and colloquially those of England itself. The various cadet branches descended from this family bore differenced versions of these arms, while later members of the House of Plantagenet would either quarter or impale these arms with others to reflect their political aspirations.


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