SC - request OT-heraldry

[DUNHAM Patricia R]

Ld Ras' nomination of the lily flower -seems- likely from an
etymological point of view, but the lilies I'm familiar with usually
don't have the alternating upstanding and "down-pointing" petal
arrangement that you see in both the iris and the fleur-de-lis.

Another opinion [mine, 8-)] is that it's the generic iris flower, in
profile, of course... which,
since it naturally grows in the soup at river's edge, may have been,
like, really plentiful throughout Paris from the earliest times??? and
since, for noticable chunks of the post-Charlemagne medieval period, the
only thing the "King" of  France -really- had any control over was Paris
itself... --  completely off the top of my head...

Well, to take another 5 minutes and look at the books in front of me!
NOT off the top of my head:

Webster's 3d new international dictionary (1961): "the iris chosen for
the royal emblem of France by Charles V which probably belonged to a
white-flowered variety (Iris germanica florentina) of the German iris"
(in the fine print at the beginning, the MF and ME versions all do
- -literally- translate as "flower of lily"), and

Webster's biographical dictionary, 1st ed (1943) - has a zillion Charles
Vs, but probably the one in question is Charles the Wise/le Sage,
1337-1380 (from the list of French Charles-es)

Love these oldies, keep them around on purpose because they have so much
great stuff in them that's been modernized out of more recent editions.

Chimene
patricia.r.dunham at ci.eugene.or.us
http://members.aol.com/gerekr/medieval.html (home)
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