Dutch Republic Lion

The Dutch Republic Lion (also known as States Lion) was the badge of the Union of Utrecht, the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands and is a precursor of the current coat of arms of the Kingdom the Netherlands.

Lions are a constant in the heraldic symbology of the Netherlands, so much so that maps of the Netherlands in the past have been shaped as lions with a common nickname "Leo Belgicus".

There are three main heraldic motifs of the Netherlandish lion. The black lion on gold of Flanders (see Coat of arms of Flanders), its inverse the gold lion on black of Brabant, and the red lion on gold of Holland. There is one more lion of note, the red lion on blue and white bars of Luxembourg, as their ruling family sat on the imperial throne as Holy Roman Emperors:

The Flemish lion derives from the arms of the Counts of Flanders. Their first appearance is on a seal of Count Philip of Alsace, count of Flanders from 1168 to 1191, dating from 1163. As such they constitute the oldest of the many territorial arms bearing a lion in the Low Countries. It is said that Philip of Alsace brought the lion flag with him from the Holy land, where in 1177 he supposedly conquered it from a Saracen knight, but this is a myth. However, Count Philip was not the first of his line to bear a lion, for his cousin, William of Ypres, already used a seal with a lion passant in 1158. The simple fact that the lion appeared on his personal seal since 1163, when he had not yet set one step in the Levant, disproves it.

In reality Philip was following a West-European trend. In the same period lions also appeared in the arms of Brabant, Luxembourg, Holland, Limburg and other territories, most importantly England. It is curious that the lion as a heraldic symbol was mostly used in border territories and neighbouring countries of the Holy Roman Empire and France. It was in all likelihood a way of showing independence from the emperor, who used an eagle in his personal arms and the King of France, who used the famous Fleur-de-lis. In Europe the lion had been a well-known figure since Roman times, through works such as the fables of Aesop. In the story about the Guldensporenslag, the arms and its corresponding battlecry Vlaendr'n den leeuw ("Flanders, the Lion!") plays a crucial role in the forming of a Flemish consciousness, which was popularised in recent times by the book De Leeuw van Vlaanderen by Hendrik Conscience. As a result, the arms of the county live on as arms of the Flemish Community.

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