Jessant-de-lys

Jessant-de-lys is a heraldic term denoting a fleur-de-lys issuing out of any object. It is most frequently seen in conjunction with a leopard's face, meaning in heraldic language the face of a lion.

Charles Boutell (1863) described the charge thus: "A leopard's face affrontée, resting upon a fleur-de-lys, and having the lower part of the flower issuing from the animal's mouth". This appears to describe a fleur-de-lis erect. The fleur-de-lys is on occasion shown reversed, perhaps as an heraldic difference, or simply in error.

The earliest use of a leopard's face jessant-de-lys was in the last quarter of the 13th century, by the Anglo-Norman family of Cantilupe, borne as a group of three ("Cantilupe modern"). Planché (1852) proposed the Cantilupe jessant-de-lys arms to have been differences of their earlier arms of three fleurs-de-lys, which might be referred to as "Cantilupe ancient", which were used from the start of the age of heraldry in about 1215, until 1280. Boutell however tentatively suggests them to be the result of a rare compounding of two separate coats of arms, resulting from a marriage to an heiress, akin to dimidiation. However, he gives no genealogical data to support such marriage having occurred.

Evidence of the use of "Cantilupe ancient" last appears in the Camden roll of arms, c. 1280. for Johan de Cauntelo They are earlier listed as Gules, three fleurs de lys or for Sir George de Cantilupe (died 1273) in the Charles's Roll, St. George's Roll, and in the Camden Roll. The arms of William de Cantilupe (died 1254) are listed even earlier in the Glover's Roll as: Gules, three fleurs-de-lys or. The earliest record of the arms of "Cantilupe ancient" is in the seal of William de Cantilupe (died 1239). The antiquarian John Nichols (d.1826) in his History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester records a deed dated 1215 relating to the first William de Cantilupe's manor of Brentingby, Leicestershire, on which the seal is three fleurs-de-lys circumscribed.

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