THE HERALDIC BLAZON.
THE LION RAMPANT OF SCOTLAND.
CHAPTER XIII.

"Judah is a lion's whelp." - Gen. 49:9

"Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of his father's house." - Num. 2:2

"In the first place went the standard of the camp of the children of Judah." - Num. 10:14.

F.R.A. Glover: It will not have escaped the attention of the least observant, that, in the National Flag, called the Royal Standard, which is the Blazon of the National Arms, in the upper and outer quartering of that Ensign, there is a Lion Rampant, red, on a Golden Ground.

That Lion is the Lion of Scotland, incorporated, according to the Rules of Heraldry, into the Arms and Standard of England from the time that James VI. of Scotland, inheriting by his English Descent the Realm of England, united the Two Crowns.

How that Eastern Tropical Beast, a Lion, came to be the Blazon of a Country lying so far West as Scotland, and in the Icy North, the following extract from Campion's Historie of Ireland, p. 32, in Spenser's Publication, will declare,-

First therefore came from Ireland Fergusius, the Son of Ferchardus; a man very famous for his skill in blazoning of armes. Himselfe bore the Red Lyon, rampant in a Golden Field (John Major, lib. 2, cap.1 ). There was in Ireland a monument of marble, fashioned like a throne; and .. because he deemed the finding thereof to be ominous to some kingdome, he brought it along with him and layde it up in the country for a Jewell. This marble Fergusius obtained towards the prospering of his voyage, and in Scotland he left it, which they used many years after, in Coronation of their kings at Scone."

Thus, it will be seen, that the Lion of Scotland was, in reality, the Lion of Ireland: and, as the Lion is no more an Irish than a Scottish wild beast, it is evidently an importation to that Country from the East: further, as having been associated, as is seen above, by Fergus with the National and Family Stone, it is clear that he must have considered it equally as the Family and National Standard.

The Harp became the National Standard of Ireland, only from the time of Henry VIII (Ledwich, 232), in order to commemorate his election as king of Ireland by the common assent of the Irish Princes. They were no less glad than the English, to be rid of the unseemly intrusions of the Bishop of Rome; and they thus expressed their gratitude to the doughty king. However deservedly reprobated for his tyranny in other matters, the king was a great favourite with the Chief Princes in Ireland; who willingly recognized his authority and kingship, and did homage to him, accordingly, as King of Ireland.

Up to this time it would seem that the Irish had no common or National Standard; for, "in an ancient Roll of Arms preserved by Leland (Collectanea 616), of the age of Hen. III., giving the bearings of most European Princes, we find the Arms of Wales, of Scotland, and the little Isle of Man, but not a word of Ireland." (Ledwich's Antiquities, p.232).

The cause of this might have been, that the English considered their Arms as the Arms of the English Pale; and would have felt it to be untrue as well as impolitic, to give any blazon of any of the then existing Irish kings, as the Arms of Ireland.

But, as Fergus had taken the Lion Rampant with him to Scotland as a proper accompaniment to the National Stone, which he, possibly, held to have had some talismanic virtue, it is evident that he thought that that Standard was the Standard of his Race; and we may, therefore, very well believe that he felt it to be the Standard of his nationality also.

That this Irish Lion was the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, introduced into Ireland by the Prophet Jeremiah at the same time that the Stone from the East and the Seed Royal were introduced, there is no need to affirm. Of the probability of such a deed on the part of the Prophet, others are as well capable of judging as he who writes. It is very evident, that an Eastern Beast, never indigenous to these countries, was once the Standard of Ireland, or of the Reigning Family of Ireland; and that that goes to establish the fact of a connexion of that Family with the East: and further, that this Figure of a Lion Rampant, is the Ensign of the Hebrew Tribe of Judah; which concurrence tends much to show the likelihood of a Hebrew connexion between Ireland and the East. Certainly, whatever be the ancient facts of the case, this Irish connexion has been the means of introducing and maintaining, in constant display, on the National Keep of Royalty, over the anointed Head of this United Empire, the Blazon identical with the Standard of the Tribe of Judah. This may indicate what has been suggested, or it may mean nothing. It may be accident, and not Providence. It certainly ties Ireland to the East, .. to those of the East who bad a Lion Rampant for their Standard. And the son of Jesse had a Lion Rampant for his Standard. And if there be any reason to imagine that Jeremiah, in the exercise of his office and mission "to plant and to build" the kingdom of Judah, for the perpetuation of the Sceptre thereof, and the continuation of the Throne of David, set up any mark of Jewish Nationality and Descent, what badge would he have brought and left as the mark and sign of that Monarchy, but the old well-known and prophetically inspired Standard of the Race he represented?

From: "England, the Remnant of Judah, and the Israel of Ephraim", written by F.R.A. Glover, M.A., Chaplain to the Consulate at Cologne. Published by Rivingtons, London, 1861. Based on research commenced in 1844.