Dutch Republic Lion
Encyclopedia
The Dutch Republic Lion (also known as States Lion) was the badge of the Union of Utrecht
Union of Utrecht
The Union of Utrecht was a treaty signed on 23 January 1579 in Utrecht, the Netherlands, unifying the northern provinces of the Netherlands, until then under the control of Habsburg Spain....

, the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands and is a precursor of the current coat of arms of the Kingdom the Netherlands.

Origin

The new state of the Union of Utrecht
Union of Utrecht
The Union of Utrecht was a treaty signed on 23 January 1579 in Utrecht, the Netherlands, unifying the northern provinces of the Netherlands, until then under the control of Habsburg Spain....

 created in 1579 during Eighty Years War had not its own badge initially. The first month the States General
States-General of the Netherlands
The States-General of the Netherlands is the bicameral legislature of the Netherlands, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The parliament meets in at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The archaic Dutch word "staten" originally related to the feudal classes in which medieval...

 used the badge of the Brabant
Duchy of Brabant
The Duchy of Brabant was a historical region in the Low Countries. Its territory consisted essentially of the three modern-day Belgian provinces of Flemish Brabant, Walloon Brabant and Antwerp, the Brussels-Capital Region and most of the present-day Dutch province of North Brabant.The Flag of...

 because Brabant was the leading region in the Habsburg Netherlands
Habsburg Netherlands
The Habsburg Netherlands was a geo-political entity covering the whole of the Low Countries from 1482 to 1556/1581 and solely the Southern Netherlands from 1581 to 1794...

,since it was the most populous one, it was in the center, the seat of government was established there, in Brussels, and economically it was the most prosperous province. But the Duke of Parma and the Spanish General Alexander Farnese, began in 1579 a campaign
Military campaign
In the military sciences, the term military campaign applies to large scale, long duration, significant military strategy plan incorporating a series of inter-related military operations or battles forming a distinct part of a larger conflict often called a war...

 against the rebellious provinces known as (Parma's Nine Years) and while capturing rapidly several cities of Brabant ('s-Hertogenbosch on July 1, 1579, see Schermer Riot) and Leuven
Leuven
Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium...

 and Diest
Diest
Diest is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. Situated in the northeast of the Hageland region, Diest neighbours the provinces of Antwerp to its North, and Limburg to the East and is situated around 60km from Brussels. The municipality comprises the city of...

 were already in Spanish hands, Antwerp was still the head of the Dutch Revolt
Dutch Revolt
The Dutch Revolt or the Revolt of the Netherlands This article adopts 1568 as the starting date of the war, as this was the year of the first battles between armies. However, since there is a long period of Protestant vs...

. But this chaos made Brabant to lose its hegemony in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, and it was switched over to another weapon, Dutch Republic Lion .

New States Lion

In 1574 a new heraldic motive was chosen, which had to include the Dutch Lion, a widely recognized and respected heraldic motive in the Netherlands. This new Dutch Republic Lion should represent every region and not one in particular.

The chosen design was a gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

 lion on a red field. Its symbolism meant a blend of the coat of arms of the provinces of Brabant, Gelderland (from these two the golden lion was taken) and Holland (whose coat of arms was the opposite) and those of Burgundy and Nassau.

The Dutch Republic Lion had also a sheaf of arrows and a sword bar, taken from the crest
Crest (heraldry)
A crest is a component of an heraldic display, so called because it stands on top of a helmet, as the crest of a jay stands on the bird's head....

 of Charles V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...

 in his seal as "Lord of the Netherlands" and the sheaf of arrows as a symbol of unity. Their sovereignty
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...

 emphasized the "Mightiness lords" of the States General
States-General of the Netherlands
The States-General of the Netherlands is the bicameral legislature of the Netherlands, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The parliament meets in at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The archaic Dutch word "staten" originally related to the feudal classes in which medieval...

 by a crown
Crown (heraldry)
A Crown is often an emblem of the monarchy, a monarch's government, or items endorsed by it; see The Crown. A specific type of crown is employed in heraldry under strict rules....

 to place their arms.

The number of arrows changed, at first there were 17, despite the fact that the Union of Utrecht counted 11 districts after the Fall of Antwerp in 1585, so it eventually changed to 11, but with the Reduction of Groningen 7, the number of arrows on the arms fixed at 7 in 1606, but the seal stiill remained with 17 arrows until 1795.

Duke of Anjou

In 1581 the Union of Utrecht declared themselves independent from Spain by the Edict of Verlatinghe. At that time the States-General considers that the rebellious Dutch had to be a kingdom, and therefore had to look for a new ruler. The Duke of Anjou was asked above, what they accept. He replaced the Generality Lion by a badge that he himself put together all the badges of the, at that time, nine Dutch rebellious provinces with his own:
Right corner, clockwise:
  • Gelderland;
  • Holland;
  • Flanders;
  • Brabant;


Left corner, clockwise:
  • Friesland;
  • Overijssel;
  • Utrecht;
  • Zealand;


Bottom:
  • Mechelen;


and twice the French lilies left and right. But the Duke of Anjou was not a good leader and they did not want to give too much power, then he tried to respond but by seizing by force and establishing the French fury, but he was eventually expelled. After that the States-General re-established the previous badge.

Batavian Republic

The Batavian Republic was founded in 1795 used in its first year the arms of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, the Dutch lion or lion with crown generality, sheaf of arrows and swords. But on May 4, 1796 the Dutch Lion badge was replaced by a free drawing of the Netherlands Maiden around an altar with an anchor dismantled, but it was decided to keep States Lion with HER.

Batavian Commonwealth

The substitution in 1801 of the Batavian Republic by the Batavian Commonwealth also had its impact on heraldry. On April 12, 1802 it was decided that the new badge of the Commonwealth would be a golden lion on a red field again. The number of arrows that bears the lion in the leg was not established.

Kingdom of the Netherlands

A modified version wearing a King's Crown was stablished in February 1814 for a further 22 months as the badge of Willem Frederik, Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands
William I of the Netherlands
William I Frederick, born Willem Frederik Prins van Oranje-Nassau , was a Prince of Orange and the first King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg....

. This badge was replaced by the National Coat of Arms of the Netherlands
Coat of arms of the Netherlands
The Greater Coat of Arms of the Realm, , is the personal coat of arms of the monarch of the Netherlands . The government of the Netherlands uses a smaller version without the mantle or the pavilion or sometimes even only uses the shield and crown...

, which is based in the Dutch Republic Lion .
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