The three lions that adorn the England football shirt have long presented a mystery as to their origin. Historians believe that the three lions arose in the early 12th century, when Richard I “the Lionheart” ascended the throne.

When Richard I came to power, his personal coat of arms was installed as the official royal coat of arms of England, and it remained so for the next 140 years. The ‘Three Lions Passing Guard in Pale’ presented in gold on a royal red background. Previously there were only two golden lions on the crest after the Norman Conquest of 1066, and only one golden lion after the succession of King Henry II in 1158.

The lions on Richards’s shield are believed to have been based on the original arms of Normandy, with the additional lion representing the Anglo-Norman alliance. Others believe that the artists simply copied the Normandy design, which featured two lions on its crest, with the additional lion added purely for decoration.

An alternate history tells us that they are not actually lions, but two leopards combined with another from Aquitaine, a region of southwestern France, following the acquisition of more territorial victories for the crown. With the coat of arms introduced after the Norman conquest in 1066, the French language would have been quite common during this time. In a French coat of arms, a lion without further description is always rampant and raised on its hind legs. However, the English lion, ‘a lion passant guardant’, is called a leopard in French. However, it should be understood that this only describes the posture of the animal and not its species, which means that this theory may be wrong.

While there is no definitive answer as to how many lions appear on the crest, the lions themselves do have some significance. History has delivered so many heraldic lions that the royal stance of each lion has a meaning of its own. The three lions that appear on the crest are the “guardian rampant lion”, the lion that walks. The front paw of each lion is raised, the remaining three paws firmly on the ground, and the head turned outwards. While it is widely believed that the Football Association owns the three lions crest, this is actually not true, permission for its use must be granted by the Royal Monarch of the United Kingdom.

The ten roses appearing with the three lions only appeared on the football association’s crest in April 1949. The Football Association has been based in Lancaster since 1929, and the Lancaster Rose was adopted as the official emblem of England, It is no coincidence that this now the features on the crest allow us to determine that these are roses. However, a question remains as to why 10 roses are displayed with no explanation given.

The passion for the three lions among the followers of England is unfounded, since the three lions represent a symbol of strength. Although we can establish the origin of the lions and roses, we may never know why the football association adopted them as the crest of England.