09/09/2026
From our authenticity officer, Will Parry…
“The lions are taking the bold step of updating our eponymous lion heraldry. We considered a number of different sources to do this, and settled in the end on this, from a carving in Westminster Abbey. As one of Henry III’s key achievements as King, the rebuilding of the Abbey reflects to a great extent the king’s personal taste and influence, and this shield is likely to have been carved in the lead up to the period of reform and rebellion before relations with Earl Simon broke down. The other contender for the design were these plates from the stained glass window of Troyes cathedral, but judging by the equipment they are more likely to depict Simon de Montfort the elder (of Albigensian Crusade notoriety). There is also a drawing of one of the stained glass panels which is commonly taken to be Simon de Montfort, but this is not the original, it’s a later copy and doesn’t bear that much of a stylistic resemblance to the stained glass originals. We also prefer the look and feel of the Westminster design.”
A reenactment heraldry tip from our photo-video-graphics monkey, Simon Stanmore…
“The Westminster carving has been eroded and damaged by the centuries. So much so, a directly traced version looked more like deranged lizard than a rampant lion. Following the tracing’s lines, this was tidied-up to a credible medieval lion interpretation. Often the design work stops here, but with the group’s heraldry, the range of potential usage sizes are best catered for by some further work. This might viewed as a tiny digital thumbnail, in print on banners or posters, or as a huge fabric banner flag on the battlefield.”
“A regular graphic can break-down at large sizes, showing ‘stair-stepping’ (enlarged pixels) along edges. To prevent this issue, the bitmapped pixel image is reconstructed with hundreds of curve nodes. This makes a vector graphic that can be smoothly enlarged to any size we need in the future.”
