The Story of the Fleur-de-lys

Long before cows in Belgium wore earrings, to denote their pedigree and

good breeding, or sugar was made out of beets, there were wonderful

things done by the fairies.

These were so many, that some industrious farmers and their wives got

together to see if they could equal or exceed the fairies in doing good

things for their country. They wished to outrival the fairies, excel

them if possible, and make Belgium great among the nations.

These honest folk used to meet together in the evenings and tell fairy

tales, so that they and their little ones, as they grew up in their

wooden shoes, might know just what fairies were good for. This was

done, because they supposed that everything unusual, or wonderful in

nature, was the work of the fairies, and they felt that human beings

ought, in other ways, to beat them in a contest of wits.

Some of the inhabitants arranged a meeting to talk with the fairies,

who should tell what they had accomplished in the three kingdoms of

nature—mineral, vegetable and animal. The meeting was at night, of

course, for fairies are never seen in the day time.

Having already shown what they had done for the animals of Belgium, the

fairy-folk proposed to talk about what they had done, with the plants

and minerals, to enrich Belgium and make the country great.

The first story the fairies told was, “How the lowly flower got into

royal society,” and thus the fairy began:

“‘All the world,’ as the French say, knows that the fleur-de-lys, the

lily of France has, for centuries, been their national emblem. In the

blazonry of kings and queens, it was sewn on royal robes and

embroidered in gold and silver on flags and banners. It was stamped on

the coins, and made the symbol of everything glorious in France. All

the world has heard of the Bourbon lilies, for that family of kings and

rulers made it especially their own emblem.

“But originally the fleur-de-lys was our Belgian flower, that grew in

the meadows along our river Lys (or Leye).

“To tell the full story of the Frankish tribes, who made France a

kingdom, and especially of the Salic Franks, we must go back, in time,

to the early ages. We must travel up into Dutch Gelderland, where the

waters of the North Sea or German Ocean, wash the shores, and the waves

fling their spray over the land.

“The Salic Franks, that is, the Free men of the Salt, which was born of

Heaven’s fire and ocean’s water, once dwelt by the sea. To get the

crystals out of the brine, they cut down the trees of the forest, in

which the fairies lived. Then they piled up the logs, and made a great

blaze. The tongues of fire leaped higher and higher, for they were

trying to get back to Heaven, their old home. Then the forefathers of

our nation went down to the sea and drew up the salt water. This they

flung on the red hot logs, praying all the time for the salt to come.

“The fire was put out by this means, and when they looked on the

charred wood, they found thousands of shining white spots, which were

crystals of pure salt. These, they scraped up, and, after refining, by

means of water and evaporation, in the sun’s rays, they used the salt

on their food and, as offerings to the gods.

“The forefathers therefore considered salt as the child born of fire

and water, of Heaven and Ocean. So they took the name Salis, which

means ‘of the salt.’ Through the changes in the language, the name

‘Salians’ was used to denote a host. They were very proud of being

Franks, or freemen, and were known as the Salic Franks. They became

very powerful and even defied the Romans.

“When they found that their enemies were weakening, and food was scarce

in the north, they resolved to march south and west, and possess the

rich land stretching between the Maas and the Seine rivers, which is

now Belgium and France.

“Assembling the entire host, with their chariots, wives and little

ones, in the great moot-place, or sand-walled enclosure, a few miles

from Nijkerk, they marched in one mighty army into Belgic Land.

Reaching the river Lys, when the iris and the lily were in full bloom,

each one of the tribesmen plucked a stem and blossom of the plant and

stuck it in his cap.

“Then they rushed on, conquering and to conquer, until all the wide

area of the country now called ‘France,’ and named after the Franks,

was theirs. The flower of the Lys, or fleur-de-lys, under which they

had won victory, was chosen as their emblem. Thus the once lovely

Belgic flower was elevated into royal society.

“Even better, the Franks gave up their cruel pagan rites, and,

believing in the Heavenly Father of all mankind, and in his beloved

Son, and in the Holy Spirit, the fleur-de-lys was made the emblem of

their faith. The missionaries often used it to teach the blessed

doctrine of the trinity—three forms of life, proceeding from one common

stem and nature.

“Now all Belgians know, that our city, Tournai, was for centuries the

centre and capital of this great Frankish empire. When Childeric, their

emperor, died, he was buried at Tournai, and his tomb was here, in the

church of St. Brice. On the robes, which cover his honored dust, when

his coffin was opened, centuries ago, were found three hundred golden

bees, models of those that gathered honey from the flowers that grew

along the Lys and other rivers of Belgic Land.

“All the world knows, also, how Napoleon, who made himself emperor of

the French, had these golden bees embroidered on his coronation robes.

Just as the Bourbons had claimed the lily as the particular blazon of

their family, so Napoleon made the golden bee his symbol.

“In truth, it has been the fashion, with these royal mortals, to take

lowly flowers and humble insects for their heraldry. Did not a common

shrub, named by Europeans, the ‘broom,’ the planta genista, become the

proud emblem of the Plantagenets, kings of England?”

At this point, the fairy story-teller stopped and made apology for

being so long. She hoped she had not been tedious. She then gave her

final word:

“Good men and women, Belgians all, would you make your country one of

the best, to be always loved and honored of your children’s children,

while ever attracting admiring and delighted visitors, to come to see

the wonders of Belgic land? Would you?

“Then, please remember that the universe is full of fairies, though men

nowadays call them ‘forces,’ and they are ever ready to help you. Do

your best to allure, coax, win, tame and harness them, for your use and

benefit.

“Do not count any flower too lowly, or soil too poor; for in each is a

secret worth learning and, even more, worth possessing. Believe what a

wise man has said, concerning even the plants that you call

‘weeds’—these which you uproot, plow under, throw out and burn. Yet

each one may possess some secret charm, some virtue, or a message or

science to you. For what says the seer?

“He defines a weed as a ‘plant, the virtues of which have not yet been

discovered.’”

Now the story-teller, stepping out of fairy regions into Yankee land,

would remind all who read the fairy’s message, and especially his

American young friends, that the wise man, whom the fairy quoted, was

our own Emerson. We forget not, either, that the white silken flags,

under which Lafayette and the “sparkling Bourbonnaires” marched, were

embroidered with the fleur-de-lys. These French soldiers of 1780, who

kept step with the Continentals, on the way to Yorktown, were under the

Bourbon lilies. Let us remember also, that the old moot-place of the

Salic Franks is still to be seen near Nijkerk, in Gelderland, the

pretty town, whence came “Corlaer,” and Van Rensselaer, and the

settlers of New Netherland, out of which grew the four noble states of

New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.