where does england's 3 lions come from
Royal Arms of England The first documented use of royal arms dates from the reign of Richard I (1189-1199). Lions had previously been used by the Norman dynasty as royal emblems, and much later, Attributed arms were retrospectively invented for kings who pre-dated the systematisation of hereditary English heraldry that occurred in the second half of the 12th century.[7] Henry II (1133–1189) used a lion as his emblem, and may have used a coat of arms with a single lion or two lions, but no documentation of this survives.[19] His children experimented with different combinations of lions on their arms. Richard I (1189–1199) used a single lion rampant, or perhaps two lions affrontés, on his first seal,[5] but later used three lions passant in his 1198 Great Seal of England, and thus established the lasting design of the Royal Arms of England.[5][19] In 1177, his brother John had used a seal depicting a shield with two lions passant guardant, but when he succeeded his brother on the English throne he would adopt arms with three lions passant or on a field gules, and these were used as the Royal Arms (or King's Arms) by John (1199–1216), Henry III (1216–1272), Edward I (1272–1307), and Edward II (1307–1327).[5]