That’s a coat of arms gifted to me by a man (possibly a military man) during a cyber drill called “Steadfast-Flow” this summer in Izmir / Turkey. What does it symbolize?

7 comments

  4. The “Roude Leiw” or Red Lion. It was first used by house Luxembourg when they went on one of the crusades with Richard Lionheart.

    A few years back there was a referendum to change the official flag with this one. Sadly the reasonable people won and it didnt change.

  5. I might not be 100% correct but this is what I remember from primary school:

    Back in the day (like in the 10th century or so) there was a marriage where one family used a red, crowned, double tailed lion as their coat of arms, and the other family used alternating white and light-blue stripes.
    Combine the two and BAM… New Coat of Arms of the house of Luxembourg

  6. The symbolism of the Lux coat of arms is very unclear. It stretches back to the Middle Ages, and most modern explanations of the symboli were invented after the coat of arms already existed, attaching symbolism to an already existing design.

    The red lion was probably taken from the (historical) nearby Duchy of Limburg. Why Limburg? Because the father of Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (1216-1281) – who first adopted the design- was Walram III, Duke of Limburg. Why did the Duke of Limburg have a red lion? It isn’t clear, but it may originate from a symbol used during Duke Walram’s time as a Crusader.

    The blue and white bars are unfortunately not any more clear. Most likely, other noble families in the area used a design with alternating coloured bars, and Henry V just carried the design over.

    The only part that we can clearly explain is the crown, which obviously symbolizes the Grand-Ducal rule over Luxembourg.

     

    So yeah. The comment saying it symbolizes Luxembourg is kind of right. We don’t know what deeper symbolism any of the components orignally had, if any. It’s just a well recognized (and pretty awesome looking imo) symbol of Luxembourg.

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