A Lion's _head_ is a Charge: it may be _erased_, as in No. 183; or cut off smooth, when it is _couped_. A Lion's _face_ also is a Charge, No. 184; so is his _jambe_ or _paw_, No. 185. A _demi-lion rampant_ is the upper half of his body and the extremity of his tufted tail, as in No. 186.
[Illustration: No. 186.--Demi-Lion Rampant.]
The LIONS OF ENGLAND are _golden Lions leopardé_, three in number, placed one above the other on a red Shield. They are blazoned--_Gu., three Lions pass. guard., in pale, or_, No. 187.
A Lion in this attitude, of this tincture, and on a field gules, may be blazoned as a "Lion of England." These three Lions _first_ appear upon the second Great Seal of RICHARD I., A.D. 1194, on the Shield of the King, No. 188. An earlier Seal, used by Prince JOHN before his brother's accession, has a Shield charged with _two_ Lions only, and they are _passant_, No. 189. The first Great Seal of the lion-hearted King has a Shield, bowed in its contour, and charged with a _single_ Lion rampant facing to the sinister, or _counter-rampant_, No. 190; and it has been conjectured that, were the whole face of this Shield visible, a second Lion rampant facing to the dexter would appear, thus charging the Shield with _two Lions combattant_; this, however, is a conjecture which is not supported by the authority of many Shields of the same form. A red Shield charged with _two golden Lions passant guardant in pale_ (No. 22), and therefore closely resembling No. 189, as I have already shown, has been assigned to WILLIAM I., and his two sons and his grandson, WILLIAM II., HENRY I., and STEPHEN. The Shield bearing the three Lions, No. 187, has been assigned to HENRY II., but it first makes its appearance on the Great Seal of his son. The probability is that up to this period the device was simply a lion, indeterminate in position or numbers. This same Shield has continued, from the time of RICHARD I., to display the ROYAL ARMS of the REALM OF ENGLAND: how, in the course of ages, these Arms become grouped with other insignia, I shall presently have to show.
[Illustration: No. 188.--Richard I.--2nd Gt. Seal.]
[Illustration: No. 190.--Richard I.--1st Gt. Seal.]
[Illustration: No. 189.--Prince John.--Seal.]