Fleur De Lys Necklace

The Romans may have been the first to use the fleur de lys as a symbol of imperial power. The Empress Placidia wore a fleur de lys on her crown. On a painting in the church of St-Vital in Ravenna, Theodora, the wife of Emperor Justinian, is represented wearing a crown with the same symbol at its centre. On a seal from Charlemagne kept in Rome, the Emperor is represented with a crown decorated with several fleurs de lys. The term "fleur de lys" coming from the following elements. "Fleur", is the French word for flower. Although it is the same word, "lys" interestingly enough does not come from the French word "lys" for lily, the well-known garden flower. In fact, the royal symbol of fleur de lys doesn't look like a lily flower at all. Instead, the word "lys" comes from the Celtic word "li" (or "lly") which means king or ruler. The Celtic language was still widely spoken in Western Europe until the 10th or 11th century, but disappeared gradually after that. When the words "fleur de lys" were used for the first time in a written form at the time of Philippe II, they were written in Latin and became "flora lily". The real meaning of the words though, in the older spoken Celtic language, was "fleur de roi" or "flower of kings".