The Coat of Arms That Started a War

In the year 1700, a king died without children — and a single heraldic decision helped plunge Europe into thirteen years of war. Ser Geoffrey Blackwell-Dunmore of Chester tells the story of the three fleurs-de-lis at the center of the Spanish coat of arms: what they claimed, why England and the Dutch Republic couldn't accept them, and how a symbol on a shield became a declaration of intent that outlasted the war fought over it. Featuring the escutcheon of pretence, the War of the Spanish Succession, and the 461 years England spent carrying a heraldic claim everyone knew was false. Heraldry is not decoration. It is a claim. Dunmoria — Heraldry · History · Legend