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Secondly, in 1147 Louis VII dreamt a dream (just prior to one of his most ill-fated crusades) which persuaded him to adopt the fleur-de-lis as a Royal emblem and the symbol of France.
Joan of Arch also carried her own white banner decorated with the flower as she road to victory over the English.
The iris remained a powerful symbol of the French kings and France until the revolution in 1789. At this point this all powerful iconic symbol scared the revolutionaries and they tore it from clothing and chiseled it from stonework. People were guillotined if they were caught wearing its image on clothing or jewellery. The cleansing of this Royalist symbol was so thorough that today the image is now seen as purely decorative and has lost its previous powerful implications.
The Iris had been cultivated and used widely by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans for both medicinal and perfumery uses. The production of iris roots was a serious business and it’s suggested that 3 people could plant 5000 roots in a day. Then 3 years later the rhizomes were gathered by root diggers also known as rhisotomi (‘Pliny the Elder’ the Roman naturalist suggested in 23 AD that the iris rhizomes should be harvested only by the chaste), before being skinned and dried in the sun. These dried rhizomes were of great value to the perfume industry but the root diggers were also primitive druggists, some of them were even seen as doctors and the rhizomes were used for the treatment of many illnesses.
The well recognised flavour of many toothpastes and mouthwashes was obtained (until recently) from the root of the iris (orris). Historically, dried orris has been chewed as a cure for bad breath. Rich in vitamin C, orris root tea is thought to be a very beneficial, particularly as an expectorant for cough symptoms. There is little modern medicinal use for the orris root but over the years it has been heralded as cure for dropsy, bronchitis and chronic diarrhoea.
Non-medicinal uses include the old German tradition of suspending an orris root in beer barrels to prevent staleness. The French similarly added the root to barrels, but this time it was to wine barrels, to supposedly enhance the wine’s bouquet. The English added it to their stored brandy and the Russians to a popular drink made from honey and ginger.
The orris root if placed on a fire gives off a wonderful scent and from the earliest of times this perfume was used as an offering to the gods. The reputation of the orris root’s flexibility and strength as a scent source meant that until quite modern times all violet scented goods and perfumes were scented with the iris. The
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root’s fixative properties mean that it has also been used to strengthen the scents from other perfumes and potpourris.
Perhaps one of the most socially important uses for the iris has been as a perfume for linen. In the middle ages pieces of dried orris root would be threaded on string and then submerged into boiling water with clothes. Usually this treatment would be for the linen underclothes which would often be the only layer of clothing to be washed. So it was essential to add as much perfume as possible to these garments.
Fans of the iris and its many images may well have owned one of the many prints that were produced of the paintings of Monet and Van Vogh. Irises have proved a popular subject for painters, in the case of Van Gogh they proved therapeutic whilst he struggled with his sanity in the garden of an asylum. Monet’s own garden at Giverny became his obsession (the creation of the lily ponds and continual expansion of the site causing him to lose favour with the locals) He is known to have declared that “My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.”
As the early months of the year start to pass we’ll witness the return of the bold, striking-green of the vibrant, sword-like leaves and the rainbow array of iris flowers. Maybe this year we should take a little more interest in the knobbly old roots lying just beneath the soil, and the blooms that came to represent faith, wisdom and valour. Flowers that went on to known as the fleur-de-lis and as an emblem of France.
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