n02: Hugo van Lannoy, heer van Santes
The family arms of the House of Lannoy shows three green lions on a silver field. The red shield hem belongs to this specific branch of the family. Although the hem is missing from their Golden Fleece Coat of Arms in The Hague, Hugo’s brothers – Golden Fleece knights Gilbert (Z17) and Boudewijn of Lannoy (N04) – also carried this element in their arms.
Over the centuries the three green lions have been repainted. The natural degradation of the colour and corrosion of the silver background now make the lions look dark brown, but better preserved fifteenth and sixteenth-century source material shows that they were originally a bright green.