The Lion and the Unicorn

Were fighting for the crown.

The Lion beat the Unicorn

All around the town.

Some gave them white bread,

Some gave them brown,

Some gave them plum cake

And drummed them out of town.

--- Traditional English nursery rhyme

HISTORICAL NOTES:

At one time England's royal coat of arms was supported by two rampant lions while Scotland's shield was carried by two unicorns.

It's not known exactly when and why unicorns were adopted by Scottish royalty. However, by the time of Robert II or III (late 14th century), two unicorns had been carved in the royal arms above the gateway of Rothesay Castle. They've remained supporters of the Scottish shield ever since. In the late 15th century gold coins were minted by the Scottish crown, called the Unicorn and the half-Unicorn. Each had an image of a unicorn on one side.

The English shield on the other hand, has always been depicted as being supported by at least one lion. Throughout English history and under the reign of various monarchs, it was often paired with a variety of other heraldic beasts, including an antelope, a bull, a boar, a dragon and a greyhound (in the reigns of Mary I and Elizabeth I).

The new combined coat of arms depicting one Lion and one Unicorn supporting the shield of England became recognized by millions of people as England's empire expanded to encompass vast areas of the world. The Unicorn remains a part of the United Kingdom's Royal Coat of Arms to this very day.

Description of England's Royal Coat of Arms From Official Government Pages

The Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom have evolved over many years and reflect the history of the Monarchy and of the country. In the design the shield shows the various royal emblems of different parts of the United Kingdom: the three lions of England in the first and fourth quarters, the lion of Scotland in the second and the harp of Ireland in the third. It is surrounded by a garter bearing the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense ('Evil to him who evil thinks'), which symbolises the Order of the Garter, an ancient order of knighthood of which the Queen is Sovereign. The shield is supported by the English lion and Scottish unicorn and is surmounted by the Royal crown. Below it appears the motto of the Sovereign, Dieu et mon droit ('God and my right'). The plant badges of the United Kingdom—rose, thistle and shamrock—are often displayed beneath the shield. Separate Scottish and English quarterings of the Royal Arms originate from the Union of the Crown in 1603. The Scottish version of the Royal Coat of Arms shows the lion of Scotland in the first and fourth quarters, with that of England being in the second. The harp of Ireland is in the third quarter. The mottoes read 'In defence' and 'No one will attack me with impunity'. From the times of the Stuart kings, the Scottish quarterings have been used for official purposes in Scotland (for example, on official buildings and official publications).

British Royal Coat Of Arms

Scottish Royal Coat Of Arms

The unicorn is the only fabulous beast that does not seem to have been conceived out of human fears. In even the earliest references he is fierce yet good, selfless yet solitary, but always mysteriously beautiful. He could be captured only by unfair means, and his single horn was said to neutralize poison.

--- Marianna Mayer, The Unicorn and the Lake

Something drank at the pool. Something the wolf couldn't quite see, but it lifted its head and whickered when it saw his companion, who hurried forward with a happy cry.

They joined each other, laughing and dancing together in the grass and flowers.

The wolf saw a soft, almost black nose and then an eye, shiny and dark, fringed with long lashes.  A dark, dappled gray shoulder glowed with a metallic gleam. Then, for a moment, he saw a horn in the center of its forehead.

He was the color of the storm clouds, like old hammered silver, dappled from dark to light, and big, bigger than the largest horse . . .  The head was beautiful, eyes onyx, nostrils wide and red against the velvety soft muzzle.

If we are to learn anything from dragons and unicorns, perhaps it is that animals should not be judged by human values—that is, by whether or not they are useful to us or whether or not they conform to our own ideas of beauty. There is a place for unicorns in this world, just as there is a place for dragons, and if we do not allow both these creatures to survive and prosper in some form, we can hold out little hope for our own survival.

--- Paul and Karin Johnsgard, Dragons and Unicorns: A Natural History

I have seen in a place like a park adjoining Prester John's Court, three score and seventeen unicornes and eliphants all alive at one time, and they were so tame that I have played with them as one would play with young Lambes.

--- Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel

---- John Webster, The White Devil

--- Decker, Gull's Hornbook

This horn is useful and beneficial against epilepsy, pestilential fever, rabies, proliferation and infection of other animals and vermin, and against worms within the body from which children faint. Ancient physicians used their Alicorn remedies against such ailments by making drinking mugs from the horn and letting their patients drink from them. Nowadays such drinking vessels are unobtainable and the horn itself must be administered [as a powder] either alone or mixed with some other drug...Genuine Alicorn is good against all poison; especially, so some say, the quality coming from the Ocean Isles. Experience proves that anyone having taken poison and becoming distended thereby, recovered good health on immediately taking a little Unicorn horn.

--- Dr. Conrad Gesner, 16th Century Zurich Physician

Take some unicorn liver, grind it up and mash with egg yolk to make an ointment. Every type of leprosy is healed, if treated frequently with this ointment, unless the patient is destined to die or God intends not to aid him. For the liver of that animal has a good, pure warmth and the yolk is the most precious part of the egg and like a salve. Leprosy, however, comes frequently from black bile and from plethoric black blood. Take some unicorn pelt. From it, cut a belt and gird it around the body, thus averting attack by plague or fever. Make also some shoes from unicorn leather and wear them, thus assuring every healthy feet, thighs and joints, nor will the plague ever attack these limbs. Apart from that, nothing else of the unicorn is to be used medically.

--- Saint Hildegard of Bingen, 12th Century

--- George Chapman, Busy D'Ambois

--- Johannes van Hesse of Utrecht, German priest, 1389

The horn of the unicorn was supposed to be the most powerful antidote against, as it was a sure test of, poisons. He was therefore invested by the other beasts of the forest with the office of "water-conner", none daring to taste of fountain or pool until he had stirred the water with his horn.

The best use for a unicorn's horn is to adorn a unicorn.

 --- Femeref adage