COAT OF ARMS

In 1057, William the Duke of Normandy, afterwards Conqueror of England, arbitrarily and unjustly deprived our ancestor, Werlac, son of Mauger, of all his possessions and rank in Normandy as Count of Corbeil and Count of Mortaigne, and drove him out of the country. Werlac went to Italy, where he acquired new possessions and new arms, namely a cross Flourii, that is a cross with the lilies of France at the end of each arm, which must have very cleverly distinquished him among the Italian nobility, the cross being the mark which not only represented Normandy but his Christian faith as well, while the flower, the fleur de lis, spoke only of his dear France. See figure 5 below:

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