HUNDRED YEARS' WAR • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Hundred Years' War

... to explain it. Why was the fleur-de-lis placed on the shield supplied to the statue? I can't see what possible connection Arthur could have had with France, for I always thought that the fleur-de-lis was not borne by any British sovereign until after the hundred years' war was begun. Since King Arthur is supposed to have lived in the fifth or sixth century it seems strange to me that he should have been supplied with a shield bearing a device of a so much later period. Since I know nothing of heraldry, I have been much puzzled by this, and would ...

— The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 28, May 20, 1897 - A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls • Various