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TheLeo Belgicus (Latin, 'Belgic Lion') was used in bothheraldry and map design to symbolize the formerLow Countries (current dayNetherlands,Luxembourg,Belgium and a small part of northernFrance) with the shape of a lion.
When not in map form, the Leo Belgicus often accompanies theDutch Maiden, thenational personification of theDutch Republic. Often both sit in a circular fenced enclosure, the "Garden of Holland".
Europa regina, showingEurope as a queen, was a comparable schematic.
The Leo Belgicus is also the name of the Belgian lion or the Brabantian lion, this lion is seen on the coat of arms of Belgium and the flag of the provinces of Flemish and Walloon Brabant.
The names derived from theBelgae (and thus includingBelgica) are now mostly identified with the countryBelgium; yet before the division of the Low Countries into a southern and a northern half in the 16th century, it was a common name for the entireLow Countries, and was the usual Latin translation of the Netherlands (whichat that point covered the current territory of Belgium, Luxembourg, and a part of The Netherlands and northern France).
The earliest Leo Belgicus was drawn by theAustriancartographerMichaël Eytzinger in 1583, when the Netherlands were fighting theEighty Years' War for independence. The motif was inspired by the heraldic figure of the lion, occurring in the coats of arms of several of the Netherlands, namely:Brabant,Flanders,Frisia,Guelders,Hainaut,Holland,Limburg,Luxembourg,Namur andZeeland, as well as in those ofWilliam of Orange.
Eytzinger's map was the first of many. There were three different designs. In the most common one, the lion's head was located in the northeast of the country and the tail in the southeast. The most famous version is that ofClaes Janszoon Visscher, which was published in 1609 on the occasion of theTwelve Years' Truce. A less common design reversed the position of the lion, as shown in theLeo Belgicus byJodocus Hondius.
The third version was published in the later stages of the war, and after the independence of theDutch Republic was confirmed in thePeace of Westphalia (1648). It is called theLeo Hollandicus, the Holland Lion, and shows only the province of Holland.[1] One of the earliest versions was published by Visscher around 1625.
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