Image: JohnMontfort

Description: Drawing of a stained glass window of Chartres Cathedral, depicting Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester (d.1265), note form of heraldic banner on his lance John of Montfort, Lord of Tyre (died 1283). Seal inscribed in Latin: S(IGILLUM) JΟΗΑΝ(N)IS ΜΟ(Ν)ΤFORT(I) SE(I)GN(E)UR D:SVR E[T] DO[MIN]U[S] THORON (?) ("Seal of John of Montfort, Seigneur of (Tyre(?)) and Lord of Toron"). Toron, now Tibnin or Tebnine in southern Lebanon, was a major Crusader castle, built in the Lebanon mountains on the road from Tyre to Damascus. The castle was the centre of the Lordship of Toron, a seigneury within the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Early names of Tyre include Akkadian Ṣurru, Phoenician Ṣūr , and Hebrew Tzór, which gave the Latin Tyrus. Thus possibly D:SVR signifies "de Sur". His shield and horse's caparison display the arms of de Montfort: Gules, a lion rampant double queued argent. His right arms holds a pole, apparently not a weapon, possibly his heraldic banner of Per pale indented argent and gules
Title: JohnMontfort
Credit: The crusades; the story of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem
Author: Thomas Andrew Archer, Charles Lethbridge Kingsford
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No