Information about the arms of the City of London from the earliest times to the present day is given below.
The earliest specific mention of the armorial bearings of the City of London appears on 17 April 1381, when it was ordered that the old mayoralty seal should be broken as it was “ill-befitting the honour of the City”. St Thomas Becket and St Paul featured in the design of the old seal and they were also incorporated in the new one. A contemporary description records that it was commissioned by the Mayor, William Walworth, and depicted “beneath the feet of the said figures a shield of the arms of the said City … with two lions guarding the same”. The shield contains a cross charged with a dagger or sword in its first quarter and is similar to the modern design.
This evidence means that the popular belief that the dagger or sword represents the weapon with which Walworth killed the rebel, Wat Tyler, during the Peasants’ Revolt cannot be true. The seal was designed and executed several months before Tyler’s death in June 1381 and the sword almost certainly represents the sword of St Paul.