Three Lions on a Shirt is a beautiful, high quality coffee-table book containing an incredible collection of historic match worn England football shirts.

It was their son Richard the Lionheart – famed for his exploits in the Crusades (he actually spent very little time in England, was once held for ransom by an Austrian and a German, and was killed by a Frenchman while besieging a castle) – who decided to combine all three lions to make up his arms.

Euro 2020 begins on 11 June. The Lightning Seeds’ Jollification 25th anniversary tour restarts in September; David Baddiel: Trolls, Not the Dolls tour restarts on 10 September. They ended up on England shirts when the Football Association was looking for an emblem for the kit its players would wear at international games in the late 19th century. They settled on the three lions and presumably gained royal permission (as this was 1879, that must mean that Queen Victoria was somewhat amused at the idea).

I love that it’s become a song about so many things. I don’t think it was ever just about England: American baseball teams have adopted it; Werder Bremen rewrote the words one year. The lyrics seem to have gone into the vernacular. No one said “years of hurt” before. When we first recorded it, lots of people said to me – even journalists: “What’s the three lions in reference to?” We’d say: “Well, they’re on the shirt.” It’s amazing that when you think of Three Lions, people still think of the song rather than the shirt. ( Ian Broudie was talking to Rich Pelley) David Baddiel, comedian, writer and “singer”

He collected his menagerie of menace through accidents of ancestry. His great grandfather, Henry I, used a single golden lion as an emblem for the first part of his reign. When he married for a second time, he adopted a lion from the family crest of his new bride, Adeliza of Louvain. Two lions doesn’t have quite the same ring, though. Goalkeeper shirt fans (Rob Stokes, I’m looking at YOU) won’t be disappointed either as keepers’ attire is also well documented in the book. There is something here for England fans and kit obsessives alike. Matchday embroidery, shirt numbers, variations, trim – it’s all covered in comprehensive detail and always presented in a very readable way. Harry Kane wearing the all red England away kit for 2022 at Wembley against Germany (Image credit: Getty Images) The badge on the English football team's shirts bears another very English emblem, a smattering of ten Tudor roses, the propaganda device that symbolises Henry VII uniting the house of Lancaster and the house of York after the Wars of the Roses. Lydia is also a pen name of June Woolerton who is a journalist and writer with over twenty years experience in TV, radio, print and online. Her latest book, A History of British Royal Jubilees, is out now. Her new book, The Mysterious Death of Katherine Parr, will be published in March 2024.

Fascinating feature articles, covering everything from grass-roots football to the international scene

With the 1978 World Cup in Argentina on the horizon Admiral started looking at their own lightweight, ventilated material similar to that used on Umbro’s airtex shirts. And while the look of the Three Lions may have changed over the years, they have been ever present on the England kit since the 1870s - apart from a few rogue shirts in the 1970s - but we’ll come to that later. The three lions proved so popular that they reigned supreme on the English royal arms for over a century until Edward III added in some French lilies. But despite alterations and additions ever since, the three lions have always remained an integral part of the arms. England wore red for the first time in May 1947 against Switzerland (Image credit: Three Lions on a Shirt Book) In 1974, out went Sir Alf Ramsey and Umbro and in came Don Revie and Admiral. Revie had a relationship with the Leicester-based sportswear company from his time at Leeds and brought them to the national team. With it came new designs and colours as well as a commercial relationship between kit suppliers and teams.

England played Czechoslovakia in 1975 and seven of the Admiral kits did not have the Three Lions badge on (Image credit: Three Lions on a Shirt Book)And to this day, the three lions can still be seen flying proudly on the UK’s Royal Standard. But why they are on the England shirt?