for the coat of arms of Finland. The lion experienced several changes during the 17th century. In the funeral banner of Charles X Gustavus (in 1660) it can be seen treading on the sabre with all three free paws; in drawings by Elias Brenner (in the Suecia antique et hodierna by Erik Dahlberg, printed in 1716), it is pictured with a double tail (queue fourchée) and with an almost walking posture. Russian era After Finland had been ceded to Russia (as a consequence of the Swedish–Russian war of 1808–1809), Elias Brenner's version of the lion was chosen by the authorities as the model for the new coat of arms of the Grand Principality of Finland in the Russian Empire. The blazon in the decree of 26 October 1809 states: The shield has a red field, strewn with roses of silver, on which a golden lion with a crown of gold, standing on a silver saber, which it grasps with the left forepaw while holding in the right forepaw an upright sword. Obviously, any interpretation of the lion as trampling on a Russian sabre had been lost at this point in time. During the reform of the Russian official heraldry in 1857, the lion was again changed on the initiative of Baron Bernhard Karl von Köhne. The blazon states: On a red field strewn with silver roses a crowned lion of gold, holding in the right forepaw an upright sword and in the left one a curved sword on which it rests with the right hindpaw. The main changes were that the lion had started to resemble a dog rather than a lion, and the crown on top of the shield had been changed to an arched crown without a cap, and with a small Russian eagle on the rim. The sword in the right forepaw had shrunk in size, to the point of resembling a dagger rather than a sword (Figure 8). During the years when the Russian emperors attempted russification of Finland (1899–1905 and 1908–17), the use of the arms of Finland increased significantly, and eventually became popular in the broader population. The director of the Finnish National Archives, Karl August Bomansson (1827–1906), made the first significant study on the arms of Finland in modern times. He restored the appearance of the arms in 1886, so that it closely resembled the Uppsala lion. However, there was a slight deviation