King Frederik X of Denmark announced a change of the royal coat of arms on January 1 this yr. This modification was understood by many – rightly or wrongly – as an intervention in US president Donald Trump’s aspirations to reinforce America’s affect over Greenland. Nonetheless, extra curiously it put an finish to a Seventeenth-century Swedish-Danish battle.
Whereas many headlines have learn alongside comparable strains to LBC’s “Danish king changes 500-year-old coat of arms amid growing row with Trump over Greenland”, the composition of the brand new royal arms was deliberate in early 2024. As such, the design predates Trump’s present curiosity within the territory.
In actuality, the king’s choice to vary the coat of arms was about bringing the totally different components of the Danish kingdom collectively in a method that’s extra consultant of recent Denmark. This isn’t a brand new follow. What’s, nevertheless, shocking is his option to take away part of the royal coat of arms that has been there since 1397 and has been a supply of battle with Denmark’s neighbour Sweden.
The symbols within the Danish royal coat of arms have existed in varied formations for
centuries and have been rearranged numerous occasions to convey new messages. When King Frederik acceded to the throne in 2024 he determined to reconfigure it once more.
Every new Danish sovereign adopts a royal motto. Frederik’s choice was: “United, dedicated, for the Kingdom of Denmark.” In Danish, it’s clearer that “united” refers back to the three totally different components of the Danish realm, Denmark and the 2 self-governing territories Greenland and the Faroe Islands, and that “dedicated” refers back to the king himself.
This indicated that the king wished to spotlight the unity of the dominion but in addition its totally different components. Quickly after his accession he appointed a gaggle of heraldic and historic scholars to recommend a brand new royal coat of arms that mirrored this motto.
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Within the first quarter of the brand new coat of arms are the three lions representing Denmark, which has been included by Danish kings because the 1190s. Within the fourth quarter, are the 2 lions representing Schleswig. The 2 lions have appeared within the Danish royal coat of arms because the 1370s and symbolize the southern a part of Jutland, traditionally not a part of the Danish kingdom however the duchy of Schleswig (an space that included land in as we speak’s southern Denmark and northern Germany).
That includes extra prominently than previous royal coats of arms are the ram of the Faroe islands within the second quarter and the polar bear of Greenland within the third.
In Denmark, the reactions had been primarily constructive. The brand new coat of arms was understood as extra consultant of the realm as a complete. The Swedes, nevertheless, had been stunned that one main half that had been eliminated – the three crowns.
When Frederik’s mom, Queen Margrethe II, succeeded to the throne in 1972, she took symbols out of the coat of arms. They represented areas and titles that had been not related, for instance the now German areas of Holstein, Stormarn and Dithmarschen. King Frederik has achieved the identical, eradicating the three crowns which represented the Kalmar union.
Kongehuset
The historical past of Kalmar’s three crowns
The three crowns had been initially a Swedish image, which may be traced to the 1330s and the reign of Magnus Eriksson. He was king of Sweden, Norway and Scania (Skåne), the latter being a part of Sweden once more since 1658, and the three crowns had been an emblem of a kind of union. They later got here to symbolise the Kalmar Union (1397-1523), which comprised of the identical space and had one monarch.
When Sweden ended the union in 1523, their king and Denmark’s claimed the appropriate to the three crowns as an emblem of Sweden and of the Kalmar union respectively. Denmark thought of to the union to nonetheless exist, a place which was the pretext for warfare between the nations.
In 1611, the Swedish and Danes fought within the Kalmar warfare over management of the northern Norwegian coast and hinterland. The warfare ended with the Peace of Knäred in 1613, throughout which the nations agreed that each kings ought to have the appropriate to make use of the three crowns and battle no extra wars over them.
For 400 years, Danish kings have been exercising this proper. Nonetheless, in 2025 Frederik turned the primary to not. This was such a stunning choice that when well-known Swedish historian Dick Harrison was instructed the information he thought it was a prank call. Nobody in Sweden ever anticipated that the Danes would cease utilizing the three crowns in spite of everything these years.
Throughout many centuries, kings have used heraldry to point out the world the vastness of their territories but in addition to point out the world what territories they declare. Lastly, the Danish heraldic declare to Sweden has been withdrawn. I’m certain the Swedish sixteenth and Seventeenth century kings could be completely satisfied to lastly see it occur.
That the brand new royal coat of arms was interpreted as a symbolic intervention in Donald Trump’s aspirations to reinforce US affect over Greenland exhibits that heraldry continues to be a functioning language of communication. Though, it’s the far much less attention-grabbing story right here.
