Coat of arms of Denmark

Coat of arms of Denmark
Versions
Royal coat of arms. Since 1959 the “Three Lions” coat of arms has been Denmark's only national coat of arms.
Details
Heraldic shield	Three blue, striding, gold-crowned, gold-armored and red-tongued lions with nine red hearts
Sign holder	Two wild men with clubs
Orders and decorations	Dannebrogorden , Elephant Order

The national coat of arms of the Kingdom of Denmark consists of three crowned blue lions with nine red hearts in a golden shield under a golden royal crown.

The oldest known illustration of the national emblems comes from a seal of King Canute VI. around 1194.

history

The oldest mention of the colors was around 1270. Originally, the lions looked at the viewer and the number of hearts varied greatly. It is said that the hearts were originally søblade ( sea ​​leaves ), but their true meaning was lost early on during the Middle Ages due to worn and clumsily worked heraldic symbols.

A 1972 royal decree called these figurines søblade , but popularly they are simply called hearts. The current version was published in 1819 during the reign of King Frederick VI. created. He had set the number of hearts at nine and stipulated that the heraldic figures should be forward-facing lions. A rare version, in which the three lions hold the Danish banner together, dates from the reign of King Erik VII.

Until 1959, the Danish state administration used both a small (“Three Lions”) coat of arms and a large coat of arms, comparable to the current coat of arms in Sweden . In 1959, a state commission concluded that the character of the great coat of arms was not a national symbol, but only a dynasty symbol, and decided that since then the Danish authorities have only been allowed to use the “three lions coat of arms”. The former great coat of arms was now officially designated as the personal dynastic symbol of the royal family, and its use has since been reserved only for the royal family, their bodyguards and the court.

The crown on the shield is a heraldic construction based on the crown of Christian V , but not to be confused with the crown of Christian IV . The biggest difference to the real crown is that the real crown is set with diamonds and not pearls. The crowns of both kings as well as other royal regalia are kept in Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen.

The coat of arms is very similar to the coats of arms of Estonia and Tallinn , both of which can be directly traced back to King Waldemar II and the Danish rule in northern Estonia 1219-1346.

The Danish coat of arms is also the starting point for the coat of arms of Schleswig , the northern part of which still belongs to Denmark today (see Schleswig's Lions ). That is why the Schleswig lions are not only found in German heraldry, but also in the coat of arms of the Danish royal family.

	Seal of Waldemar II the Victorious (reign 1202–1241).
	Seal of Erik V (reign 1259–1286).
	Seal of Erik VI. (Reigns 1286-1319). The two eagles point to his Brandenburg mother.
	Seal of Waldemar IV. Atterdag (reign 1340-1375). Early 1340s. The helmet symbol is two buffalo horns (Danish: vessel horn ) each horn is decorated with three groups of peacock feathers.
	Fresco of King Waldemar as King (1370s).
	A seal of Erik VII "of Pomerania" , 1398. The three lions carry the Danish flag .
	Seal of Christopher III. "Von Bayern", 1440s.
	Sigilum secretum of Christian I , 1449.
	Sigilum secretum Christian I , 1457-1460.
	Seal of King John I (reign 1481–1513).
	Seal of Christian III. (Reign 1534–1559).
	Coat of arms of Christian III. as it appeared in the first Danish-language Bible in 1550.
	Coat of arms of Friedrich II . Engraving by Jens Bircherod, 1581.
	Erik XIV of Sweden added the Norwegian and Danish coats of arms to the Swedish one. This was one of the reasons for the Three Crown War .
	Coat of arms of Friedrich II . Engraving 1592.
	Typical coat of arms around 1559 - around 1699. The main shield represents the royal titles (first field: Denmark, second field: Norway, third field: Kalmar Union (Sweden), fourth field: the king of the Goths , shield base: the king of the Wends ), the middle shield represents the ducal titles (Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn and Dithmarschen) and the heart shield represents the ancestral countries of the Oldenburg dynasty (Oldenburg and Delmenhorst).
	Coat of arms approx. 1699–1819. The Schleswig lions were moved from the middle shield to the main shield. This change symbolizes that Christian V considered himself the only gentleman in Schleswig. This claim was recognized in the peace after the Great Northern War in 1721.
	Coat of arms from the first edition of the Kongelig allene privilegerede Tronhiems Adresse-Contoirs Efterretninger , 1767, with a simplified coat of arms of Denmark, Norway and the Kalmar Union (a so-called "cabinet coat of arms"). Simplified coats of arms were also used in the 18th century, e.g. B. from the law firms.
	Large coat of arms 1819–1903. In this coat of arms the Norwegian lion was eliminated. The first field shows the coat of arms of Denmark with the three crowned lions and hearts. Since 1819 the number of hearts has been fixed (nine). In the second field is the coat of arms of Schleswig with the two lions, which are not crowned in distinction. The three crowns in the third field officially represent the Kalmar Union , but are identical to the coat of arms of Sweden . Iceland is represented by a crowned stockfish on a red background. In addition, the ram of the Faroe Islands and the polar bear of Greenland. In the fourth field two medieval titles of the Danish kings are represented; the King of the Goths (above) and the Wends (below). The shield in the middle shows the coats of arms of Holstein, Stormarn, Dithmarschen and Lauenburg. The heart shield is split by Oldenburg and Delmenhorst.
	Large coat of arms 1903–1948. The only version in which Iceland was represented by a falcon instead of the traditional stockfish.
	Large coat of arms 1948–1972. Iceland became a kingdom in union with Denmark in 1918, and the Icelandic Republic was proclaimed in 1944. The Icelandic falcon coat of arms was removed from the large coat of arms in 1948. Only royal coat of arms since 1959.
	Royal coat of arms 1972 – today. In the middle there is now only the coat of arms of the House of Oldenburg . The coats of arms for the Goths and Wends in the fourth field have been replaced by the Danish national coat of arms, which is already in the first field. The coats of arms of Holstein, Stormarn, Dithmarschen, Lauenburg and Delmenhorst were also removed.

Municipal coat of arms

The municipal coats of arms are not available on Wikipedia as Danish copyright law also includes official symbols. Misuse of official Danish symbols is prohibited under Section 132 of the Danish Penal Code. In addition, Danish municipal coats of arms are regulated under the rules of the Danish Patent and Trademark Directorate.

See also

• List of coats of arms of the administrative districts of Denmark

Individual evidence

1. ↑ - Retsinfo.dk - Straffeloven