Coat o airms o Denmark

The Naitional Coat o Airms o Denmark consists o three crouned blae lions accompanied bi nine reid herts, aw in a gowden shield. The auldest kent depiction o the insignie dates frae a seal uised bi King Canute VI c. 1194. The auldest documentation for the colours dates frae c. 1270. Historically, the lions faced the viewer an the nummer o herts wis no regulatit an coud be muckle heicher. Historians believe that the herts oreeginally wur søblade (literally: sea-leafs) but that this meanin wis lost early due tae worn an crudely made signets uised in the Middle Ages. A ryal decree o 1972 specifies thir figures as søblade but Danes normally refer tae them as herts. The current version wis adoptit in 1819 in the ring o King Frederick VI wha standardised the nummer o herts tae nine an decreed that the heraldic beasts wur lions, consequently facin forwart. A rare version exists frae the ring o king Eric o Pomeranie in whilk the three lions haud the Dens banner thegither, in a seimilar fashion as in the coat o airms o the umwhile Sooth Jutland Coonty. Till c. 1960, Denmark uised baith a "sma" an a "lairge" coat o airms, seimilar tae the seestem still uised in Swaden. The latter seembol held wide uise athin the govrenment admeenistration, e.g. bi the Foreign Meenistry. Syne this time, the latter seembol haes been classifee'd as the coat o airms o the ryal faimily, leavin Denmark wi ae ane naitional coat o airms, uised for aw offeecial purposes.

The croun on the shield is a heraldic construction based on the croun o King Christian V, nae tae be ramfeeselt wi the croun o King Christian IV. The main difference frae the real croun is that the latter is covered wi table cut diamonds raither than pearls. Baith crouns, an ither ryal insignie, are locatit in Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen.

The blazon in heraldic terms is: Or, three lions passant in fauch Azure crouned an airmed Or langued Gules, nine herts Gules.

The earliest kent example o the Dens airms, the seal o Canute VI, 1190s. The ae kent copy o this insignie wis discovered in 1879 in the Grand Ducal archive o Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany. Note the keeng's closed croun that differs frae the open crouns shawn on the seals o his successors, an the shield that is semé o herts raither than shawin ae nine.

A medieval ship banner captured bi forces frae Lübeck in the 1420s showed the airms o Denmark, Swaden, Norrowey an Pomeranie. The oreeginal banner wis destroyed durin a Warld War II attack on the ceety, but a 19t century copy remains in Frederiksborg Palace, Denmark. The saunt accompanyin the Virgin Mary an infant Christ is Saunt James the Greater, identified bi his scallop shell emblem.

This insignie is naur identical tae the coats o airms o Estonie an Tallinn which can baith be traced directly back tae King Valdemar II an the Dens rule in northren Estonie 1219-1346. The main differences is: In the Dens coat o airms the lions is crouned, face forwart, an accompanied bi nine herts. In the Estonian coat o airms, the "leopards" face the viewer, thay arenae crouned, an nae herts is present. The coat o airms o Tallinn resembles the Estonian airms, but the leopards in the umwhile airms is crouned wi gowden crouns seemilar tae the anes in the Dens airms. It shaws great similarities wi the contemporary insignie o Ingland's Richard the Lionheart an the current airms o the German state o Baden-Württemberg. The Dens coat o airms haes an aa been the inspiration for the coat o airms o the umwhile Duchy o Schleswig, a umwhile Dens province (twa blae lions in a gowden shield.) The herts o the coat o airms appears in the coat o airms o the German destrict o Lüneburg an aw.