The Danish royal coat of arms is established by royal resolution of 20 December 2024.
The escutcheon is divided into quarters by the Dannebrog Cross, which has been a part of the Danish coat of arms since the time of Eric of Pomerania. Under Christian the 4th, the cross was designed with outwardly curved arms, a form that was also chosen for the badge of the Order of Dannebrog.
Seen in the first quarter is Denmark’s coat of arms, which consists of three blue, crowned lions surrounded by nine red hearts on a gold field. Denmark’s coat of arms dates back to the end of the 1100s and has been used by the Danish kings since then. In the second quarter, the ram of the Faroe Islands is seen on a blue field. The coat of arms of the Faroes is known from the seal of the members of the old Faroese law court, the Løgting, from the 1300s and from the end of one of the church pews in Kirkjubøur dating from the first half of the 1400s, which is now exhibited at the Faroese national museum, Tjóðsavnið. In the third quarter, the polar bear of Greenland is seen on a blue field. The polar bear became Greenland’s heraldic symbol under Frederik the 3rd in 1666, when Griffenfeld wrote that the king gave Greenland "the white Bear in a blue field".
In the fourth quarter, Southern Jutland’s two lions are seen. This coat of arms came about in the middle of the 1200s as a derivative of Denmark’s coat of arms and became a permanent part of the Danish royal coat of arms when Christian the 1st became Duke of Southern Jutland (Schleswig) in 1460. The coat of arms carries on today as a special testimony to the history of Southern Jutland.
In the middle of the Dannebrog Cross, you find a small escutcheon, the inescutcheon, with the Oldenborg lineage’s two bars, which date from the 1100s and indicate the dynastic origin of the royal house. The large escutcheon is surrounded by the collars of the Order of the Elephant and the Order of Dannebrog and is held by two savages, which have been part of the coat of arms since the time of Christian the 1st. The savages stand in an ermine-lined pavilion ensigned with the royal crown.
Rendering and use
The royal coat of arms can be rendered without escutcheon supporters and pavilion. The crowned coat of arms surrounded by the collars of the royal orders of chivalry is seen in this way in the seal stamped on royal appointments and original laws.
The royal coat of arms is reserved for the monarch, The Royal House of Denmark and The Royal Court.
