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Excerpt from the book HERALDRY OF THE WORLD Written and illustrated by Carl Alexander von Volborth ,
K.St.J., A.I.H. Copenhagen 1973 Internet version edited by Andrew Andersen, Ph.D. |
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Denmark (pp.
134-137, 216-221) In Denmark the use of an escutcheon in the
traditional sense was probably introduced during the reign ofValdemar the Great (1157-82). It seems more than likely
that the king had armorial bearings containing the three lions (Fig. 727)
which are still the arms of Denmark, in spite of the fact that the oldest
version of them now extant dates from about 1190 and was his son Canute IV's
seal. Two manuscripts, one German and one French,
dating from about 1280, are the earliest to record the tinctures. The small
red charges around the lions are nowadays usually interpreted as hearts - as
the Danish song states, lions leap on the shield and hearts arc afire - but
they actually represent leaves. There were originally many more of them and
their number was uncertain, but in 1819 it was set at nine. The crowns worn
by the lions were added by Valdemar the Victorious
(1202-41), but in every other respect this coat of arms is much the same now
as it was 800 years ago. The arms of the nobility and clergy are
preserved on seals dadng from the second half of
the same century, and those for farmers from around 1300, but all these
various classes may well have had arms previous to these examples which have
only by chance been preserved. The same is true, of course, of coats of arms
for boroughs, districts, guilds and corporations, all of which are known from
seals that go back to the thirteenth century. When speaking of noble and non-noble (commoners')
arms, we should remember that in principle there was no difference originally
between them. It was not until much later with the use of features such as
coronets and the position of the helmet etc. to indicate the holder's rank, that it was possible to distinguish between the arms
of a burgher and those of a nobleman. This in the case of Denmark was after
the inception of the Absolute Monarchy in 1660. The difference was made with
accessories like those mentioned, never with the charges or the crest. The earliest coats were very simple, and
the arms of the family of Brahe are a good example (Fig. 740), but
aristocratic bearings which were obviously made up from two others (such as
those of the family of Ahlefeldt, Fig. 742) are
known from as early as the thirteenth century. During the fourteenth century
the royal family and its branches began to include more than one escutcheon
in their shields to indicate possessions, descent or marriage, and about 1398
King Eric of Pomerania had five coats of arms marshalled on one escutcheon.
These were the arms of his three Scandinavian realms, one for Denmark, one
for Norway and two for Sweden (the ancient Swedish lions and what were then
the comparatively new three crowns of Sweden), as well as his father's* arms
of Pomerania. They were marshalled on a quartered shield with an inescutcheon, and the four quarters of the main shield
were separated by a cross which was no doubt inspired by the Danish flag, the
Dannebrog.
This version of the royal arms was retained
by all subsequent Danish kings. Certain quarterings
were dispensed with, others were added or took their place, but the way this
coat of arms looked up until 1972 (Fig. 723) was in fact a direct
continuation of the combined arms of Eric of Pomerania in 1398. The main
shield is divided as follows: the first quarter contains the arms of Denmark
(see also Fig. 727); the second quarter, Schleswig (see also Fig. 722),
originally a 'reduction' of the arms of Valdemar
the Victorious for his son Abel when the latter was the Duke of South Jutland
(Schleswig); the third quarter, Sweden's three crowns to commemorate the
Kalmar Union, together with the ram of the Faroes
and the polar bear of Greenland, both dating from the seventeenth century. Up
to 1948 Iceland's falcon was also included. The fourth quarter contains two
imaginary charges from the thirteenth century to illustrate the king's
suzerainty over the Goths and Wends. The four quarters of the inescutcheon show the king's titles as Duke of Holstein, Stormarn, Ditmarschen and Lauenburg. The centre shield contains the family arms of
the Oldenburg dynasty, two bars gules on a field or, with Delmenhorst. The
primitive men as supporters were introduced by Christian I in the middle of
the fifteenth century, and the mantling was added at the time of the Absolute
Monarchy. Below the shield are the collars of the Order of the Dannebrog and the Order of the Elephant.|
(On
the accession of Queen Margrethe in 1972 the royal
achievement was somewhat simplified. The arms for the Goths and Wends in the
fourth quarter were eliminated and replaced by Denmark, repeated from the
first quarter; the two inescutcheons were replaced
by a single inescutcheon bearing only the two bars
of Oldenburg; and the limbs of the cross were carried to the edges of the
shield—Ed.) The marshalling of the royal arms was not
the only heraldic innovation of Eric of Pomerania. He seems to have had an
interest in heraldry and perhaps his Queen, Philippa,
shared this interest. She was an English princess, from a court intensely
preoccupied with heraldry, and the granddaughter of John of Gaunt, who had a
considerable influence on heraldic reform in Portugal about this time (see p.
209). The earliest known grants of arms in Denmark to individuals date from
the time of Eric of Pomerania. In 1437 the city of Malmo was granted arms
containing a griffin's head, which was derived from the King's own Pomeranian
charge of a griffin, and this head can still be seen on the lamp-posts and
buses in Malmoe. A number of murals of armorial bearings, including some on
show at Kronborg, date from this time. It was not of course Eric of Pomerania
personally who had these measures carried out. He
had inherited a heraldic organisation with Kings of Arms, heralds and pursuivants which can be traced back to the early years
of the fourteenth century. The kings who succeeded him used the heralds not
only for heraldry, but also for other tasks, especially diplomatic ones. When
the Kalmar Union ended at the beginning of the sixteenth century the office
faded out, although the term 'herald' was retained for certain ceremonial
court officials for about another 300 years. In 1938 an office known as the Statens Heraldiske Konsulent (National Heraldic Advisor) was instituted,
responsible for heraldic issues in the country. Local authorities too have
the right, but not the duty, to seek his advice. In the course of the sixteenth century it
became usual for the nobility to marshal four coats of arms on an escutcheon,
either the arms of the four grandparents or both parents of a married couple.
But these quartered arms were not hereditary. Marshalling several coats of
arms into permanent hereditary armorial bearings really got started after the
Absolute Monarchy had been introduced in 1660. The outcome was that not only
could all existing arms be combined in one escutcheon, but it was also
possible when a completely new coat of arms had been assumed or granted to
have it divided into several fields. A good example of this is the Tordenskjold coat of arms dating from 1716 (see Fig.
743). The way in which ancient and simple coats of arms were almost eclipsed
by the new fashions can be seen by comparing Figs 742 and 728.
The royal crowns and aristocratic coronets
(p. 135) were introduced with Christian V's rules governing rank and
precedence in the 1670s and 1680s. They were so rigidly defined that
different coronets were specified for use outside and inside the shield (e.g.
on an inescutcheon), but these stipulations were
not adhered to for very long, not even by the royal chancellery which issued
the patents of nobility. In 1679 Christian V gave certain officials ('royal
functionaries') the privilege of bearing a barred helmet, in profile and with
four visible bars, but no Danish king ever attempted to enforce special types
of helmets specifically for the aristocracy.
All the same one often comes across the
expressions 'noble helmet' and 'noble shield' in this period. But apart from
the fact that the barred helmet probably was regarded by many people as the
privilege of the nobility (see Figs 728 and 729), these expressions merely
meant 'a helmet borne by a person of noble rank' or 'a shield borne by a
person of noble rank'. In Denmark, as already stated, there has never been
any difference between the arms of titled persons and those without title,
apart from the coronet, not even during the Absolute Monarchy.
As well as raising many people to the rank of
nobility, Christian V granted a large number of letters patent conferring the
right to armorial bearings, which probably did not imply nobility (the
question has been under discussion), but the great majority of middle-class
arms - for the clergy and men of learning, officials and officers,
businessmen, craftsmen, printers and apothecaries and so on - continued to be
self-assumed. How many there are is difficult to say. The aristocratic arms
are accountable: there are something between 1,700
and 2,000. But there are far more of the others, at least 8-10,000. In
comparison with other countries, such as Sweden, Holland and England, this is
a relatively small number, and this is no doubt partly a result of the fact
that the farmer class had no influence on political life, anyhow from the
time of the civil war known as the Feud of the Count, 1534—36, partly a
consequence of the near-impotence politically of practically all classes of
the community during the Absolute Monarchy (1660—1849). However, the arms of commoners
are often more attractive than those of the aristocracy, mainly because they
are usually less intricate (Figs 738 and 739). In the course of the eighteenth century and
the first half of the nineteenth interest in heraldry diminished at the same time
as heraldic taste deteriorated (by modern standards). In the second half of
the nineteenth century scholars began to develop an interest in heraldic
matters, and this resulted among other things in tomes of publications on
seals preserved from the Middle Ages, the majority of which were heraldic,
and this interest became more widespread. Most of the market towns had had a
device since the Middle Ages, mostly on a seal. Now it became the fashion to
set this device on a shield and choose suitable colours. The result was not
always a happy one as far as the best heraldry goes, because the figures on a
seal - engraved on a small scale and intended to stand out in relief in only
one colour - are difficult to transpose into the forms and colours of
heraldry (Figs 720 and 741), but the interest was there and sometimes the
results were splendid (Figs 721 and 744). New local authorities have
increasingly adopted armorial bearings, some 200 since 1900 (see Figs 745 and
746).
In 1959 the Heraldisk
Selskab, embracing the whole of Scandinavia, was established.
Today it has nearly 600 members, a good third of whom are Danes. The
activities of the society include the publication of the journal Heraldisk Tidsskrift. A
specimen copy and other information can be obtained free from the secretary
of the society: Dr Ole Rostock, Sigmundsvej 8, 2880 Bagsvaerd, who also accepts
applications for membership. |
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