Denmark's New Royal Coat Of Arms Marks The End Of A 400-Year-Long Swedish-Danish Conflict

(MENAFN- The Conversation) King Frederick X of Denmark announced a change of the royal coat of arms on January 1 this year. This change was understood by many – rightly or wrongly – as an intervention in US president Donald Trump's aspirations to enhance America's influence over Greenland. However, more interestingly it put an end to a 17th-century Swedish-Danish conflict.

While many headlines have read along similar lines to LBC's “Danish king changes 500-year-old coat of arms amid growing row with trump over Greenland” , the composition of the new royal arms was planned in early 2024. As such, the design predates Trump's current interest in the territory.

In reality, the king's decision to change the coat of arms was about bringing the different parts of the Danish kingdom together in a way that is more representative of modern Denmark. This is not a new practice. What is, however, surprising is his choice to remove a part of the royal coat of arms that has been there since 1397 and has been a source of conflict with Denmark's neighbour Sweden.

The symbols in the Danish royal coat of arms have existed in various formations for centuries and have been rearranged countless times to convey new messages. When King Frederick acceded to the throne in 2024 he decided to reconfigure it again.

Each new Danish sovereign adopts a royal motto. Frederick's choice was:“United, committed, for the Kingdom of Denmark.” In Danish, it is clearer that“united” refers to the three different parts of the Danish realm, Denmark and the two self-governing territories Greenland and the Faroe Islands, and that“committed” refers to the king himself.

This indicated that the king wanted to highlight the unity of the kingdom but also its different parts. Soon after his accession he appointed a group of heraldic and historic scholars to suggest a new royal coat of arms that reflected this motto.

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In the first quarter of the new coat of arms are the three lions representing Denmark, which has been included by Danish kings since the 1190s. In the fourth quarter, are the two lions representing Schleswig. The two lions have appeared in the Danish royal coat of arms since the 1370s and represent the southern part of Jutland, historically not part of the Danish kingdom but the duchy of Schleswig (an area that included land in today's southern Denmark and northern Germany).

Featuring more prominently than past royal coats of arms are the ram of the Faroe islands in the second quarter and the polar bear of Greenland in the third.

In Denmark, the reactions were mainly positive. The new coat of arms was understood as more representative of the realm as a whole. The Swedes, however, were surprised that one major part that had been removed – the three crowns.

When Frederick's mother, Queen Margrethe II, succeeded to the throne in 1972, she took symbols out of the coat of arms. They represented areas and titles that were no longer relevant, for example the now German regions of Holstein, Stormarn and Dithmarschen. King Frederick has done the same, removing the three crowns which represented the Kalmar union.

The three crowns were originally a Swedish symbol, which can be traced to the 1330s and the reign of Magnus Eriksson . He was king of Sweden, Norway and Scania (Skåne), the latter being part of Sweden again since 1658, and the three crowns were a symbol of a type of union. They later came to symbolise the Kalmar Union (1397-1523), which comprised of the same area and had one monarch.

When Sweden ended the union in 1523, their king and Denmark's claimed the right to the three crowns as a symbol of Sweden and of the Kalmar union respectively. Denmark considered to the union to still exist, a position which was the pretext for war between the nations.

In 1611, the Swedish and Danes fought in the Kalmar war over control of the northern Norwegian coast and hinterland. The war ended with the Peace of Knäred in 1613, during which the countries agreed that both kings should have the right to use the three crowns and fight no more wars over them.

For 400 years, Danish kings have been exercising this right. However, in 2025 Frederick became the first to not. This was such a shocking decision that when famous Swedish historian Dick Harrison was told the news he thought it was a prank call . No one in Sweden ever expected that the Danes would stop using the three crowns after all these years.

During many centuries, kings have used heraldry to show the world the vastness of their territories but also to show the world what territories they claim. Finally, the Danish heraldic claim to Sweden has been withdrawn. I'm sure the Swedish 16th and 17th century kings would be happy to finally see it happen.

That the new royal coat of arms was interpreted as a symbolic intervention in Donald Trump's aspirations to enhance US influence over Greenland shows that heraldry is still a functioning language of communication. Although, it is the far less interesting story here.

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