The Danish king has shocked some historians by altering the royal coat of arms to extra prominently function Greenland and the Faroe Islands – in what has additionally been seen as a rebuke to Donald Trump.
Lower than a yr since succeeding his mom, Queen Margrethe, after she stood down on New 12 months’s Eve 2023, King Frederik has made a transparent assertion of intent to maintain the autonomous Danish territory and former colony inside the kingdom of Denmark.
For 500 years, earlier Danish royal coats of arms have featured three crowns, the image of the Kalmar Union between Denmark, Norway and Sweden, which was led from Denmark between 1397 and 1523. They’re additionally an vital image of its neighbour Sweden.
However within the up to date model, the crowns have been eliminated and changed with a extra distinguished polar bear and ram than beforehand, to symbolise Greenland and the Faroe Islands respectively.
The transfer comes at a time of elevated rigidity over Greenland and its relations with Denmark, which continues to regulate its international and safety coverage.
Incoming US president Trump final month mentioned once more that he needs the US to purchase Greenland, and the Greenlandic prime minister, Múte Egede, not too long ago accused Denmark of genocide in response to investigations of the pressured contraceptive scandal of the Sixties and 70s. In Egede’s personal new yr’s tackle he accelerated requires Greenlandic independence and referred to as for the “shackles of the colonial period” to be eliminated.
The royal family mentioned the coat of arms, which is used on official paperwork and seals and components of which date again to the twelfth century, “strengthens the prominence of the commonwealth”. The three crowns, it mentioned, had been eliminated “as it’s not related”.
The adjustments, it mentioned, had been made after a advice from a committee that was appointed straight after his accession on 14 January 2024.
Final week, in his first new yr speech, the king mentioned: “We’re all united and every of us dedicated for the dominion of Denmark. From the Danish minority in South Schleswig – which is even located exterior the dominion – and all the way in which to Greenland. We belong collectively.”
after e-newsletter promotion
Since 1819, the royal arms have been modified thrice prior to now, in 1903, 1948 and 1972. However the newest adjustments have been met by shock in some quarters.
Ever for the reason that peace treaty of Knäred in 1613, which ended the Kalmar battle, Sweden was “pressured to just accept the Danish king’s rights to make use of the Swedish image of the three crowns, mentioned Dick Harrison, a historical past professor on the Swedish College of Lund, making its elimination from the Danish coat of arms now “a sensation”.
“The image survived the large defeats within the wars in opposition to Sweden within the 1640s and the 1650s, the lack of Norway in 1814, the lack of Schleswig to Germany in 1864, the transition to modernity, the lack of Iceland and the German occupation in world battle II,” he mentioned. “Thus, from the perspective of historical past, the truth that King Frederik X has determined to take away the image is a sensation.”
However Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen, a historian on the Saxo Institute on the College of Copenhagen, mentioned it sends clear alerts about present geopolitics, particularly amid Greenlandic requires independence.
“When the Greenlanders, and in a way additionally the Faroese, toy with the concept of attaining full independence, the royal home exhibits they assist the state’s coverage, which is to protect the unity of the realm,” he advised Berlingske.
Royal knowledgeable Lars Hovbakke Sørensen believes the adjustments mirror the king’s private curiosity within the Arctic, but in addition ship a message to the world.
“You will need to sign from the Danish facet that Greenland and the Faroe Islands are a part of the Danish realm, and that this isn’t up for dialogue. That is the way you mark it,” he advised TV2.
Supply hyperlink
