Country
The Dannebrog, a white cross on red, is named in a Dutch armorial whose oldest arms date from about 1330–1340, and its oldest known coloured depiction, made after 1370, belongs to King Valdemar IV. The coat of arms is older still: three lions among hearts appear on a seal of King Knud VI of about 1194, the earliest known example of the arms of Denmark.
Flag
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Coat of Arms
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| Flag | The Dannebrog: Gules, a Nordic cross Argent |
|---|---|
| Name first found | Bellenville armorial, oldest arms c. 1330–1340 (“Denenbroec”) |
| State arms | Or, three lions passant Azure, crowned Or and langued Gules, among nine hearts Gules |
| Earliest arms | Seal of King Knud VI, c. 1194 |
| Royal arms | Royal resolution of 20 December 2024, published 1 January 2025 |
Dannebrog — a white cross on red.
Gules, a Nordic cross Argent.
Den Store Danske describes it in a single line: a white cross running through to the edges, on a red field.
The oldest known source for the name is a Dutch armorial, the Bellenville armorial, whose oldest arms date from between 1330 and 1340: on a page with the arms of the Danish king, a red shield with a white cross is captioned Denenbroec; Danish Wikipedia dates the armorial itself to 1380–90. Later sources give the Swedish Danabroka (1439) and the Danish Dannebroge (1478). The name is probably made of a word corresponding to Frisian dan, ‘red’, and the noun brog, ‘cloth’, and so refers to the red cloth of the flag; its meaning was early understood as ‘the banner of the Danes’.
In the Gelre armorial, made after 1370, a red banner with a white cross forms part of the crest of the arms of Valdemar IV: it is the oldest known coloured depiction of the Dannebrog, and according to Den Store Danske the oldest known Dannebrog must be linked to this king, who reigned from 1340 to 1375. Since the middle of the 12th century the German emperor had used an all-red banner, with a white cross added when he went on crusade, and from the end of the 13th century this red-and-white cross banner can be regarded as the permanent banner of the Empire. Valdemar, whose recognition as king in 1340 owed much to the emperor and his son, could send a political signal by adopting the same banner.
The story of the Dannebrog falling from the sky during a battle in Estonia appears in Christiern Pedersen’s Danish chronicle of the early 1520s and in the writings of the Franciscan Peder Olsen, about 1527, who dated it to 1208; tradition has held that it happened at the battle of Lyndanise, on 15 June 1219. Danish clergy may have created the legend at the end of the 15th century to strengthen royal power. The historian Arild Huitfeldt told it in his chronicle of 1600–1603, which gave it a lasting place in Danish minds, and C. A. Lorentzen painted the scene in 1809. In the words of Den Store Danske, the legend has nothing to do with historical reality, but its existence through the centuries is a fact and part of Danish history.
The Dannebrog has been flown at sea since the end of the 16th century. An ordinance of 1630 reserved the swallow-tailed flag for the navy, and its proportions were fixed in 1696; it became the custom for the state to fly it on land as well. In 1748 the merchant flag was definitively fixed as a rectangular flag without a swallow-tail, which private people still use. Since 1731 the royal standard has carried the royal arms in a central field, and the naval ensign is traditionally a deep or dark red.
The three lions among hearts appear on a royal seal of the 12th century: at first the king’s arms, they gradually became linked with the realm. The great arms of the king, which brought together the arms of the lands he ruled or claimed, were also a symbol of the state until 1959; since then they have been the arms of the royal house. These are their stages.
Click the thumbnails to go through the coats of arms.
c. 1194
Three lions on a shield strewn with hearts.
The earliest known example of the arms of Denmark is on the reverse of the seal of King Knud VI, from about 1194; its only surviving copy was found in 1879 in the archive of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The shield is strewn with an indefinite number of hearts, not the nine of today, and the lions originally faced the viewer. The hearts were sometimes understood and drawn as sea-leaves, and were perhaps originally linden leaves. The colours are first attested in an armorial of about 1270. The arms were at first the king’s, and gradually became linked with the territory of the Danish realm. The image is a drawing of the seal by Julius Magnus Petersen.
1398
The three lions of Denmark together hold a Dannebrog banner; the shield is divided into four fields by a cross.
Erik af Pommern used a seal in 1398 in which the three Danish lions together carry a Dannebrog banner. His seal is also the first example of a shield divided into four fields by a cross. From his time the Dannebrog cross became part of the king’s arms, as did the Norwegian lion with the axe and the Swedish emblems, the three crowns and the Folkung lion; the three crowns also came to symbolise the three Nordic kingdoms of the Kalmar Union. The image is a drawing of the seal by Julius Magnus Petersen.
1559
Denmark, Norway, the three crowns of Sweden and the arms of the Wends and the Goths, with Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn and Oldenburg; Ditmarsken added.
Christian III bore the three crowns from 1546 as arms of pretension, a mark of the Danish-Norwegian kings’ will to dominate Sweden as well, and Sweden contested their use, especially in the 16th century. After Frederik II conquered Ditmarsken in 1559, a rider was added for it, known from 1563; the cross of Delmenhorst had appeared in the king’s arms since the time of Frederik I. The lion for the title “de Goters” had been added by Christian I in 1449, and the lindworm for “de Venders” by Christoffer af Bayern in 1440; this was the last version with the Wendish lindworm in the base of the shield. Wild men had first held the shield in 1449, under Christian I.
1699
The two lions of Schleswig moved into the main shield.
The arms used from 1699 to 1819 were the last version with the Norwegian lion, and the two lions of Schleswig were moved into the main shield. The Schleswig lions are known from 1245 and had become part of the king’s arms in 1460. Since Christian V, wild men have continuously held the shield of the Danish monarchs.
1819
The Norwegian lion removed; the three lions of Denmark look forward.
Frederik VI fixed a new version in 1819. It removed the Norwegian lion, which had been in the arms since 1398, after Swedish pressure following the dissolution of the union of Denmark and Norway in 1814. The three lions were now to look forward and not at the viewer, because in heraldry a figure looking at the viewer is called a leopard, not a lion. A horse’s head was added for Lauenburg, and Iceland was still represented by its traditional emblem, a crowned silver fish on red.
1903
Iceland represented by a silver falcon on blue.
In 1903 the traditional fish of Iceland was replaced by a silver falcon on blue; this is the only version in which Iceland is represented by a falcon. It was removed in 1948: Christian X, who had died the year before, had also been king of Iceland until the island became a republic in 1944. The great arms then remained unchanged until 1972. In 1959 they ceased to be a symbol of the state and became the arms of the royal house.
1972
Quartered by a cross Argent fimbriated Gules: Denmark in the first and fourth quarters, Schleswig in the second; in the third, on blue, the three crowns, the ram of the Faroe Islands and the bear of Greenland; the Oldenburg arms on an escutcheon.
The arms were greatly simplified in 1972. The fields for the titles King of the Wends and of the Goths disappeared, as did those for Holstein, Stormarn, Ditmarsken, Lauenburg and Delmenhorst: these ducal and comital titles were not hereditary, so Margrethe II did not bear them. The arms were drawn by Claus Achton Friis, and the cross was now drawn with equal arms. The escutcheon carries two red bars on gold, the arms of Oldenburg, the house’s land of origin.
2025
Quartered by the Dannebrog cross: Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Schleswig; the Oldenburg arms on an escutcheon.
King Frederik X fixed new royal arms by royal resolution of 20 December 2024, published on 1 January 2025. The three crowns, borne for centuries as a claim based on the Kalmar Union, were taken out, as they had lost all relevance; the Faroe Islands and Greenland each received a field of their own, as an expression of the community of the realm, and the lions of Schleswig moved to the fourth field. The cross regained an outward-curving form, matching the cross of the Order of the Dannebrog. The official drawing is by the royal heraldic painter Ronny Skov Andersen; the image shown is a drawing based on the information published by the royal house.
Statsvåbenet — the state arms.
Or, three lions passant Azure, crowned Or and langued Gules, among nine hearts Gules.
The state arms are in principle the arms known from the time of the Valdemar kings: three lions surrounded by hearts. Officially the hearts are called søblade; the colour of the lions’ claws is not officially fixed.
The crown belongs to the arms. It was originally open, and since 1624 it has been shown with arches and an orb with a cross; since 1671 the crown of Christian V has been the model. It symbolises both the royal power and the power of the state.
Since 1959 the royal arms have been used by the monarch, the royal house, the court and the Royal Life Guards, while the state authorities use the state arms. The arms and the crown are protected against misuse by section 132 of the Criminal Code.
The name is first found in a Dutch armorial whose oldest arms date from between 1330 and 1340, and the oldest known coloured depiction, in an armorial made after 1370, belongs to King Valdemar IV (1340–1375). According to Den Store Danske, the oldest known Dannebrog must be linked to him.
No. The story of the flag falling from the sky during a battle in Estonia is first told in the 1520s, when Peder Olsen dated it to 1208; tradition later fixed it at Lyndanise on 15 June 1219. Den Store Danske notes that the legend has nothing to do with historical reality, but that its existence through the centuries is a fact and part of Danish history.
It is probably made of a word corresponding to Frisian dan, ‘red’, and the noun brog, ‘cloth’: the red cloth of the flag. Its meaning was early understood as ‘the banner of the Danes’.
Officially they are called søblade, sea-leaves. They were sometimes understood and drawn as such, and were perhaps originally linden leaves. Their number was not fixed in the early depictions; today there are nine.
Since 1959 the state authorities use the state arms, the three lions among hearts under the crown, while the royal arms, a composite shield often held by wild men, are used by the monarch, the royal house, the court and the Royal Life Guards.
The three crowns had been borne for centuries as a claim based on the Kalmar Union, and had long lost all relevance. Their removal allowed the Faroe Islands and Greenland to each have a field of their own.
Illustrations: Wikimedia Commons. Seals of 1194 and 1398 drawn by Julius Magnus Petersen (public domain); great and royal arms 1559–2024 by Sodacan (CC BY-SA 3.0); royal arms since 2025, including the image at the top of the page, by Di (CC BY-SA 4.0); state arms by Galico (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Last reviewed by the Emblema Mundi editorial team on 20 October 2026.