Country
The Swedish flag, a yellow cross on blue, was first described officially in a royal letter of 19 April 1562, although its exact age is not known. The great coat of arms goes back to 1448, when King Karl Knutsson quartered the three crowns with the lion of the Bjälbo family, the four blue fields separated by a golden cross.
Flag
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Coat of Arms
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| Flag | Azure, a Nordic cross Or |
|---|---|
| First official description | Royal letter of 19 April 1562 |
| Flag law | Lag (1982:269) om Sveriges flagga: proportions 10:16, light medium blue and golden yellow (as since 1906) |
| Great arms | Created by Karl Knutsson in 1448; law on the arms of 1982 |
| Lesser arms | Azure, three open crowns Or, under a royal crown |
The yellow cross on blue seems to have been used at first mainly as the flag of the king and of the navy, with points. These are the stages of the flag, from the banner of the Kalmar Union to the pure flag of 1905.
Click the thumbnails to go through the flags.
1430
Or, a cross Gules.
From 1397 to 1523 Sweden was part of the Kalmar Union with Denmark and Norway. The only description of a union flag comes from two letters of 1430, in which King Erik av Pommern ordered the priests of Vadstena and Kalmar to wear the “banner of the realms” on their robes: a red cross on a yellow field. No flag and no picture from the time of the union survive, so the image is a modern recreation, and its status is uncertain.
1562
Azure, a Nordic cross Or; swallow-tailed.
The exact age of the Swedish cross flag is not known. The first pictures of a blue cloth with a yellow cross as a Swedish flag are arms for southern Finland from the 1550s and for Gotland in the funeral procession of Gustav Vasa in 1560. The first official description is a royal letter of 19 April 1562, which speaks of “gult udi korssvijs fördeelt påå blott” (yellow divided crosswise on blue). The flag seems to have been used mainly as the king’s flag, the crown flag or the naval ensign, and at first it had two tongues or points. According to a legend, Erik den helige saw the yellow cross in the blue sky when he landed in Finland in 1157; but there is no contemporary evidence for the crusade itself, and no surviving pictures or descriptions of the blue-and-yellow banner until the middle of the 16th century.
1663
Azure, a Nordic cross Or; with three tails.
During the 17th century the naval ensign took its present shape with three tongues. A royal placard of 6 November 1663 forbade private people to fly the triple-tailed crown flag: they could use flags with the yellow cross, but “fyrekantige och jämnt afskurne” (square and evenly cut). In 1730 the merchant flag was described as having the same proportions as the king’s flag, but without points. A royal letter of 18 August 1761 gave the army’s fleet an all-blue triple-tailed flag, used until 1813. The image shows the darker blue used before 1906.
1815
The triple-tailed flag, with a white saltire on red in the canton.
After the union with Norway, a common naval ensign for both kingdoms was fixed in 1815: the Swedish naval ensign, except that the upper corner at the hoist was red with a white saltire, to represent Norway. It was proposed by the Norwegian prime minister Peder Anker. The sources differ on the date: 7 March 1815 according to Swedish Wikipedia, 6 June 1815 according to English Wikipedia. From 1818 a common merchant flag on the same pattern, but square-cut, was used in distant waters, beyond Cape Finisterre.
1844
The flags of Sweden with the union mark of Sweden and Norway in the canton.
By royal letter of 20 June 1844, both countries received their own naval ensigns and merchant flags, with a union mark in the upper inner field: a symmetrical combination of the colours of both kingdoms’ flags. In Sweden the mark became quite unpopular and was nicknamed “sillsallaten”, the herring salad, after a colourful dish of pickled herring; the name is believed to have been first used in a speech by Lord Brakel in the Swedish House of Lords. The mark was removed from the Norwegian state and merchant flags in 1899. The images show the triple-tailed naval ensign and the merchant flag.
1905
Azure, a Nordic cross Or.
After the dissolution of the union, a blue field took the place of the union mark from 1 November 1905, by a royal ordinance of 27 October 1905 according to Swedish Wikipedia, a law of 28 October according to English Wikipedia. At nine in the morning that day the new flag was hoisted with gun salutes on fortresses and citadels, and in Stockholm church bells rang. The flag law of 22 June 1906 set the colours as “ljust mellanblå” and “guldgul”: a light medium blue said to be truer to the flag’s history than the dark shade common in the late 19th century, and golden yellow. The flag would be square-cut, except as naval ensign, when it would be triple-tailed.
Sweden has two arms of the realm: the great arms, which are also the personal arms of the head of state, and the lesser arms. Throughout the modern era the great arms have kept the quartering of Karl Knutsson’s arms of 1448, while the escutcheon in the centre changed with each ruling dynasty; under the union kings, Sweden had only one field in their quartered shield. These are their stages.
Click the thumbnails to go through the coats of arms.
1336
Azure, three open crowns Or, two and one.
King Magnus Ladulås bore three crowns in his counter-seal, and his grandson Magnus Eriksson struck three crowns on his coins; the three-crowns arms first appear during his reign. In 1982 a series of royal arms from all over Europe, painted in 1336, was found in the cardinal’s palace at Bayonne, including the Swedish three crowns, and the crowns have since been interpreted as the three realms over which Magnus Eriksson at times ruled: Sweden, Norway and Skåne. When Albrekt av Mecklenburg was crowned king in 1364, he put aside his paternal arms and placed three crowns in his shield. The image is a modern drawing.
1448
Quarterly by a cross Or, the three crowns and the lion of Bjälbo, with the arms of the Bonde family, a boat, on an escutcheon.
In 1448 King Karl Knutsson (Bonde) created the great arms by quartering the three crowns with the royal arms of the Bjälbo family from 1275: in a blue shield, a crowned golden lion over three silver bendlets sinister, drawn as streams from the 16th century. The four blue fields were separated by a golden cross, which can be seen as the model for the Swedish flag. At that time only living persons bore arms, so these were the king’s own arms rather than arms of the realm. The image is a drawing from Nordisk familjebok (1916).
16th c.
On the escutcheon: bendwise azure, argent and gules, a sheaf Or.
Throughout the modern era the shield of the king and the realm kept Karl Knutsson’s quartering, while the escutcheon changed with each ruling dynasty. The Vasa arms were originally a black sheaf on gold; Gustav Vasa combined them with the arms of his mother’s family, giving a shield divided bendwise in blue, silver and red with a golden sheaf, which gradually came to look like a sheaf of straw. Since Erik XIV the crown above the shield has been closed, and since Johan III two crowned golden lions have held it.
1654
On the escutcheon: the arms of the Palatinate, quarterly Bavaria, Jülich, Cleves and Berg, with the lion of the Palatinate in the centre.
Under the Palatinate dynasty, from 1654 to 1720, the escutcheon of the king and the realm was the arms of the Palatinate: a black field with a crowned golden lion in the centre, surrounded by the lozenges of Bavaria in blue and silver, the black lion of Jülich on gold, the silver escutcheon of Cleves with its eight golden lily-sceptres on red, and the red lion of Berg on silver.
1720
On the escutcheon: the arms of Hesse, a lion barry argent and gules on blue, with six quarters.
Under Fredrik I of Hesse, from 1720 to 1751, the escutcheon was the arms of Hesse: in the centre a crowned lion barry of silver and red on blue, surrounded by six quarters for Hersfeld, Ziegenhain, Katzenelnbogen, Diez, Nidda and Schaumburg.
1751
On the escutcheon: Norway, Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn and Ditmarsken, with Oldenburg and Delmenhorst in the centre.
Under Adolf Fredrik, Gustav III, Gustav IV Adolf and Karl XIII, from 1751 to 1818, the escutcheon was the arms of Holstein-Gottorp: five fields for the crowned Norwegian lion with the axe, the two lions of Schleswig, the nettle-leaf of Holstein, the swan of Stormarn and the rider of Ditmarsken, with the bars of Oldenburg and the cross of Delmenhorst in the centre.
1844
On the escutcheon: Vasa, and Bernadotte, a bridge with two towers, a flying black raven and the stars of Charles’s Wain.
As Prince of Pontecorvo, Karl XIV Johan bore the arms of Pontecorvo: a silver bridge with two towers on blue, with the golden imperial eagle of France in chief. As king he took a split escutcheon, Vasa on one side and Pontecorvo on the other. Oscar I, king from 1844, changed the Pontecorvo arms: the division into two fields ended, and the eagle became a flying black raven, with the stars of Charles’s Wain above it, a popular symbol of Sweden that alluded to the name Karl, borne by many kings. Oscar II restored the two fields of the Pontecorvo arms, and the eagle came back, but black. From 1814 to 1905 the Norwegian shield was also part of the arms of the king and the royal family. The image shows the great arms of Oscar I and Karl XV.
1908
Under the law of 1982: azure, quartered by a cross Or with outbent arms, with an escutcheon containing the dynastic arms of the royal house.
The law on the arms of the realm of 15 May 1908 fixed the arms by law for the first time and protected them from arbitrary changes. It also introduced the official distinction between the great and the lesser arms. The only change to the great arms was that the eagle of the escutcheon became gold again. The present law dates from 1982. The image is a modern drawing of the great arms.
Lilla riksvapnet — the lesser arms.
Azure, three open crowns Or, two and one; the shield crowned with a royal crown.
The lesser arms repeat the main element of the great arms: a blue shield with the three golden crowns, crowned with a royal crown. A common variant shows only the crowns, without the shield; this is the symbol often called Tre Kronor.
The arms of the realm are regulated by Swedish law and may not be used in commercial activity without permission, which is examined by the Swedish Intellectual Property Office and given very restrictively. The lesser arms are used by several authorities, for example on the uniforms of civilian staff of the Swedish Police.
Some say that trained chimney sweeps are the only trade to wear the great arms, gilded on their belts, a privilege said to have been granted by Queen Kristina after sweeps helped to put out a fire at Stockholm Castle in the 1640s. This is not true: the sweeps wear the lesser arms on their belts, a right given by Gustav IV Adolf, who allowed them to wear the officer’s belt buckle of the 1802 model.
Each of the 21 Swedish counties (län) has its own coat of arms. Click a county to see its arms.
The first official description is a royal letter of 19 April 1562, which speaks of yellow divided crosswise on blue. The exact age of the flag is not known; the first pictures of a blue cloth with a yellow cross as a Swedish flag date from the 1550s.
Blue and yellow had long been Swedish colours before there was evidence of the flag, in the three crowns and in the arms of the Bjälbo lion, which became the royal arms in 1275 when Magnus Ladulås was crowned; the colours probably date from that time. The cross layout recalls the great arms of 1448, whose four blue fields were separated by a golden cross. The legend of a yellow cross seen in the sky by Erik den helige in 1157 is not supported by contemporary evidence.
Since a painting of 1336 with the Swedish three crowns was found at Bayonne in 1982, the crowns have been interpreted as the three realms over which Magnus Eriksson at times ruled: Sweden, Norway and Skåne. They were earlier thought to have come with Albrekt av Mecklenburg in 1364 and to allude to the Three Wise Men.
Sillsallaten was the nickname of the union mark of Sweden and Norway, placed in the canton of both countries’ flags in 1844. It became quite unpopular in Sweden and was removed from the Swedish flag on 1 November 1905.
The naval ensign took its triple-tailed shape in the 17th century, and a royal placard of 1663 reserved it for the crown. The flag law of 1906 made the flag square-cut, except as naval ensign, which is triple-tailed; the triple-tailed flag is still used by the armed forces as naval ensign.
The great arms are also the personal arms of the head of state: the quartered shield with the three crowns and the lion of Bjälbo and the dynastic escutcheon. The lesser arms are a blue shield with the three golden crowns under a royal crown. The official distinction was introduced by the law of 1908, although the lesser arms had often been used since the 17th century.
Illustrations: Wikimedia Commons. Three crowns, lesser arms and modern great arms by Sodacan (CC BY-SA 4.0); great arms of the Vasa, Palatinate, Hesse and Holstein-Gottorp periods by Christer Sundin, and of Oscar I and Karl XV by Ssolbergj (CC BY-SA 3.0); all other images in the public domain or CC0.
Last reviewed by the Emblema Mundi editorial team on 21 October 2026.
