The Royal Coat of Arms
Wales has no place on the Royal Coat of Arms, but a Welsh dragon once held it up. Then a Scottish king swapped it for a chained unicorn.
Published
Quick Facts
- Shield layout
- Four quarters: England (twice), Scotland and Ireland
- Supporters
- A crowned English lion and a chained Scottish unicorn
- Motto
- Dieu et mon droit ("God and my right")
- Garter motto
- Honi soit qui mal y pense, on the belt around the shield
- Unicorn arrives
- 1603, when James VI of Scotland became James I of England
- Dragon departs
- The Tudor red dragon supporter was dropped in 1603
- France removed
- The French lilies disappeared from the arms in 1801
- Scottish version
- Scotland takes first place on the shield, and the unicorn takes pride of place
The shield that forgot Wales
The shield is divided into four quarters. The first and fourth show three gold lions walking one above another on a red field, the arms of England. The second shows a red lion rearing up inside a decorative border on gold, the arms of Scotland. The third shows a gold harp on blue, standing for Ireland. There is no Wales. The reason is the same one that explains the Union Flag. Wales was absorbed into the legal Kingdom of England by the Laws in Wales Acts of 1535 to 1542, so it was never a separate kingdom to be added. Scotland and Ireland were, which is why both are on the shield. The arms of England are also a little odd. The lions are described as "passant guardant", meaning they walk along while turning their heads to look straight at you. They have been in royal use since the late twelfth century, and are often linked with Richard I.
Why the unicorn is in chains
The shield is held up by two animals. On one side is a crowned lion for England. On the other is a unicorn for Scotland, which has been a Scottish royal symbol since the fifteenth century. The unicorn wears a chain, and that is deliberate. In medieval lore, the unicorn was a fierce creature that could be tamed by a virgin. The heraldic unicorn wears a crown-like collar with a chain attached. The pairing dates from 1603. When James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne as James I, he brought the arms of England, Scotland and Ireland together in his royal shield, and the English quarters kept the French fleurs-de-lis. The unicorn took the place of the red dragon, the old emblem of Wales that the Tudors had used as a supporter. Wales lost its only seat at the table, and it has not been given one back.
God, the Garter and a battle cry
Two mottoes appear on the arms. The banner at the bottom reads Dieu et mon droit, "God and my right". Tradition connects the phrase with Richard I, who is said to have used it as a battle cry at Gisors in 1198. It has been the royal motto for centuries. Around the shield runs a belt bearing Honi soit qui mal y pense, usually translated as "shame on him who thinks evil of it". This comes from the Order of the Garter, the chivalric order founded by Edward III in 1348. Both mottoes are in French, a reminder that the medieval royal court spoke it. Beneath the animals, the compartment is decorated with the Tudor rose, the thistle and the shamrock.
The kings who claimed France
The arms have not always looked like this. From the 1340s, after Edward III claimed the French throne, English kings quartered their lions with the golden fleurs-de-lis of France. The lilies stayed for roughly 460 years, long after any real hold on France had gone. George III finally dropped them in 1801, when the Act of Union with Ireland created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. From 1801 to 1837 the shield also carried a small extra shield for Hanover, the German territory ruled by the same monarch. When Victoria came to the throne in 1837, a woman could not inherit Hanover, so it left the arms. The Irish harp has been there since 1603, but it became a royal emblem of Ireland under Henry VIII in the sixteenth century.
Four nations, four versions
In Scotland, the Royal Arms are rearranged. The Scottish lion takes the first and fourth quarters and England moves to second place. The unicorn is on the left, wearing a crown and holding a banner. The collar of the Order of the Thistle replaces the Garter, with its motto Nemo me impune lacessit, "no one attacks me with impunity". The Scottish motto In Defens appears too. Wales has no quarter, but it does have its own Royal Badge. The red-dragon badge was adopted in 1807 and augmented in 1953. A newer Royal Badge, approved in 2008, uses the quartered lion arms of Llywelyn the Great rather than a dragon. The dragon itself is far older, and has been linked with Wales for well over a thousand years. Northern Ireland uses the standard Royal Arms for UK government business. The Red Hand of Ulster, a bright red open right hand, was once added to a regional coat of arms from the 1920s that was used until the 1970s. It can still be seen on flags and badges across the province. You can spot the Royal Arms in courtrooms, on passports, on coins and in many English parish churches. Henry VIII's break with Rome in the 1530s made the monarch head of the Church of England, and churches began displaying the arms as a sign of that.
Notable people
- Richard I
- Edward III
- Henry VIII
- James VI and I
- George III
- Queen Victoria
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