BRAZIL
WORLD FLAGS
SITE ON THE ORIGIN, DESIGN AND SYMBOLOGY OF THE FLAGS OF THE WORLD
#D / DENMARK / Europe
DENMARK
.DK
Official name:
Kingdom of Denmark
*Danish / Kongeriget Danmark
Capital: Copenhagen
Idiom: Danish
Form of Government: Parliamentary monarchy
Currency: Danish krone
Demonym: Danish/-sa
Administrative divition: 5 regions
FLAG
The Dannebrog or flag of Denmark is a red cloth with a white Nordic cross. The flags of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Åland, Faroe Islands and Iceland are based on it. It is considered the oldest national flag in the world.
National flag
Proportion: 28 x 37
The Danish flag is called Dannebrog and means "the flag of the Danes" or "the red flag". It appears documented in a Danish text in the year 1478 and in a Dutch work dated a hundred years earlier. In this book, a Dutch heraldry treatise from 1370-1386, the representation of a red flag with a white cross appears among the royal arms of King Valdemar IV Atterdag. According to a legend related in the Danish chronicle of Christiern Pedersen around 1520 and according to the Franciscan Peder Olsen, in the year 1527, Dannebrog came down from heaven during a battle in Estonia. The Franciscan Peder Olsen relates the event to a battle that took place in the year 1219, and tradition holds that the flag appeared in the Lyndanisse area on June 15, 1219. This legend probably arose around the year 1500 from the episode in which King John I of Denmark lost the flag in a defeat at Ditmarsken in northern Germany. Surely the loss of this flag gave rise to this mythical story in which Dannebrog would recover when falling from the sky. What is confirmed was that King Frederick II of Denmark ordered the use of this flag in 1559 and had it hung in the cathedral of Schleswig, currently Germany.
In a song from 1500, the flag in the shape of a cross is also linked to the dream about the cross that the Roman emperor Constantine had in the year 312, before the battle of the Milvian Bridge for which he became the only Roman emperor and, According to tradition, he converted to Christianity. This vision of the cross with which the words in hoc signo vinces ("under this sign you will win") are related, a sign that is linked to the miracles in which a cross supposedly appears in the sky, which, especially in the Iberian Peninsula , were linked to battles between Christians and Muslims.
From 1591, Cristián IV minted a coin that featured a cross, based on one used at that time in Portugal. The cross that appeared on this coin was soon regarded as the Dannebrog cross. In 1603 the Constantinian aphorism was added, which is quoted in a chronicle by Arild Huitfeldt in which, again, it is related to the supposed apparition of Constantine and the legend of Dannebrog's own fall from the sky.
OTHER FLAGS
Institutional Pavilion
Proportion: 56 x 107
War Pavilion
Proportion: 56 x 107
ROYAL STANDARD
The Royal Standard of Denmark is the personal ensign of the monarch of that country. It consists of the national flag or Dannebrog, which is a red cloth with a white Nordic cross, ending in two farpas or points and to which the coat of arms of the Danish monarch has been added on a square white background. , located in the center of the cross.
The royal standard has a ratio of 56:107 and the space for the shield has a length of 32 units following the same scale. The current version was adopted on November 16, 1972, at the beginning of the reign of Margarita II. This change occurred when the arms of the Danish monarch were modified, removing from them some coats of arms, allusive to the titles of "King of the Goths" "King of the Vendos" and those corresponding to the territories of Holstein, Stormarn, Dithmarschen, Lauenburg and Delmenhorst that were linked to the reigning Dynasty.
Royal Standard
Proportion: 56 x 107
CONSTRUCTION
A : 12 | B : 4 | S : 21 | D : 28 | E : 37
COLORS
76 %
Red
HEX CODE
# c60c30
24 %
White
HEX CODE
#ffffff
HISTORY
flag of the
Kingdom of Denmark
< 1219
flag of the
Kalmar Union
1430
flag of the
Kalmar Union
1430
flag of the
Kalmar Union
1430
flag of the
Kalmar Union
1430
REGIONAL FLAGS
flag of the
region of
South Denmark (Syddanmark)
flag of the
region of
Central Jutland (Midtjylland)
flag of the
region of
North Jutland (Nordjylland)
flag of the
region of
Capital Region (Hovedstaden)
flag of the
region of
Zealand (Sjælland)
SHIELD
The heraldic description or blazoning of the coat of arms of Denmark is as follows:
"In a field of gold strewn with nine hearts of gules, three passing lions of azure, armed and lampasados de gules and crowned with gold. To the ring the Crown of Cristián V, which is the Danish royal, closed, which is a circle of gold set with precious stones, decorated on its upper and lower edges with pearls, composed of eight rosettes, five visible, interpolated with pearls and from which separate diadems added with pearls, which converge in an orb of azure, with the semimeridian and the gold equator and decorated with pearls, added with a gold and silver cross. The crown lined with gules."
The first known representation of the Danish heraldic emblem (which is among the oldest) is a seal used by King Canute VI and dating from around the year 1194. The enamels and metals of the shield, colors in heraldic terminology, they are documented from the year 1270, during the reign of Eric V.
The current version was adopted in 1819, during the reign of Frederick VI, when the number of hearts was set at nine and the lions were made to face each other.
Until about 1960, as is currently the case in Sweden, the Danish authorities used the so-called small shield, the name by which the current national shield was known, and the large shield, which was the staff of the monarch. On the large coat of arms, the Danish coat of arms appeared together with those of other territories under its sovereignty or that were domains of the Danish Crown in the past. Currently this shield is exclusive to the monarch.
The coat of arms of Denmark is practically identical to those of Estonia and the city of Tallinn, since both have their origin and are related to the figure of the Danish king Valdemar II. Northern Estonia was under Danish control from 1219 to 1346. These coats of arms differ from the Danish; Hearts are not represented in them and the heraldic lions are leopard-printed, that is, they appear looking at the observer, and they are not crowned either.
COAT OF ARMS of the DANISH MONARCH
The coat of arms of the Danish monarch is quartered, divided into four parts, by the Dannebrog Cross. Dannebrog is the name by which the national flag is known. This cross is silver bordered gules (white with red borders).
In the royal arms, together with the Danish coat of arms, are the coats of arms of the territories that are under Danish sovereignty or linked in the past with the reigning dynasty. They are the coats of arms of the now-defunct Duchy of Schleswig, of the Union of Kalmar, of the Faroe Islands, of Greenland and of Oldenburg, the latter in an escutcheon located in the center of the shield as a dynastic coat of arms.
- In the first and fourth quarters there is the coat of arms of Denmark, described above.
- The second is the coat of arms of the late Duchy of Schleswig, inspired by the Danish arms as indicated.
- The third quarter is divided into three parts. In the upper one is the crest of the disappeared Union of Kalmar. It contains three open crowns of gold (heraldic yellow), adorned with four rosettes (three visible) on a field of azure (heraldic blue). In the lower right division (of the shield, not of the observer) is the blazon of the Faroe Islands. In it, a passing ram of silver (heraldic white or grey) is represented, armed with gold (with yellow horns) on a field of azure. The lower left division contains the coat of arms of Greenland, which features a rampant polar bear (front paws raised) on a field of azure.
- In the central part of the shield you can see the coat of arms of Oldenburg, made up of two heraldic bands of gules (horizontally placed red bands) on a gold field.
The shield is surrounded by the collars of the orders of the Dannebrog and the Elephant whose masterships are held by the Danish monarch. As holders of the shield the figures of two savages armed with wooden clubs that symbolize the strength of the monarch. The shield and the figures of the savages in turn are placed on a royal mantle of gules, lined with ermine, adorned with fringes, ropes and gold tassels. On the mantle rests the Danish royal crown.
The arms of the Danish monarch were modified at the beginning of the reign of Margarita II, on November 16, 1972, when some coats of arms were removed from it.
