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2003-10-09 09:37

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Regal Symbols
REGAL SYMBOLS
Sweden's national regalia
When the King or Queen travels by car on official occasions, both front wings of the car display three-tailed flags with the Greater National Coat of Arms. When an official foreign guest of honour travels in the same car as the King or Queen, the foreign flag is displayed on the right front wing of the car.
The Greater National Coat of Arms is always crowned and at its centre has an "inescutcheon" charged with the arms of the reigning dynasty, and as such interchangeable. Ever since 1818 it has been charged with the arms of the house of Bernadotte. This inescutcheon is quartered, with the garb (sheaf of wheat) of the Vasa dynasty in the dexter (the right half from the bearer's point of view, left half from the beholder's) and, in the
sinister (left), the arms of the Principality of Ponte Corvo, namely a bridge argent (silver bridge) and on chief (above it) a golden eagle. The Vasa sheaf is nowadays taken to have been a fascine - a faggot of brushwood used for filling up ditches and moats in siege warfare.

The Lesser National Coat of Arms is widely used within the national administration, while the Greater National Coat of Arms is used mainly by the monarch and the Royal Family, the Riksdag and Government and the diplomatic service.

The flag

The flag was for a long time the symbol of the King of Sweden, his token of sovereignty. The essence of it, and the real symbol of the nation, was the yellow cross.

The origins of the cross flags of the Nordic countries are to be found in the banners of the cross which medieval Christian princes carried on their crusades against the infidel in the Holy Land. The banner, carried on a pole, indicated the ruler's dignity. Mostly it would be a red standard with a white or silver cross. Denmark and Switzerland alone have retained this red banner as their national flags. Oldest among the Nordic flags is the Dannebrog (supposedly from "Danish breech" or "cloth"), the crusading banner of the King of Denmark, which set the pattern for the other Nordic countries.

Sweden's is the second oldest of the Nordic flags and is believed to have come about in the mid-15th century, during the reign of Karl Knutsson Bonde. His seal in 1449 had a four-quartered blue shield divided by a golden cross, and he is assumed to have carried a banner with the same tinctures (colours). Probably the Swedish flag came into being as an emblem of resistance during the battles of the Kalmar Union, when Karl Knutsson Bonde adopted a Dannebrog-like banner charged with the cross but with the tinctures - yellow and blue - of the Swedish national coat of arms.

The ducal arms of Johan III are described in 1557 as charged with blue-and-yellow flags of the cross. When, in 1569, as King of Sweden, he issues instructions for the peace talks with Denmark at Knäred, he is at pains to stress the importance of the yellow or golden cross. For ages past this had been used in the arms of the Swedish kingdom, and so Johan III wanted it always to be displayed in flags and standards.

From the death of Gustav Vasa in 1560, the cross flag appears as the foremost symbol of the Swedish nation: a swallow-tailed Swedish flag in which the national coat of arms, with the inescutcheon of the reigning dynasty, has been superimposed on the centre of the cross.

Triple-tailed naval flags are recorded from the reign of Gustavus Adolphus. During the 1620s the flag lost its ancient quality of Royal insignia and instead came to symbolise the nation, the Kingdom of Sweden.

The King's flag
A three-tailed flag is used by the monarch and by members of the Royal Family. This flag is charged with the Greater or Lesser National Coat of Arms in a white canton in the centre of the cross. The regal flag with the Greater National Coat of Arms is hoisted every day at the Royal Palace in Stockholm, to show that the King is in the kingdom and that the country is at peace. For the Queen and other members of the Royal Family, the Lesser National Coat of Arms is used.
The Greater National Coat of Arms
The Folkung dynasty had as their emblem the "lion or (i.e. golden lion) over waves of the sea azure (blue)" which Karl Knutsson Bonde combined with Three Crowns. The Lion Shield is Sweden's oldest national coat of arms, borne by the Folkung dynasty between 1250 and 1364, with Birger Jarl as the first ruler of the kingdom. In this way, during their own time, the ancestral arms of the Folkungs gradually became synonymous with the coat of arms of the kingdom.

The Three Crowns national coat of arms has quite a different origin, partly rooted in religious ideas which were widespread in Europe at the time, more exactly in the rapidly growing cult of the Three Wise Men (alias the Three Kings) as patron saints, heraldically represented by their three crowns. The Three Kings were held in great veneration by the Northerners, large numbers of whom made the pilgrimage to their grave in Cologne. In Sweden the attribute of the Three Kings first appears in the seal of King Magnus Ladulås during the 1270s, but probably it was not until the reign of King Magnus Eriksson in the 1330s that the Three Crowns were made to symbolise king and kingdom. A few decades later, by the time of Albrekt of Mecklenburg, the Three Crowns were already commonly accepted as the principal emblem of Sweden, and they have remained so ever since.

The Lesser National Coat of Arms
Three crowns charged on a shield make up the heraldic Lesser National Coat of Arms. This is sometimes included in the more complex bearings of the Great National Coat of Arms, which is a quartered shield with the Three Crowns displayed in the first and third quarters. The Greater National Coat of Arms has looked like this ever since its creation by King Karl Knutsson Bonde in the 1440s.
The Lesser and Greater National Coats of Arms
Oskar II in 1873. His son, Gustaf V, chose, however, not to be crowned, with the result that none of our kings or queens has worn a crown since 1907. But the regalia have retained their importance as symbols of the traditions of the monarchy. On occasions such as the accession of a new monarch, the state opening of the Riksdag (up to and including 1974) and church ceremonies within the Royal Family (e.g. weddings, funerals and christenings), the regalia, resting on cushions, are displayed on special regalia tables as a token of regal dignity and to proclaim the importance of the ceremony.
The Crown of the Heir Apparent, first worn by Charles X (Karl X Gustav)
The Crown of the Heir Apparent is of an antiquated type - open, with eight pointed triangular ornaments. The collection includes eight crowns and other items of regalia from various periods of Swedish history. Another treasure is the magnificent silver font, commissioned by Charles XI in 1696 and still used for the christenings of Royal children. The known history of coronations in Sweden goes back to medieval times, and the tradition remained unbroken until the coronation of
In any monarchy, the regalia are the foremost of national symbols and of the monarch as head of state. The Treasury at the Royal Palace in Stockholm features a display of these "regalia and treasures of the Realm", a collection of unique works of art which in themselves are a distillate of five centuries of Swedish ceremonial history. The regalia are state property and, under the Instructions promulgated in 1594, are entrusted to the Chamber of Receipts - today known as Kammarkollegium, the Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency. The regalia were originally kept in the treasury vaults of the old Royal castle with the tower Three Crowns. They have changed homes many times through the centuries, but their principal repository has always been the Kammarkollegium Treasury. They were stored in the Riksbank (the Bank of Sweden) from the beginning of the 20th century until 1970, when, by resolution of the Riksdag (the Parliament) in 1969, the regalia exhibition was opened to the general public in the cellars of the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

The sword of state, purchased by Gustav Vasa, is the oldest of the monarchic regalia. The other items - the (regal) crown, the sceptre, the orb and the key - date from the coronation of his eldest son, Erik XIV, in 1561. These are exquisite specimens of the goldsmith's art, embellished with pearls, precious stones and enamel of various colours. They were made in Stockholm. The Fleming Cornelis ver Weiden made the crown to a new, modern design, with two crossed arches over the cap and a small globe, surmounted by a cross, over the centre. This was Sweden's first regal crown of the closed variety, and the idea purportedly came from England.

The regalia have a symbolism all of their own, noted down from the coronation of Erik XIV. The crown is an emblem of regal honour and dignity. The sceptre stands for the secular power of the King, and the orb shows that God has set him to rule over a great and Christian kingdom. The key denotes the King's power of excluding evil, harbouring good and opening to the needy, while the sword, finally, alludes to the King's duty of valiantly and vigorously protecting good and punishing evil.

The queenly crown is nearly 200 years younger than the regal one. Made of silver and set with 695 diamonds, it was commissioned for Lovisa Ulrika in 1751. The earlier queenly crown, of gold decorated with diamonds and rubies, was made in 1620 for Queen Maria Eleonora, the consort of Gustavus Adolphus (Gustav II Adolf). King Adolf Fredrik was so fond of it that he wore it himself, thereby setting a precedent for his son, Gustav III, and subsequent monarchs.

THE ROYAL COURT OF SWEDEN