HRH Princess Marie of Denmark
It has become the practice in Denmark for the non-armigerous father of a royal bride to receive a Coat of Arms. All three fathers-in-law have been honoured in this way (and have received the Order of the Dannebrog). Their daughters have then been assigned a differenced version to be displayed, as seen here, alongside those of their princely husbands.
As cavalier (with one L) is the French for rider and can, at a stretch, also mean a knight, Alain Cavallier was assigned a blue Knight surrounded by three objects. (I used to know what Charges M. Cavallier was assigned but cannot retrieve them.) The Knight is obviously a pun on his surname.
Princess Marie was then assigned three Charges for difference, namely three Danish red Hearts each voided of an inverted French Fleur-de-Lys. This refers to her French heritage and her Danish future and the Tinctures overall reflect the blue-white-and-red Flag of France.
Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother)
HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother was born Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, the youngest daughter and ninth of ten children of Claude Bowes-Lyon, Lord Glamis (later the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne) and his wife, Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck. Her Majesty's birthday was famously 4th August 1900.
Her family members were notable landowners mainly in Scotland (Glamis Castle is their main home) but also in England. The Queen Mother's father, the 14th Earl, was a notably unpretentious man who would work the land himself. The family surname came about when the 9th Earl, John Lyon, married heiress Mary Eleanor Bowes in 1767. He took his wife's surname but their children were Lyon-Bowes. It was The Queen Mother's grandfather who turned the names the other way round.
The Arms, though, stayed the same way round - a blue Lion for Lyons in the first and fourth Quarters and three Long Bows for Bowes in the second and third Quarters. The Lion stands rampant within the same Double Tressure, flory counter flory, as the Scottish Coat of Arms but in blue on a white background. The Bowes are proper or natural in colour on an ermine background. Either way, they are a clever pun on the double barrelled surname made all the better not only for the Scottish flavour but also the balance when marshalled with the British Royal Arms which make The Queen Mother's Achievement possibly (and, of course, arguably) the best Royal Coat of Arms ever.
HRH Princess Beatrice of York
There were two patterns started by her cousins, Prince William and Prince Harry, one of which is a happy coincidence. First of all, mirroring more Prince Harry's Label, Beatrice had three Charges or emblems, leaving the other two Points plain even though it is highly unlikely that Beatrice will be elevated to a child of a sovereign and need to reduce her Label to three Points. Secondly, she carried on the revived tradition of basing her Label on her mother's Coat of Arms. Based on the Crest of the Ferguson Clan and discussed in a previous Blog, Sarah, Duchess of York was assigned a Bee on a three-headed Thistle plant. Beatrice received, therefore, a Bea from her mother's Arms not once but thrice. The pun is that 'Bea-thrice' is a play on HRH's name 'Beatrice'.
The Kingdoms of Castile and León
The origin of the dynastic unification of the kingdoms of Castile and León, which had been separated for just seven decades, came in 1194 with the Treaty of Tordehumos.. Alfonso VIII of Castile and Alfonso IX of León signed the treaty in Tordehumos which pacified the area of Tierra de Campos and laid the foundation for a future reunification of the kingdoms. This was consolidated in 1230 with Ferdinand III the Saint. The Royal Arms of Castile were first adopted at the start of the age of heraldry. The Spanish heraldist Faustino Menéndez Pidal de Navascués explained that there is no evidence that there was a consolidated Castilian emblem before the reign of King Alfonso VIII, who used various symbols on his seals. The first preserved seal impression with a Castle dates from 1176 on a document located in the Toledo Cathedral. This seal dates back before 1171 due to its typology and according Faustino Menéndez Pidal de Navascués it is likely that the device of a Castle was adopted in 1169, when Alfonso VIII came of age at fourteen. As an example of canting arms, the devise of a Castle would have been adopted with a clear territorial connotation and be motivated by a desire to claim the sovereignty of the Castilian monarch against the Kingdom of León. |
The first instance of a figure of a Lion as the symbol of the Kingdom of León is found on the coins of Alfonso VII, called the Emperor (1126-1157). Until then, the cross had been the predominant device on the documents and coins of Leonese monarchs. At the end of the reign of Alfonso VII, the Lion began to appear on royal documents as the personal device of the monarch, especially during reigns of Ferdinand II (1157-1188) and Alfonso IX (1188-1230).
The first reference to a Lion as personal emblem of the monarch, and thus the kingdom can be found in Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris from the times of Alfonso VII which describes the armies participating in the taking of Almería, the text literally says:
(...) the select order of knights from León. Carrying banners, like lions they burst (...) Like the lion it surpasses the other animals in beauty and in strength. Thus this city exceeds the other cities in honor. The golden insignia of the Emperor appears on its banners and on its arms. It is carried into battle as a protection against every evil.
HRH Infanta Cristina of Spain
Speaking of Spain, we have already mentioned HRH Infanta Cristina in a previous Blog. Her Label from during her marriage and before her fall from Grace triggered a change in her assigned Coat of Arms can fall under the category of Canting Arms. On 26th September 1997 (and published in Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE) the following day) Cristina was created Duchess of Palma de Mallorca on the occasion of her forthcoming marriage to Iñaki Urdangarin which took place in Barcelona on 4th October. Her younger brother, the new King Felipe VI, however, stripped her of her dukedom on 11th June 2015, due to a corruption inquiry. A Label of three Points was attributed to her and whilst she was Duchess of Palma de Mallorca she had a central Palm Tree. Although palmera is the usual Spanish word for Palm Tree and palma is more a Palm Tree Frond, the Coat of Arms of Palma de Mallorca shows a Palm Tree itself, only 'growing out' of a Castle. Her Label could therefore be counted as a pun on her title. It was therefore little wonder when she lost her title that her Label was changed. She was assigned a white Cross on the blue background to show her descent from her mother, Queen Sofia, who was born a Princess of Greece. |