Showing posts with label Heraldry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Heraldry. Show all posts

Friday, 24 March 2023

proposal: processional Banners for the Coronation

 With the Coronation coming up in May I am sure I am among many wondering what form it will take. With the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth II being so long (longer than the period between the first flight of the Wright Flyer and the moon landing!) coronations have practically passed from the national memory, and while they do follow a set framework they are not unchanging and there is a certain amount of flexibility for what and how things occur within that framework.  The Antiquary (below) puts it excellently on his YouTube channel for more details and I recommend his coronation in focus playlist.

Its been said in Press that while it respects the past the ceremony will reflect modern society and the diversity of the UK. I think a good way to do this could be in the use of banners reflecting the Commonwealth Realms in the King's Possession, being carried either before or after the King. 
Possibly even by reviving the Royal Standard (as in a heraldic standard rather than the armorial banner of the King). This could even be carried by the King's Champion/Standard bearer of England. 

This is my proposal for such a standard. It follows the custom of English heraldry being a long sweeping swallow tailed flag divided into two colours with the Cross of St George in the hoist. The livery colours of red and blue have been the Royal colours since George II. The idea behind my choice of badge is that I wanted it to reflect the King rather than any of his realms so I avoided floral emblems, coats of arms or crests. The badge I went with being that which represents the House of Windsor as that references the dynasty rather than the Kingdom. The other depictions are the Tudor Crown and cypher which are more or less universal symbols of the monarch throughout the Commonwealth. 

However I think the use of banners of arms for the individual Commonwealth Realms would be great. Such banners were used for the Coronation of Elizabeth II with banners representing Canada, Australia, New Zealand and flags of South Africa and Pakistan being used. If this is repeated for all 15 realms I thought I'd predict what such banners might look like:
United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland


Antigua and Barbuda


Commonwealth of Australia

Commonwealth of the Bahamas

Belize

Canada

Grenada

Jamaica

New Zealand

Independent State of Papua New Guinea

Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Solomon Islands
Tuvalu

In all these cases except Papua New Guinea the banners are banners of arms because the coat of arms of the individual Commonwealth Realms are the arms of the King in Right to those Realms. As the national emblem of Papua New Guinea doesn't follow the European heraldic tradition I placed the emblem on a flag in the national colours. I based it on the aircraft roundel of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force.

As the Antiquary says in his video the UK is constitutionally a different place from the last coronation and as such an emphasises might be made on its constituent parts. This could also be done with banners of the historic kingdoms that formed the United Kingdom as well perhaps as the other titles the Sovereign has within the British Isles such as Lord of Man and Duke of Normandy (the title of the monarch in the Channel Islands). 

England

Scotland

Northern Ireland

Wales

Lord of the Isle of Man

Duke of Normandy

Duke of Lancaster

England and Scotland being represented by the historic arms of those kingdoms, Northern Ireland by the historic arms of the King of Ireland and Wales by the arms of its historic Sovereign Princes. The flag of the Isle of Man is a banner of the arms of the Lord of Man so I have used it. The arms used in the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey are the historic arms of England. However the arms used in Jersey often feature a gold border which I have included here for distinctiveness. 

I would suggest the banners of the British Isles go before the King in the procession and the banners of the Commonwealth Realms come after him. I'm not sure if banners will be used in this way but either way I hope we see them on the day of the coronation. 

Tuesday, 11 October 2022

Changes and possible changes to Royal heraldry & vexillology

Pre 1953 Royal Coat of Arms with Tudor Crown.
Compare to variant used by Elizabeth II
 Credit Sodacan CC BY-SA 3.0
 With the sad passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II last month and the accession of HM King Charles III to the throne there will be some changes to royal symbols across the United Kingdom as well as the Commonwealth Realms. Now that the mourning period for the late Queen has passed I think it is appropriate to take a look at some of the heraldic changes. First and perhaps the most important as this will affect all Royal heraldry outside of Scotland is the crown (within Scotland the ancient Scots Crown is used on Royal heraldry). The St Edwards Crown we are all used to seeing on badges, cyphers, coats of arms and other symbols will change to the Tudor Crown. often referred to as the 'King's Crown' this was the crown used by George VI, Edward VIII, George V, and Edward VII. Now it was not a certainty that the crown would change, the choice of crown is up to the King. But when the new cypher of the King was published it featured the Tudor Crown which seems to confirm that the Tudor Crown will be used from now on. 

I confess I was slightly surprised at this as I was half expecting the King to decide to keep the St Edwards crown. Both out of a sense of constancy and practicality as this will be a major change in branding across the Commonwealth, affecting everything from military cap badges to post vans, and courts to passports.

Commonwealth Standards

Another change will be Royal Standards. While the Royal Standard of the UK will remain the same for it is simply a heraldic banner the same is not true of those used in the some of the Commonwealth Realms. The personal flags that the Late Elizabeth II used in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Jamaica all made use of the device used on her personal flag. This was a crowned letter 'E' within a wreath of roses. This was something a lot of heraldry fans disliked as the banner of arms by itself represented the monarch. Perhaps now that we have a new King this will be dropped from the Royal Standards of the Commonwealth Realms. 

If not though these are my proposals for those realms in which the King has his own unique standard. In all these cases I put the flag in an ermine border. My thinking here is that the flags of members of the Royal Family be distinguished by an ermine border. Whereas the Governor General could use a banner without an ermine border. I've also used the full cypher as a crowned 'C' will look an awful lot like the monogram of the Queen Consort. I've deliberately chosen not to use the roses used in the personal flag of Queen Elizabeth II,

Proposed King's flag for Canada.
Like the flags of other Royal Family members the cypher is within a garland of maple leaves

Proposed King's flag for use in Australia 


Proposed King's flag for use in New Zealand 
note use of ferns, around cypher

Proposed King's flag for use in Jamaica

As head of the Commonwealth Queen Elizabeth II used a flag that was designed to represent her as a person rather than the monarch of a realm or nation. As Prince of Wales never used such a flag so I am not sure he will feel the need to use one as King. If he does I thought of one on similar lines to that of his mother.

It is simply a blue flag with his cypher. I didn't use the roses his mother used. Given this is more personal I thought a rope circle symbolising his naval background might be more appropriate.

The Queen Consort

Another change is that as well as a new King we have a new Consort  (the title Queen Consort is used in this post to avoid confusion with the Late Queen and because although used in the past at the time if writing it is unclear if the title 'Queen' will be used). The consort of the monarch is the only royal spouse entitled to use their own standard (other spouses use the Royal Standard for members of the Royal Family without a personal standard). For Queen Consorts this is a banner of their coat of arms which is the arms of their husband  impaled with either their own or their father's arms. Hence the Queen Consorts Royal Standard will be the Royal Arms impaled with the arms of the Shands of Craig, Aberdeenshire. 
Standard of  the Queen Consort
Credit: Fry1989 CC BY-SA 4.0
Will there be seperate flags for Commonwealth Realms?  It is probably unlikely that the Queen Consort will travel to any of the Commonwealth realms without the King and so negating the need to use a unique flag. However I've had ago at throwing together some proposals. First is is the Shand arms impaled with the Royal Arms in right to the appropriate Commonwealth Realm.
 
Proposed Queen Consort's flag for use in Canada


Proposed Queen Consort's flag for use in Australia

Proposed Queen Consort's flag for use in New Zealand

Proposed Queen Consort's flag for use in Jamaica
Another option is to use the relevant Royal Standard and replace the King's Cypher with Camilla's monogram however I think that would be indistinguishable from the Royal Standard itself.  
Personally I think this shows the merits of not defacing the banners with cyphers. 

Other Members of the Royal Family

Something that I haven't heard mentioned or read anywhere is what this means for the coat of arms of the children of the King. 
Traditionally children of the Sovereign  and the first heir apparent use the Royal Coat of Arms differenced with a label of Three Points and other grandchildren of the Sovereign use the Royal Coat of Arms differenced with a label of five points. The points of the label being differenced by a heraldic charge usually a charge associated with the maternal line. According to Wikipedia (so take it with a grain of salt) HRH Prince William of Wales is already using the Royal Coat of Arms differenced with a label of three points.
arms currently used by HRH the Prince of Wales
Credit: Lobsterthermidor, CC BY-SA 3.0

This is not the arms used by previous Princes of Wales, which had an inescutcheon of the arms of Wales. The King was quick to announce that Prince William will become the Prince of Wales and he is already being referred to by that title. However he has not yet been formally invested as Prince of Wales or been granted any amendments to his coat of arms and that is not likely to happen until after the coronation. So we will probably see the inescutcheon granted along with the various badges and arms of the prince of Wales and Heir Apparent either before or immediately after the investiture of the Prince of Wales.
Arms of Prince of Wales 1917-2022
Credit: Sodacan, CC BY-SA 3.0

Another change could be in the coat of arms of the Duke of Sussex. Presently Prince Harry uses the Royal Arms differenced with a label of five points with the outer and centre point charged with an escallop (reference to the Spencer Arms). A label of five points is of course traditional for a grandchild of the Sovereign, but the Duke is now a child of the Sovereign. So this could change to a label of three points.  In such a case I would propose charging the outer labels as a single escallop on the central point was used by his brother.
proposed arms for Duke of Sussex
These changes would of course be reflected on the arms of their spouses. 

Seals

The royal seals of the United Kingdom are four things that will change. The royal seals are affixed to legislation when they receive Royal Ascent, these are the Great Seal of the Realm (used for Acts of Parliament), the Great Seal of Scotland (used for Acts of the Scottish Parliament), The Great Seal of Northern Ireland (used for Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly) and the Seal of Wales (Acts of Senedd Cymru). When a monarch passes away new seals are made and the old ones are decommissioned by being defaced by a hammer. 
All the seals feature an image of the monarch either enthroned or on horseback with heraldry on the reverse.
This is unlikely to change, although in the cases for the Northern Ireland and Welsh seals it would be a good opportunity to update the heraldry. Under George V and George VI (and presumably Elizabeth II)the reverse of the Great Seal of Northern Ireland featured royal arms with an inescutcheon of a red cross of gold field from the arms of Ulster. I would propose a variant of the Royal coat of arms with the heraldry of the Kingdom of Ireland:
proposed NI variant of Royal Coat of Arms

It features the Irish harp in the first and fourth quarters. The historic crest of Ireland on the hem and the Order of St Patrick as well as a compartment of shamrock. The supporters feature an Irish Elk and British lion bearing the flag of St Patrick and the aforesaid red cross on gold field. 
Something similar could be done on the Welsh Seal. The arms of Wales could be given dragon supporters and placed on the reverse allowing the image of the monarch to take up the entire obverse.
proposed coat of arms of Wales
credit: SuperPanetone Reddit



Tuesday, 24 November 2020

RAF Space Command Badge

 Following on from the announcement by the Prime Minister to increase funding for Defence part of which will go to an RAF Space Command I thought what would their badge be like?

Patch of the UK Space Operations Centre OGLv3.0
Unlike what happened in the United States this Space Command will not be a separate service branch of the Armed Forces but will be an organisation within the Royal Air Force. Which is sensible giving that the RAF already operates a Space Operations Centre as part of 11 Group. However it is modest and defence analysts have said in some articles that it need expanding, and turning it into it's own 'Command' is probably a good way to go about it. Secondly by keeping it as part of the RAF it avoids some the PR disaster the US Space Force got with the comparisons to Star Trek and Starship Troopers SciFi series. 

At present the UK Space operations Centre already has a patch that appears to be worn on uniforms. I actually like it however while it is an acceptable uniform patch I think its to much in the American Air Force style. I think the RAF Space Command would have something more heraldic and less like a logo, an emblem that could be placed on a ceremonial standard.

So here is my proposal. First off is the name. I have specifically used the title "Satellite and Space Command" specifically as people are familiar with the widespread use of satellites to show this is not a type of SciFi space marines. 
The badge follow the standard pattern of RAF heraldry with the emblem being within a blue edged circle and wings surmounted by the crown, with the motto on a scroll below.

The emblem itself is symbolic of digital and satellite communications. It is set upon a black field rather than the more usual white field to be more distinctive and is something I thought could be unique to the Satellite & Space Command and any squadrons or groups that are subordinate to it. The emblem itself features two crossed lightning bolts with a beacon superimposed upon them. Emerging from the flames of the beacon is an armillary sphere .
beacons historically were used for signalling and combined with the lightning bolts is a symbol of electronic and digital communication. Armillary spheres were historically used by astrologers and schoolers to model objects in the sky in relation to the Earth or latterly the Sun. Hence when all these elements combine I think they are a good way of using timeless objects to symbolise the modern concept of manmade satellites. 
The motto is the same as that of the RAF which I think is an appropriate motto for the Space Command as it is generally translated to "Through adversity to the Stars".