British Ensigns

Last modified: 1998-01-07 by vincent morley
Keywords: united kingdom | royal standard | lions | lion rampant | harp | england | scotland | ireland |
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The Royal Standard

by Vincent Morley

• Explanation of the royal standard

• United Kingdom
• Royal banner of Scotland

The version of the British Royal Arms in which the Lion Rampant banner of Scotland is in the first and fourth quarters of the shield (with the English banner in the second, and the Irish harp, as is normal, in the third) is widely seen in Scotland and it is in fact the Royal Standard within Scotland (as opposed to the Royal Standard of Scoland,). The United Kingdom actually has two different achievements of Royal Arms:

1. England 1st and 4th, Scotland 2nd and Ireland 3rd, with Lion (English) and Unicorn (Scottish) supporters, and the English Royal Crest (crowned Lion Passant Guardant on a Royal Crown). Motto: "Dieu et Mon Droit" = "God and My Right" (English). This is the form used in England and Wales and to symbolise the UK overseas.
2. Scotland 1st and 4th, England 2nd and Ireland 3rd, with Unicorn supporters bearing lances flying the Andrew flag and the Scots Royal Standard (respectively dexter and sinister). The Crest is the Scots one: a lion sitting (on a crown) facing the viewer and holding a crown and sceptre. The motto is the Scots one: "Nemo Me Impune Lacessit" = "No One Insults Me With Impunity". This is the version used in Scotland only.

Northern Ireland uses the English Royal Arms, but with the Irish Royal Crest, which is a hart exiting a tower.

Of course these flags should only be used by the Queen. Incidentally, the other members of the Royal Family, whose arms and banners are the Royal Arms with labels of cadency, use the English version in Scotland - only the Queen uses the Scots version. There is one exception: the Prince of Wales has a distinctive personal flag for use in Scotland, being a banner of the arms for his Dukedom of Rothesay and Lordship of the Isles.

Why do we have two versions of the Royal Arms? Simply that when England and Scotland united in 1707, the Scots retained their distinctive legal system, complete with their own heraldic authority, the Lord Lyon King of Arms, quite separate from the College of Arms in London, whose writ does not run north of the border. Consequently each jurisdiction has its own version of the Arms, with its particular local heraldic flavour.

Roy Stilling, 6-MAY-1996