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Excerpt from the book HERALDRY OF THE WORLD Written and illustrated by Carl Alexander von Volborth ,
K.St.J., A.I.H. Copenhagen 1973 Internet version edited by Andrew Andersen, Ph.D. |
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Sweden (pp.
140-145, 223-227, 37 and 176) The
text of this section was prepared by Hans Schlyter. The heraldry that developed in Sweden in
the Middle Ages had no special characteristics, for it was on the whole much
the same as that of Denmark and similarly had its roots in German heraldry.
All the same the various royal arms of Sweden are of interest: the earliest,
from the thirteenth century, with lion motifs, and among them the so-called
'Folkunga' arms; the bearings with three crowns (see Figs 209 and 755) from
about 1360; and finally the arms composed in various ways which belonged to
the monarchs of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth.
The basis for the last-mentioned was the
device which from about 1400 was included in the seal of Eric, King of
Denmark-Norway- Sweden, also known as Eric of Pomerania, successor to Queen
Mar- grethe. It is quartered by a cross, all four arms of which are of equal
size, and in the four fields and the inescutcheon there are five charges, the
second field containing the three crowns and the third the Folkunga lion. The
great Swedish noble Karl Knutsson, a member of the Bonde family, who was
opposed to the Scandinavian Union, was intermittently King of Sweden from
1448. His arms as king quartered the three crowns and the Folkunga lion, with
the arms of the Bonde family as inescutcheon (a boat). For a short time Karl
was also King of Norway and his arms when king of both countries are
quartered by a cross with all four arms of equal size, the quarters
containing the three crowns and the Norwegian lion holding an axe, with the
arms of the Bonde family as inescutcheon. In Gustavus Vasa's first royal seal dating
from the first half of the sixteenth century, his shield is quartered by the
same sort of cross with the three crowns and the Folkunga lion. The
inescutcheon contains the arms of the Vasa family, which are a pun on two
words, one meaning 'garb' and the other 'vase' (see Fig. 790). These arms
formed yet another basis for what with the years became the 'great' Swedish
national coat of arms. The cross forming the quartering seems sometimes to
have been interpreted as an ornament rather than as an essential component of
the arms and at various times it was omitted altogether. Apart from the fact that the cross was not
always present and that for a short while during the time of Gustavus Vasa's
successor Eric XIV (1560-8) there were some heraldic arguments - see below,
the 'Dispute of the Three Crowns' — the national coat of arms of Sweden
remained unchanged in its fundamental composition throughout the centuries.
This in spite of the Swedish expansion in the Baltic, Germany and Denmark in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the fact that Finland from 1581
was officially a separate grand duchy with its own coat of arms (see Fig. 782).
It is interesting to compare this conservatism with the many changes in the
development and composition of royal arms which has taken place for example
in Denmark and Great Britain.
A heraldic episode which was debated on the
highest political level both in Scandinavia and in the rest of Europe was the
so-called 'Dispute of the Three Crowns'. After Sweden had opted out of the
Scandinavian Union at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the
Dano-Norwegian kings removed the quartering with the three Swedish crowns
from their coats of arms. Around the middle of the century Christian III
adopted it once more and the Swedish King Eric XIV retaliated by assuming the
Norwegian lion with an axe and the three Danish lions in his coat of arms.
The controversy about the right to the three crowns played a very important
part in the negotiations between the two realms before the outbreak of the
Scandinavian Seven Years War (1563-70). It was not solved until the beginning
of the seventeenth century, when it was decided that both the Swedish and the
Dano-Norwegian kings should have the right to bear them. Heraldic development in more recent times
has seen a rich growth in the arms of noble families. Eric XIV introduced
among the Swedish nobility, until then wholly untitled, two titled ranks,
i.e. counts and barons, and gradually a system developed to distinguish these
new honours in a proper heraldic manner. For example the shields of counts
and barons were as a rule quartered (see Fig. 766), or they bore a certain
number of helmets (see Figs 761 and 765).
In the second half of the seventeenth
century the Riddarhus was built in
Stockholm as the official domicile for the nobility, and here is preserved a
splendid collection of reproductions of arms of noble families from
successive ages. The collection is divided into two main groups: the
escutcheons of the ennobled and 'introduced' families, in all some 2,300,
which cover the walls of the great hall of the Riddarhus from floor to
ceiling, and the 440 or so original patents of nobility and arms which are in
the Riddarhus archives. A heraldic phenomenon that is peculiar to
Sweden (and Finland) are the so-called 'coats of arms of provinces'. The idea
originated about the time of Gustavus Vasa's death in 1560, and the arms were
used officially for the first time during the ceremonies at his funeral. It
was later decided to turn certain provinces into dukedoms and the rest into
counties (see Figs 757 and 756). The original purpose of the 'arms of
provinces' was partly to make clear the ex tent of the Vasa realm and also,
by the devices on the arms, to proclaim the natural riches of each. But it is
also possible that these arms were intended as heraldry for the people, the
common people of the different provinces. But whatever the reason may have
been, these arms have acquired and maintained a special place in the public
mind and are still used in every conceivable way, spontaneously and without
hesitation. Officially their most important function was, and still is, to be
the device on standards of regiments raised in, and bearing the name of, the
provinces. In the present century many of these arms have been included in
the coats of Sweden's laen, the
administrative districts.
In the early days of heraldry no doubt it
was only the great nobles of the country and their families who used armorial
bearings. From them the fashion spread, first to those classes of the
community who were to become its aristocrats, and then among the burghers of
the towns, where the use of a coat of arms was probably stimulated by the
knowledge of such practices in Germany. In the late Middle Ages Germany
exerted a great influence on Sweden, and in Stockholm for example a large
part of the population was German. This middle-class heraldry, much influenced
by the German, was not able to establish itself to anything like the extent
that the aristocratic did. There are hardly any examples of mediaeval Swedish
middle-class arms being handed down from generation to generation like those
of the nobility. In the late Middle Ages we find that
burghers used their ciphers as charges, but later proper heraldic devices
came into general use. In the eighteenth century it was decided
that armorial bearings should be the privilege of the nobility. A royal
decree from 1762 stipulated penalties for a 'non-noble' person, ofraelseman, who included a 'noble'
shield and helmet with raised visor in his seal. The phrasing of the decree
could indeed be interpreted in more than one way, but it no doubt inhibited
the development of non-noble heraldry for a long time. The burghers began in the nineteenth
century to take an interest in civic heraldry. The designs on the seals of
market towns, which in many cases dated right back to the Middle Ages, were
used as city arms, and the shield was often ensigned by an ornate mural crown
(Fig. 774), as a civic parallel to the coronets of the aristocracy (Figs 767,
768 and 773).
Civic arms soon became general, and were a
kind of status symbol in so far as they showed the difference between market
towns and other local authorities. In time it became the practice for the
government to verify and specify city arms, both the old existing ones and
the new which were gradually being adopted. The Swedish city arms which go back to
mediaeval seals are as a rule easily distinguished from the others by their
designs. They typically include a building or group of buildings which in a
lifelike or stylised manner depict the town's particular feature: a castle, a
city wall, a barbican, a church etc. The charges are often designed in groups
of three. Good examples are Helsingborg, Jonkoping, Kalmar and Lund. Around the turn of the century the
decorative arts found a welcome subject in heraldry, but the interest was as
a rule directed towards arms that appealed to a wider public: the national
arms, county arms, city arms. It is worth noting that the growing labour
movement consciously used heraldic emblems on its banners and other insignia
for the various trade unions. The functional architecture that became the
fashion about 1930, although rejecting ornamentation, occasionally used coats
of arms to enliven facades that would otherwise have been completely bare. Heraldic art for most of the last hundred
years or so tended to copy Gothic and Renaissance models with disregard for
contemporary trends in the other arts, but in the 1930s this changed and we
now find a distinct influence from modern art. This is expressed in an
emphasis on outline and surface, in the use of clear, strong colours and in a
general interest in the quality of composition. From the seventeenth century until the
middle of the twentieth Swedish heraldic authority was invested in a State
official known as the Riluheraldiker,
but he did not have anything like the powers of the English Kings of Arms or
the Scottish Lord Lyon (see p. 191). It was and still is the government that
verifies coats of arms. In the 1950s the office of Riksheraldiker was replaced by two new authorities, the Statens Heraldiska Namnd and a
heraldic department of the Royal Archives with a Statsheraldiker in charge. The Keeper of the Royal Archives and
the Royal Antiquarian are hereditary members of the Heraldiska Namnd. The other members are appointed by the
government, one of them on the recommendation of the Royal Academy of Liberal
Arts. This concentration of official authorities has no doubt resulted in
heraldry's being considered of much greater importance. Ennoblement and the verification of arms
connected with this ceased in 1902. Since then official interest in the
design of new personal coats of arms has been limited to those appointed to
the Order of the Seraphim, Sweden's highest order. In the same way as the
knights of the Order of the Elephant and the Knights Grand Cross of the Dannebrog have a plaque with their
arms hung in the Royal Chapel of Frederiksborg Castle, the Knights of the
Seraphim have then hung in the Riddarholm's
chapel in Stockholm (after their death). If a knight of the Order of the
Seraphim does not already have a coat of arms, one will be designed for him
(see Figs 776 and 777), but whether such newly-designed armorial bearings for
this Order can be regarded as family bearings is doubtful.
In that sphere of Freemasonry that is not
hidden from the general public there are special arms which make up an
integral part of the Masonic Order's activities.
There has been a new development in church
heraldry in recent years. Arms have been designed for the various dioceses
which as a rule are the result of heraldic form being given to the old
diocesan seals. Occasionally a coat of arms has been created for the bishop
concerned, or official arms have been designed for him by combining the arms
of the see with his personal or family arms (see Fig. 904). However, this
episcopal heraldry has little importance for the church in Sweden.
In the 1930s a new heraldic practice was
introduced: rural districts and boroughs could now also assume armorial
bearings and have them officially recognised. Since then the arms of such
local authorities have formed the great majority of new coats of arms, and this
is linked with the fact that the importance of civic arms as evocative
symbols for local government and community life in general has been
increasingly understood. The introduction* of a law protecting such arms from
misuse, and the fact that once the local council has assumed them the
government will approve them, have both contributed to their prestige. The old division into boroughs, market
towns and rural districts has recently been done away with; today there are
only kommuner. The amalgamation of these now taking place may create problems
in civic heraldry, but should also stimulate simplification and an artistic
rebirth, and civic heraldry seems to be flourishing in Sweden. Of the Scandinavian
Heraldiske Selskab (see p. 220) about a third of the 600 members are
Swedes. There are also two Swedish societies, one in Scania, c/o Jan Raneke,
Vallgatan 3, 234 00 Lomma, one in Gothenburg, Vaestra Sveriges
Heraldiska Sallskap, c/o Leif Pahlsson, Fortroligheten 4, 412 70 Goeteburg. |
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