Danish king changes coat of arms in the middle of the row with Trump over Greenland | Denmark

The Danish king has shocked some historians by changing the royal coat of arms to highlight Greenland and the Faroe Islands – in what has also been seen as a rebuke of Donald Trump.

Less than a year since he succeeded his mother, Queen Margrethe, after she stepped down on New Year’s Eve 2023, King Frederik has made a clear statement of intent to keep the self-governing Danish territory and former colony within the Kingdom of Denmark.

For 500 years, former Danish royal arms have had three crowns, the symbol of the Kalmar union between Denmark, Norway and Sweden, which was carried from Denmark between 1397 and 1523. They are also an important symbol of neighboring Sweden.

But in the updated version, the crowns have been removed and replaced with a more prominent polar bear and ram than before to symbolize Greenland and the Faroe Islands respectively.

The move comes at a time of increased tension about Greenland and its relationship with Denmark, which continues to control its foreign and security policy.

US President-elect Trump said again last month that he wants the US to buy Greenland, and Greenland’s Prime Minister, Múte Egede, recently accused Denmark of genocide in response to investigations into the forced contraception scandal of the 1960s and 70s . In Egede’s own New Year’s speech, he accelerated the calls for Greenlandic independence and called for the removal of “the shackles of the colonial era”.

Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., was expected to visit Greenland on Tuesday, a local official told Reuters, adding that it was a private visit and that he wanted to record material for a podcast and would not meet with any local officials.

Trump Sr later confirmed the trip took place in a post on his Truth Social website, without naming a date. He added: “Greenland is an incredible place and the people will benefit enormously if and when it becomes part of our nation. We will protect it, and cherish it, from a very evil world outside. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN !”

The Royal Household said the coat of arms, which is used on official documents and seals and features dating back to the 12th century, “strengthens the Commonwealth’s prominence”. The three crowns, it said, had been removed “as it is no longer relevant”.

The changes, it said, were made on the recommendation of a committee appointed just after his accession on January 14, 2024.

Last week, the king said in his first New Year’s speech: “We are all united and each committed to the kingdom of Denmark. From the Danish minority in South Schleswig – which is even outside the kingdom – and all the way to Greenland. We belong together.”

Since 1819, the royal arms have been changed three times before now, in 1903, 1948 and 1972. But the latest changes have been met with shock in some quarters.

Ever since the peace treaty of Knäred in 1613, which ended the Kalmar War, Sweden “was forced to accept the rights of the Danish king to use the Swedish symbol of the three crowns,” said Dick Harrison, a history professor at the Swedish University of Lund. makes its removal from the Danish coat of arms now “a sensation”.

“The symbol survived the great defeats in the wars against Sweden in the 1640s and 1650s, the loss of Norway in 1814, the loss of Schleswig to Germany in 1864, the transition to modernity, the loss of Iceland and the German occupation of the world. second war,” he said. “So from a historical point of view, it is a sensation that King Frederik X has decided to remove the symbol.”

But Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen, a historian at the Saxo Institute at the University of Copenhagen, said it sends clear signals about current geopolitics, especially amid Greenlandic demands for independence.

“When the Greenlanders, and in a certain sense also the Faroese, play with the idea of ​​achieving full independence, the royal house shows that they support the state’s policy, which is to preserve the unity of the kingdom,” he said Berlingske.

Royal expert Lars Hovbakke Sørensen believes that the changes reflect the king’s personal interest in the Arctic, but also send a message to the world.

“It is important to signal from the Danish side that Greenland and the Faroe Islands are part of the Danish kingdom and that it is not up for discussion. That’s how you mark it,” he told TV2.

Greenland’s Self-Government has been contacted for comment.