Royal Banner of Scotland (United Kingdom)

Last modified: 2005-07-16 by rob raeside
Keywords: scotland | united kingdom | lion | lion rampant |
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by Graham Bartram

from World Flag Database

• Description
• Legal status
• Origin of the flag
• Royal arms of Scotland (banner)
  • Royal Banner of James VI

See also:

• Scotland
• United Kingdom

The Royal Arms of Scotland are "or, a lion rampant gules, armed and langued azure, within a double tressure flory-counter-flory of the second". Many flag makers omit the blue on the tongue and claws simply because they are printing the flags (Rampant Lion flags in Scotland tend to be the cheap handwaving type, except for the few official ones) and don't want to bother with another pass for the blue.

Graham Bartram, 20 July 1999

The old Scottish flag is still valid. Strictly speaking, it should only be used by Her Majesty the Queen in her capacity as Queen of Scots. In actuality, it tends to be used as a second national flag.

Stuart Notholt

It is true that this flag should only be used by the King of Scots (or the Queen of Scots). That means no one should use it, as there has not been a Kingdom of Scotland since 1707 (just as there has been no Kingdom of England since 1707, when the two kingdoms became one United Kingdom of Great Britain). The heir apparent, the Duke of Rothesay (a.k.a. the Prince of Wales), is entitled to bear this Scottish coat (differenced by a label azure) as an escutcheon on his Scottish arms and banner, as registered in Lyon Register. Yes, it tends to be used as a second national flag, even though technically illegal. I seem to recall, possibly from Sir Thomas Innes of Learney's Scots Heraldry, that King George V leant heavily on the then Lord Lyon King of Arms to prevent him prosecuting the manufacturers and retailers of such flags. If true, such a move by the king was not only unhistorical and unconstitutional, but definitely illegal and contrary to the Bill of Rights of 1689 which forbids the Crown to interfere in the actions of the judiciary.

Simon Kershaw

This is debatable. The Queen is still Queen of Scots even if there isn't a 'Kingdom of Scotland' - Scottish constitutional law used to make a distinction between the two. You're right about the technical illegality of private citizens using the flag - although I wouldn't want to debate the point too closely with, say, 30,000 Lion Rampart bearing Scots soccer fans.

Stuart Notholt

I don't agree with Stuart Notholt about the Queen's title. In law she is Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (by an Act passed in the reign of William III, as modified by the Act of Union with Ireland, 1800 and the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, which re-defined Ireland to mean Northern Ireland). There is no such person as the Queen of Scots, or Queen of England (as Americans are often surprised to learn). On the other hand I don't agree