Royal Flags (Denmark)

Danish

Last modified: 2025-08-23 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: denmark | order of the elephant | wild men | lions (blue) | crown |
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• Royal Standard of King Frederik 10
• Royal Standardof King Queen Mary
• Royal Standard of Crown Prince Christian
• Flag of the Crown Prince of Denmark
• Flag of the Regent of Denmark
• Royal House Standard
• Other Members of the Royal Family of Denmark
• Alternative Flag System
• Danish Crown

See also:

• Historic Royal Flags
• Royal Lineage
• Danish Coats of Arms
• Denmark
• Denmark: Index of all pages

Royal Standard of King Frederik 10

In connection with the new royal coat of arms, it has been decided to update the royal flags. The royal flag has the new royal coat of arms (see here) in the centre field, while a new flag has been introduced for the Queen and for the Crown Prince.
Source:
Zoltan Horvath, 1 Jan 2025

Royal Standard of Queen Mary

In the Queen's flag, the Queen´s arms are seen in the swash, which is an alliance arm together with the King's arms. In the Queen´s shield, in a gold field, a red double-headed eagle with a black ship on its chest, which are symbols from the heraldry of the Scottish Clan Donald. In a blue shield head, two seven-pointed stars of gold are seen, symbolising Australia and between them a rose of gold as a symbol of femininity and beauty. Below the shields is the chain of the Order of the Elephant and the shields are crowned by the royal crown.
Source: Royal House webpage
Zoltan Horvath, 1 Jan 2025

Royal Standard of Crown Prince Christian

In the Crown Prince´s flag, the royal coat of arms is seen in the spigot crowned with the special Crown Prince´s crown, which thus marks that it is the Crown Prince´s coat of arms. The shield is surrounded by the chain of the Order of the Elephant.
Source: Royal House webpage
Zoltan Horvath, 1 Jan 2025

Royal Pennant

Other members of the royal family have a similar flag with their personal coat of arms; ceremonial not required). White square field with the appropriate coat of arms to which is attached a trapezoidal form of the national flag (actually, the crossbar at fly converges too). As far as I understand the Album des Pavillons (2000) footnotes, this flag is used by the Queen and other members of the royal house, who are entitled to the flag instead of the "normal" split-flag in less ceremonial occasions - i.e. when they want to indicate that they are present on a ship, but that they do not wish that other ships would pay the respect with gun saluting and similar. I would suppose that these flags would therefore be used much more often nowadays then the "formal" ones. The royal flags would be made of the "civilian" red shade normally, however, we may assume that the naval ships that are equipped with the royal flags would have them in the naval dark red just as any other flags in their lockers.
Željko Heimer, 27 May 2004

The Flag of the Regent of Denmark

56:107 , image by Željko Heimer, 29 May 2004

image by Željko Heimer,, 29 May 2004

There is also a flag for the Regent, the person acting as head of state in the absence of the King or Queen. The flag was introduced in 1914 (see left image above). The Regent´s flag has in the centre white field a sceptre and sword placed in saltire, above which is found a Royal crown, beneath a Royal orb. The white square is 24 parts in a flag with a ratio of 56:107.
Paige Herring 1998

The state flag with a square white panel over the middle of the cross containing a sword and a sceptre in saltire over a royal orb and crowned proper. The sword is blue with yellow handle in Album des Pavillons (2000), sceptre is all yellow, the orb is yellow with blue lining. I suppose that since regent is not a permanent function, this flag would not be used very much.
Željko Heimer, 27 May 2004

There is also another flag that might be considered a royal flag, though it is not used by members of the Royal family. This is the flag of Hendes Majestaet Dronningens Hofstat, or in English, Her Majesty the Queen´s Royal Court (or Household). This is the staff of people taking care of the affairs of Her Majesty, the Royal family, etc. This flag is also the Dannebrog with swallowtails and a white field in the centre of the cross. The emblem is the Queen's Royal Cypher in yellow set within a wreath of green oak and green laurel, both with yellow fruit, tied together by a blue ribbon at the base. Royal Armorial Painter Age Wulff was responsible for designing this flag, which was introduced in 1983.
Paige Herring 1998

Flaggenbuch (1939) shows a design similar to Album des Pavillons (2000), with only minor drawing differences - the sceptre is white (see right image above).
Željko Heimer,

Royal House Standard

The state flag with the white panel containing the royal crown, as reported by Flaggenbuch (1939). The crown is taken from Heraldique Europeene (see image at top).
Željko Heimer, 29 May 2004

Other Members of the Royal Family of Denmark

A flag for those members of the Royal family that do not have a flag of their own was introduced 5 January 1905. This flag has simply a Royal crown in the centre white square. The white square is smaller than in the flags for the more important members of theRoyal family. It takes up 24 parts in a flag with the ratio 56:107, and is thus the same size as the red fields on the hoist side of the flag.
Paige Herring 1998

Alternative Flag System

When no royal standard is available, Flaggenbuch (1939) reported it could be replaced with the naval ensign topped with the masthead pennant.
Source: "Danske Flag og Kommandotegn", Kbenhavn 1905, plate 2
Željko Heimer, 29 May 2004

Danish Crown

Many offices of the government use the crown on the flag.  All of the photos/drawings that I have seen have the crown in gold. Is there any actual support that it is in fact used in full colour?
Paige Herring, 1 June 2004

Flaggenbuch (1939) is one such source - it shows crowns in their full splendour. It may even be true for the older flags where the defacements were painted on the flags, but today I would expect more "solid" designs to be used either printed or sewn on as patches. It may be that there was no regulation issued regarding the colour, just a matter of practice (however, the modern flags tend to have fewer and fewer crowns). But also compare my images based onAlbum des Pavillons (2000) with those based on the Flaggenbuch - I used two different types of crown intentionally.
Željko Heimer, 1 June 2004

Betaenkning afgivet af Flaglovkommissionen af 19. Juli 1927,Copenhagen, 1929
Ole Bjerring: "Et nyt Dannebrog", Nordisk Flaggskrift, No.13, 1984, p.6
Jan Henrik Munksgaard, : "Kommando- og rangflagg i Norden II. Danmark", Nordisk Flaggkontakt, No. 20, 1995, pp. 5-18
Pedersen, Christian Fogd: (1979) Verdens flagg i farger, Oslo, pp. 20-21, 166-167
Erling Svane (1994): "Det danske rigsvåben og kongevåben: udvikling og anvendelse", Odense, 1994, pp. 149-158, 171-179