Tag Archives: Royalty

Articles and analysis relating to sovereigns and royal families past and present.

An addendum to the Qatari state visit

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A week after the event, the royal YouTube channel has uploaded a seventeen-minute video of the state banquet given at Buckingham Palace. The footage itself is the same as found on commercial news channels, but what catches my attention is the little animation at the end – the title card shows the line drawing of the royal arms that appears on the header of royal.uk, including St Edward’s Crown. I am a little perplexed that this is still being used for these purposes given that a new illustration with the Tudor crown now appears for the channel’s logo. This little animation does not appear at the ends of earlier videos, making it an innovation that only debuted after the artwork itself had already become obsolete.

Our Lady, Our Prince

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A magnificent ceremony was held last night in Paris to commemorate the re-opening of Notre-Dame Cathedral after years of restoration works. Many world leaders attended and, as usual, this gave the opportunity for political networking.

The American delegation was rather strange – the First Lady Jill Biden and her daughter Ashley were in attendance but the 46th President himself was not. The 45th & 47th President Donald Trump did attend however. He was without family for the occasion, making the event feel like the setup for a very strange episode of Wife Swap.

Trump is in the strange position of being a past and future but not current head of state, though it would be hard to tell from his interactions on this visit and his coverage in international press more generally you could be forgiven for assuming that Joe Biden had already long since left the stage. A similar phenomenon occurs during every post-electoral transition period in the United States, but the striking difference in personalities between incoming and outgoing leaders this time around leaves the latter seeming an even lamer duck than usual.

I am not entirely sure which order of precedence was being followed for this event – hosted by the Catholic Church in France rather than the French government – Mr Trump was seated directly beside M. Macron while Dr Biden was two spaces further along. Other national representatives filled the next section, including the President of Ukraine.

Macron, Trump and Zilensky had a much-covered trilateral meeting before the service. The President Re-elect then went to the British ambassador’s residence for a bilateral meeting with the Prince of Wales. The press reel from their discussion does not include much of the dialogue itself, but does include the amusing moment when the two men sit in awkward silence while waiting for the film crew to shamble in after them – complete with camera wobble and heavy footfall.

It has been difficult to find free photographs of the event – neither the British nor American governments appear to have taken any, Wikimedia Commons currently has eighteen pictures licensed by the Italian President’s office and the Ukrainian President’s licensed a further eight. I hope more will emerge in time to come.

Notes on the Qatari state visit

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Today and yesterday the United Kingdom hosted Sheikh & Sheikha Tamin & Jawaher bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir & Consort of the State of Qatar.

The visit included a speech by the Emir to the British Parliament and a state banquet at Buckingham Palace – likely the last for some years as the building is soon to be closed for a major renovation project. He also gave a speech at Mansion House and received a tour of Westminster Abbey.

As is typical, the visit involved an exchange of honours. The King appointed the Emir as an Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. This is consistent with his father who was given the same honour in 2010, but it feels like a category error as normally royal heads of state are made Stranger Knights of the Order of the Garter while the Bath is given to elected presidents – the most recent being last year with Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea, who coincidentally is also back in the news today. The Emir in his red sash stuck out a little next to all the British royals wearing blue ones.

Charles had already been awarded the Collar of the Qatari Order of Merit in 1986. Yesterday he was presented with the Sword of the Founder Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed bin Thani.

The recent state visit also saw growth in the Royal Family Order of Charles III: The Queen having appeared as the founder member at the Japanese state visit earlier this year, the order is now also seen sported by the Princess Royal, as well as the Duchesses of Edinburgh and Gloucester.

I notice a discrepancy in the spelling of the visitor’s title – the royal and parliamentary sources say “Amir” but the newspapers and Wikipedia say “Emir”. Getty is inconsistent, even sometimes within the same photograph caption.

First Look at Royal Variety

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It won’t actually be broadcast for a few weeks, but 2024’s iteration of the Royal Variety Performance was recorded last night at the Royal Albert Hall. His Majesty was in attendance for the first time in his reign, having last attended (virtually) in the somewhat abnormal edition arranged for 2020. The Queen was supposed to attend with him (having also done so in 2013 and 2016) but dropped out at the last minute due to the relapse of a recent chest infection (which also stopped her attending the annual Festival of Remembrance at the same venue).

No photographs or film of the performances themselves have yet been seen, but publicity shots of the cast and attendees are available through commercial photographers, and they show the logo of the Royal Variety Performance printed on the wallpaper of the backdrop. It very obviously uses Sodacan’s illustration of Elizabeth II’s royal arms with St Edward’s Crown instead of the Tudor one. The charity’s website is much the same – the background has a monochrome outline of the full heraldic achievement similar to that on royal.uk and a smaller representation of the same appears in the footer. When you hover the cursor over it, the outline changes to a full-colour copy of Sodacan’s graphic. I wonder how long that will take to update?

Ironically the royal box inside the hall features a textile version of the royal arms with the Tudor crown, which was evidently erected there before Elizabeth II’s accession and left there throughout her reign without update until it eventually came back into style. All fashions are cyclical, one supposes, even if this particular rotation took a very, very, long time to complete.

The Queen’s Flags Elsewhere

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Following the sighting of Her Majesty’s impaled British royal banner on a limousine in Australia, I’ve had a go at mocking up what her arms should look like in each of the realms where she is queen consort. These all consist of the arms of Bruce Shand as illustrated by Fry1989 impaled by the arms of dominion of each realm as illustrated by various other artists. In all cases I have done some minor colour correction so the shades of the tinctures are consistent and rearranged the components a little to fit a square rather than a shield shape.

Antigua & Barbuda

The national arms are Barry wavy of six Argent and Azure a sugar mill on a grassy ground Proper on a chief wavy Sable a rising sun radiant Or. The Shand arms are Azure a boar’s head erased behind the ears Argent armed and langued Or on a chief engrailed Argent between two mullets Gules a cross crosslet fitchy Sable.

Australia

The national arms are Quarterly of six 1st Argent a cross Gules charged with a lion passant guardant between on each limb a mullet of eight points Or 2nd Azure five mullets one of eight two of seven one of six and one of five points Argent ensigned with an Imperial Crown Proper 3rd Argent a Maltese cross Azure surmounted by a like Imperial Crown 4th Or on a Perch wreathed Vert and Gules an Australian Piping Shrike displayed also Proper 5th Or a Swan naiant to the sinister Sable 6th Argent a Lion passant Gules the whole within a bordure Ermine.

Bahamas

The national arms are Upon a representation of the Santa Maria on a base barry wavy of four Azure and Argent on a chief Azure demi-sun Or.

I noticed as I went along that depictions of the Santa Maria appeared in quite a few of the Carribean blazons, although the style of depiction varies a bit.

Belize

The national arms are Party per pall inverted 1st Argent a paddle and a squaring axe Proper in saltire 2nd Or a saw and beating axe Proper in saltire 3rd per fess Bleu celeste and barry wavy Or Vert Azure above the last a sailing ship Proper.

There is some inconsistency between depictions as to the tinctures used in the barry wavy, with some other versions simply having naturalistic water.

Canada

The national arms are Tierced in fess the first and second divisions containing quarterly 1st Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or 2nd Or a lion rampant within a double tressure flory-counter-flory Gules 3rd Azure a harp Or stringed Argent 4th Azure three fleurs-de-lis Or and the third division being Argent three maple leaves conjoined on one stem Proper.

Since Canada is the only other realm to have its own heraldic authority, this is probably the one most likely to actually be officially used.

Grenada

The national arms are Quarterly 1st & 4th Gules a lion passant guardant Or 2nd & 3rd Vert a crescent and a lily Or over all a cross Or and in nombril point a picture of the Santa Maria Proper.

It was quite difficult to fit the Santa Maria into the nombril point of the cross without either making the image too small or the cross too thick.

Jamaica

The national arms are Argent on a cross gules five pineapples slipped Or. This is the shortest blazon of them all.

The illustration is also the simplest, and thus this was the first one I did. From a distance it could potentially look like a defaced England flag.

New Zealand

The national arms are Quarterly Azure and Gules on a pale Argent three lymphads Sable 1st four mullets in cross of the last each surmounted by a mullet of the second 2nd a fleece 3rd a garb 4th two mining hammers in saltire all Or.

New Zealand’s arms may technically be an example of faux-quartering.

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea’s national emblem is not a coat of arms as such, so I’ve had to improvise a little here by just putting the whole thing on a “bedsheet” the tincture of the background is up for debate. I ultimately went with Azure as that is used for the Governor-General’s flag.

Saint Kitts & Nevis

This realm does have a coat of arms but I can’t actually find a blazon for it.

This coat of arms has a lot of the same charges as does Saint Lucia’s, but the boat depicted is seemingly not the Santa Maria as in other examples.

The chief above the chevron makes for a rather crowded field with the sails difficult to fit in the base.

Saint Lucia

The national arms are Azure two sticks of cut bamboo in cross surmounted of an African stool of authority Or between in dexter chief and sinister base a rose Argent charged with another Gules both barbed and seeded Proper and in sinister chief and dexter base a fleur-de-lis Gold.

Saint Vincent & the Grenadines

Again, I can’t find a blazon for the arms and I would struggle to come up with one.

This one is a rare example of pictorial heraldry on this page, looking more like a painting than a series of armorial symbols. The flames have come out looking a little crude.

Solomon

The national arms are Or a saltire Vert charged with two spears in saltire points in base and a bow and two arrows charged with a native shield in fess point between two turtles all Proper and on a chief Azure an eagle sejant on a branch between two frigate birds all Proper.

Tuvalu

The national arms are Per fess Azure and Or in chief upon grass issuant a representation of an Ellice Maneapa or meeting house all Proper and in base four barrulets wavy Azure a bordure Or charged with banana leaves and mitre sea shells placed alternately Proper together.

Some Developments, Old and New

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My hobby as an amateur armorial artist has been going in earnest for six years now and is fast approaching 1,400 illustrations. Every now and again I go back to revisit one of my earlier works to see if it can be improved.

Today’s retrospective was Lord Walker of Aldringham, former Chief of the Defence Staff, whose arms I first did in January 2019. I found an old thread about it on r/heraldry and, predictably, they weren’t very impressed.

I set out to remake the shield from scratch, smoothing out the fracture of the orle, refining the colours and, crucially, making the acorns a little more recognisable. The main difficulty I had was fitting the four acorns above and below the chevrons, for this arrangement works more naturally with three. When reading the blazon on Walker’s page I saw that there was no source given for it, and set out to find one. Reading Debrett’s Peerage 2019 (page 4691) I discovered that there were indeed three acorns not four, and corrected the image accordingly. I must wonder how that error originated (since it was written as a word not a numeral, so a simple typo would be difficult) and how far it has proliferated.

With nine days to go until King Charles’s coronation, his cypher has started to be seen on the liveries of royal soldiers. The Yeoman Warders (or “Beefeaters”) at the Tower of London recently debuted their new blue undress uniforms, and the state trumpeters have updated theirs as well.

UPDATE (30th April)

I see that on the same day I uploaded my re-illustration the Prime Minister’s Flickr account published a photograph taken inside Westminster Abbey, with Walker’s banner hanging in the background. Sure enough, three acorns only.