Some Danish military Heraldry

[Marcus Karlsson]

A look at some Heraldry of Danish Military institutions.


The Defence Acedemy has the Owl a symbol of learning sitting on two crossed Commander's Batons. The Motto is Sapientia et Providentia = Wisdom and Providence. It was approved by HM King Frederik IX in 1970.


Insignia of the Chief of the Defence Forces, approved by HM Queen Margrethe II on 21 December 1977.

[Marcus Karlsson]

Service Insignia of the Defence Command.

[Chris Green]

I note that the insignia of the Danish Chief of Defence Forces is a General (Peter Bartram), but the insignia is the arms of Denmark with crossed Marshal's batons. I wondered when Denmark last had a Marshal. A quick search reveals that the elder Moltke was in fact born a Dane, indeed the son of a Danish Lieutenant General, and did in fact serve in the Danish army. In the Middle Ages and immediately thereafter there existed in Denmark the post of Marsk, later Rigsmarsk, which most closely resembled the English Earl Marshal. The post disappeared in the mid-seventeenth century after the death of Rigsmarsk Axel Urup who had previously held the post of Generalissimus of the Danish troops fighting the Swedes in Skåne. (The rank of Generalissimus or Generalissimo was on occasion in various countries itself the equivalent of Marshal, or in certain circumstances even senior to it.)

[Marcus Karlsson]

Well they are not as such described as Marshal's Batons but as Command Batons. The Official Danish description from http://www2.forsvaret.dk/viden-om/generelt/vaabenskjold/Pages/Forsvaretsvaabenskjold.aspx

"Beskrivelse af Forsvarschefsmærket:
I felt af guld tre over hverandre gående blå guld-bevæbnede løver med røde tunger og guld-kroner omsat med ni røde småfigurer (søblade). Skjoldet, der er kronet, er lagt på to krydsede, sorte kommandostave med guld-endebeslag."

"Black Command Batons with ends Gold".


Armorial Bearings of the Artic Command. The Chief shows the three Canon Shots of the Danish Salute, the Star denotes the North Star and the two Piles Greenland and Færøerne Islands. It was approved by HM Queen Margrethe II on 31 October 2012 on the creation of the Artic Command.

[Marcus Karlsson]

PDF of the Book Dansk orlogsheraldik (Danish Naval Heraldry) https://www2.forsvaret.dk/viden-om/generelt/vaabenskjold/sokvaabenskjold/Documents/Dansk%20Orlogsheraldik%201959-2010.pdf

[Chris Green]

I suppose that a Marshal's baton is in point of fact a command baton. It would be given by the monarch to provide a physical indication that the Marshal wielded his command from the monarch and that anyone without such a baton must give precedence to it and its holder. The Danish Chief of the Defence Forces may not be a Marshal by title, but he is by role.