The arms of the city of

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, more properly the arms of the city council, were registered with the

Lord Lyon King of Arms The Right Honourable the Lord Lyon King of Arms, the head of Lyon Court, is the most junior of the Great Officers of State in Scotland and is the Scottish official with responsibility for regulating heraldry in that country, issuing new grants ...

in 1732, having been used unofficially for several centuries previously. The central symbol is a heraldic castle, representing

Edinburgh Castle Edinburgh Castle is a historic castle in Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock (Edinburgh), Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age, although the nature of the early settlement is unclear. ...

Symbolism

The castle represents

, Edinburgh's principal landmark. The crest, an anchor, represents the Lord Provost's position as Admiral of the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...

. The dexter supporter, a "woman richly attired with her hair hanging over her shoulders" represents the fact that Edinburgh Castle was historically known as the "Castle of the Maidens" probably due to it being used to protect princesses and noblewomen in times of war. The sinister supporter, a doe, recalls the city's patron saint

St Giles Saint Giles (, la, Aegidius, french: Gilles), also known as Giles the Hermit, was a hermit or monk active in the lower Rhône most likely in the 6th century. Revered as a saint, his cult became widely diffused but his hagiography is mostly lege ...

who spent much of his life in solitude in the forests of

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bo ...

with only a doe for company. The motto ''Nisi Dominus Frustra'' means "Except the Lord in Vain", a shortened version of a verse from Psalm 127: "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."

Controversy

From the 14th century, if not earlier,

, like Scotland's other

royal burgh A royal burgh () was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished by law in 1975, the term is still used by many former royal burghs. Most royal burghs were either created by ...

s, used armorial devices in many ways, including on seals. The coat of arms was formally granted by the

in 1732, and recorded in Volume 1 of the

Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland The Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland, established in 1672, is an official register of Scottish coats of arms maintained by the Lyon Clerk and Keeper of the Records. As a public register, it can be seen by anyone on application, ...

. In Scotland, it is a statutory requirement to register armorial bearings with the Lord Lyon, who is responsible for regulating the system of

Scottish heraldry Heraldry in Scotland, while broadly similar to that practised in England and elsewhere in western Europe, has its own distinctive features. Its heraldic executive is separate from that of the rest of the United Kingdom. Executive The Scottish he ...

, in a process known as "matriculation". In 1732, an action was begun against Edinburgh Town Council for failing to matriculate its burgh arms; whereupon the Council obtained a legal opinion "that the town would not be bound in law to matriculat". Edinburgh asked the Convention of Royal Burghs to make this a test case. The Convention approved expenditure to defend the action and the Town Treasurer's Accounts recorded an entry for legal fees, but no record exists of any subsequent action, suggesting that the case was dropped. The subject was raised again in 1771, when the Lyon issued a general statement that "all persons whether Nobility, Gentry, Towns or Bodies Corporate, bearing arms any manner or way which are recorded in terms of the Act...to give in or send to the Lyon Office an account of such Arms and of the title whereby they claim to wear the same". On being sent a copy of this statement, the Council reacted by refusing to comply on the grounds that Scotland's

s "had possessed the privilege of using seals and armorial bearings from a remote period which far outdated the Acts of 1592 and 1672, from which the Lord Lyon derived his jurisdiction, and that since neither of these Acts specifically mentioned the Burghs, they did not apply to them" (presumably the same position that had been adopted in 1732). Three years later, a Council Minute of 23 November 1774 recorded the "discovery" among the papers of an Edinburgh lawyer—presumed to have acted for the Council over 40 years previously—of a Certificate of Matriculation of "the Ensigns Armorial or Coat of Arms of the good town of Edinburgh" signed by the Lyon and dated 21 April 1732. The discovery of this Certificate appears to have closed the case as far as Edinburgh was concerned, but other burghs adopted Edinburgh's position of non-compliance with matriculation. When, in 1786, the Convention decided to obtain a seal for its own use, it refused to recognise the Lyon's jurisdiction over the matter and the seal was not obtained until 1821. No arms were registered by the Convention for the remainder of its existence until its dissolution in 1975.

Latest version

The traditional arms were used by Edinburgh Town Council until the reorganisation of local government in Scotland in May 1975, when it was succeeded by the City of Edinburgh District Council and a new coat of arms, based on the earlier one, was granted. In 1996, further local government reorganisation resulted in the formation of the City of Edinburgh Council, and again the coat of arms was regranted. The shield appeared as a quartering in the arms of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, from 1949 to 2021.

Gallery

File:Edinburgh City Arms on the City Chambers.jpg, The Arms on the City Chambers File:Edinburgh City Arms in the City Chambers.jpg, The arms on a window in the City Chambers File:Edinburgh_arms.jpg, Stone carving File:Arms of Edinburgh.png File:Coat of Arms of Edinburgh.svg File:Flag of Edinburgh.svg, Banner of the arms File:University of Edinburgh arms.svg, Coat of arms of the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1 ...

File:Coat of Arms of Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.svg, Coat of arms of

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from E ...

(1949–2021)

References

{{reflist 1732 introductions 1732 establishments in Scotland

Culture in Edinburgh History of Edinburgh

Symbolism

Controversy

Latest version

Gallery

See also

References