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Guide · In Seven Chapters

Arms and Flags

What a Scottish baron may bear and fly, in the words of the record.

Chapter I · 1672

One person’s arms

There is no family coat of arms in Scotland, and a barony does not supply one. Each baron needs his own grant or matriculation from the Lord Lyon, entered in the register Parliament set up in 1672.

“the true and unrepeallable rule of all Armes and Bearings in Scotland”
Lyon King of Arms Act · 1672

Chapter II · The Baron of Drum, 1992

What a barony adds

The shield is the arms. In arms granted before 2004 a barony shows in the red chapeau and the robe behind the shield; the old houses also have supporters.

“fastened on the right shoulder by five spherical buttons Or”
Matriculation of Irvine of Drum · Lyon Register, vol. 72, p. 83
The painted arms of Irvine of Drum, Baron of Drum, from his matriculation of 1992, with nine numbered labels: motto, crest, helmet, mantling, chapeau, mantle, shield, supporters and compartment.
1 motto · 2 crest · 3 helmet · 4 mantling · 5 chapeau · 6 mantle · 7 shield · 8 supporters · 9 compartment

Chapter III · Since 2004

The helm

For a barony acquired since 28 November 2004 the arms show it by the helm alone: the great tilting-helm garnished with gold, or a steel helm with a gold grille.

“a helm appropriate to their degree, that is, to the dignity of baron”
Lord Lyon’s guidance · 5 January 2010

Chapter IV · Banner, standard, guidon, pennon, pinsel

Five flags

Only the banner comes with the arms. The other four are each granted or assigned by the Lord Lyon. Ask the Lyon Office before a flag is made.

“under which general name, are comprehended standards, banners, pennons, gideons, and gonfanouns”
Alexander Nisbet, A System of Heraldry · 1722
The five heraldic flags drawn to one scale: a square banner 0.90 metres each way; a standard 3.5 metres long; a guidon 2.40 metres; a pennon 1.20 metres; a triangular pinsel; and a figure 1.75 metres tall for scale.
The five flags to one scale, in the sizes given for a baron. The arms are invented for the drawing.

Chapter V · Three feet square

The banner

The arms themselves as a flag: for a baron, square, three feet each way. It flies where its owner is, and no one else may use it.

“The coat of arms fills the banner right to its edges, as though it were a rectangular shield.”
The Court of the Lord Lyon, guidance on flags
Two square flags. The first, marked right, is filled edge to edge by a coat of arms. The second, marked wrong, is a plain flag with a small shield of the same arms in the middle.
Right and wrong: the arms fill the flag; a shield on a plain field is not a banner.

Chapter VI · The Baron of Biggar, 2007

The standard

The long flag of those with a following, granted by the Lord Lyon. A baron’s is four yards long, and its end is split in two and rounded.

“Those of peers and barons have the ends split into two and rounded.”
The Court of the Lord Lyon, guidance on flags
The standard of the Baron of Biggar as painted on his Letters Patent of 2007: the Saltire next to the pole, four stripes of white and red, a goat’s head badge, a red demi-lion crest, the motto on two blue bands, and a split, rounded end.
1 the Saltire · 2 the badge · 3 the motto · 4 the crest · 5 the livery colours · 6 the end split and rounded

Chapter VII · Two national flags

The Saltire and the Lion

The Saltire is every Scot’s flag. The Lion Rampant is the Sovereign’s, and a baron has no right to fly it.

“This is NOT a national flag and its use by citizens and corporate bodies is entirely wrong.”
The Court of the Lord Lyon, Information Leaflet No. 3
Arms and flags follow the person who holds the dignity. Who holds it is what the Roll records.

Read further

Sources

The robe and the court

What a baron wore, and who served in his court.

Robes & ChapeauCourt & Officers
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