# Royal flags of Canada

The royal flags of Canada are a set of heraldic flags used by members of the Canadian royal family to denote the presence of the bearer within any vehicle, building, or area within Canada or when representing Canada abroad. All are based on a escutcheon of the coat of arms of Canada, the arms of dominion of the Canadian monarch.
The flag of the Canadian monarch's is simply the escutcheon of the coat of arms in banner form. The flags belonging to the Prince of Wales; Princess Anne, Princess Royal; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; and Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh, are differentiated by heraldic labels and roundels with personal identifiers within. A flag with an ermine border is used by remaining royal family members that do not have a personal flag created for use in Canada.
The first flag was created for Queen Elizabeth II in 1962. The current flag for the Canadian monarch was unveiled on 6 May 2023, the day of King Charles III's coronation. The flags are part of a larger collection of Canadian royal symbols.

## Current flags

There are several flags created by the Canadian Heraldic Authority to are currently in use by the Canadian monarch, the Prince of Wales, and other members of the Canadian royal family.

### Sovereign

The Sovereign’s Flag for Canada (also called the Sovereign’s personal Canadian flag and the Royal Standard of Canada) is the banner of arms of the Royal Coat of Arms of Canada, and is used to denote the presence of the Canadian monarch. The flag consists of the escutcheon of the coat of arms, namely the quartered arms of the kingdoms of England, Scotland, Ireland, and France above three maple leaves on a silver background. The official blazon of the royal arms is:
   Tierced in fess the first and second divisions containing the quarterly coat following, namely, 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 argent three maple leaves conjoined on one stem proper.
The flag was created by the Canadian Heraldic Authority in 2023 for Charles III in his capacity as King of Canada. The flag was approved in April 2023, shortly after Charles III's ascension, and was unveiled on his coronation day, 6 May 2023. The flag is protected under Canada's Trademarks Act.
Queen Elizabeth II, the monarch preceding King Charles III, had used a personal Canadian flag that incorporated the Canadian banner of arms, charged with her personal badge from 1962 to her death in 2022. However, Elizabeth II's Canadian flag was personal to her, while the Sovereign's Flag was designed for use by Charles III and all future Canadian monarchs.

### Prince of Wales

The flag of The Prince of Wales for personal use in Canada is a personal flag that is used to denote the presence of the prince, currently William. Use of the banner of the Royal Arms of Canada in the personal flag symbolizes the Prince of Wales is the heir to the Canadian Crown.
The flag is made up of the banner of arms of Canada, charged with a blue disc or roundel within a wreath of golden maple leaves. The disc features the Prince of Wales' feathers, a symbol commonly used by the heir apparent. The traditional heraldic marker to denote an eldest son is placed near the top of the banner, a three-point white heraldic label. The initial concept for the design was done by Claire Boudreau, the Chief Herald of Canada, with assistance from other heralds of the Canadian Heraldic Authority, and with the co-operation of Buckingham Palace officials.
The Prince of Wales' personal Canadian flag was approved for use by Elizabeth II through Letters Patent dated 31 May 2011, and gazetted in the Canada Gazette on 24 March 2012. The personal flag was unveiled to the public on 29 June 2011, alongside the personal flag for Prince William (then known as the Duke of Cambridge) prior to his 2011 royal tour of Canada.

### Other royal family members with personal flags

In addition to the Sovereign and the Prince of Wales, there are several other Canadian royal family members who have a personal Canadian flags made specifically for them by the Canadian Heraldic Authority. As of 2024 this includes Anne, Princess Royal, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh.
These personal flags follow a flag pattern similar to the Prince of Wales' Canadian flag unveiled in 2011, consisting of a banner of arms of the Royal Coat of Arms of Canada, differenced by a silver heraldic label and, in the centre, a blue roundel with a border of 24 gold maple leaves. The roundels for these specific personal flags contain the bearer's cypher—the initial of their first name surmounted by a coronet to signify them as children of the monarch. On the labels, all taken from the holder's personal coats of arms, Anne's has a red heart on the centre point and red crosses on the outer points, Andrew's has a blue anchor on the centre point, and Edward's has a Tudor rose on the centre point. The initial concept for these designs were done by Claire Boudreau, the Chief Herald of Canada, with assistance from other heralds of the Canadian Heraldic Authority.
The personal flag for Princess Anne, was approved for use by Queen Elizabeth II on 8 May 2013, while the personal flags for Prince Andrew and Prince Edward were approved by the Queen on 15 May 2014.
* Princess Anne, Princess Royal
* Prince Andrew, Duke of York
* Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh

### Flag for royal family members without personal flags

The flag for members of the royal family for use in Canada denotes the presence of a royal person who does not have their own personal Canadian flag.
The flag includes the banner of the royal arms of Canada surrounded by an ermine border, a design element also seen on British flags that are used by royal family members without personal flags. The initial concept for the design was done by Claire Boudreau, the Chief Herald of Canada, with assistance from other heralds of the Canadian Heraldic Authority.
This flag was approved for use by Elizabeth II on 20 December 2014, and was gazetted in the Canada Gazette on 3 October 2015.

## Use and protocol

As the monarch is the personification of the Canadian state, their banner takes precedence above all other flags in Canada, including the national flag and those of the other members of the Canadian royal family.
However, the Sovereign's Flag for Canada is usually only employed when he is in Canada or is attending an event abroad as the Canadian head of state; for example, the flag will be unfurled at Juno Beach in France when the sovereign is present there for commemorations of the Normandy Landings. The flag must be broken immediately upon the sovereign's arrival and fly day and night until lowered directly after the King's departure from any building, ship, aircraft (not in the air), or other space or vehicle.
No other person may use the flag; the King's federal representative, the governor general, possesses a unique personal flag, as does each of the monarch's provincial viceroys. Flags are kept at the King's Ottawa residence, Rideau Hall, and supplied to Department of Canadian Heritage royal visit staff by the household staff prior to the King's arrival.
Protocol is sometimes, though rarely, officially broken. On 9 August 1902, the day of the coronation of King Edward VII, the monarch's royal flag (then the same in Canada as in the United Kingdom) was raised on a temporary flag pole at His Majesty's Dockyard in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Similarly, for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953, the sovereign's royal flag was broken atop the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Sixty years later, on 6 February 2012, the Queen's personal flag for Canada was unfurled at Rideau Hall and Parliament Hill, as well as at other legislatures across the country to mark the monarch's diamond anniversary of her accession to the throne; permission to do so was granted by the Queen.
When Police Service Horse Burmese was presented to Queen Elizabeth II by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on 28 April 1969, she requested that Burmese perform in the Royal Windsor Horse Show and have the rider carry the Queen's royal flag on the lance, instead of the usual red and white pennon, thus allowing Elizabeth to easily follow Burmese's performance.

## History

Prior to the adoption of the Canadian royal flags, members of the royal family who toured Canada used the royal flag they employed when in the United Kingdom; although, for the 1860 tour undertaken in 1860 by Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII), he used the banner of his mother, Queen Victoria. after 1931, each of those flags took on a dual role of representing a member of either the British or the Canadian royal family, depending on the context.
Elizabeth II was the first Canadian monarch to use a flag for her role as Queen of Canada. Adopted in 1962, it is made up of the banner of arms with the Queen's personal device in the centre—a blue roundel with a border of gold roses, containing within it a capital E surmounted by a crown. It was added to the Canadian Heraldic Authority's Public Register of Arms, Flags, and Badges on 15 March 2005. Nathan Tidridge argued the introduction of this flag set red and white as the national colours of Canada. However, there is debate over whether the proclamation of the coat of arms in 1921 determined Canada's national colours.
The next two personal flags were created for Charles, then-Prince of Wales, and William, then-Duke of Cambridge, and were revealed on 29 June 2011. The creation of the flags made Canada the second Commonwealth realm, after the United Kingdom, to adopt unique flags for members of the royal family.
William's flag consisted of the banner of arms with, in the centre, a blue roundel with a border of 12 gold maple leaves alternating with 12 gold scallops and, within this, his cypher—a W surmounted by a coronet of a child of the heir apparent. The label had a red scallop on the centre point. It was first flown from the Canadian Forces airplane that carried him and his wife, Catherine, to Canada in 2011.
Charles's flag, which is now used by William as Prince of Wales, was first flown from the Royal Canadian Air Force airplane that carried him and his wife, Camilla, to Canada for a royal tour marking the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 2012.
Additional personal flags were ceated in subsequent years, with the first use of Princess Royal's banner occurring during her October 2013 visits to CFB Borden and CFB Kingston. Prince Edward's flag was first used on 12 September 2014, during a visit to Government House, British Columbia, with his wife Sophie, as part of a royal tour.
Sean Palmer asserted in the 2018 book, The Canadian Kingdom: 150 Years of Constitutional Monarchy, that, by way of creating the uniquely Canadian flags for members of the royal family other than the monarch, Canada took "'ownership', not only of the Queen of Canada, but, of the other members of her family as well", and that doing so was another formal affirmation of the concept of a Canadian royal family "as distinct as the Queen of Canada is from the Queen of the United Kingdom". Jai Patel and Sally Raudon also noted the following year that the purpose of these heraldic banners was to recognize the owners' roles as members of the Canadian royal family.

### Coronation flag

The coronation of monarchs at Westminster Abbey have included flags from of various countries, carried by officials in a procession into the abbey. The flags carried in for the coronations of King George V in 1911, King George VI in 1937, and Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, were the countries' banners of arms. The flag carried in by Canadian officials in 1911 was quartered with the arms of the first four Canadian provinces, while the flag carried in for the 1937 and 1953 coronations was based on the escutcheon of the Canadian coat of arms, as devised in 1921.
The coronation of Charles III saw representatives from the Commonwealth realms carry their respective national flag instead of a banner of arms.
* Coronation flag used in 1911
* Coronation flag used in 1937 and 1953
* Coronation flag used in 2023