South Holland Province (The Netherlands)

Zuid-Holland Provincie (Nederland)

Last modified: 2002-02-01 by franc van diest
Keywords: south holland | holland | netherlands | lion |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors

Gerard van der Vaart, 11 February 1996

• South Holland Province
• South Holland CoA
• 1938 Parade flag

See also:

• Clickable map of South Holland
• North Holland
• The Netherlands
• Provinces and municipalities of the Netherlands
• South Holland province - the municipalities
• Clickable map of the Netherlands
• The Netherlands - Index of all pages

South Holland Province

South Holland CoA

International Civic Arms : http://www.ngw.nl/

"Or, a lion rampant gules, armed and langued azure. The shield is crested by a coronet of four pearls between five leaves or. Supporters: two lions rampant gules, armed and langued azure. On a golden ribbon the motto VIGILATE DEO CONFIDENTES in red lettering."

The arms of Zuid-Holland are the original arms of the county of Holland. The arms are known since the end of the 12th century. In the 14th century the arms were quartered with the arms of the county of Henegouwen (Hainaut), resulting in a shield with four lions (see f.e. Tholen, Beverwijk, Rotterdam and Poortvliet, cities which were granted city rights in the 14th century). Later the counts quartered the Holland-Henegouwen arms with Bavaria, as the new family was a branch of the Wittelsbach family (who were kings of Bavaria). These arms can be seen in the arms of Goes and Reimerswaal. Since the 15th century only the original lion is the arms of Holland. The lion was often placed in a so-called Garden of Holland, a fence surrounding the shield. Not only the provincial government, but also many cities in Holland used this symbol. Nowadays only Geertruidenberg and Gent (Belgium) use the Garden of Holland. As both the counts of Holland as the provincial government were quite influential, the lion of Holland is present in many arms, f.e. in the arms of the provinces of Overijssel, Utrecht and Zeeland. The motto was introduced in the 16th century.

1938 Parade flag

Jarig Bakker, 26 January 2001

In 1938 Queen Wilhelmina had reigned the Netherlands for 40 years. On that occasion a lot of municipalities paraded in front of HM with their flags, which consisted of the provincial flag with the municipal CoA in the canton (or something...). Those municipal flags can only be considered as 'curiosities', while the status of the provincial flags is not quite clear.

Jarig Bakker, 26 January 2001