Everything about Royal Cypher totally explained
A
Royal Cypher, or Royal and Imperial Cypher is the
sovereign's
monogram or the initials of their name and title, usually surmounted by a crown. It is impressed upon royal and state documents and is used by government departments.
United Kingdom
In the
United Kingdom, the public use of the royal initials dates at least from early
Tudor times, and early on was simply the initial of the sovereign with, after
Henry VIII's reign, the addition of the letter R for
Rex or
Regina. The letter "I" for
Imperatrix was added to Queen
Victoria's monogram after she became
Empress of India in
1877. The initials – which had no set pattern or form of lettering laid down – were usually shown in company with the royal arms or crown as on the king's manors and palaces, such as those of Henry VIII on the gatehouse of
St James's Palace, and the purpose seems to have been simply to identify a sovereign. Since a monarch often uses the same arms as his or her predecessor, a particular Sovereign can't always be identified by the arms alone. The initials were used mostly on government papers, duty stamps and similar objects, and were sometimes surmounted by a stylised version of the
Tudor Crown or, more recently,
St. Edward's Crown. (In
Scotland, the
Crown of Scotland appears in place of the Imperial crown.)
Commonwealth realms
Though royal symbols will differ amongst each of the sixteen
Commonwealth realms, as they're separate monarchies, the one sovereign uses the same cypher throughout all of his or her realms. Distinction continues to be made between the personal cypher and the simpler, more workaday public initials, the former being the sovereign's own monogram and the latter simply a means of identifying a reign. Nowadays, the initials are also called the royal cypher, but to aid clarification the monogram is referred to as the royal cypher interlaced and reversed.
The present Queen's cypher consists of "E II R", standing for "
Elizabeth II" and for
Regina, meaning "queen." Cyphers for other members of the
Royal Family are designed by the
College of Arms or
Court of the Lord Lyon and are subsequently approved by the Queen.
Elsewhere
Other royal houses have also made use of royal or imperial cyphers.
Ottoman sultans had a calligraphic signature, their
tughra.
Gallery
Image:Palaiologos-Dynasty-Eagle.svg|The double-headed eagle, the most recognized emblem of the Byzantine Empire, with the sympilema (dynastic cypher) of the Palaeologi in the centre.
Image:VR.svg|The Royal Cypher of Queen Victoria
Further Information
Get more info on 'Royal Cypher'.
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