The coat of arms of Finland is a crowned lion on a red field, the right foreleg replaced with an armoured human arm brandishing a sword, trampling on a sabre with the hindpaws. The coat of arms was originally created around the year 1580. Background The lion in Nordic heraldry The heraldic lion is quite common in Western Europe, and several European countries incorporate it into their national coats of arms. In Nordic heraldry, the lion is first found in the coat of arms of Denmark in the later part of the 12th century. Starting in the 13th century, the territory of today's Finland was gradually incorporated into the Swedish kingdom, and this coincided with the period when coats of arms first came into use in northern Europe. The first known use of the lion in Sweden was on the royal seals of Erik Knutsson (died 1216) and Erik Eriksson (1216–50), who used two and three lions on their seal, respectively. The first king of the House of Bjelbo, Valdemar Birgersson (1239–1302), also used 3 lions on his seal (Figure 2). Finland as a duchy Bengt Birgersson, the first Duke of Finland (1254–91, Duke from 1284 until 1291), and Valdemar Magnusson, the second Duke (died 1318, Duke of Finland from 1302 until 1317), both used the later Folkunga coat of arms, which was a crowned lion rampant with three bends sinister, the main difference being that Valdemar's arms had the field strewn with hearts (Figure 3). This version of the arms was quite similar to the modern coat of arms of Finland, but the lion did not yet brandish any weapon. Creation When John III assumed the title of "Grand Duke of Finland and Karelia", shortened to Grand Duke of Finland in 1577 (or soon thereafter), the lion became closely associated with Finland through the grand-ducal coats of arms (Figure 5). The grand-ducal coat of arms is thought to have resulted out of a combination of the Göta lion (originating from the Folkunga lion) and the arms of Karelia (Figure 6). The result was that the lion brandishes one weapon and treads on another. The best-known version of the grand-ducal coat of arms is found on the tomb of Gustavus I (1523–60) in the Uppsala cathedral (Figure 5). It has been suggested that either Duke John himself, or his brother Eric XIV, was leading the design work on the heraldic