heraldically (e.g. the newly created Gävleborgs län, occupying parts of Hälsingland and Gästrikland, bears their arms quarterly). By royal decree on 18 January 1884, King Oscar II granted all provinces the rights to the rank of duchy and to display their arms with a ducal coronet. While more exhaustive lists can be found elsewhere, this article only discusses the arms of a few of these regions, selected for their heraldic notability. The arms of Gotland, Västerbotten, Uppland, Södermanland, Skåne and Lappland will be considered here in further detail. Gotland, as a free republic loosely associated with the Swedish crown, had already borne a ram with a banner (Agnus Dei) as a well-known city seal by 1280. Although the island belonged to Denmark at the time, its arms were present at Gustav Vasa's funeral procession in 1560; the arms of Gotland disappeared from the Swedish rolls in 1570 but returned with the transfer of Gotland to Sweden in 1645. The coat of arms is represented with a ducal coronet. Blazon: Azure, a ram statant argent armed Or, bearing on a cross-staff of the same a banner Gules bordered and with five tails of the third. The county was granted the same coat of arms in 1936. The municipality, created in 1971, uses the same arms on a red field, influenced by the arms of Visby. Västerbotten received arms in preparation for Gustav Vasa's funeral in 1560. According to the Swedish Heraldry Society, the reindeer came to represent all lands west of the Gulf of Bothnia at that time, and Västerbotten's coat of arms received its stars in the 1590s. Blazon: Azure, on a semé of stars Or, a reindeer springing argent armed gules. The modern Västerbotten County still bears these arms in the upper portion of a shield divided per fess, with the arms of Lappland and Ångermanland in the base, to illustrate the merging of lands from these two provinces into the modern county. Blazon: Party per fess, in chief the arms of Västerbotten, and in base party per pale the arms of Lappland (dexter) and Ångermanland (sinister). Uppland was granted arms created for Gustav Vasa's funeral in 1560, and the royal orb symbolises spiritual and worldly power. Historically, Uppland ranked as a duchy and the coat of arms was represented with a ducal coronet. Despite the fact that Uppsala län has a different name and a smaller territory, it