Media reports say the Danish king has shocked some historians by changing the royal coat of arms to more prominently feature Greenland and the Faroe Islands – in what has also been seen as a rebuke to US President-elect Donald Trump.

The Guardian reports that less than a year since succeeding his mother, Queen Margrethe, after she stood down on New Year’s Eve 2023, King Frederik has made a clear statement of intent to keep the autonomous Danish territory and former colony within the kingdom of Denmark.

For 500 years, previous Danish royal coats of arms have featured three crowns, the symbol of the Kalmar Union between Denmark, Norway and Sweden, which was led from Denmark between 1397 and 1523.  They are also an important symbol of its neighbor Sweden.

But in the updated version, the crowns have been removed and replaced with a more prominent polar bear and ram than previously, to symbolize Greenland and the Faroe Islands respectively, according to The Guardian.

Independent says it marks the fourth time since 1819 that the royal arms has been changed, the previous tweaks coming in 1903, 1948 and 1972.

The move reportedly comes at a time of increased tension over Greenland and its relations with Denmark, which continues controlling its foreign and security policy.

Incoming US president Trump last month said again that he wants the United States to buy Greenland, and the Greenlandic Prime Minister, Múte Egede, recently accused Denmark of genocide in response to investigations of the forced contraceptive scandal of the 1960s and 70s.  

Mr. Trump is not the first US president to express a desire to buy Greenland, with the first push to purchase the territory coming in 1867 from the then-secretary of state, William Seward, according to Independent.

The territory has reportedly been politically and culturally tied to Denmark for over a century, and the population of Greenland has never shown a serious desire to join the US - despite a limited American military presence on the island, which hosts one of its vital early-warning missile defense systems.