Editing Kingdom of Ireland (section)

==Coat of arms==
[[File:Royal arms of Ireland.svg|upright=0.8|right|thumb|Coat of arms with the crest]]
[[File:62cdd2f7394d34.03999185-original.jpg|thumb|Crowned harp on a [[Farthing (British coin)|farthing]] coin of 1744]]

The arms of the Kingdom of Ireland were [[blazon]]ed: ''Azure, a harp Or stringed Argent''. These earliest arms of Ireland are described in an entry that reads: ''Le Roi d'Irlande, D'azur à la harpe d'or'', in a 13th-century French roll of arms, the [[Armorial Wijnbergen]], also known as the Wijnbergen Roll, said to be preserved in The Hague, in the Netherlands but currently untraced; a copy is held in the [[Royal Library of Belgium]] (Collection Goethals, ms. 2569). This may have been an aspirational depiction for a putative High-King, for it was not related to the Lordship of Ireland at that time by the English king, who only assumed the title "King of Ireland" later in the reign of [[Henry VIII]]{{sfn|O'Donnell|2019|p=499|loc=Appendices – Notes, The early arms and heraldry of Ireland}}

A crown was not part of the arms but use of a crowned harp was apparently common as a badge or as a device. A crowned harp also appeared as a [[Crest (heraldry)|crest]] although the delineated crest was: ''a wreath Or and Azure, a tower (sometime triple-towered) Or, from the port, a hart springing Argent''.

{{blockquote|King James not only used the harp crowned as the device of Ireland, but quartered the harp in this royal achievement for the arms of that kingdom, in the third quarter of the royal achievement upon his Great Seal, as it has continued ever since. The blazon was azure, a harp or string argent, as appears by the great embroidered banner, and at the funeral of Queen Anne, King James' queen, AD 1618, and likewise by the great banner and banner of Ireland at the funeral of King James. ''The difference between the arms and device of Ireland appears to be on the crown only, which is added to the harp when used as a device.''

At the funeral of King James was likewise carried the standard of the crest of Ireland, a buck proper (argent in the draught) issuing from a tower triple towered or, which is the only instance of this crest that I have met, and therefore was probably devised and assigned for the crest of Ireland upon occasion of this funeral, but with what propriety I do not understand.|Questions and Answers, Notes and Queries, 1855, p. 350}}

{{blockquote|The insignia of Ireland have variously been given by early writers. In the reign of Edward IV, a commission appointed to enquire what were the arms of Ireland found them to be three crowns in pale. It has been supposed that these crowns were abandoned at the Reformation, from an idea that they might denote the feudal sovereignty of the pope, whose vassal the king of England was, as lord of Ireland. However, in a manuscript in the Heralds' College of the time of Henry VII, '''the arms of Ireland are blazoned azure, a harp or, stringed argent'''; and when they were for the first time placed on the royal shield on the accession of James I. they were thus delineated: '''the crest is on a wreath or and azure, a tower (sometime triple-towered) or, from the port, a hart springing argent.''' '''Another crest is a harp or.''' The national flag of Ireland exhibits the harp in a field vert. '''The royal badge of Ireland, as settled by sign-manual in 1801 is a harp, or, stringed argent, and a trefoil vert, both ensigned with the imperial crown.'''|Chambers' Encyclopædia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge, 1868, p. 627}}