thumb|270px|right|The motto appears on a scroll beneath the [[Escutcheon (heraldry)|shield on the version of the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom used outside of Scotland.]]
(, ), which means , is the motto of the monarch of the United Kingdom. ("King of England by the grace of God").
It was not unusual for the royal coat of arms of the Kingdom of England to have a French rather than English motto, given that Norman French was the primary language of the English Royal Court and ruling class following the rule of William the Conqueror of Normandy and later the Plantagenets. Another Old French phrase also appears in the full achievement of the Royal Arms: the motto of the Order of the Garter, ("Shamed be the one who thinks ill of it"), appears on a representation of a garter behind the shield. Modern French spelling has changed to , but the motto has not been updated.
Other translations
has been translated in several ways, including "God and my right", "God and my right hand", "God and my lawful right", and "God and my right shall me defend".
The literal translation of is "God and my right". It was first used as a battle cry by King Richard I in 1198 at the Battle of Gisors, when he defeated the forces of Philip II of France and after he made it his motto. Medieval Europeans did not believe that victory necessarily went to the side with the better army, but (as they also viewed personal trial by combat) to the side that God viewed with favour. Hence Richard wrote after his victory "It is not us who have done it but God and our right through us".
Alternatively, the Royal Arms may depict a monarch's personal motto. For example, Elizabeth I and Queen Anne's often displayed ; Latin for "Always the same", and James I's depicted , Latin for "Blessed are the peacemakers".
thumb| on the [[Customs House, Newcastle upon Tyne|Newcastle upon Tyne Customs House (1766)]]
Current usages
thumb|An 1825 customs building in [[Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, bearing the Royal coat of arms]]
has been adopted along with the rest of the Royal Coat of Arms by The Times as part of its masthead. When it incorporated the Coat of Arms in 1875, half the newspapers in London were also doing so. Since 1982 the paper abandoned the use of the current Royal Coat of Arms and returned to using the Hanoverian coat of arms of 1785.
Variants
thumb| motto on [[Albany Courthouse (1898), Western Australia]]
The Hearts of Oak, a revolutionary New York militia commanded by Alexander Hamilton, wore badges of red tin hearts on their jackets with the words "God and Our Right".
Diderot's ' lists the motto as , which Susan Emanuel translated as "God is my right". The motto in this form was also cited by Henry Hudson in 1612 and Joseph de La Porte in 1772.
See also
- , the motto of the British monarch for use in Scotland
- , the motto of Scotland
- , the motto of the Prince of Wales
- List of national mottos