Mark J. Harden of Cowdenknowes, Baron of Cowdenknowes, KCHT, FSA Scot.

Registered: The International Register of Arms, 10th March 2006. Registration No. 0035.

Arms: Azure, on a fess embattled, counter-embattled Gules fimbriated Or between in chief three flowers of Cytisus Proper and in base a horse salient, a cross crosslet Argent.

Crest: On a Wreath of the Liveries is set for Crest a Demi-horse Argent.

Motto:Sapientia Cursus Vires

Grant: Court of the Lord Lyon, 28th June 2005. Lyon Register, volume 86, folio 22.

The Armorial bearings represent both the Scottish and English sides of the family.

The white horse signifies the County of Kent, England, where the family had spent the last two generations. Members of the Harden family still reside there today, as well as in Scotland. The Fess represents the Scottish Borders, embattled on both sides for hundreds of years, and where the family has ancestral roots. The Scotch Broom Flower, or Cytisus Scoparius, represents the Baron's feudal Barony of Cowdenknowes in the Scottish Borders, where there are two prominent hills that were once covered with the beautiful golden yellow of the Broom. The area of Cowdenknowes was also the subject of the seventeenth century traditional Scottish love ballad titled "Broom o' the Cowdenknowes." The horse of Kent appears again in the crest. The motto, "Sapientia, Cursus, Vires," means "Wisdom, Direction, and Strength."

Although a native of the UK, the armiger now resides in the United States where he has spent many years promoting Scottish history and heritage. He is a board member of several Scottish organizations and spends a great deal of his spare time holding lectures on Scottish history and heritage. He became Baron in August of 2006, when the title and dignity was passed down from his father, the previous Baron. His heir in the Barony is his daughter, Elizabeth, Maid of Cowdenknowes.

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