Centuries ago, during the great age of chivalry, one of the must have items for any self-respecting knight was to have his own coat of arms. By the 1100’s feudal lords and their chivalric vassals w…
"The supporters of the Royal Arms are unicorns, facing towards the lance in order to show respect to the banners which they carry. One of the unicorns supports the lance with a saltire attached to it and the other supports the lance with the Royal Standard of Scotland (commonly referred to as the Lion Rampant), representing the monarchy.
The other interesting feature about the unicorns is that they have open crowns placed around their necks. The crowns are attached to chains which are wrapped around the animals bodies and are then anchored to the ground.
In the modern era these chains around the unicorns have been occasionally deliberately misrepresented by British nationalists as meaning that Scotland was forevermore chained to England and thereby would never regain independence. That would fail to explain why the unicorns were bound in chains on the royal arms prior to the Union of the Crowns in 1603, it is impossible that kings of Scotland would allow symbolism suggesting the superiority of a foreign power to be included on his own coat of arms.
The truth of the chains around the unicorns is far less politically reasons than that. Quite simply in mythology a free unicorn was considered to be an extremely dangerous beast, the chains represent these powerful animals have been tamed and the crowns around their necks represent that they belong to the king.”
In some versions and variants, the chain of the unicorn isn’t connected to a stood. This leads some interpretations where the animal voluntarily serve the king, than being tamed or caputerd.
http://thecrownandtheunicorn.wordpress.com/2013/01/09/brief-history-of-the-royal-arms-of-scotland/
