first recorded in English), a piece of bunting or similar material,
admitting of various shapes and colours, and waved in the wind from a
staff or cord for use in display as a standard, ensign or signal. The
word may simply be derived onomatopoeically, or transferred from the
botanical "flag"; or an original meaning of "a piece of cloth" may be
connected with the 12th-century English "flage," meaning a baby's
garment; the verb "to flag," i.e. droop, may have originated in the idea
of a pendulous piece of bunting, or may be connected with the O. Fr.
_flaguir_, to become flaccid. It is probable that almost as soon as men
began to collect together for common purposes some kind of conspicuous
object was used, as the symbol of the common sentiment, for the rallying
point of the common force. In military expeditions, where any degree of
organization and discipline prevailed, objects of such a kind would be
necessary to mark out the lines and stations of encampment, and to keep
in order the different bands when marching or in battle. In addition, it
cannot be doubted that flags or their equivalents have often served, by
reminding men of past resolves, past deeds and past heroes, to arouse to
enthusiasm those sentiments of _esprit de corps_, of family pride and
honour, of personal devotion, patriotism or religion, upon which, as
well as upon good leadership, discipline and numerical force, success in
warfare depends.
_History._--Among the remains of the people which has left the earliest
traces of civilization, the records of the forms of objects used as
ensigns are frequently to be found. From their carvings and paintings,
supplemented by ancient writers, it appears that several companies of
the Egyptian army had their own particular standards. These were formed
of such objects as, there is reason to believe, were associated in the
minds of the men with feelings of awe and devotion. Sacred animals,
boats, emblems or figures, a tablet bearing a king's name, fan and
feather-shaped symbols, were raised on the end of a staff as standards,
and the office of bearing them was looked upon as one of peculiar
privilege and honour (Fig. 1). Somewhat similar seem to have been the
customs of the Assyrians and Jews. Among the sculptures unearthed by
Layard and others at Nineveh, only two different designs have been
noticed for standards: one is of a figure drawing a bow and standing on
a running bull, the other of two bulls running in opposite directions
(Fig. 2). These may resemble the emblems of war and peace which were
attached to the yoke of Darius's chariot. They are borne upon and
attached to chariots; and this method of bearing such objects was the
custom also of the Persians, and prevailed during the middle ages. That
the custom survived to a comparatively modern period is proved from the
fact that the "Guns," which are the "standards" of the artillery, have
from time immemorial been entitled to all the parade honours prescribed
by the usages of war for the flag, that is, the symbol of authority. In
days comparatively recent there was a "flag gun," usually the heaviest
piece, which emblemized authority and served also as the "gun of
direction" in the few concerted movements then attempted. No
representations of Egyptian or Assyrian naval standards have been found,
but the sails of ships were embroidered and ornamented with devices,
another custom which survived into the middle ages.
In both Egyptian and Assyrian examples, the staff bearing the emblem is
frequently ornamented immediately below with flag-like streamers.
Rabbinical writers have assigned the different devices of the different
Jewish tribes, but the authenticity of their testimony is extremely
doubtful. Banners, standards and ensigns are frequently mentioned in the
Bible. "Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his standard,
with the ensign of their father's house" (Num. ii. 2). "Who is she that
looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun,
terrible as an army with banners?" (Cant. vi. 10. See also Num. ii. 10,
x. 14; Ps. xx. 5, lx. 4; Cant. ii. 4; Is. v. 26, x. 18, lix. 19; Jer.
iv. 21).
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Egyptian Standards.]
The Persians bore an eagle fixed to the end of a lance, and the sun, as
their divinity, was also represented upon their standards, which appear
to have been formed of some kind of textile, and were guarded with the
greatest jealousy by the bravest men of the army. The Carian soldier who
slew Cyrus, the brother of Artaxerxes, was allowed the honour of
carrying a golden cock at the head of the army, it being the custom of
the Carians to wear that bird as a crest on their helmets. The North
American Indians carried poles fledged with feathers from the wings of
eagles, and similar customs seem to have prevailed among other
semi-savage peoples.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Assyrian Standards.]
The Greeks bore a piece of armour upon a spear in early times;
afterwards the several cities bore sacred emblems or letters chosen for
their particular associations--the Athenians the olive and the owl, the
Corinthians a pegasus, the Thebans a sphinx, in memory of Oedipus, the
Messenians their initial M, and the Lacedaemonians A. A purple dress was
placed on the end of a spear as the signal to advance. The Dacians
carried a standard representing a contorted serpent, while the dragon
was the military sign of many peoples--of the Chinese, Dacians and
Parthians among others--and was probably first used by the Romans as the
ensign of barbarian auxiliaries (see fig. 3).
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--Roman Standards.]
The question of the _signa militaria_ of the Romans is a wide and very
important one, having direct bearing on the history of heraldry, and on
the origin of national, family and personal devices. With them the
custom was reduced to system. "Each century, or at least each maniple,"
says Meyrick, "had its proper standard and standard-bearer." In the
early days of the republic a handful of hay was borne on a pole, whence
probably came the name _manipulus_ (Lat. _manus_, a hand). The forms of
standards in later times were very various; sometimes a cross piece of
wood was placed at the end of a spear and surmounted by the figure of a
hand in silver, below round or oval discs, with figures of Mars or
Minerva, or in later times portraits of emperors or eminent generals
(Fig. 3). Figures of animals, as the wolf, horse, bear and others, were
borne, and it was not till a later period that the eagle became the
special standard of the legion. According to Pliny, it was Gaius Marius
who, in his second consulship, ordained that the Roman legions should
only have the eagle for their standard; "for before that time the eagle
marched foremost with four others--wolves, minotaurs, horses and
bears--each one in its proper order. Not many years passed before the
eagle alone began to be advanced in battle, and the rest were left
behind in the camp. But Marius rejected them altogether, and since this
it is observed that scarcely is there a camp of a legion wintered at any
time without having a pair of eagles."
The _vexillum_, which was the cavalry flag, is described by Livy as a
square piece of cloth fastened to a piece of wood fixed crosswise to the
end of a spear, somewhat resembling the medieval _gonfalon_. Examples of
these vexilla are to be seen on various Roman coins and medals, on the
sculptured columns of Trajan and Antoninus, and on the arch of Titus.
The _labarum_, which was the imperial standard of later emperors,
resembled in shape and fixing the vexillum. It was of purple silk richly
embroidered with gold, and sometimes was not suspended as the vexillum
from a horizontal crossbar, but displayed as our modern flags, that is
to say, by the attachment of one of its sides to a staff. After
Constantine, the labarum bore the monogram of Christ (fig. 5, A). It is
supposed that the small scarf, which in medieval days was often
attached to the pastoral staff or crook of a bishop, was derived from
the labarum of the first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great. The
Roman standards were guarded with religious veneration in the temples at
Rome; and the reverence of this people for their ensigns was in
proportion to their superiority to other nations in all that tends to
success in war. It was not unusual for a general to order a standard to
be cast into the ranks of the enemy, to add zeal to the onset of his
soldiers by exciting them to recover what to them was perhaps the most
sacred thing the earth possessed. The Roman soldier swore by his ensign.
Although in earlier times drapery was occasionally used for standards,
and was often appended as ornament to those of other material, it was
probably not until the middle ages that it became the special material
of military and other ensigns; and perhaps not until the practice of
heraldry had attained to definite nomenclature and laws does anything
appear which is in the modern sense a flag.
Early flags were almost purely of a religious character. In Bede's
description of the interview between the heathen king Aethelberht and the
Roman missionary Augustine, the followers of the latter are said to have
borne banners on which silver crosses were displayed. The national
banner of England for centuries--the red cross of St George--was a
religious one; in fact the aid of religion seems ever to have been
sought to give sanctity to national flags, and the origin of many can be
traced to a sacred banner, as is notably the case with the oriflamme of
France and the Dannebrog of Denmark. Of the latter the legend runs that
King Waldemar of Denmark, leading his troops to battle against the enemy
in 1219, saw at a critical moment a cross in the sky. This was at once
taken as an answer to his prayers, and an assurance of celestial aid. It
was forthwith adopted as the Danish flag and called the "Dannebrog,"
i.e. the strength of Denmark. Apart from all legend, this flag
undoubtedly dates from the 13th century, and the Danish flag is
therefore the oldest now in existence.
The ancient kings of France bore the blue hood of St Martin upon their
standards. The Chape de St Martin was originally in the keeping of the
monks of the abbey of Marmoutier, and the right to take this blue flag
into battle with them was claimed by the counts of Anjou. Clovis bore
this banner against Alaric in 507, for victory was promised him by a
verse of the Psalms which the choir were chanting when his envoy entered
the church of St Martin at Tours. Charlemagne fought under it at the
battle of Narbonne, and it frequently led the French to victory. At what
precise period the oriflamme, which was originally simply the banner of
the abbey of St Denis, supplanted the Chape de St Martin as the sacred
banner of all France is not known. Probably, however, it gradually
became the national flag after the kings of France had transferred the
seat of government to Paris, where the great local saint, St Denis, was
held in high honour, and the banner hung over the tomb of the saint in
the abbey church. The king of France himself was one of the vassals of
the abbey of St Denis for the fief of the Vexin, and it was in his
quality of count of Vexin that Louis VI., le Gros, bore this banner from
the abbey to battle, in 1124. He is credited with having been the first
French king to have taken the banner to war, and it appeared for the
last time on the field of fight at Agincourt in 1415. The accounts also
of its appearance vary considerably. Guillaume Guiart, in his
_Chronicle_ says:--
"Oriflambe est une banniere
De cendal voujoiant et simple
Sans portraiture d'autre affaire."
It would, therefore, seem to have been a plain scarlet flag; whilst an
English authority states "the celestial auriflamb, so by the French
admired, was but of one colour, a square redde banner." The _Chronique
de Flandres_ describes it as having three points with tassels of green
silk attached. The banner of William the Conqueror was sent to him by
the pope, and the early English kings fought under the banners of Edward
the Confessor and St Edmund; while the blended crosses of St George, St
Andrew and St Patrick still form the national ensign of the united
kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, whose patron saints they
severally were.
[Illustration: FIG. 4--Pennons and Standards from the Bayeux Tapestry.]
The Bayeux tapestry, commemorating the Norman conquest of England,
contains abundant representations of the flags of the period borne upon
the lances of the knights of William's army. They appear small in size,
and pointed, frequently indented into three points and bearing pales,
crosses and roundels. One, a Saxon pennon, is triangular, and roundly
indented into four points; one banner is of segmental shape and rayed,
and bears the figure of a bird, which has been supposed to represent the
raven of the war-flag of the Scandinavian Vikings (fig. 4). In all,
thirty-seven pennons borne on lances by various knights are represented
in the Bayeux tapestry, and of these twenty-eight have triple points,
whilst others have two, four or five. The devices on these pennons are
very varied and distinctive, although the date is prior to the period in
which heraldry became definitely established. In fact, the flags and
their charges are probably not really significant of the people bearing
them; for, even admitting that personal devices were used at the time,
the figures may have been placed without studied intention, and so give
the general figure only of such flags as happened to have come under the
observation of the artists. The figures are probably rather ornamental
and symbolic than strictly heraldic,--that is, personal devices, for the
same insignia do not appear on the shields of the several bearers. The
dragon standard which he is known to have borne is placed near Harold;
but similar figures appear on the shields of Norman warriors, which fact
has induced a writer in the _Journal of the Archaeological Association_
(vol. xiii. p. 113) to suppose that on the spears of the Saxons they
represent only trophies torn from the shields of the Normans, and that
they are not ensigns at all. Standards in form much resembling these
dragons appear on the Arch of Titus and the Trajan column as the
standards of barbarians.
At the battle of the Standard in 1138 the English standard was formed of
the mast of a ship, having a silver pyx at the top and bearing three
sacred banners, dedicated severally to St Peter, St John of Beverley and
St Wilfrid of Ripon, the whole being fastened to a wheeled vehicle.
Representations of three-pointed, cross-bearing pennons are found on
seals of as early date as the Norman era, and the warriors in the first
crusade bore three-pointed pennons. It is possible that the three points
with the three roundels and cross, which so often appear on these
banners, have some reference to the faith of the bearers in the Trinity
and in the Crucifixion, for in contemporary representations of Christ's
resurrection and descent into hell he bears a three-pointed banner with
cross above. The triple indentation so common on the flags of this
period has been supposed to be the origin of one of the honourable
ordinaries--the pile. The "pile," it may be explained, is in the form
of a wedge, and unless otherwise specified in the blazon, occupies the
central portion of the escutcheon, issuing from the middle chief. It
may, however, issue from any other extremity of the shield, and there
may be more than one. More secular characters were, however, not
uncommon. In 1244 Henry III. gave order for a "dragon to be made in
fashion of a standard of red silk sparkling all over with fine gold, the
tongue of which should be made to resemble burning fire and appear to be
continually moving, and the eyes of sapphires or other suitable stones."
_The Siege of Carlaverock_, an Anglo-Norman poem of the 14th century,
describes the heraldic bearings on the banners of the knights at the
siege of that fortress. Of the king himself the writer says:--
"En sa banniere trois luparte
De or fin estoient mis en rouge;"
and he goes on to describe the kingly characteristics these may be
supposed to symbolize. A MS. in the British Museum (one of Sir
Christopher Barker's heraldic collection, Harl. 4632) gives drawings of
the standards of English kings from Edward III. to Henry VIII., which
are roughly but artistically coloured.
The principal varieties of flags borne during the middle ages were the
pennon, the banner and the standard. The "guydhommes" or "guidons,"
"banderolls," "pennoncells," "streamers" or pendants, may be considered
as minor varieties. The pennon (fig. 5, B) was a purely personal ensign,
sometimes pointed, but more generally forked or swallow-tailed at the
end. It was essentially the flag of the knight simple, as apart from the
knight banneret, borne by him on his lance, charged with his personal
armorial bearings so displayed that they stood in true position when he
couched his lance for action. A MS. of the 16th century (Harl. 2358) in
the British Museum, which gives minute particulars as to the size, shape
and bearings of the standards, banners, pennons, guydhommes,
pennoncells, &c., says "a pennon must be two yards and a half long, made
round at the end, and conteyneth the armes of the owner," and warns that
"from a standard or streamer a man may flee but not from his banner or
pennon bearing his arms."
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--A, Labarum from medallion of Constantine; B,
Medieval Pennon; C. Medieval Banner; D., Standard of Henry V.]
A pennoncell (or penselle) was a diminutive pennon carried by the
esquires. Flags of this character were largely used on any special
occasion of ceremony, and more particularly at state funerals. For
instance, we find "XII. doz. penselles" amongst the items that figured
at the funeral of the duke of Norfolk in 1554, and in the description of
the lord mayor's procession in the following year we read of "ij goodly
pennes (state barges) deckt with flages and stremers, and a m (1000)
penselles." Amongst the items that ran the total cost of the funeral of
Oliver Cromwell up to an enormous sum of money, we find mention of
thirty dozen of pennoncells a foot long and costing twenty shillings a
dozen, and twenty dozen of the same kind of flags at twelve shillings a
dozen.
The banner was, in the earlier days of chivalry, a square flag, though
at a later date it is often found greater in length than in depth,
precisely as is the case in the ordinary national flags of to-day. In
some very early examples it is found considerably longer in the depth on
the staff than in its outward projection from the staff. The banner was
charged in a manner exactly similar to the shield of the owner, and it
was borne by knights banneret and all above them in rank. As a rough
guide it may be taken that the banner of an emperor was 6 ft. square; of
a king, 5 ft.; of a prince or duke, 4 ft.; of a marquis, earl, viscount
or baron, 3 ft. square. As the function of the banner was to display the
armorial bearings of the dignitary who had the right to carry it, it is
evident that the square form was the most convenient and akin to the
shield of primal heraldry. In fact, flags were originally heraldic
emblems, though in modern devices the strict laws of heraldry have often
been departed from.
The rank of knights bannerets was higher than that of ordinary knights,
and they could be created on the field of battle only. To create a
knight banneret, the king or commander-in-chief in person tore off the
fly of the pennon on the lance of the knight, thus turning it roughly
into the square flag or banner, and so making the knight a banneret. The
date in which this dignity originated is uncertain, but it was probably
about the period of Edward I. John Chandos is said to have been made a
banneret by the Black Prince and the king of Castile at Najara on the
3rd of April 1367; John of Copeland was made a banneret in the reign of
Edward III., he having taken prisoner David Bruce, the Scottish king, at
the battle of Durham. In more modern times Captain John Smith, of Lord
Bernard Stuart's troop of the King's Guards, who saved the royal banner
from the parliamentary troops at Edgehill, was made a knight banneret by
Charles I. From this time the custom of creating knights banneret ceased
until it was revived by George II. after Dettingen in 1743, when the
dignity was again conferred. It is true, however, that, when in 1763 Sir
William Erskine presented to George III. sixteen stands of colours
captured by his regiment [now the 15th (king's) Hussars] at Emsdorf, he
was raised to the dignity of knight banneret, but as the ceremony was
not performed on the field of battle, the creation was considered
irregular, and his possession of the rank was not generally recognized.
The banner was therefore not only a personal ensign, but it also denoted
that he who bore it was the leader of a military force, large or small
according to his degree or estate. It was, in fact, the battle flag of
the leader who controlled the particular force that followed it into the
fight. Every baron who in time of war had furnished the proper number of
men to his liege was entitled to charge with his arms the banner which
they followed. There could indeed be at present found no better
representative of the medieval "banner" than what we now term the "royal
standard"; it is essentially the personal battle flag of the king of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It and other royal and
imperial standards have now become "standards," inasmuch as they are
to-day used for display in the same fashion, and for the same purposes
as was the "standard" of old. The "gonfalon" or "gonfannon" was a battle
flag differing from the ordinary banner in that it was not attached to
the pole but hung from it crosswise, and was not always square in shape
but serrated, so that the lower edge formed streamers. The gonfalon was
in action borne close to the person of the commander-in-chief and
denoted his position. In certain of the Italian cities chief magistrates
had the privilege of bearing a gonfalon, and for this reason were known
as "gonfaloniere."
The standard (fig. 5, D) was a flag of noble size, long, tapering
towards the fly (the "fly" is that portion of the flag farther from the
pole, the "hoist" the portion of the flag attached to the pole), the
edges of the flag fringed or bordered, and with the ends split and
rounded off. The shape was not, however, by any means uniform during
the middle ages nor were there any definite rules as to its charges. It
varied in size according to the rank of the owner. The Tudor MS.
mentioned above says of the royal standard of that time--"the Standard
to be sett before the king's pavilion or tente, and not to be borne in
battayle; to be in length eleven yards." A MS. of the time of Henry VII.
gives the following dimensions for standards: "The King's had a length
of eight yards; that of a duke, seven; a marquis, six and a half; an
earl, six; a viscount, five and a half; a baron, five; a knight
banneret, four and a half; and a knight four yards." The standard was,
in fact, from its size, and as its very name implies, not meant to be
carried into action, as was the banner, but to denote the actual
position of its possessor on occasions of state ceremonial, or on the
tilting ground, and to denote the actual place occupied by him and his
following when the hosts were assembled in camp preparatory for battle.
It was essentially a flag denoting position, whereas the banner was the
rallying point of its followers in the actual field. Its uses are now
fulfilled, as far as royalties are concerned, by the "banner" which has
now become the "royal standard," and which floats over the palace where
the king is in residence, is hoisted at the saluting point when he
reviews his troops, and is broken from the mainmast of any ship in his
navy the moment that his foot treads its deck. The essential condition
of the standard was that it should always have the cross of St. George
conspicuous in the innermost part of the hoist immediately contiguous to
the staff; the remainder of the flag was then divided fesse-wise by two
or more stripes of colours exactly as the heraldic "ordinary" termed
"fesse" crosses the shield horizontally. The colours used as stripes, as
also those used in the fringe or bordering of the standard, were those
which prevailed in the arms of the bearer or were those of his livery.
The standard here depicted (fig. 5, D) is that of Henry V.; the colours
white and blue, a white antelope standing between two red roses, and in
the interspaces more red roses. To quote again from the Harleian MS.
above mentioned: "Every standard and guidon to have in the chief the
cross of St George, the beast or crest with his devyce and word, and to
be slitt at the end." The motto indeed usually figured on most
standards, though occasionally it was missing. An excellent type of the
old standard is that of the earls of Percy, which bore the blue lion,
the crescent, and the fetterlock--all badges of the family--whilst, as
tokens of matrimonial alliances with the families of Poynings, Bryan and
Fitzpayne, a silver key, a bugle-horn and a falchion were respectively
displayed. There was also the historic Percy motto, _Esperance en Dieu_.
No one, whatsoever his rank, could possess more than one banner, since
it displayed his heraldic arms, which were unchangeable. A single
individual, however, might possess two or three standards since this
flag displayed badges that he could multiply at discretion, and a motto
that he could at any time change. For example, the standards of Henry
VII., mostly green and white--the colours of the Tudor livery--had in
one "a red firye dragon," in another "a donne kowe," in a third "a
silver greyhound and two red roses." The standard was always borne by an
eminent person, and that of Henry V. at Agincourt is supposed to have
been carried upon a car that preceded the king. At Nelson's funeral his
banner and standard were borne in the procession, and around his coffin
were the banderolls--square, bannerlike flags bearing the various arms
of his family lineage. Nelson's standard bore his motto, _Palmam qui
meruit ferat_, but, in lieu of the cross of St George, it bore the union
of the crosses of St George, St Andrew and St Patrick, the medieval
England having expanded into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland. Again, at the funeral of the duke of Wellington we find amongst
the flags his personal banner and standard, and ten banderolls of the
duke's pedigree and descent.
The guidon, a name derived from the Fr. _Guyd-homme_, was somewhat
similar to the standard, but without the cross of St George, rounded at
the end, less elongated and altogether less ornate. It was borne by a
leader of horse, and according to a medieval writer "must be two and a
half yards or three yards long, and therein shall no armes be put, but
only the man's crest, cognisance, and devyce."
The streamer, so called in Tudor days but now better known as the
pennant or pendant, was a long, tapering flag, which it was directed
"shall stand in the top of a ship or in the forecastle, and therein be
put no armes, but the man's cognisance or devyce, and may be of length
twenty, thirty, forty or sixty yards, and is slitt as well as a guidon
or standard." Amongst the fittings of the ship that took Beauchamp, earl
of Warwick, to France in the reign of Henry VII. was a "grete stremour
for the shippe xl yardes in length viij yardes in brede." In the hoist
was "a grete bere holding a raggid staffe," and the rest of the fly
"powdrid full of raggid staves."
NATIONAL FLAGS.--_British._ The royal standard of England was, when it
was hoisted on the Tower on the 1st of January 1801, thus heraldically
described:--"Quarterly; first and fourth, gules, three lions passant
gardant, in pale, or, for England; second, or, a lion rampant, gules,
within a double tressure flory counter flory of the last, for Scotland;
third, azure, a harp or, stringed argent, for Ireland." The present
standard connects in direct descent from the arms of the Conqueror.
These were two leopards passant on a red field, and remained the same
until the reign of Henry II., when lions were substituted for leopards,
and a third added. The next change that took place was in the reign of
Edward III. when the royal arms were for the first time quartered;
_fleurs-de-lis_ in the first and fourth quarters, and the three lions of
England in the second and third. The _fleurs-de-lis_ were assumed in
token of the monarch's claim to the throne of France. In the "coats" of
Edward III. and the two monarchs that succeeded him, the _fleurs-de-lis_
were powdered over a blue ground, but under Henry V. the _fleurs-de-lis_
were reduced in number to three, and the "coat" so devised remained the
same until the death of Queen Elizabeth. The lion of Scotland and the
Irish harp were added to the flag on the accession of James I., and the
flag then had the French and English arms quartered in the first and
fourth quarters, the lion of Scotland, red on a yellow ground, in the
second quarter, and the harp of Ireland, gold on a blue ground, in the
third quarter. With the exception of the period of the Commonwealth, to
which reference will be made later, the flag remained thus until the
accession of William III., who imposed upon the Stuart standard a
central shield carrying the arms of Nassau. Queen Anne made further
alterations; the first and fourth quarters were subdivided, the three
lions of England being in one half, the lion of Scotland in the other.
The _fleurs-de-lis_ were in the second quarter; the Irish harp in the
third. Under George I. and George II. the first, second and third
quarters remained the same, the arms of Hanover being placed in the
fourth quarter, and this continued to be the royal standard until 1801,
when the standard was rearranged as first described with the addition of
the Hanoverian arms displayed on a shield in the centre. On the
accession of Queen Victoria, the Hanoverian arms were removed, and the
flag remained as it to-day exists. It is worthy of note, however, that
in the royal standard of King Edward VII. which hangs in the chapel of
St George at Windsor, the ordinary "winged woman" form of the harp in
the Irish third quartering is altered to a harp of the old Irish
pattern. At King Edward's accession this banner replaced that of Queen
Victoria which for sixty-two years had hung in this, the chapel of the
order of the Garter.
Up to the time of the Stuarts it had been the custom of the lord high
admiral or person in command of the fleet to fly the royal standard as
deputy of the sovereign. When royalty ceased to be, a new flag was
devised by the council of state for the Commonwealth, which comprised
the "arms of England and Ireland in two several escutcheons in a red
flag within a compartment." In other words, it was a red flag containing
two shields, the one bearing the cross of St George, red on a white
ground, the other the harp, gold on a blue ground, and round the shields
was a wreath of palm and shamrock leaves. One of these flags is still in
existence at Chatham dockyard, where it is kept in a wooden chest which
was taken out of a Spanish galleon at Vigo by Admiral Sir George Rooke
in 1704. When Cromwell became protector of the commonwealth of England,
Scotland and Ireland, he devised for himself a personal standard. This
had the cross of St George in the first and fourth quarters, the cross
of St Andrew, a white saltire on a blue ground, in the second, and the
Irish harp in the third. His own arms--a lion on a black shield--were
imposed on the centre of the flag. No one but royalty has a right to fly
the royal standard, and though it is constantly seen flying for purposes
of decoration its use is irregular. There has, however, always been one
exception, namely, that the lord high admiral when in executive command
of a fleet has always been entitled to fly the royal standard. For
example, Lord Howard flew it from the mainmast of the "Ark Royal" when
he defeated the Spanish Armada; the duke of Buckingham flew it as lord
high admiral in the reign of Charles I., and the duke of York fought
under it when he commanded during the Dutch Wars.
The national flag of the British empire is the Union Jack, in which are
combined in union the crosses of St George, St Andrew and St Patrick. St
George had long been a patron saint of England, and his banner, argent,
a cross gules, its national ensign. St Andrew in the same way was the
patron saint of Scotland, and his banner, azure, a saltire argent, the
national ensign of Scotland. On the union of the two crowns James I.
issued a proclamation ordaining that "henceforth all our subjects of
this Isle and Kingdom of Greater Britain and the members thereof, shall
bear in their main-top the red cross commonly called St George's cross,
and the white cross commonly called St Andrew's cross, joined together
according to a form made by our heralds, and sent by us to our admiral
to be published to our said subjects; and in their fore-top our subjects
of south Britain shall wear the red cross only, as they were wont, and
our subjects of north Britain in their fore-top, the white cross only as
they were accustomed." This was the first Union Jack, as it is generally
termed, though strictly the name of the flag is the "Great Union," and
it is only a "Jack" when flown on the jackstaff of a ship of war.
Probably the name of the Stuart king "Jacques," which James I. always
signed, gave the name to the flag, and then to the staff at which it was
hoisted. At the death of Charles I., the union with Scotland being
dissolved, the ships of the parliament reverted to the simple cross of
St George, but the union flag was restored when Cromwell became
protector, with the Irish harp imposed upon its centre. On the
Restoration, Charles II. removed the harp and so the original union flag
was restored, and continued as described until the year 1801, when, on
the legislative union with Ireland, the cross of St Patrick, a saltire
gules, on a field argent, was incorporated in the union flag. To so
combine these three crosses without losing the distinctive features of
each was not easy; each cross must be distinct, and retain equally
distinct its fimbriation, or bordering, which denotes the original
ground. In the first union flag, the red cross of St George with the
white fimbriation that represented-the original white field was simply
imposed upon the white saltire of St Andrew with its blue field. To
place the red saltire of St Patrick on the white saltire of St Andrew
would have been to obliterate the latter, nor would the red saltire have
its proper bordering denoting its original white field; even were the
red saltire narrowed in width the portion of the white saltire that
would appear would not be the St Andrew saltire, but only the
fimbriation appertaining to the saltire of St Patrick. The difficulty
has been got over by making the white broader on one side of the red
than the other. In fact, the continuity of direction of the arms of the
St Patrick red saltire has been broken by its portions being removed
from the centre of the oblique points that form the St Andrew's saltire.
Thus both the Irish and Scottish saltires can be easily distinguished
from one another, whilst the red saltire has its due white fimbriation.
The Union Jack is the most important of all British ensigns, and is
flown by representatives of the empire all the world over. It flies from
the jackstaff of every man-of-war in the navy. With the Irish harp on a
blue shield displayed in the centre, it is flown by the lord-lieutenant
of Ireland. When flown by the governor-general of India the star and
device of the order of the Star of India are borne in the centre.
Colonial governors fly it with the badge of their colony displayed in
the centre. Diplomatic representatives use it with the royal arms in the
centre. As a military flag, it is flown over fortresses and
headquarters, and on all occasions of military ceremonial. Hoisted at
the mainmast of a man-of-war it is the flag of an admiral of the fleet.
Military flags in the shape of regimental standards and colours, and
flags used for signalling, are described elsewhere, and it will here be
only necessary to deal with the navy and admiralty flags.
The origin of the three ensigns--the red, white, and blue--had its
genesis in the navy. In the days of huge fleets, such as prevailed in
the Tudor and Stuart navies, there were, besides the admiral in supreme
command, a vice-admiral as second in command, and a rear-admiral as
third in command, each controlling his own particular group or squadron.
These were designated centre, van, and rear, the centre almost
invariably being commanded by the admiral, the vice-admiral taking the
van and the rear-admiral the rear squadron. In order that any vessel in
any group could distinguish its own admiral's ship, the flagships of
centre, van, and rear flew respectively a plain red, white, or blue
flag, and so came into being those naval ranks of admiral, vice-admiral,
and rear-admiral of the red, white, and blue which continued down to as
late as 1864. As the admiral in supreme command flew the union at the
main, there was no rank of admiral of the red, and it was not until
November 1805 that the rank of admiral of the red was added to the navy
as a special compliment to reward Trafalgar. About 1652, so that each
individual ship in the squadron should be distinguishable as well as the
flagships, each vessel carried a large red, white, or blue flag
according as to whether she belonged to the centre, van, or rear, each
flag having in the left-hand upper corner a canton, as it is termed, of
white bearing the St George's cross. These flags were called ensigns,
and it is, of course, due to the fact that the union with Scotland was
for the time dissolved that they bore only the St George's cross. Even
when the restoration of the Stuarts restored the _status quo_ the cross
of St George still remained alone on the ensign, and it was not altered
until 1707 when the bill for the Union of England and Scotland passed
the English parliament. In 1801, when Ireland joined the Union, the
flag, of course, became as we know it to-day. All these three ensigns
belonged to the royal navy, and continued to do so until 1864, but as
far back as 1707 ships of the mercantile marine were instructed to fly
the red ensign. As ironclads replaced the wooden vessels and fleets
became smaller the inconvenience of three naval ensigns was manifest,
and in 1864 the grades of flag officer were reduced again to admiral,
vice-admiral, and rear-admiral, and the navy abandoned the use of the
red and blue ensigns, retaining only the white ensign as its distinctive
flag. The mercantile marine retained the red ensign which they were
already using, whilst the blue ensign was allotted to vessels employed
on the public service whether home or colonial.
The white ensign is therefore essentially the flag of the royal navy. It
should not be flown anywhere or on any occasion except by a ship (or
shore establishment) of the royal navy, with but one exception. By a
grant of William IV. dating from 1829 vessels belonging to the Royal
Yacht Squadron, the chief of all yacht clubs, are allowed to fly the
white ensign. From 1821 to 1829 ships of the squadron flew the red
ensign, as that of highest dignity, but as it was also used by merchant
ships, they then obtained the grant of the white ensign as being more
distinctive. Some few other yacht clubs flew it until 1842, when the
privilege was withdrawn by an admiralty minute. By some oversight the
order was not conveyed to the Royal Western of Ireland, whose ships flew
the white ensign until in 1857 the usage was stopped. Since that date
the Royal Yacht Squadron has alone had the privilege. Any vessel of any
sort flying the white ensign, or pennant, of the navy is committing a
grave offence, and the ship can be boarded by any officer of His
Majesty's service, the colours seized, the vessel reported to the
authorities, and a penalty inflicted on the owners or captain or both.
The penalty incurred is L500 fine for each offence, as laid down in the
73rd section of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894. In 1883 Lord Annesley's
yacht, belonging to the Royal Yacht Squadron, was detained at the
Dardanelles in consequence of her flying the white ensign of the royal
navy which brought her under the category of a man-of-war, and no
foreign man-of-war is allowed to pass the Dardanelles without first
obtaining an imperial _irade_. Since then owners belonging to the
squadron have been warned that they must either sail their ships through
the straits under the red ensign common to all ships British owned, or
obtain imperial permission if they wish to display the white ensign.
Besides the white ensign the ship of war flies a long streamer from the
maintopgallant masthead. This, which is called a pennant, is flown only
by ships in commission; it is, in fact, the sign of command, and is
first hoisted when a captain commissions his ship. The pennant, which
was really the old "pennoncell," was of three colours for the whole of
its length, and towards the end left separate in two or three tails, and
so continued till the end of the great wars in 1816. Now, however, the
pennant is a long white streamer with the St George's cross in the inner
portion close to the mast. Pennants have been carried by men-of-war from
the earliest times, prior to 1653 at the yard-arm, but since that date
at the maintopgallant masthead.
The blue ensign is exclusively the flag of the public service other than
the royal navy, and is as well the flag of the royal naval reserve. It
is flown also by certain authorized vessels of the British mercantile
marine, the conditions governing this privilege being that the captain
and a certain specified portion of the officers and crew shall belong to
the ranks of the royal naval reserve. When flown by ships belonging to
British government offices the seal or badge of the office is displayed
in the fly. For example, hired transports fly it with the yellow anchor
in the fly; the marine department of the Board of Trade has in the fly
the device of a ship under sail; the telegraph branch of the post-office
shows in the fly a device representing Father Time with his hour-glass
shattered by lightning; the ordnance department displays upon the fly a
shield with a cannon and cannon balls upon it. Certain yacht clubs are
also authorized by special admiralty warrant to fly the blue ensign.
Some of these display it plain; others show in the fly the distinctive
badge of the club. Consuls-general, consuls and consular agents also
have a right to fly the blue ensign, the distinguishing badge in their
case being the royal arms.
The red ensign is the distinguishing flag of the British merchant
service, and special orders to this effect were issued by Queen Anne in
1707, and again by Queen Victoria in 1864. The order of Queen Anne
directed that merchant vessels should fly a red flag "with a Union Jack
described in a canton at the upper corner thereof next the staff," and
this is probably the first time that the term "Union Jack" was
officially used. In some cases those yacht clubs which fly the red
ensign change it slightly from that flown by the merchant service, for
they are allowed to display the badge of the club in the fly. Colonial
merchantmen usually display the ordinary red ensign, but, provided they
have a warrant of authorization from the admiralty, they can use the
ensign with the badge of the colony in the fly.
In regard to ensigns it is important to remember that they are purely
maritime flags, and though the rule is more honoured in the breach than
in the observance, the only flag that a private individual or a
corporation has a right to display on shore is the national flag, the
Union Jack, in its plain condition and without any emblazonment.
There are two other British sea flags which are worthy of brief notice.
These are the admiralty flag and the flag of the master of Trinity
House. The admiralty flag is a plain red flag with a clear anchor in the
centre in yellow. In a sense it is a national flag, for the sovereign
hoists it when afloat in conjunction with the royal standard and the
Union Jack. It would appear to have been first used by the duke of York
as lord high admiral, who flew it when the sovereign was afloat and had
the royal standard flying in another ship. When a board of commissioners
was appointed to execute the office of lord high admiral this was the
flag adopted, and in 1691 we find the admiralty, minuting the navy
board, then a subordinate department, "requiring and directing it to
cause a fitting red silk flag, with the anchor and cable therein, to be
provided against Tuesday morning next, for the barge belonging to this
board." In 1725, presumably as being more pretty and artistic, the cable
in the device was twisted round the stock of the anchor. It was thus
made into a "foul anchor," the thing of all others that a sailor most
hates, and this despite the fact that the first lord at the time, the
earl of Berkeley, was himself a sailor. The anchor retained its
unseamanlike appearance, and was not "cleared" till 1815, and even to
this day the buttons of the naval uniform bear a "foul anchor." The
"anchor" flag is solely the emblem of an administrative board; it does
not carry the executive or combatant functions which are vested in the
royal standard, the union or an admiral's flag, but on two occasions it
has been made use of as an executive flag. In 1719 the earl of Berkeley,
who at the time was not only first lord of the admiralty, but
vice-admiral of England, obtained the special permission of George I. to
hoist it at the main instead of the union flag. Again in 1869, when Mr
Childers, then first lord, accompanied by some members of his board,
went on board the "Agincourt" he hoisted the admiralty flag and took
command of the combined Mediterranean and Channel squadrons, thus
superseding the flags of the two distinguished officers who at the time
were in command of these squadrons. It is hardly necessary to add that
throughout the navy there was a very distinct feeling of dissatisfaction
at the innovation. When the admiralty flag is flown by the sovereign it
is hoisted at the fore, his own standard being of course at the main,
and the union at the mizzen.
The flag of the master of the Trinity House is the red cross of St
George on its white ground, but with an ancient ship on the waves in
each quarter; in the centre is a shield with a precisely similar device
and surmounted by a lion.
The sign of a British admiral's command afloat is always the same. It is
the St George's cross. Of old it was borne on the main, the fore, or the
mizzen, according as to whether the officer to whom it pertained was
admiral, vice-admiral, or rear-admiral, but, as ironclads superseded
wooden ships, and a single pole mast took the place of the old three
masts, a different method of indicating rank was necessitated. To-day
the flag of an admiral is a square one, the plain St George's cross.
When flown by a vice-admiral it bears a red ball on the white ground in
the upper canton next to the staff; if flown by a rear-admiral there is
a red ball in both the upper and lower cantons. As nowadays most
battleships have two masts, the admiral's flag is hoisted at the one
which has no masthead semaphore. The admiral's flag is always a square
one, but that of a commodore is a broad white pennant with the St
George's cross. If the commodore be first class the flag is plain; if of
the second class the flag has a red ball in the upper canton next to the
staff. The same system of differentiating rank prevails in most navies,
though very often a star takes the place of the ball. In some cases,
however, the indications of rank are differently shown. For instance,
both in the Russian and Japanese navies the distinction is made by a
line of colour on the upper or lower edges of the flag.
The flags of the British colonies are the same as those of the mother
country, but differentiated by the badge of the colony being placed in
the centre of the flag if it is the Union Jack, or in the fly if it be
the blue or red ensign. Examples of these are shown in the Plate, where
the blue ensign illustrated is that of New Zealand, the device of the
colony being the southern cross in the fly. Precisely the same flag,
with a large six-pointed star, emblematic of the six states immediately
under the union, forms the flag of the federated commonwealth of
Australia. The red ensign shown is that of the Dominion of Canada, the
device in the fly being the armorial bearings of the Dominion. As the
lord-lieutenant of Ireland, as the representative of royalty, flies the
Union Jack with a harp in the centre, or the viceroy of India flies the
same flag with, in the centre, the badge of the order of the Star of
India, so too colonial governors or high commissioners fly the union
flag with the arms of the colony they preside over on a white shield in
the centre and surrounded by a laurel wreath. In the case of Canada the
wreath, however, is not of laurel but of maple, which is the special
emblem of the Dominion.
_French._--To come to flags of other countries, nowhere have historical
events caused so much change in the standards and national ensigns of a
country as in the case of France. The oriflamme and the Chape de St
Martin were succeeded at the end of the 16th century, when Henry III.,
the last of the house of Valois, came to the throne, by the white
standard powdered with _fleurs-de-lis_. This in turn gave place to the
famous tricolour. The tricolour was introduced at the time of the
Revolution, but the origin of this flag and its colours is a disputed
question. Some maintain that the intention was to combine in the flag
the blue of the Chape de St Martin, the red of the oriflamme, and the
white flag of the Bourbons. By others the colours are said to be those
of the city of Paris. Yet again, other authorities assert that the flag
is copied from the shield of the Orleans family as it appeared after
Philippe Egalite had knocked off the _fleurs-de-lis_. The tricolour is
divided vertically into three parts of equal width--blue, white and red,
the red forming the fly, the white the middle, and the blue the hoist of
the flag. During the first and second empires the tricolour became the
imperial standard, but in the centre of the white stripe was placed the
eagle, whilst all three stripes were richly powdered over with the
golden bees of the Napoleons. The tricolour is now the sole flag of
France.
_American._--Before the Declaration of Independence the flags of those
colonies which now form the United States of America were very various.
In the early days of New England the Puritans objected to the red cross
of St George, not from any disloyalty to the mother country, but from a
conscientious objection to what they deemed an idolatrous symbol. By the
year 1700 most of the colonies had devised badges to distinguish their
vessels from those of England and of each other. In the early stages of
the revolution each state adopted a flag of its own; thus, that of
Massachusetts bore a pine tree, South Carolina displayed a rattlesnake,
New York had a white flag with a black beaver, and Rhode Island a white
flag with a blue anchor upon it. Even after the Declaration of
Independence, and the introduction of the stars and stripes, the latter
underwent many changes in the manner of their arrangement before taking
the position at present established. In 1775 a committee was appointed
to consider the question of a single flag for the thirteen states. It
recommended that the union be retained in the upper corner next to the
staff, the remainder of the field of the flag to be of thirteen
horizontally disposed stripes, alternately red and white. This flag,
curiously enough, was precisely the same as the flag of the old
Honourable East India Company. On the 14th of June 1777 congress
resolved "that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes,
alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a
blue field, representing a new constellation." This was the origin of
the national flag, but at first, as the number of the stripes were
unequal, the flag very often varied, sometimes having seven white and
six red stripes, and at other times seven red and six white, and it was
not for some considerable time that it was authoritatively laid down
that the latter arrangement was the one to be adopted. It has also been
held that the stars and stripes of the American national flag, as well
as the eagle, were suggested by the crest and arms of the Washington
family. The latter supposition is absurd, for the Washington crest was a
raven. The Washington arms were a white shield having two horizontal red
bars, and above these a row of three red stars. This might, by a stretch
of imagination, be supposed to have inspired the original idea of the
flag which was that each state in the Union should be represented in the
national flag by a star and stripe. Naturally other states coming into
the Union expected the same privilege. After Vermont in 1790 and
Kentucky in 1792 had entered the Union, the stars and stripes were
changed in number from thirteen to fifteen. Later on other states
joined, and soon the flag came to consist of twenty stars and stripes.
It was, however, found objectionable to be constantly altering the
national flag, and in the year 1818 it was determined to go back to the
original thirteen stripes, but to place a star for each state in the
blue union canton in the top corner of the flag next the staff. Thus the
stars always show the exact number of states that are in the Union,
whilst the stripes denote the original number of the states that formed
the union.[1] The presidential flag of the president of the United
States is an eagle on a blue field, bearing on its breast a shield
displaying stripes, and above the national motto _E pluribus unum_, and
a design of the stars of the original thirteen states of the union.
_Other Countries._--The most general and important of the various
national flags are figured in the Plate. In the top line representing
Great Britain are shown the royal standard, the Union Jack (the national
flag), the white ensign of the royal navy, the blue ensign of government
service, and the red ensign of the commercial marine, colonial flags
being shown in the case of the two latter ensigns. The two Japanese
flags shown are the man-of-war ensign--a rising sun, generally known as
the sun-burst--and the flag of the mercantile marine, in which the red
ball is used without the rays and placed in the centre of the white
field. The imperial standard of Japan is a golden chrysanthemum on a red
field. It is essential that the chrysanthemum should invariably have
sixteen petals. Heraldry in Japan is of a simpler character than that of
Europe, and is practically limited to the employment of "Mon," which
correspond very nearly to the "crests" of European heraldry. The great
families of Japan possess at least one, and in many cases even three,
"Mon." The imperial family use two, the one _Kiku no go Mon_ (the august
chrysanthemum crest) and _Kiri no go Mon_ (the august Kiri crest). The
first represents the sixteen-petalled chrysanthemum, and, although the
use of the chrysanthemum flower as a badge is not necessarily confined
to the imperial family, they alone have the right to use the
sixteen-petalled form. If used by any other family, or society or
corporation, it must be with a number of petals less or more than
sixteen. The second imperial "Mon" is composed of three leaves and three
flower spikes of the Kiri (_Paulownia imperialis_). This, however, is
not displayed as an official emblem, that being reserved for the
chrysanthemum. The Kiri is used for more private purposes. For example,
the chrysanthemum figures in the imperial standard, and the Kiri "Mon"
adorns the harness of the emperor's horses. It is very probable that the
chrysanthemum crest did not originally represent the chrysanthemum
flower at all but the sun with sixteen rays, and it will be noticed that
in the "sun-burst" flag the sun's rays are sixteen in number. The use of
the number sixteen is probably traceable to Chinese geomantic ideas.
The German imperial navy and mercantile marine flags are next
depicted. The "iron cross" in the navy flag is that of the Teutonic
Order, and dates from the close of the 12th century. For five
centuries black and white have been the Hohenzollern colours, and the
first verse of the German war song, _Ich bin ein Preusse_, runs:--
"I am a Prussian! Know ye not my banner?
Before me floats my flag of black and white!
My fathers died for freedom, 'twas their manner,
So say these colours floating in your sight."
The mercantile marine tricolour of black, white and red is emblematic
of the joining of the Hohenzollern black and white with the red and
white, which was the ensign of the Hanseatic League. This flag came
into being when the North German Confederacy was established (November
25th, 1867) at the close of the Austro-Prussian War.
The German imperial standard has the iron cross with its white border
displayed on a yellow field, diapered over in each of the four
quarters with three black eagles and a crown. In the centre of the
cross is a shield bearing the arms of Prussia surmounted by a crown,
and surrounded by a collar of the Order of the Black Eagle. In the
four arms of the crown are the legend _Gott mit uns_ 1870. The United
States flag and the tricolour of France have already been fully dealt
with, and in both countries the one flag is common to both men-of-war
and ships of the mercantile marine.
The next depicted are the imperial navy and the mercantile marine
flags of the Austro-Hungarian empire. In the latter the introduction
of the green half stripe denotes the combination of the Austrian red,
white and red with the Hungarian red, white and green. The shields
with which the flag is charged contain respectively the arms of
Austria and of Hungary. The former shield only is borne on the
man-of-war ensign, and displays the heraldic device of the ancient
dukes of Austria, which dates back to the year 1191. The Austrian
imperial standard has, on a yellow ground, the black double-headed
eagle, on the breast and wings of which are imposed shields bearing
the arms of the provinces of the empire. The flag is bordered all
round, the border being composed of equal-sided triangles with their
apices alternately inwards and outwards, those with their apices
pointing inwards being alternately yellow and white, the others
alternately scarlet and black.
The green, white and red Italian tricolour was adopted in 1805, when
Napoleon I. formed Italy into one kingdom. It was adopted again in
1848 by the Nationalists of the peninsula, accepted by the king of
Sardinia, and, charged by him with the arms of Savoy, it became the
flag of a united Italy. The man-of-war flag is precisely similar to
that of the mercantile marine, except that in the case of the former
the shield of Savoy is surmounted by a crown. The royal standard is a
blue flag. In the centre is a black eagle crowned and displaying on
its breast the arms of Savoy, the whole surrounded by the collar of
the Most Sacred Annunziata, the third in rank of all European orders.
In each corner of the flag is the royal crown.
For Portugal the flag is one of the few national flags that are
parti-coloured. It is half blue, half white, with, in the centre, the
arms of Portugal surmounted by the royal crown, and it is the same
both in the mercantile marine and in the Portuguese navy. The royal
standard of Portugal is an all-red flag charged in the centre with the
royal arms, as shown in the national flag.
In the Spanish ensigns red and yellow are the prevailing colours, and
here again the arrangement differs from that generally used. The navy
flag has a yellow central stripe, with red above and below. To be
correct the yellow should be half the width of the flag, and each of
the red stripes a quarter of the width of the flag. The central yellow
stripe is charged in the hoist with an escutcheon containing the arms
of Castile and Leon, and surmounted by the royal crown. In the
mercantile flag the yellow centre is without the escutcheon, and is
one-third of the entire depth of the flag, the remaining thirds being
divided into equal stripes of red and yellow, the yellow above in the
upper part of the flag, the red in the lower. Of all royal standards
that of Spain is the most elaborate, for it contains quarterings of
the Spanish royal escutcheon, many of the bearings being as much an
anachronism as if the royal arms of England were to-day to be
quartered with the _fleur-de-lis_. In all, the quarterings displayed
are those of Leon, Castile, Aragon, Sicily, Austria, Burgundy,
Flanders, Antwerp, Brabant, Portugal and France. The flag is usually
depicted as composed entirely of the quarterings. We believe, however,
that it is more correctly a purple flag in the centre of which the
quarterings are displayed on an oval shield surmounted by a crown and
encircled by the collar of the order of the Golden Fleece.
The flag of the Russian mercantile marine is a horizontal tricolour of
white, blue and red. Originally, it was a tricolour of blue, white and
red, and it is said that the idea of its colouring was taken by Peter
the Great when learning shipbuilding in Holland, for as the flag then
stood it was simply the Dutch ensign reversed. Later, to make it more
distinctive, the blue and white stripes changed places, leaving the
tricolour as it stands to-day. The flag of the Russian navy is the
blue saltire of St Andrew on a white ground. St Andrew is the patron
saint of Russia, from whence the emblem. The imperial standard is of a
character akin to that of Austria; the ground is yellow, and the
centre bears the imperial double-headed eagle, a badge that dates back
to 1472, when Ivan the Great married a niece of Constantine
Palaeologus and assumed the arms of the Greek empire. On the breast of
the eagle is an escutcheon charged with the emblem of St George and
the Dragon on a red ground, and this is surrounded by the collar of
the order of St Andrew. On the splayed wings of the eagle are small
shields bearing the arms of the various provinces of the empire.
The Rumanian flag is a blue, yellow and red tricolour, the stripes
vertical, with the blue stripe forming the fly. The Servian flag is a
horizontal tricolour, the top stripe red, the middle blue and the
lower white. When these tricolours are flown as royal standards the
royal arms are displayed on the central stripe. The flag of Montenegro
is a horizontal tricolour, the top stripe red, the centre blue, the
lowermost white. The Bulgarian flag is a similar tricolour, white,
green and red, the white stripe uppermost, but when flown as a war
ensign there is a canton in the upper corner of the hoist in which is
a golden lion on a red ground.
The flags of all the three Scandinavian kingdoms are somewhat similar
in design. That of Denmark, the Dannebrog, has been already alluded
to, and it is shown in our illustration as flown by the Danish navy.
The mercantile marine flag is precisely similar, but rectangular
instead of being swallow-tailed. The Swedish flag is a yellow cross on
a blue ground. When flown from a man-of-war it is forked as in the
Danish, but the longer arm of the cross is not cut off but pointed,
thus making it a three-pointed flag as illustrated. For the mercantile
marine the flag is rectangular. When Norway separated from Denmark in
1814, the first flag was red with a white cross on it, and the arms of
Norway in the upper corner of the hoist, but as this was found to
resemble too closely the Danish flag, a blue cross with a white border
was substituted for the white cross. This, it will be seen, is the
Danish flag with a blue cross imposed upon the white one. For a
man-of-war the flag is precisely similar to that of Sweden in shape;
that is to say, converted from the rectangular into the three-pointed
design. While Sweden and Norway remained united the flag of each
remained distinct, but each bore in the top canton of the hoist a
union device, being the combination of the Norwegian and Swedish
national colours and crosses. In each of the three above nationalities
the flag used for a royal standard is the man-of-war flag with the
royal arms imposed on the centre of the cross.
The Belgian tricolour is vertical, the stripes being black next the
hoist, yellow in the centre and red in the fly. That of the
Netherlands is a horizontal tricolour, red above, white in the centre
and blue below. In both countries the same flag is common to both navy
and mercantile marine, but when the flag is used as a royal standard
the royal arms are displayed in the central stripe. The black, yellow
and red of the Belgian flag are the colours of the duchy of Brabant,
and were adopted in 1831 when the monarchy was founded. The original
Dutch colours adopted when Holland declared its independence were
orange, white and blue, the colours of the house of Orange, and when
and how the orange became red is not quite clear, though it was
certainly prior to 1643.
The blue and white which form the colouring of the Greek flag shown in
our illustration are the colours of the house of Bavaria, and were
adopted in 1832, when Prince Otho of Bavaria was elected to the throne
of Greece. The stripes are nine in number--five blue and four
white--with, in the upper corner of the hoist, a canton bearing a
white cross on a blue ground. The flag for the royal navy is similar
to that flown by the mercantile marine, with the exception that it has
the addition of a golden crown in the centre of the cross. The royal
standard is a blue flag with a white cross, on the centre of which the
royal arms are imposed. The cross is exactly similar to that in the
Danish flag, that is to say, the arms of the cross are not of equal
length, the shorter end being in the hoist of the flag.
The very simple flag of Switzerland is one of great antiquity, for it
was the emblem of the nation as far back as 1339, and probably
considerably earlier. In addition to the national flag of the Swiss
confederation, each canton has its own cantonal colours. In each case
the flag has its stripes disposed horizontally. Basel, for instance,
is half black, half white; Berne, half black, half red; Glarus, red,
black and white, &c., &c.
The Turkish crescent moon and star were the device adopted by Mahomet
II. when he captured Constantinople in 1453. Originally they were the
symbol of Diana, the patroness of Byzantium, and were adopted by the
Ottomans as a triumph, for they had always been the special emblem of
Constantinople, and even now in Moscow and elsewhere the crescent
emblem and the cross may be seen combined in Russian churches, the
crescent badge, of course, indicating the Byzantine origin of the
Russian church. The symbol originated at the time of the siege of
Constantinople by Philip the father of Alexander the Great, when a
night attempt of the besiegers to undermine the walls was betrayed by
the light of a crescent moon, and in acknowledgment of their escape
the Byzantines raised a statue to Diana, and made her badge the symbol
of the city. Both the man-of-war and mercantile marine flags are the
same, but the imperial standard of the sultan is scarlet, and bears in
its centre the device of the reigning sovereign. This device is known
as the "Tughra," and consists of the name of the sultan, the title of
khan, and the epithet _al-Muzaffar Daima_, which means "the ever
victorious." The origin of the "Tughra" is that the sultan Murad I.,
who was not of scholarly parts, signed a treaty by wetting his open
hand with ink, and pressing it on the paper, the first, second and
third fingers making smears close together, the thumb and fourth
finger leaving marks apart. Within the marks thus made the scribes
wrote in the name of Murad, his title, and the epithet above quoted.
The "Tughra" dates from the latter part of the 14th century. The
smaller characters in the "Tughra" change, of course, on the accession
of every fresh sovereign, but the leading form of the device always
remains the same, namely, rounded lines to the left denoting the
thumb, lines to the right denoting where the little finger made
impression, and three upright lines indicating the other fingers.
The Mahommedan states tributary to Turkey also display the crescent
and star. Morocco, Muscat and other Arab states where they use an
ensign display a red flag, that of the Zanzibar protectorate having
the British union in the centre of the red field.
The Persian flag is white with a border, green on the upper edge of
the flag and in the fly, and red in the hoist and on the lower edge.
On the white ground are the lion and sun.
The flag of Siam is a white elephant on a red ground. That of Korea,
a white flag with, in the centre, a ball, half red, half blue, the
colours being curiously intermixed, the whole being precisely as if
two large commas of equal size, one red and the other blue, were
united to form a complete circle.
The Chinese flag is a yellow one, bearing on it the emblem of the
dragon devouring the sun. As at present used, it is a square flag, but
an earlier version was a triangular right-angled flag, hoisted with
the right-angle in the base of the hoist. The merchant flag is red
with a yellow ball in the centre.
Among the South American republics the Brazilian flag is peculiar
inasmuch as it is the only national flag which carries a motto.
Mexico flies precisely the same tricolour as Italy, but plain in the
case of the merchant ensign, and charged on the central stripe with
the Mexican arms (as illustrated) when flown as a man-of-war ensign.
The Argentine flag is as illustrated flown by the navy, but, when used
by the mercantile marine, the sun emblazoned on the central white
stripe is omitted, the flag otherwise being precisely the same.
The Venezuelan flag shown is also that of the navy. The flag of the
mercantile marine is the same, but the shield bearing the arms of the
state is not introduced into the yellow top stripe in the corner near
the hoist, as in the naval flag.
The Chilean ensign illustrated is used alike by men-of-war and vessels
in the mercantile marine, but, when flown as the standard of the
president, the Chilean arms and supporters are placed in the centre of
the flag.
The plain red, white, red in vertical stripes, is the flag of the
mercantile marine of Peru, and becomes the naval ensign when charged
on the central stripe with the Peruvian arms as shown in our
illustration. In fact, in nearly every case with the South American
republics, the ordinary mercantile marine flag becomes that of the war
navy by the addition of the national arms, and in some cases is used
in the same way as a presidential flag.
In nearly every case the flags of the lesser American republics are
tricolours, and in a very great many of them the flags are by no means
such combinations as would meet with the approval of European heralds.
All flag devising should be in accordance with heraldic laws, and one
of the most important of these is that colour should not be placed on
colour, nor metal on metal, yellow in blazonry being the equivalent of
gold and white of silver. Hence, properly devised tricolours are such
as, for example, those of France, where the red and blue are divided
by white, or Belgium, where the black and red are divided by yellow.
On the other hand, the yellow, blue, red of Venezuela is heraldically
an abomination.
_Manufacture and Miscellaneous Uses._--Flags, the manufacture, of which
is quite a large industry, are almost invariably made from bunting, a
very light, tough and durable woollen material. The regulation bunting
as used in the navy is made in 9 in. widths, and the flag classes in
size according to the number of breadths of bunting of which it is
composed. The great centre of the manufacture of flags, as far as the
royal navy is concerned, is the dockyard at Chatham. Ensigns and Jacks
are made in different sizes; the largest ensign made is 33 ft. long by
16-1/2 ft. in width; the largest Jack issued is 24 ft. long and 12 ft.
wide.
The dimensions of a flag according to heraldry should be either square
or in the proportion of two to one, and it is this latter dimension that
is used in the navy and generally.
Signalling flags are dealt with elsewhere (see SIGNAL), and here it will
only be necessary to make brief allusion to some international customs
with regard to the use of flags to indicate certain purposes. For long a
blood-red flag has always been used as a symbol of mutiny or of
revolution. The black flag was in days gone by the symbol of the pirate;
to-day, in the only case in which it survives, it is flown after an
execution to indicate that the requirements of the law have been duly
carried out. All over the world a yellow flag is the signal of
infectious illness. A ship hoists it to denote that there are some on
board suffering from yellow fever, cholera or some such infectious
malady, and it remains hoisted until she has received quarantine. This
flag is also hoisted on quarantine stations. The white flag is
universally used as a flag of truce.
At the sea striking of the flag denotes surrender. When the flag of one
country is placed over that of another the victory of the former is
denoted, hence in time of peace it would be an insult to hoist the flag
of one friendly nation above that of another. If such were done by
mistake, say in "dressing ship" for instance, an apology would have to
be made. This custom of hoisting the flag of the vanquished beneath that
of the victor is of comparatively modern date, as up to about a century
ago the sign of victory was to trail the enemy's flag over the taffrail
in the water. Each national flag must be flown from its own flagstaff,
and this is often seen when the allied forces of two or more powers are
in joint occupation of a town or territory. To denote honour and respect
a flag is "dipped." Ships at sea salute each other by "dipping" the
flag, that is to say, by running it smartly down from the masthead, and
then as quickly replacing it. When troops parade before the sovereign
the regimental flags are lowered as they salute him. A flag flying
half-mast high is the universal symbol of mourning. When a ship has to
make the signal of distress, this is done by hoisting the national
ensign reversed, that is to say, upside down. If it is wished to
accentuate the imminence of the danger it is done by making the flag
into a "weft," that is, by knotting it in the middle. This means of
showing distress at sea is of very ancient usage, for in naval works
written as far back as the reign of James I. we find the "weft"
mentioned as a method of showing distress.
We have already alluded to the Union Jack as used for denoting
nationality, and as a flag of command, but it also serves many other
purposes. For instance, if a court-martial is being held on board any
ship the Union Jack is displayed while the court is sitting, its
hoisting being accompanied by the firing of a gun. In a fleet in company
the ship that has the guard for the day flies it. With a white border it
forms the signal for a pilot, and in this case is known as a Pilot Jack.
In all combinations of signalling flags which denote a ship's name the
Union Jack forms a unit. Lastly, it figures as the pall of every sailor
or soldier of the empire who receives naval or military honours at his
funeral.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--See _Flags: Some Account of their History and Uses_, by
A. MacGeorge (1881); _National Banners: Their History and
Construction_, by W. Bland (1892) (one of a series of Heraldic Tracts,
1850-1892, Br. Museum Library, No. 9906, b. 9; this pamphlet gives the
design of the national banners of St George, St Andrew and St Patrick,
and illustrates and tells the story of the composition of the three
flags into the great union flag, commonly known as the Union Jack);
_Our Flags: Their Origin, Use and Traditions_, by Rear-Admiral S.
Eardley-Wilmot (1901), an excellent treatise, historical and
narrative, on all the flags of the British empire; _A History of the
Flag of the United States_ (Boston, 1872), by G.H. Preble; _Flags of
the World: Their History, Blazonry and Associations_, by Edward Hulme,
F.L.S., F.S.A. (1897), a most complete monograph on the subject,
illustrated with a very complete series of plates; _Admiralty Book of
Flags of all Nations_, printed for H.M. Stationery office, 1889, kept
up to date by the publication periodically of Errata, officially
issued under an admiralty covering letter; _Flags of Maritime
Nations_, prepared by the Bureau of Equipment department of the navy,
printed by authority (Washington, 1899). The last two works have no
letterpress beyond titles, but contain, to scale, delineations of all
the flags at present used officially by all nations. Between the two
there are no discrepancies, and the delineation of a flag taken from
either may be assumed as absolutely correct. Both are respectively the
guides for flag construction in the royal navy and the United States
navy. (H. L. S.)