_THE EVOLUTION OF THE RED ENSIGN._
The history of the Jacks as single flags having been traced through
these periods, we may revert to the changes brought about by their
being made part of a larger flag, and note how the exalted position
at the stern of the ships was transferred to a new flag, a National
Ensign, in the upper corner of which the English Jack was placed alone,
when this flag was first created.
Under James I. and Charles I., as also under the previous sovereigns
of England, the flag flown at the stern of the men-of-war had been the
Royal Standard of the Sovereign, of which an example is given in the
drawing of the _Sovereign of the Seas_ (17).
The Royal Standard bearing upon it then, as it does now, the armorial
bearings or "arms" of the Sovereign, was the banner of the King,
and, as then placed at the stern of the ships, signified his direct
management and control of the royal fleet.
Before the close of the reign of Charles I. the money control of the
Royal Navy had been jealously assumed by Parliament, and the ships had
been enrolled as "the Parliament ships." With the advent of the
Commonwealth the ships of the navy were no longer the ships of the
King, but became the ships of the State.
[Illustration: PLATE IV.
1
COMMONWEALTH ENSIGN 1649
2
CROMWELL'S "GREAT UNION" 1658
3
ENSIGN RED--CHARLES II.--1660]
It was to take the place of the King's Standard at the stern that the
Commonwealth Parliament created a flag, called the Commonwealth Ensign
(Pl. IV., fig. 1), to be carried on their men-of-war. This was
a red flag, having in the fly a yellow Irish harp, and in the upper
corner next the staff the St. George cross upon a white ground. Ireland
had early been overrun by the Commonwealth armies, so her emblem was
included in the flag, but Scotland had warmly espoused the cause of the
Stuarts, and was, therefore, not recognized.
Cromwell, after he had been raised to the position of Protector, and
had dragooned Scotland into submission, put out, in 1658, another flag
as the "Great Union," or banner of the Commonwealth (Pl. IV.,
fig. 2), in which the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew were shown
for England and Scotland, and the harp, on a blue ground, for Ireland;
but they were each placed in separate quarters of the flag, instead of
being joined together in one union, and on a black shield in the centre
he caused to be displayed a lion rampant, as representing his own
coat-of-arms and himself.
This "Great Union" of Cromwell does not appear to have entered into
much use, although it certainly was displayed at his funeral.
The fleets of the navy were then flying ensigns of three different
colours--red, blue and white--according to the rank of the admirals who
were in command, red being the colour of the admirals of highest rank
and the typical colour of England.[46]
[46] Langton: "Heraldry of the Sea."
Contemporary paintings also show that red, blue and white ensigns were
in use under the Commonwealth, with a single harp in the fly, and a
Dutch medal, struck to commemorate the death of Admiral Tromp, also
shows the same design of flag.
The "Commonwealth Ensign," now having the Irish harp inserted in the
flag, was the official flag flown at the stern of the ships of the
States Navy during the period of the Commonwealth.
The rule of the Commonwealth party having, shortly after the death of
Cromwell, come to its sudden termination, the Royalist supporters of
the absent King did not take time or wait for any formal proclamation
authorizing a change in flags which had come into existence under the
order of the Commonwealth Council.
Pepys tells in his "Diary" of how this change was begun. Being "Clerk
of the Acts of the Navy," he had been deputed to read the proclamation
of Parliament declaring the restoration of the King to the crews on
board those ships of the Navy which had been appointed to cross over to
The Hague and bring Charles II. to England.
Under the Commonwealth successful generals and officers on land had
been appointed to commands as admirals and officers in the navy, and
the military titles were still retained, the official title of the
officers in highest command in the navy of the Commonwealth being
"Admirals and Generals at Sea."
While lying at anchor in the Downs, waiting for the high officials who
were to accompany the fleet, Pepys records how the "General of the
fleet" went from ship to ship in a small boat, telling them to "alter
their Arms and flagges."
[Illustration: 20. THE "NASEBY." CHARLES II.
(From a painting by Vandervelt.)]
On 13th May, 1660, being on board the _London_, one of the ships of
this squadron, he makes the following entries of his day's doings,
and tells of the making of these changes: "To their quarterdeck, at
which the taylers and painters were at work, cutting out some pieces of
yellow cloth in the fashion of a crown and 'C.R.' to be put up instead
of the State's arms." He also records that meetings of the officers
were held, and that he had attended "in the afternoon a council of war
only to acquaint them that the harp must be taken out of all their
flags, it being very offensive to the King."
When, therefore, the harp had been removed from their flags, there
remained the simple "Ensign Red," having the St. George cross in the
upper white canton.
The _Naseby_ (20)--afterwards re-named the _Royal Charles_--was one of
the ships of the squadron which crossed to The Hague, and the actual
ship on which Charles II. came over to England. The drawing shows
the Ensign Red flying at the stern. There had not been sufficient
opportunity for the obtaining of new flags, and, therefore, those which
they had in use were altered on board the ships, as Pepys has told, and
this flag is a Commonwealth "Ensign Red," with the Irish harp cut out
(Pl. IV., fig. 3).
A very great deal of dependence cannot, as a rule, be placed on the
form of the flags introduced into their pictures by artists even of the
highest rank. When painting flags more attention is frequently given by
them to the colour effect desired to be produced than to the accurate
drawing of the details.
Some instances of unworthy errors in the drawing of national flags
may be mentioned. In a painting by Leutze, now in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York, a representation is shown of "Washington
crossing the Delaware, on December 25th, 1776." In this a flag with
the stars and stripes is prominently shown, although no such flag had
any existence until a year and a half afterwards,[47] an error which
has been perpetuated by a copy of this painting on a series of the
national bank-notes issued by the United States Government. In the
Capitol of the United States at Washington there is a picture of the
"Battle of Lake Erie," fought in 1814, in which the flag on Commodore
Perry's boat has only thirteen stars and thirteen stripes, although the
United States ensign had been changed twenty years before, in 1794, to
have fifteen stars and fifteen stripes. On the walls of the Commons
Corridor in the British Houses of Parliament at Westminster is a fresco
representing the landing of Charles II., in 1660, in which the Union
Jack is depicted as having three crosses, the red cross of St. Patrick
being included, although it was not entered in the flag until 1801, or
140 years afterwards.
[47] The United States national ensign has at the different dates been
composed as follows:
1776--The Union Jack of Queen Anne and thirteen stripes.
1777--Thirteen stars and thirteen stripes.
1794--Fifteen stars and fifteen stripes.
1818--Fifteen stars and thirteen stripes.
Thereafter an additional star was added as each new State was created
out of the western territories, the stripes for the original thirteen
colonies remaining the same.
1896--Forty-five stars and thirteen stripes.
1909--Forty-six stars and thirteen stripes.
In each of these instances the artist was painting from his
imagination, but Vandervelt, who painted the picture from which our
illustration of the _Naseby_ is taken, was himself present on the
occasion he recorded, and, seeing that he was the most celebrated
marine artist of his day, the details of the flags can be taken to be
correct.
The subsequent proclamation of Charles II., in 1663 (page 89), shows
that this flag not only continued to be used on the royal ships, but
that also all the merchant ships had adopted it and were flying the
"Ensign Red" at the stern in the same way as on the _Naseby_, and
thus it was that this flag, having become established by usage as the
national ensign, was then confirmed in its position by the proclamation
of the King.
[Illustration: 21. MEDAL OF CHARLES II., 1665.]
Further confirmation of its use is given by the medals issued in 1665
by Charles II., which he granted to his followers in recognition of
service. One of these is given in fig. 21. On the reverse is a ship in
full sail. On the flag at the mainmast head are the letters "C.R.,"
being the abbreviation of CAROLUS REX, and intended to indicate that
the flag was the Royal Standard; at the bow the two-crossed Jack,
and at the stern the Red Ensign with the St. George Jack in the upper
corner.
The place of distinction at the stern had been occupied, as under
Charles I., by the Royal Standard of the reigning kings. To this
position the Commonwealth ensign had been installed as being the
ensign of the State, and then by the unpremeditated transition at the
"Restoration" the Red Ensign succeeded to the post of honour as the
ensign of the nation.
The story of this flag again exemplifies its harmony with the peculiar
genius of the British constitution, for it attained to its position,
not by a single verbal enactment, but by force of unwritten usage, and
its gradual acceptance by the will of the people, after which it was
confirmed by the Act of the sovereign.
It will also be noted in the drawing of the _Naseby_, and on the medal,
that the Royal Standard of Charles II. is shown flying at the main.
This was the position at which it had, under previous sovereigns,
been displayed by the Lord High Admiral of the Navy to indicate his
rank. The Earl of Warwick, who was Lord High Admiral under Charles
I., continued to fly it at the main even after the death of the King;
but when Warwick was dismissed from his post by the Commonwealth, the
Royal Standard was no longer used as the distinction flag of the Royal
High Admiral. When the Commonwealth ended and a new King returned, it
was again raised to the place where it had been displayed by the last
Royalist admiral.
At the present day the Royal Standard, being the personal flag of the
Sovereign, is only shown to indicate the royal presence or that of some
member of the Royal Family, or raised in recognition of some special
royal day. On shipboard it is raised on the mainmast immediately the
royal personages come alongside, and is lowered the moment that they
leave, the national ensign being still displayed at the stern.
It was the St. George cross which had been placed in the upper corner
of the Commonwealth ensign; from here it had passed into the Ensign
Red of Charles II., thereafter borne at the stern on both merchantmen
and men-of-war. In the paramount ensign of the nation the single-cross
English Jack was thus carried from 1648 to 1707, when its place in the
national ensign was taken for the first time by a two-crossed Jack, and
then only by the first _real_ Union Jack, the Jack of Queen Anne.
In all the series of changes mentioned in this and the previous chapter
direct evidence is given that the "commonly called Union Jack" of James
was only an "additional" flag; that having been considered the "King's
Jack," it had not officially displaced the local national Jacks, and
that, although it had superseded them as a single flag on the Royal
Navy, it had never been introduced into the paramount and national
ensign of the nation.
Such, then, was the origin and evolution of the Ensign Red, the
national ensign of the British people, and which formed, with the
changes made in the Jack in the subsequent reigns of Queen Anne and
George III., the basis of the present "Red Ensign" of the British
Empire.
Our national ensign tells us how from its very origin it signified the
progress of constitutional rule. The Royal Standard of Charles I. at
the stern was the expression of absolute rule by the King without the
control of Parliament; the Commonwealth Ensign told of the absolute
rule of Parliament without the King; the Ensign Red at the stern
recorded the coming of constitutional government by both King and
Parliament; and so our Red Ensign still tells the story of British
constitutional rule by sovereign and people, represented in their
united power by this Union Ensign flying at the stern of all British
ships and over all the British lands which bear it united allegiance.