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been included enclosed by curly brackets (example: {5}).
THE FLAGS OF THE WORLD:
Their History, Blazonry, and Associations.
From the Banner of the Crusader to the Burgee of the Yachtsman;
Flags National, Colonial, Personal;
the Ensigns of Mighty Empires;
the Symbols of Lost Causes.
by
F. EDWARD HULME, F.L.S., F.S.A.,
Author of
"Familiar Wild Flowers," "History, Principles and Practice of Heraldry,"
"Birth and Development of Ornament," &c., &c.
London:
Frederick Warne & Co.,
and New York
[All rights reserved.]
{iii}
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
The necessity of some special Sign to distinguish Individuals, Tribes, and
Nations--the Standards of Antiquity--Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, Greek,
and Roman--the Vexillum--the Labarum of Constantine--Invocation of
Religion--the Flags of the Enemy--Early Flags of Religious Character--Flags
of Saints at Funeral Obsequies--Company and Guild Flags of the Mediæval
Period--Political Colours--Various kinds of Flags--the Banner--Rolls of
Arms--Roll of Karlaverok--The Flag called the Royal Standard is really the
Royal Banner--Main-sail Banners--Trumpet Banners--Ladies embroidering
Banners for the Cause--Knights' Banneret--Form of Investiture--the
Standard--the Percy Badges and Motto--Arctic Sledge-flags--the Rank
governing the size of the Standard--Standards at State Funerals--the
Pennon--Knights' Pennonciers--the Pennoncelle--Mr. Rolt as Chief
Mourner--Lord Mayor's Show--the Pennant--the Streamer--Tudor Badges--Livery
Colours--the Guidon--Bunting--Flag Devising a Branch of Heraldry--Colours
chiefly used in Flags--Flags bearing Inscriptions--Significance of the Red
Flag--of the Yellow--of the White--of the Black--Dipping the Flag--the
Sovereignty of the Sea--Right of Salute insisted on--Political changes
rendering Flags obsolete 1
CHAPTER II.
The Royal Standard--the Three Lions of England--the Lion Rampant of
Scotland--Scottish sensitiveness as to precedence--the Scottish
Tressure--the Harp of Ireland--Early Irish Flags--Brian Boru--the Royal
Standards from Richard I. to Victoria--Claim to the Fleurs-de-lys of
France--Quartering Hanover--the Union Flag--St. George for England--War
Cry--Observance of St. George's Day--the Cross of St. George--Early Naval
Flags--the London Trained Bands--the Cross of St. Andrew--the "Blue
Blanket"--Flags of the Covenanters--Relics of St. Andrew--Union of England
and Scotland--the First Union Flag--Importance of accuracy in
representations of it--the Union Jack--Flags of the Commonwealth and
Protectorate--Union of Great Britain and {iv} Ireland--the Cross of St.
Patrick--Labours of St. Patrick in Ireland--Proclamation of George III. as
to Flags, etc.--the Second Union Flag--Heraldic Difficulties in its
Construction--Suggestions by Critics--Regulations as to Fortress Flags--the
White Ensign of the Royal Navy--Saluting the Flag--the Navy the Safeguard
of Britain--the Blue Ensign--the Royal Naval Reserve--the Red Ensign of the
Mercantile Marine--Value of Flag-lore 29
CHAPTER III.
Army Flags--the Queen's Colour--the Regimental Colour--the Honours and
Devices--the Flag of the 24th Regiment--Facings--Flag of the King's Own
Borderers--What the Flag Symbolises--Colours of the Guards--the Assaye
Flag--Cavalry Flags--Presentation of Colours--Chelsea College Chapel--Flags
of the Buffs in Canterbury Cathedral--Flags of the Scottish Regiments in
St. Giles's Cathedral--Burning of Rebel Flags by the Hangman--Special Flags
for various Official Personages--Special Flags for different Government
Departments--the Lord High Admiral--the Mail Flag--White Ensign of the
Royal Yacht Squadron--Yacht Ensigns and Burgees--House or Company
Flags--How to express Colours with Lines--the Allan Tricolor--Port
Flags--the British Empire--the Colonial Blue Ensign and Pendant--the
Colonial Defence Act--Colonial Mercantile Flag--Admiralty Warrant--Flag of
the Governor of a Colony--the Green Garland--the Arms of the Dominion of
Canada--Badges of the various Colonies--Daniel Webster on the Might of
England--Bacon on the Command of the Ocean 61
CHAPTER IV.
The Flag of Columbus--Early Settlements in North America--the Birth of the
United States--Early Revolutionary and State Flags--the Pine-tree Flag--the
Rattle-snake Flag--the Stars and Stripes--Early Variations of it--the Arms
of Washington--Entry of New States into the Union--the Eagle--the Flag of
the President--Secession of the Southern States--State Flags again--the
Stars and Bars--the Southern Cross--the Birth of the German Empire--the
Influence of War Songs--Flags of the Empire--Flags of the smaller German
States--the Austro-Hungary Monarchy--the Flags of Russia--the Crosses of
St. Andrew and St. George again--the Flags of France--St. Martin--the
Oriflamme--the Fleurs-de-lys--Their Origin--the White Cross--the White Flag
of the Bourbons--the Tricolor--the Red {v} Flag--the Flags of Spain--of
Portugal--the Consummation of Italian Unity--the Arms of Savoy--the Flags
of Italy--of the Temporal Power of the Papacy--the Flag of Denmark--its
Celestial Origin--the Flags of Norway and Sweden--of Switzerland--Cantonal
Colours--the Geneva Convention--the Flags of Holland--of Belgium--of
Greece--the Crescent of Turkey--the Tughra--the Flags of Roumania, Servia,
and Bulgaria--Flags of Mexico, and of the States of Southern and Central
America--of Japan--the Rising Sun--the Chrysanthemum--the Flags of China,
Siam and Corea--of Sarawak--of the Orange Free State, Liberia, Congo State,
and the Transvaal Republic 86
CHAPTER V.
Flags as a Means of Signalling--Army Signalling--the Morse Alphabet--Navy
Signalling--First Attempts at Sea Signals--Old Signal Books in Library of
Royal United Service Institution--"England expects that every man will do
his duty"--Sinking Signal Codes on defeat--Present System of Signalling in
Royal Navy--Pilot Signals--Weather Signalling by Flags--the International
Signal Code--First Published in 1857--Seventy-eight Thousand Different
Signals possible--Why no Vowels used--Lloyd's Signal Stations 127
ALPHABETICAL INDEX TO TEXT 141
COLOURED PLATES 149
{1}
THE FLAGS OF THE WORLD.
CHAPTER I.
The necessity of some special Sign to distinguish Individuals, Tribes,
and Nations--the Standards of Antiquity--Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian,
Greek, and Roman--the Vexillum--The Labarum of Constantine--Invocation
of Religion--the Flags of the Enemy--Early Flags of Religious
Character--Flags of Saints at Funeral Obsequies--Company and Guild
Flags of the Mediæval Period--Political Colours--Various kinds of
Flags--the Banner--Rolls of Arms--Roll of Karlaverok--The Flag called
the Royal Standard is really the Royal Banner--Mainsail
Banners--Trumpet Banners--Ladies embroidering Banners for the
Cause--Knights' Banneret--Form of Investiture--the Standard--the Percy
Badges and Motto--Arctic Sledge-flags--the Rank governing the size of
the Standard--Standards at State Funerals--the
Pennon--Knights-Pennonciers--the Pennoncelle--Mr. Rolt as Chief
Mourner--Lord Mayor's Show--the Pennant--the Streamer--Tudor
Badges--Livery Colours--the Guidon--Bunting--Flag Devising a Branch of
Heraldry--Colours chiefly used in Flags--Flags bearing
Inscriptions--Significance of the Red Flag--of the Yellow--of the
White--of the Black--Dipping the Flag--the Sovereignty of the
Sea--Right of Salute insisted on--Political Changes rendering Flags
obsolete.
So soon as man passes from the lowest stage of barbarism the necessity for
some special sign, distinguishing man from man, tribe from tribe, nation
from nation, makes itself felt; and this prime necessity once met, around
the symbol chosen spirit-stirring memories quickly gather that endear it,
and make it the emblem of the power and dignity of those by whom it is
borne. The painted semblance of grizzly bear, or beaver, or rattlesnake on
the canvas walls of the tepi of the prairie Brave, the special chequering
of colours that compose the tartan[1] of the Highland clansman, are
examples of this; and as we pass from individual or local tribe to mighty
nations, the same influence is still at work, and the distinctive Union
Flag of Britain, the tricolor of France, the gold and scarlet bars of the
flag of Spain, all alike appeal with irresistible force to the patriotism
of those born beneath their folds, and speak to them of the glories and
greatness of the historic past, the duties of the present, and the hopes of
the future--inspiring those who gaze upon their proud blazonry with the
determination to be no unworthy sons of their fathers, but to live, and if
need be to die, for the dear home-land of which these are the symbol. {2}
The standards used by the nations of antiquity differed in nature from the
flags that in mediæval and modern days have taken their place. These
earlier symbols were ordinary devices wrought in metal, and carried at the
head of poles or spears. Thus the hosts of Egypt marched to war beneath the
shadow of the various sacred animals that typified their deities, or the
fan-like arrangement of feathers that symbolised the majesty of Pharoah,
while the Assyrian standards, to be readily seen represented on the slabs
from the palaces of Khorsabad and Kyonjik, in the British Museum and
elsewhere, were circular disks of metal containing various distinctive
devices. Both these and the Egyptian standards often have in addition a
small flag-like streamer attached to the staff immediately below the
device. The Greeks in like manner employed the Owl of Athene, and such-like
religious and patriotic symbols of the protection of the deities, though
Homer, it will be remembered, makes Agamemnon use a piece of purple cloth
as a rallying point for his followers. The sculptures of Persepolis show us
that the Persians adopted the figure of the Sun, the eagle, and the like.
In Rome a hand erect, or the figures of the horse, wolf, and other animals
were used, but at a later period the eagle alone was employed. Pliny tells
us that "Caius Marius 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, minatours, horses, and
bears--each one in its proper order. Not many years past 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 eagle, we need scarcely stay to point out, obtained
this pre-eminence as being the bird of Jove. The Vexillum, or cavalry flag,
was, according to Livy, a square piece of cloth fixed to a cross bar at the
end of a spear; this was often richly fringed, and was either plain or bore
certain devices upon it, and was strictly and properly a flag. The ensigns
which distinguished the allied forces from the legions of the Romans were
also of this character. Examples of these vexilla may be seen on the
sculptured columns of Trajan and Antoninus, the arch of Titus, and upon
various coins and medals of ancient Rome.
The Imperial Standard or Labarum carried before Constantine and his
successors resembled the cavalry Vexillum.[2] It was of purple silk, richly
embroidered with gold, and though ordinarily {3} suspended from a
horizontal cross-bar, was occasionally displayed in accordance with our
modern usage by attachment by one of its sides to the staff.
The Roman standards were guarded with religious veneration in the temples
of the metropolis and of the chief cities of the Empire, and modern
practice has followed herein the ancient precedent. As in classic days the
protection of Jove was invoked, so in later days the blessing of Jehovah,
the Lord of Hosts, has been sought. At the presentation of colours to a
regiment a solemn service of prayer and praise is held, and when these
colours return in honour, shot-rent from victorious conflict, they are
reverently placed in stately abbey, venerable cathedral, or parish church,
never more to issue from the peace and rest of the home of God until by
lapse of years they crumble into indistinguishable dust.
The Israelites carried the sacred standard of the Maccabees, with the
initial letters of the Hebrew text, "Who is like unto Thee, O God, amongst
the gods?" The Emperor Constantine caused the sacred monogram of Christ to
be placed on the Labarum, and when the armies of Christendom went forth to
rescue the Holy Land from the infidel they received their cross-embroidered
standards from the foot of the altar. Pope Alexander II. sent a consecrated
white banner to Duke William previous to his expedition against Harold, and
we read in the "Beehive of the Romish Church," published in 1580, how "the
Spaniardes christen, conjure, and hallow their Ensignes, naming one
Barbara, another Katherine," after the names of saints whose aid they
invoked in the stress of battle. We may see this invocation again very well
in Figs. 147, 148: flags borne by the colonists of Massachusetts when they
arrayed themselves against the mercenaries of King George, and appealed to
the God of Battles in behalf of the freedom and justice denied by those who
bore rule over them.
This recognition of the King of kings has led also to the captured banners
of the enemy being solemnly suspended in gratitude and thanksgiving in the
house of God. Thus Speed tells us that on the dispersal and defeat of the
Armada, Queen Elizabeth commanded solemn thanksgiving to be celebrated at
the Cathedral Church of St. Paul's, in her chief city of London, which
accordingly was done upon Sunday, the 8th of September, when eleven of the
Spanish ensigns were hung, to the great joy of the beholders, as "psalmes
of praise" for England's deliverance from sore peril. Very appropriately,
too, in the Chapel of the Royal College at Chelsea, the home of the old
soldiers who helped to win them, hang the flags taken at Barrosa,
Martinique, Bhurtpore, Seringapatam, Salamanca, Waterloo, and many another
hard-fought struggle; {4} and thus, in like manner, is the tomb of Napoleon
I., in Paris, surrounded by trophies of captured flags. On March 30th,
1814, the evening before the entry of the Allies into Paris, about 1,500
flags--the victorious trophies of Napoleon--were burnt in the Court of the
Eglise des Invalides, to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy.
Early flags were almost purely of a religious character.[3] The first
notice of banners in England is in Bede's description of the interview
between the heathen King Ethelbert and Augustine, the missionary from Rome,
where the followers of the latter are described as bearing banners on which
were displayed silver crosses; and we need scarcely pause to point out that
in Roman Catholic countries, where the ritual is emotional and sensuous,
banners of this type are still largely employed to add to the pomp of
religious processions. Heraldic and political devices upon flags are of
later date, and even when these came freely into use their presence did not
supplant the ecclesiastical symbols. The national banner of England for
centuries--the ruddy cross of her patron Saint George (Fig. 91)--was a
religious one, and, whatever other banners were carried, this was ever
foremost in the field. The Royal banner of Great Britain and Ireland that
we see in Fig. 44, in its rich blazonry of the lions of England and
Scotland and the Irish harp, is a good example of the heraldic flag, while
our Union flag (Fig. 90), equally symbolizes the three nations of the
United Kingdom, but this time by the allied crosses of the three patron
saints, St. George, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick, and it is therefore a
lineal descendant and exemplar of the religious influence that was once
all-powerful.
The ecclesiastical flags were often purely pictorial in character, being
actual representations of the Persons of the Trinity, of the Virgin Mother,
or of divers saints. At other times the monasteries and other religious
houses bore banners of heraldic character; as the leading ecclesiastics
were both lords temporal and lords spiritual, taking their places in the
ranks of fighting men and leading on the field the body of dependants and
retainers that they were required to maintain in aid of the national
defence. In such case {5} the distinguishing banner of the contingent
conformed in character to the heraldic cognisances of the other nobles in
the host. Fig. 77, for instance, was the banner of St. Alban's Abbey. In a
poem on the capture of Rouen by the English, in the year 1418, written by
an eye-witness of the scenes described, we read how the English commander--
"To the Castelle firste he rode
And sythen the citie all abrode,
Lengthe and brede he it mette
And riche baneres up he sette
Upon the Porte Seint Hillare
A Baner of the Trynyte;
And at Porte Kaux he sette evene
A Baner of the Quene of Heven;
And at Porte Martvile he upplyt
Of Seint George a Baner breight."
and not until this recognition of Divine and saintly aid was made did
"He sette upon the Castelle to stonde
The armys of Fraunce and Englond."
Henry V., at Agincourt, in like manner displayed at his headquarters on the
field not only his own arms, but, in place of special honour and
prominence, the banners of the Trinity, of St. George, and of St. Edward.
These banners of religious significance were often borne from the
monasteries to the field of battle, while monks and priests in attendance
on them invoked the aid of Heaven during the strife. In an old statement of
accounts, still existing, we read that Edward I. made a payment of 8½d. a
day to a priest of Beverley for carrying throughout one of his campaigns a
banner bearing the figure of St. John. St. Wilfred's banner from Ripon,
together with this banner of St. John from Beverley, were brought on to the
field at Northallerton; the flag of St. Denis was carried in the armies of
St. Louis and of Philip le Bel, and the banner of St. Cuthbert of Durham
was borrowed by the Earl of Surrey in his expedition against Scotland in
the reign of Henry VIII. This banner had the valuable reputation of
securing victory to those who fought under it. It was suspended from a
horizontal bar below a spear head, and was a yard or so in breadth and a
little more than this in depth; the bottom edge had five deep indentations.
The banner was of red velvet sumptuously enriched with gold embroidery, and
in the centre was a piece of white velvet, half a yard square, having a
cross of red velvet upon it. This central portion covered and protected a
relic of the saint. The victory of Neville's Cross, October 17th, 1346, was
held to be largely {6} due to the presence of this sacred banner, and the
triumph at Flodden was also ascribed to it.
During the prevalence of Roman Catholicism in England, we find that banners
of religious type entered largely into the funeral obsequies of persons of
distinction: thus at the burial of Arthur, Prince of Wales, the eldest son
of Henry VII., we find a banner of the Trinity, another with the cross and
instruments of the Passion depicted upon it; another of the Virgin Mary,
and yet another with a representation of St. George. Such banners, as in
the present instance, were ordinarily four in number, and carried
immediately round the body at the four corners of the bier. Thus we read in
the diary of an old chronicler, Machyn, who lived in the reigns of Edward
VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, that at the burial of the Countess of Arundel,
October 27th, 1557, "cam iiij herroldes in ther cotes of armes, and bare
iiij baners of emages at the iiij corners." Again, on "Aprell xxix, 1554,
was bered my Lady Dudley in Saint Margarett in Westminster, with iiij
baners of emages." Another item deals with the funeral of the Duchess of
Northumberland, and here again "the iiij baners of ymages" again recur.
Anyone having the old records, church inventories, and the like before
them, would find it easy enough, as easy as needless, to multiply
illustrations of this funeral use of pictured banners. These "emages" or
"ymages" of old Machyn are of course not images in the sense of sculptured
or carved things, but are painted and embroidered representations of
various saints. Machyn, as a greatly interested looker-on at all the
spectacles of his day, is most entertaining, but his spelling, according to
the severer notions of the present day, is a little weak, as, for instance,
in the following words that we have culled at random from his
pages:--prossessyon, gaffelyns, fezyssyoun, dysquyet, neckclygens,
gorgyusle, berehyng, wypyd, pelere, artelere, and dyssys of spyssys. The
context ordinarily makes the meaning clear, but as our readers have not
that advantage, we give the same words according to modern
orthography--procession, javelins, physician, disquiet, negligence,
gorgeously, burying, whipped, pillory, artillery, dishes of spices.
The various companies and guilds of the mediæval period had their special
flags that came out, as do those of their successors of the present day, on
the various occasions of civic pageantry; and in many cases, as may be seen
in the illuminated MSS. in the British Museum and elsewhere, they were
carried to battle as the insignia of the companies of men provided at the
expense of those corporations. Thus in one example that has come under our
notice we see a banner bearing a chevron between hammer, trowels, and
builder's square; in another between an axe and two pairs of compasses,
while a third on its azure field bears a pair of golden {7} shears. In the
representation of a battle between Philip d'Artevelde and the Flemings
against the French, many of the flags therein introduced bear the most
extraordinary devices, boots and shoes, drinking-vessels, anvils, and the
like, that owe their presence there to the fact that various trade guilds
sent their contingents of men to the fight. In a French work on mediæval
guilds we find the candle-makers of Bayeux marching beneath a black banner
with three white candles on it, the locksmiths of La Rochelle having a
scarlet flag with four golden keys on it. The lawyers of Loudoun had a flag
with a large eye on it (a single eye to business being, we presume,
understood), while those of Laval had a blue banner with three golden
mouths thereon. In like manner the metal-workers of Laval carried a black
flag with a silver hammer and files depicted on it, those of Niort had a
red flag with a silver cup and a fork and spoon in gold on either side. The
metal-workers of Ypres also carried a red flag, and on this was represented
a golden flagon and two buckles of gold. Should some national stress this
year or next lead our City Companies, the Fishmongers, the Carpenters, the
Vintners, and others to contribute contingents to the defence of the
country, and to send them forth beneath the banners of the guilds, history
would but repeat itself.
In matters political the two great opposing parties have their distinctive
colours, and these have ordinarily been buff and blue, though the
association of buff with the Liberal party and "true blue" with the
Conservatives has been by no means so entirely a matter of course as
persons who have not looked into the matter might be disposed to imagine.
The local colours are often those that were once the livery colours of the
principal family in the district, and were assumed by its adherents for the
family's sake quite independently of its political creed. The notion of
livery is now an unpleasant one, but in mediæval days the colours of the
great houses were worn by the whole country-side, and the wearing carried
with it no suggestion either of toadyism or servitude. As this influence
was hereditary and at one time all-powerful, the colour of the Castle, or
Abbey, or Great House, became stereotyped in that district as the symbol of
the party of which these princely establishments were the local centre and
visible evidence, and the colour still often survives locally, though the
political and social system that originated it has passed away in these
days of democratic independence.
It would clearly be a great political gain if one colour were all over
Great Britain the definite emblem of one side, as many illiterate voters
are greatly influenced by the colours worn by the candidates for their
suffrages, and have sufficient sense of consistency of principle to vote
always for the flag that first claimed {8} their allegiance, though it may
very possibly be that if they move to another county it is the emblem of a
totally distinct party, and typifies opinions to which the voter has always
been opposed. At a late election a Yorkshire Conservative, who had acquired
a vote for Bournemouth, was told that he must "vote pink," but this he very
steadily refused to do. He declared that he would "never vote owt else but
th' old true blue," so the Liberal party secured his vote; and this sort of
thing at a General Election is going on all over the country. The town of
Royston, for instance, stands partly in Hertfordshire and partly in
Cambridgeshire, and in the former county the Conservatives and in the
latter the Liberals are the blue party; hence the significance of the
colour in one street of the little town is entirely different to that it
bears in another. At Horsham in Sussex we have observed that the
Conservative colour is pale pink, while in Richmond in Surrey it is a deep
orange. The orange was adopted by the Whigs out of compliment to William
III., who was Prince of Orange.
In the old chronicles and ballads reference is made to many forms of flags
now obsolete. The term flag is a generic one, and covers all the specific
kinds. It is suggested that the word is derived from the Anglo-Saxon verb
fleogan, to fly or float in the wind, or from the old German flackern, to
flutter. Ensign is an alternative word formed on the idea of the display of
insignia, badges, or devices, and was formerly much used where we should
now employ the word colours. The company officers in a regiment who were
until late years termed ensigns were at a still earlier period more
correctly termed ensign-bearers. Milton, it will be recalled, describes a
"Bannered host under spread ensigns marching." Sir Walter Scott greatly
enlarges our vocabulary when he writes in "Marmion" of where
"A thousand streamers flaunted fair,
Various in shape, device, and hue,
Green, sanguine, purple, red, and blue,
Broad, narrow, swallow-tailed, and square,
Scroll, pennon, pensil, bandrol, there
O'er the pavilions flew,"
while Milton again writes of
"Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanced
Standards and gonfalons 'twixt van and rear
Stream in the air, and for distinction serve
Of hierarchies, orders, and degrees."
We have seen that the pomp of funeral display led to the use of pictorial
flags of religious type, and with these were associated others that dealt
with the mundane rank and position of the {9} deceased. Thus we find
Edmonson, in his book on Heraldry, writing as follows:--"The armorial
ensigns, as fixed by the officers of arms, and through long and continued
usage established as proper to be carried in funeral processions, are
pennons, guidons, cornets, standards, banners, and banner-rolls, having
thereon depicted the arms, quarterings, badges, crests, supporters, and
devices of the defunct: together with all such other trophies of honour as
in his lifetime he was entitled to display, carry, or wear in the field;
banners charged with the armorial ensigns of such dignities, titles,
offices, civil and military, as were possessed or enjoyed by the defunct at
the time of his decease, and banner-rolls of his own matches and lineal
descent both on the paternal and maternal side. In case the defunct was an
Archbishop, banner-rolls of the arms and insignia of the sees to which he
had been elected and translated, and if he was a merchant or eminent trader
pennons of the particular city, corporation, guild, fraternity, craft, or
company whereof he had been a member." However true the beautiful stanza of
Gray--
"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth ere gave,
Await at last the inevitable hour,
The paths of glory lead but to the grave"--
the survivors of the deceased most naturally and most justly bore to their
rest those to whom honour was due with the full respect to which their
career on earth entitled them.
The names bestowed upon the different kinds of flags have varied from time
to time, the various authorities of mediæval and modern days not being
quite of one mind sometimes, so that while the more salient forms are
easily identifiable, some little element of doubt creeps in when we would
endeavour to bestow with absolute precision a name to a certain less common
form before us, or a definite form to a name that we encounter in some old
writer. Whatever looseness of nomenclature, however, may be encountered on
the fringe of our subject, the bestowal of the leading terms is
sufficiently definite, and it is to these we now turn our attention,
reflecting for our comfort that it is of far greater value to us to know
all about a form that is of frequent recurrence, and to which abundant
reference is made, than to be able to quite satisfactorily decide what
special name some abnormal form should carry, or what special form is meant
by a name that perhaps only occurs once or twice in the whole range of
literature, and even that perhaps by some poet or romance writer who has
thought more of the general effect of his description than of the technical
accuracy of the terms in which he has clothed it. {10}
The Banner first engages our attention. This was ordinarily, in the earlier
days of chivalry, a square flag, though in later examples it may be found
somewhat greater in length than in depth, and in some early examples it is
considerably greater in depth than in its degree of projection outwards
from the lance. In the technical language of the subject, the part of a
flag nearest the pole is called the hoist, and the outer part the fly. Fig.
37 is a good illustration of this elongated form. It has been suggested
that the shortness of the fly in such cases was in order that the greater
fluttering in the wind that such a form as Fig. 30 would produce might be
prevented, as this constant tugging at the lance-head would be disagreeable
to the holder, while it might, in the rush of the charge, prevent that
accuracy of aim that one would desire to give one's adversary the full
benefit of at such a crisis in his career. Pretty as this may be as a
theory, there is probably not much in it, or the form in those warlike days
of chivalry would have been more generally adopted. According to an ancient
authority the banner of an emperor should be six feet square; of a king,
five; of a prince or duke, four; and of an earl, marquis, viscount, or
baron three feet square. When we consider that the great function of the
banner was to bear upon its surface the coat-of-arms of its owner, and that
this coat was emblazoned upon it and filled up its entire surface in just
the same way that we find these charges represented upon his shield, it is
evident that no form that departed far either in length or breadth from the
square would be suitable for their display. Though heraldically it is
allowable to compress or extend any form from its normal proportions when
the exigencies of space demand it,[4] it is clearly better to escape this
when possible.[5] The arms depicted in Fig. 37 are certainly not the better
for the elongation to which they have been subjected, while _per contra_
the bearings on any of the banners in Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
or 11, have had no despite done them, the square form being clearly
well-adapted for their due display.
The Rolls of Arms prepared on various occasions by the mediæval and later
heralds form an admirable storehouse of examples. Some of these have been
reproduced in facsimile, and are, therefore, more or less readily
accessible. We have before us as we write the roll of the arms of the
Sovereign and of the {11} spiritual and temporal peers who sat in
Parliament in the year 1515, and another excellent example that has been
reproduced is the roll of Karlaverok. This Karlaverok was a fortress on the
north side of Solway Frith, which it was necessary for Edward I. to reduce
on his invasion of Scotland in the year 1300, and this investiture and all
the details of the siege are minutely described by a contemporary writer,
who gives the arms and names of all the nobles there engaged. As soon as
the castle fell into Edward's hands he caused his banner and that of St.
Edmund (Fig. 17), and St. Edward (Fig. 19), to be displayed upon its
battlements. The roll is written in Norman French, of which the following
passage may be given as an example:--
"La ont meinte riche garnement
Brode sur cendeaus et samis
Meint beau penon en lance mis
Meint baniere desploie."
That is to say, there were--in modern English wording--many rich devices
embroidered on silk and satin, many a beautiful pennon fixed on lance, many
a banner displayed. The writer says:--"First, I will tell you of the names
and arms, especially of the banners, if you will listen how." Of these
numerous banners we give some few examples: Fig. 1 belongs to him "who with
a light heart, doing good to all, bore a yellow banner and pennon with a
black saltire engrailed, and is called John Botetourte." Fig. 2 is the
banner of Sire Ralph de Monthermer; Fig. 3 the devices of Touches, "a
knight of good-fame"; while Fig. 4, "the blue with crescents of brilliant
gold," was the flag of William de Ridre. "Sire John de Holderton, who at
all times appears well and promptly in arms," bore No. 6, the fretted
silver on the scarlet field; while Fig. 5 is the cognisance of "Hugh
Bardolph, a man of good appearance, rich, valiant, and courteous." Fig. 7
is the well-known lion of the Percys, and is here the banner of Henri de
Percy; we meet with it again in Fig. 14. Fig. 8 is "the banner of good Hugh
de Courtenay," while Fig. 9 is that of the valiant Aymer de Valence. Fig.
10 bears the barbels of John de Bar, while the last example we need give
(Fig. 11) is the banner of Sire William de Grandison. Of whom gallant,
courteous Englishmen as they were, we can now but say that "they are dust,
their swords are rust," and deny them not the pious hope "their souls are
with the saints, we trust."
The well-known flag (Fig. 44), that everyone recognises as the Royal
Standard, is nevertheless misnamed, as it should undoubtedly be called the
Royal Banner, since it bears the arms of the Sovereign in precisely the
same way that any of our preceding {12} examples bear the arms of the
knights with whom they were associated. A standard, as we shall see
presently, is an entirely different kind of flag; nevertheless, the term
Royal Standard is so firmly established that it is hopeless now to think of
altering it, and as it would be but pedantry to ignore it, and substitute
in its place, whenever we have occasion to refer to it, its proper
title--the Royal Banner--we must, having once made our protest, be content
to let the matter stand. Figs. 22, 43, 44, 194, 226, and 245 are all royal
or imperial banners, but popular usage insists that we shall call them
royal or imperial "standards," so, henceforth, rightly or wrongly, through
our pages standards they must be.
The banners of the Knights of the Garter, richly emblazoned with their
armorial bearings, are suspended over their stalls in St. George's Chapel,
Windsor, while those of the Knights of the Bath are similarly displayed in
the Chapel of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey.
The whole of the great mainsail of a mediæval ship was often emblazoned
with arms, and formed one large banner. This usage may be very well seen in
the illuminations, seals, etc., of that period. As early as the year 1247
we find Otho, Count of Gueldres, represented as bearing on his seal a
square banner charged with his arms, a lion rampant; and in a window in the
Cathedral of Our Lady, at Chartres, is a figure of Simon de Montfort, Earl
of Leicester from 1236 to 1265. He is depicted as bearing in his right hand
a banner of red and white, as shown in Fig. 18.
References in the old writers to the banner are very numerous. Thus in the
"Story of Thebes" we read of "the fell beastes," that were "wrought and
bete upon their bannres displaied brode" when men went forth to war.
Lydgate, in the "Battle of Agincourt," writes:--
"By myn baner sleyn will y be
Or y will turne my backe or me yelde."
The same writer declares that at the siege of Harfleur by Henry V., in
September, 1415, the king--
"Mustred his meyne faire before the town,
And many other lordes, I dar will say,
With baners bryghte and many penoun."
The trumpeters of the Life Guards and Horse Guards have the Royal Banner
attached to their instruments, a survival that recalls the lines of
Chaucer:--
"On every trump hanging a brode bannere
Of fine tartarium, full richly bete."
{13}
An interesting reference is found in a letter of Queen Katharine of Arragon
to Thomas Wolsey, dated Richmond, August 13th, 1513, while King Henry VIII.
was in France. Speaking of war with the Scots, her Majesty says: "My hert
is veray good to it, and I am horrible besy with making standards, banners,
and bagies."[6]
While the men are buckling on their armour for the coming strife, wives,
sisters, sweethearts, daughters, with proud hearts, give their aid, and
with busy fingers--despite the tear that will sometimes blur the vision of
the gay embroidery--swiftly and deftly labour with loving care on the
devices that will nerve the warriors to living steel in the shock of
battle. The Queen of England, so zealously busy in her task of love, is but
a type and exemplar of thousands of her sex before and since. The raven
standard of the Danish invaders of Northumbria was worked by the daughters
of Regnar Lodbrok, and in the great rebellion in the West of England many a
gentlewoman suffered sorely in the foul and Bloody Assize for her zealous
share in providing the insurgents with the standards around which they
rallied. The Covenanters of Scotland, the soldiers of Garibaldi freeing
Italy from the Bourbons, the levies of Kossuth in Hungary, the Poles in the
deadly grip of Russia, the armies of the Confederate States in America, the
Volunteers who would fain free Greece from the yoke of the Turk,[7] all
fought to the death beneath the banners that fair sympathisers with them,
and with their cause, placed in their hands. When two great nations, such
as France and Germany, fall to blows, the whole armament, weapons, flags,
and whatever else may be necessary, is supplied from the government stores
according to regulation pattern, but in the case of insurgents against
authority struggling--rightly or wrongly--to be free, the weapons may be
scythe blades or whatever else comes first to hand, while the standards
borne to the field will bear the most extraordinary devices upon them,
devices that appeal powerfully at the time to those fighting beneath their
folds, but which give a shudder to the purist in heraldic blazonry, as for
instance, to quote but one example, the rattle-snake flag with its motto
"Beware how you tread on me," adopted by the North American colonists in
their struggle against the troops of George III.
When a knight had performed on the field of battle some especially valiant
or meritorious act, it was open to the Sovereign to {14} mark his sense of
it by making him a knight-banneret. Thus, in the reign of Edward III., John
de Copeland was made a banneret for his service in taking prisoner David
Bruce, the King of Scotland, at the battle of Durham; Colonel John Smith,
having rescued the royal banner from the Parliamentarians at Edgehill, was
in like manner made a knight-banneret by Charles I. The title does not seem
to have been in existence before the reign of Edward I., and after this
bestowal by Charles I. we hear no more of it till 1743, when the title was
conferred upon several English officers by the king, George II., upon the
field of Dettingen. It was an essential condition that the rank should be
bestowed by the Sovereign on the actual field of battle and beneath the
royal banner. General Sir William Erskine was given this rank by George
III. on his return from the Continent in 1764, after the battle of
Emsdorff; but as the investiture took place beneath the standard of the
15th Light Dragoons and in Hyde Park, it was deemed hopelessly irregular,
and, the royal will and action notwithstanding, his rank was not generally
recognised.
The ceremony of investiture was in the earlier days a very simple one. The
flag of the ordinary knight was of the form known as the pennon--a small,
swallow-tailed flag like that borne by our lancer regiments, of which Fig.
30 is an illustration. On being summoned to the royal presence, the king
took from him his lance, and either cut or tore away the points of his
flag, until he had reduced it roughly to banner form, and then returned it
to him with such words of commendation as the occasion called for. What the
ceremony employed at so late a period as Dettingen was we have not been
able to trace. As the officers there honoured were lanceless and
pennonless, it is evident that the formula which served in the Middle Ages
was quite inapplicable, but it is equally evident that in the thronging
duties and responsibilities of the field of battle the ceremony must always
have been a very short and simple one.
The term Standard is appropriately applied to any flag of noble size that
answers in the main to the following conditions--that it should always have
the Cross of St. George placed next to the staff, that the rest of the flag
should be divided horizontally into two or more stripes of colours, these
being the prevailing colours in the arms of the bearers or their livery
colours, the edge of the standard richly fringed or bordered, the motto and
badges of the owner introduced, the length considerably in excess of the
breadth, the ends split and rounded off. We find such standards in use
chiefly during the fifteenth century, though some characteristic examples
of both earlier and later dates may be encountered. Figs. 14 and 15 are
very good typical illustrations. The {15} first of these (Fig. 14) is the
Percy standard. The blue lion, the crescent, and the fetterlock there seen
are all badges of the family, while the silver key betokens matrimonial
alliance with the Poynings,[8] the bugle-horn with the Bryans,[9] and the
falchion with the family of Fitzpayne. The ancient badge of the Percys was
the white lion statant. Our readers will doubtless be familiar with the
lines--
"Who, in field or foray slack,
Saw the blanch lion e'er give back?"
but Henry Percy, the fifth earl, 1489 to 1577, turned it into a blue one.
The silver crescent is the only badge of the family that has remained in
active and continuous use, and we find frequent references to it in the old
ballads--so full of interesting heraldic allusions--as, for instance, in
"The Rising of the North"--
"Erle Percy there his ancyent spred,
The halfe-moon shining all soe faire,"
and in Claxton's "Lament"--
"Now the Percy's crescent is set in blood."
The motto is ordinarily a very important part of the standard, though it is
occasionally missing. Its less or greater length or its possible repetition
may cut up the surface of the flag into a varying number of spaces. The
first space after the cross is always occupied by the most important badge,
and in a few cases the spaces beyond are empty.
The motto of the Percys is of great historic interest. It is referred to by
Shakespeare, "Now Esperance! Percy! and set on," and we find in Drayton the
line, "As still the people cried, A Percy, Esperance!" In the "Mirror for
Magistrates" (1574) we read, "Add therefore this to Esperance, my word, who
causeth bloodshed shall not 'scape the sword." It was originally the
war-cry of the Percys, but it has undergone several modifications, and
these of a rather curious and interesting nature, since we see in the
sequence a steady advance from blatant egotism to an admission of a higher
power even than that of Percy. The war-cry of the first Earl was
originally, "Percy! Percy!" but he later substituted for it, "Esperance,
Percy." The second and third Earls took merely "Esperance," the fourth took
"Esperance, ma comfort," and, {16} later on, "Esperance en Dieu ma
comfort," and the fifth and succeeding Earls took the "Esperance en
Dieu."[10]
Fig. 15 is the standard of Sir Thomas de Swynnerton. The swine is an
example of the punning allusion to the bearer's name that is so often seen
in the charges of mediæval heraldry.
Figs. 14 and 15 are typical standards, having the cross of St. George, the
striping of colours, the oblique lines of motto, the elongated tapering
form, and all the other features that we have already quoted as belonging
to the ideal standard, though one or two of these may at times be absent.
Thus, though exceptions are rare, a standard is not necessarily
particoloured for example, and, as we have seen, the motto in other
examples may be missing. The Harleian MS. No. 2,358 lays down the rule that
"every Standard or guydhome is to hang in the Chiefe the Crosse of St.
George, to be slitte at the ende, and to conteyne the crest or supporter,
with the poesy, worde, and devise of the owner." That the Cross of St.
George, the national badge, must always be present and in the most
honourable position is full of significance, as it means that whatever else
of rank or family the bearer might be, he was first and foremost an
Englishman.
Figs. 13 and 16 are interesting modern examples of the Standard. They are
from a series of sledge-flags used during the Arctic Expedition of 1875-6,
the devices upon them being those of the officers in charge of each
detachment.
When in earlier days a man raised a regiment for national defence, he not
only commanded it, but its flag often bore his arms or device. Thus the
standard of the dragoons raised by Henry, Lord Cardross, in 1689 was of red
silk, on which was represented the Colonel's crest, a hand holding a
dagger, and the motto "Fortitudine," while in the upper corner next the
staff was the thistle of Scotland, surmounted by the crown.
Our readers should now have no difficulty in sketching out for themselves
as an exercise the following: The standard of Henry V., white and blue, a
white antelope standing between four red roses; the motto "Dieu et mon
droit," and in the interspaces more red {17} roses. The standard of Richard
II., white and green, a white hart couchant between four golden suns, the
motto "Dieu et mon droit," in the next space two golden suns, and in the
next, four. As further exercises, we may give the standard of Sir John
Awdeley, of gold and scarlet, having a Moor's head and three white
butterflies, the motto "Je le tiens," then two butterflies, then four; and
the standard of Frogmorton, of four stripes of red and white, having an
elephant's head in black, surrounded by golden crescents. While no one,
either monarch or noble, could have more than one banner, since this was
composed of his heraldic arms, a thing fixed and unchangeable, the same
individual might have two or three standards, since these were mainly made
up of badges that he could multiply at discretion, and a motto or poesy
that he might change every day if he chose. Hence, for instance, the
standards of Henry VII. were mostly green and white, since these were the
Tudor livery colours; but in one was "a red firye dragon," and in another
"was peinted a donne kowe," while yet another had a silver greyhound
between red roses. Stowe and other authorities tell us that the two first
of these were borne at Bosworth Field, and that after his victory there
over Richard III. these were borne by him in solemn state to St. Paul's
Cathedral, and there deposited on his triumphal entry into the metropolis.
The difference between the standard and the banner is very clearly seen in
the description of the flags borne at the funeral obsequies of Queen
Elizabeth--"the great embroidered banner of England" (Fig. 22), the banners
of Wales, Ireland, Chester, and Cornwall, and the standards of the dragon,
greyhound, and falcon. In like manner Stowe tells us that when King Henry
VII. took the field in 1513, he had with him the standard with the red
dragon and the banner of the arms of England, and Machyn tells that at the
funeral of Edward VI., "furst of all whent a grett company of chylderyn in
ther surples and clarkes syngyng and then ij harolds, and then a standard
with a dragon, and then a grett nombur of ye servants in blake, and then
anoder standard with a whyt greyhound." Later on in the procession came "ye
grett baner of armes in brodery and with dyvers odere baners."
Standards varied in size according to the rank of the person entitled to
them. A MS. of the time of Henry VII. gives the following dimensions:--For
that of the king, a length of eight yards; for a duke, seven; for an earl,
six; a marquis, six and a half; a viscount, five and a half; a baron, five;
a knight banneret, four and a half; and for a knight, four yards. In view
of these figures one can easily realise the derivation of the word
standard--a thing that is meant to stand; to be rather fastened in the
ground as a rallying point than carried, like a banner, about the field of
action. {18}
At the funeral of Nelson we find his banner of arms and standard borne in
the procession, while around his coffin are the bannerolls, square
banner-like flags bearing the various arms of his family lineage. We see
these latter again in an old print of the funeral procession of General
Monk, in 1670, and in a still older print of the burial of Sir Philip
Sydney, four of his near kindred carrying by the coffin these indications
of his descent. At the funeral of Queen Elizabeth we find six bannerolls of
alliances on the paternal side and six on the maternal. The standard of
Nelson bears his motto, "_Palmam qui meruit ferat_," but instead of the
Cross of St. George it has the union of the crosses of St. George, St.
Andrew, and St. Patrick, since in 1806, the year of his funeral, the
England of mediæval days had expanded into the Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland. In the imposing funeral procession of the great Duke of Wellington
we find again amongst the flags not only the national flag, regimental
colours, and other insignia, but the ten bannerolls of the Duke's pedigree
and descent, and his personal banner and standard.
Richard, Earl of Salisbury, in the year 1458, ordered that at his interment
"there be banners, standards, and other accoutrements, according as was
usual for a person of his degree" and what was then held fitting, remains,
in the case of State funerals, equally so at the present day.
The Pennon is a small, narrow flag, forked or swallow-tailed at its
extremity. This was carried on the lance. Our readers will recall the
knight in "Marmion," who
"On high his forky pennon bore,
Like swallow's tail in shape and hue."
We read in the Roll of Karlaverok, as early as the year 1300, of
"Many a beautiful pennon fixed to a lance,
And many a banner displayed;"
and of the knight in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," we hear that
"By hys bannere borne is hys pennon
Of golde full riche."
The pennon bore the arms of the knight, and they were in the earlier days
of chivalry so emblazoned upon it as to appear in their proper position not
when the lance was held erect but when held horizontally for the charge.
The earliest brass now extant, that of Sir John Daubernoun, at Stoke
d'Abernon Church, in Surrey, represents the knight as bearing a lance with
pennon. Its date is 1277, and the device is a golden chevron on a field of
azure. In {19} this example the pennon, instead of being forked, comes to a
single point.
The pennon was the ensign of those knights who were not bannerets, and the
bearers of it were therefore sometimes called pennonciers; the term is
derived from the Latin word for a feather, _penna_, from the narrow,
elongated form. The pennons of our lancer regiments (Fig. 30) give one a
good idea of the form, size, and general effect of the ancient knightly
pennon, though they do not bear distinctive charges upon them, and thus
fail in one notable essential to recall to our minds the brilliant blazonry
and variety of device that must have been so marked and effective a feature
when the knights of old took the field. In a drawing of the year 1813, of
the Royal Horse Artillery, we find the men armed with lances, and these
with pennons of blue and white, as we see in Fig. 31.[11]
Of the thirty-seven pennons borne on lances by various knights represented
in the Bayeux tapestry, twenty-eight have triple points, while others have
two, four, or five. The devices upon these pennons are very various and
distinctive, though the date is before the period of the definite
establishment of heraldry. Examples of these may be seen in Figs. 39, 40,
41, 42.
The pennoncelle, or pencel, is a diminutive of the pennon, small as that
itself is. Such flags were often supplied in large quantities at any
special time of rejoicing or of mourning. At the burial in the year 1554 of
"the nobull Duke of Norffok," we note amongst other items "a dosen of
banerolles of ys progene," a standard, a "baner of damaske, and xij dosen
penselles." At the burial of Sir William Goring we find "ther was viij
dosen of penselles," while at the Lord Mayor's procession in 1555 we read
that there were "ij goodly pennes [State barges] deckt with flages and
stremers and a m penselles." This "m," or thousand, we can perhaps scarcely
take literally, though in another instance we find "the cordes were hanged
with innumerable pencelles."[12]
The statement of the cost of the funeral of Oliver Cromwell is interesting,
as we see therein the divers kinds of flags that graced the ceremony. The
total cost of the affair was over £28,000, and the unhappy undertaker, a
Mr. Rolt, was paid very little, if any, of his bill. The items include "six
gret banners wrought on rich taffaty in oil, and gilt with fine gold," at
£6 each. Five large standards, similarly wrought, at a cost of £10 each;
six dozen {20} pennons, a yard long, at a sovereign each; forty trumpet
banners, at forty shillings apiece; thirty dozen of pennoncelles, a foot
long, at twenty shillings a dozen; and twenty dozen ditto at twelve
shillings the dozen. Poor Rolt!
In "the accompte and reckonyng" for the Lord Mayor's Show of 1617 we find
"payde to Jacob Challoner, painter, for a greate square banner, the
Prince's Armes, the somme of seven pounds." We also find, "More to him for
the new payntyng and guyldyng of ten trumpet banners, for payntyng and
guyldyng of two long pennons of the Lord Maior's armes on callicoe," and
many other items that we need not set down, the total cost of the flag
department being £67 15s. 10d., while for the Lord Mayor's Show of the year
1685 we find that the charge for this item was the handsome sum of £140.
The Pennant, or pendant, is a long narrow flag with pointed end, and
derives its name from the Latin word signifying to hang. Examples of it may
be seen in Figs. 20, 21, 23, 24, 36, 38, 100, 101, 102, and 103, and some
of the flags employed in ship-signalling are also of pennant form. It was
in Tudor times called the streamer. Though such a flag may at times be
found pressed into the service of city pageantry, it is more especially
adapted for use at sea, since the lofty mast, the open space far removed
from telegraph-wires, chimney-pots, and such-like hindrances to its free
course, and the crisp sea-breeze to boldly extend it to its full length,
are all essential to its due display. When we once begin to extend in
length, it is evident that almost anything is possible: the pendant of a
modern man-of-war is some twenty yards long, while its breadth is barely
six inches, and it is evident that such a flag as that would scarcely get a
fair chance in the general "survival of the fittest" in Cheapside. It is
charged at the head with the Cross of St. George. Figs. 26, 27, 74 are
Tudor examples of such pendants, while Fig. 140 is a portion at least of
the pendant flown by colonial vessels on war service, while under the same
necessarily abbreviated conditions may be seen in Fig. 151 the pendant of
the United States Navy, in 157 that of Chili, and in 173 that of Brazil.
In mediæval days many devices were introduced, the streamer being made of
sufficient width to allow of their display. Thus Dugdale gives an account
of the fitting up of the ship in which Beauchamp, fifth Earl of Warwick,
during the reign of Henry VI., went over to France. The original bill
between this nobleman and William Seburgh, "citizen and payntour of
London," is still extant, and we see from it that amongst other things
provided was "the grete stremour for the shippe xl yardes in length and
viij yardes in brede." These noble dimensions gave ample room for {21}
display of the badge of the Warwicks,[13] so we find it at the head adorned
with "a grete bere holding a ragged staffe," and the rest of its length
"powdrid full of raggid staves,"
"A stately ship,
With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,
Sails filled, and streamers waving."
Machyn tells us in his diary for August 3rd, 1553, how "The Queen came
riding to London, and so on to the Tower, makyng her entry at Aldgate, and
a grett nombur of stremars hanging about the sayd gate, and all the strett
unto Leydenhalle and unto the Tower were layd with graffel, and all the
crafts of London stood with their banars and stremars hangyd over their
heds." In the picture by Volpe in the collection at Hampton Court of the
Embarkation of Henry VIII. from Dover in the year 1520, to meet Francis I.
at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, we find, very naturally, a great variety
and display of flags of all kinds. Figs. 20, 21, 23 are streamers therein
depicted, the portcullis, Tudor rose, and fleur-de-lys being devices of the
English king, while the particular ground upon which they are displayed is
in each case made up of green and white, the Tudor livery colours. We may
see these again in Fig. 71, where the national flag of the Cross of St.
George has its white field barred with the Tudor green. In the year 1554
even the naval uniform of England was white and green, both for officers
and mariners, and the City trained bands had white coats welted with green.
Queen Elizabeth, though of the Tudor race, took scarlet and black as her
livery colours; the House of Plantaganet white and red; of York, murrey and
blue; of Lancaster, white and blue; of Stuart, red and yellow. The great
nobles each also had their special liveries; thus in a grand review of
troops on Blackheath, on May 16th, 1552, we find that "the Yerle of
Pembroke and ys men of armes" had "cotes blake bordered with whyt," while
the retainers of the Lord Chamberlain were in red and white, those of the
Earl of Huntingdon in blue, and so forth.
In the description of one of the City pageants in honour of Henry VII. we
find among the "baggs" (_i.e._, badges), "a rede rose and a wyght in his
mydell, golde floures de luces, and portcullis also in golde," the "wallys"
of the Pavilion whereon these were displayed being "chekkyrs of whyte and
grene."
The only other flag form to which we need make any very definite reference
is the Guidon. The word is derived from the {22} French _guide-homme_, but
in the lax spelling of mediæval days it undergoes many perversions, such as
guydhome, guydon, gytton, geton, and such-like more or less barbarous
renderings. Guidon is the regulation name now applied to the small
standards borne by the squadrons of some of our cavalry regiments. The
Queen's guidon is borne by the first squadron; this is always of crimson
silk; the others are the colour of the regimental facings. The modern
cavalry guidon is square in form, and richly embroidered, fringed, and
tasselled. A mediæval writer on the subject lays down the law that "a
guydhome must be two and a half yardes or three yardes longe, and therein
shall be no armes putt, but only the man's crest, cognizance, and device,
and from that, from his standard or streamer a man may flee; but not from
his banner or pennon bearinge his armes." The guidon is largely employed at
State or ceremonious funeral processions; we see it borne, for instance, in
the illustrations of the funeral of Monk in 1670, of Nelson in 1806, of
Wellington in 1852. In all these cases it is rounded in form, as in Fig.
28. Like the standard, the guidon bears motto and device, but it is
smaller, and has not the elongated form, nor does it bear the Cross of St.
George.
In divers countries and periods very diverse forms may be encountered, and
to these various names have been assigned, but it is needless to pursue
their investigation at any length, as in some cases the forms are quite
obsolete; in other cases, while its form is known to us its name is lost,
while in yet other instances we have various old names of flags mentioned
by the chroniclers and poets to which we are unable now to assign any very
definite notion of their form. In some cases, again, the form we encounter
may be of some eccentric individuality that no man ever saw before, or ever
wants to see again, or, as in Fig. 33, so slightly divergent from ordinary
type as to scarcely need a distinctive name. One of the flags represented
in the Bayeux tapestry is semi-circular. Fig. 32 defies classification,
unless we regard it as a pennon that, by snipping, has travelled
three-quarters of the way towards being a banner. Fig. 35, sketched from a
MS. of the early part of the fourteenth century, in the British Museum, is
of somewhat curious and abnormal form. It is of religious type, and bears
the Agnus Dei. The original is in a letter of Philippe de Mezières,
pleading for peace and friendship between Charles VI. of France and Richard
II. of England.
Flags are nowadays ordinarily made of bunting, a woollen fabric which, from
the nature of its texture and its great toughness and durability, is
particularly fitted to stand wear and tear. It comes from the Yorkshire
mills in pieces of forty yards in length, while the width varies from four
to thirty-six inches. Flags are {23} only printed when of small size, and
when a sufficient number will be required to justify the expense of cutting
the blocks. Silk is also used, but only for special purposes.
Flag-devising is really a branch of heraldry, and should be in accordance
with its laws, both in the forms and the colours introduced. Yellow in
blazonry is the equivalent of gold, and white of silver, and it is one of
the requirements of heraldry that colour should not be placed upon colour,
nor metal on metal. Hence the red and blue in the French tricolour (Fig.
191) are separated by white; the black and red of Belgium (Fig. 236) by
yellow. Such unfortunate combinations as the yellow, blue, red, of
Venezuela (Fig. 170); the yellow, red, green of Bolivia (Fig. 171); the red
and blue of Hayti (Fig. 178); the white and yellow of Guatemala (Fig. 162),
are violations of the rule in countries far removed from the influence of
heraldic law. This latter instance is a peculiarly interesting one; it is
the flag of Guatemala in 1851, while in 1858 this was changed to that
represented in Fig. 163. In the first case the red and the blue are in
contact, and the white and the yellow; while in the second the same colours
are introduced, but with due regard to heraldic law, and certainly with far
more pleasing effect.
One sees the same obedience to this rule in the special flags used for
signalling, where great clearness of definition at considerable distances
is an essential. Such combinations as blue and black, red and blue, yellow
and white, carry their own condemnation with them, as anyone may test by
actual experiment; stripes of red and blue, for instance, at a little
distance blending into purple, while white and yellow are too much alike in
strength, and when the yellow has become a little faded and the white a
little dingy they appear almost identical. We have this latter combination
in Fig. 198, the flag of the now vanished Papal States. It is a very
uncommon juxtaposition, and only occurs in this case from a special
religious symbolism into which we need not here enter. The alternate red
and green stripes in Fig. 63 are another violation of the rule, and have a
very confusing effect.[14]
The colours of by far the greatest frequency of occurrence are red, white,
and blue; yellow also is not uncommon; orange is only found once, in Fig.
249, where it has a special significance, since this is the flag of the
Orange Free State. Green occurs sparingly. Italy (Fig. 197) is perhaps the
best known example. We also find it in the Brazilian flag (Fig. 169), the
Mexican (Fig. 172), in the Hungarian tricolor (Fig. 214), and in Figs. 199,
201, 209, the flags {24} of smaller German States, but it is more
especially associated with Mohammedan States, as in Figs. 58, 63, 64, 235.
Black is found but seldom, but as heraldic requirements necessitate that it
should be combined either with white or yellow, it is, when seen,
exceptionally brilliant and effective. We see it, for example, in the Royal
Standard of Spain, (Fig. 194), in Figs. 207 and 208, flags of the German
Empire, in Fig. 226, the Imperial Standard of Russia, and in Fig. 236, the
brilliant tricolor of the Belgians.[15]
In orthodox flags anything of the nature of an inscription is very seldom
seen. We find a reference to order and progress on the Brazilian flag (Fig.
169), while the Turkish Imperial Standard (Fig. 238) bears on its scarlet
folds the monogram of the Sultan; but these exceptions are rare.[16] We
have seen that, on the contrary, on the flags of insurgents and malcontents
the inscription often counts for much. On the alteration of the style in
the year 1752 this necessary change was made the subject of much ignorant
reproach of the government of the day, and was used as a weapon of party
warfare. An amusing instance of this feeling occurs in the first plate of
Hogarth's election series, where a malcontent, or perhaps only a man
anxious to earn a shilling, carries a big flag inscribed, "Give us back our
eleven days." The flags of the Covenanters often bore mottoes or texts.
Fig. 34 is a curious example: the flag hoisted by the crew of H.M.S.
_Niger_ when they opposed the mutineers in 1797 at Sheerness. It is
preserved in the Royal United Service Museum. It is, as we have seen,
ordinarily the insubordinate and rebellious who break out into inscriptions
of more or less piety or pungency, but we may conclude that the loyal
sailors fighting under the royal flag adopted this device in addition as
one means the more of fighting the rebels with their own weapons.
During the Civil War between the Royalists and Parliamentarians, we find a
great use made of flags inscribed with mottoes. Thus, on one we see five
hands stretching at a crown defended by an armed hand issuing from a cloud,
and the motto, "Reddite Cæsari." In another we see an angel with a flaming
sword treading a dragon underfoot, and the motto, "Quis ut Deus," while yet
another is inscribed, "Courage pour la Cause." On a fourth we find an
ermine, and the motto, "Malo mori quam foedari"--"It is better to die than
{25} to be sullied," in allusion to the old belief that the ermine would
die rather than soil its fur. Hence it is the emblem of purity and
stainless honour.
The blood-red flag is the symbol of mutiny and of revolution. As a sign of
disaffection it was twice, at the end of last century, displayed in the
Royal Navy. A mutiny broke out at Portsmouth in April, 1797, for an advance
of pay; an Act of Parliament was passed to sanction the increase of
expenditure, and all who were concerned in it received the royal pardon,
but in June of the same year, at Sheerness, the spirit of disaffection
broke out afresh, and on its suppression the ringleaders were executed. It
is characteristic that, aggrieved as these seamen were against the
authorities, when the King's birthday came round, on June 4th, though the
mutiny was then at its height, the red flags were lowered, the vessels
gaily dressed in the regulation bunting, and a royal salute was fired.
Having thus demonstrated their real loyalty to their sovereign, the red
flags were re-hoisted, and the dispute with the Admiralty resumed in all
its bitterness.
The white flag is the symbol of amity and of good will; of truce amidst
strife, and of surrender when the cause is lost. The yellow flag betokens
infectious illness, and is displayed when there is cholera, yellow fever,
or such like dangerous malady on board ship, and it is also hoisted on
quarantine stations. The black flag signifies mourning and death; one of
its best known uses in these later days is to serve as an indication after
an execution that the requirements of the law have been duly carried out.
Honour and respect are expressed by "dipping" the flag. At any parade of
troops before the sovereign the regimental flags are lowered as they pass
the saluting point, and at sea the colours are dipped by hauling them
smartly down from the mast-head and then promptly replacing them. They must
not be suffered to remain at all stationary when lowered, as a flag flying
half-mast high is a sign of mourning for death, for defeat, or for some
other national loss, and it is scarcely a mark of honour or respect to
imply that the arrival of the distinguished person is a cause of grief or
matter for regret.
In time of peace it is an insult to hoist the flag of one friendly nation
above another, so that each flag must be flown from its own staff.
Even as early as the reign of Alfred England claimed the sovereignty of the
seas. Edward III. is more identified with our early naval glories than any
other English king; he was styled "King of the Seas," a name of which he
appears to have been very proud, and in his coinage of gold nobles he
represented himself with shield and sword, and standing in a ship "full
royally {26} apparelled." He fought on the seas under many disadvantages of
numbers and ships: in one instance until his ship sank under him, and at
all times as a gallant Englishman.
If any commander of an English vessel met the ship of a foreigner, and the
latter refused to salute the English flag, it was enacted that such ship,
if taken, was the lawful prize of the captain. A very notable example of
this punctilious insistance on the respect to the flag arose in May, 1554,
when a Spanish fleet of one hundred and sixty sail, escorting the King on
his way to England to his marriage with Queen Mary, fell in with the
English fleet under the command of Lord Howard, Lord High Admiral. Philip
would have passed the English fleet without paying the customary honours,
but the signal was at once made by Howard for his twenty-eight ships to
prepare for action, and a round shot crashed into the side of the vessel of
the Spanish Admiral. The hint was promptly taken, and the whole Spanish
fleet struck their colours as homage to the English flag.
In the year 1635 the combined fleets of France and Holland determined to
dispute this claim of Great Britain, but on announcing their intention of
doing so an English fleet was at once dispatched, whereupon they returned
to their ports and decided that discretion was preferable even to valour.
In 1654, on the conclusion of peace between England and Holland, the Dutch
consented to acknowledge the English supremacy of the seas, the article in
the treaty declaring that "the ships of the Dutch--as well ships of war as
others--meeting any of the ships of war of the English, in the British
seas, shall strike their flags and lower their topsails in such manner as
hath ever been at any time heretofore practised." After another period of
conflict it was again formally yielded by the Dutch in 1673.
Political changes are responsible for many variations in flags, and the
wear and tear of Time soon renders many of the devices obsolete. On
turning, for instance, to Nories' "Maritime Flags of all Nations," a little
book published in 1848, many of the flags are at once seen to be now out of
date. The particular year was one of exceptional political agitation, and
the author evidently felt that his work was almost old-fashioned even on
its issue. "The accompanying illustrations," he says, "having been
completed prior to the recent revolutionary movements on the Continent of
Europe, it has been deemed expedient to issue the plate in its present
state, rather than adopt the various tri-coloured flags, which cannot be
regarded as permanently established in the present unsettled state of
political affairs." The Russian American Company's flag, Fig. 59, that of
the States of the Church, of the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Turkish Imperial
Standard, Fig. 64, and many others {27} that he gives, are all now
superseded. For Venice he gives two flags, that for war and that for the
merchant service. In each case the flag is scarlet, having a broad band of
blue, which we may take to typify the sea, near its lower edge. From this
rises in gold the winged lion of St. Mark, having in the war ensign a sword
in his right paw, and in the peaceful colours of commerce a cross. Of
thirty-five "flags of all nations," given as a supplement to the
_Illustrated London News_ in 1858, we note that eleven are now obsolete:
the East India Company, for instance, being now extinct, the Ionian Islands
ceded to Greece, Tuscany and Naples absorbed into Italy, and so forth.
In Figs. 52 and 53 we have examples of early Spanish flags, and in 54 and
55 of Portuguese, each and all being taken from a very quaint map of the
year 1502. This map may be said to be practically the countries lying round
the Atlantic Ocean, giving a good slice of Africa, a portion of the
Mediterranean basin, the British Isles, most of South America, a little of
North America, the West Indies,[17] etc., the object of the map being to
show the division that Pope Alexander VI. kindly made between those
faithful daughters of the Church--Spain and Portugal--of all the unclaimed
portions of the world. Figs. 52 and 53 are types of flags flying on various
Spanish possessions, while Figs. 54 and 55 are placed at different points
on the map where Portugal held sway. On one place in Africa we see that No.
54 is surmounted by a white flag bearing the Cross of St. George, so we may
conclude that--Pope Alexander notwithstanding--England captured it from the
Portuguese. At one African town we see the black men dancing round the
Portuguese flag, while a little way off three of their brethren are hanging
on a gallows, showing that civilization had set in with considerable
severity there. The next illustration on this plate (Fig. 56) is taken from
a sheet of flags published in 1735; it represents the "Guiny Company's
Ensign," a trading company, like the East India, Fig. 57, now no longer in
existence. Fig. 62 is the flag of Savoy, an ancient sovereignty that,
within the memory of many of our readers, has expanded into the kingdom of
Italy. The break up of the Napoleonic _régime_ in France, the crushing out
of the Confederate States in North America, the dismissal from the throne
of the Emperor of Brazil, have all, within comparatively recent years, led
to the superannuation and disestablishment of a goodly number of flags and
their final disappearance.
We propose now to deal with the flags of the various nationalities,
commencing, naturally, with those of our own country. {28} We were told by
a government official that the Universal Code of signals issued by England
had led to a good deal of heartburning, as it is prefaced by a plate of the
various national flags, the Union Flag of Great Britain and Ireland being
placed first. But until some means can be devised by which each nationality
can head the list, some sort of precedence seems inevitable. At first sight
it seems as though susceptibilities might be saved by adopting an
alphabetical arrangement, but this is soon found to be a mistake, as it
places such powerful States as Russia and the United States nearly at the
bottom of the list. A writer, Von Rosenfeld, who published a book on flags
in Vienna in 1853, very naturally adopted this arrangement, but the calls
of patriotism would not even then allow him to be quite consistent, since
he places his material as follows:--Austria, Annam, Argentine, Belgium,
Bolivia, and so forth, where it is evident Annam should lead the world and
Austria be content to come in third. Apart from the difficulty of asking
Spain, for instance, to admit that Bulgaria was so much in front of her, or
to expect Japan to allow China so great a precedence as the alphabetical
arrangement favours, a second obstacle is found in the fact that the names
of these various States as we Englishmen know them are not in many cases
those by which they know themselves or are known by others. Thus a
Frenchman would be quite content with the alphabetical arrangement that in
English places his beloved country before Germany, but the Teuton would at
once claim precedence, declaring that Deutschland must come before "la
belle France," and the Espagnol would not see why he should be banished to
the back row just because we choose to call him a Spaniard.
In the meantime, pending the Millenium, the flag that more than three
hundred millions of people, the wide world over, look up to as the symbol
of justice and liberty, will serve very well as a starting point, and then
the great Daughter across the Western Ocean, that sprung from the Old Home,
shall claim a worthy place next in our regard. The Continent of Europe must
clearly come next, and such American nationalities as lie outside the
United States, together with Asia and Africa, will bring up the rear.
* * * * *
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