crimson silk damask, embroidered and fringed with gold, and their
guidons, anciently called "guydhomme"--a swallow-tailed flag--are of
crimson silk. Each is inscribed with the peculiar devices, distinctions,
and mottoes of the regiment. The standards and guidons of cavalry are
carried by troop sergeant-majors. The Hussars and Lancers have no
standards. They were discontinued, for what reason I do not know, by
William IV., and their badges and devices are now borne on their
appointments. Neither the Royal Engineers nor the Rifles have colours.
Neither have the Royal Artillery; nor is it necessary that they should
have any on which to record special services, for the Artillery is
represented in every action. Their appropriate motto, _Ubique_, is borne
on their appointments. None of the Volunteer regiments carries colours.
The queen's and regimental colours always parade with the regiment. On
march they are cased, but they are always uncased when carried into
action.
For military authorities "when embarked in boats or other vessels,"
there is, as we have seen, a special flag. It is the Union with the
royal initials in the centre on a blue circle, surrounded by a green
garland, and surmounted by the imperial crown.
USE OF FLAGS BY PRIVATE PERSONS.
In regard to the use of the national flag by private persons, there is a
positive rule as to marine flags, but none, so far as I am aware, as to
its use on shore. I have occasionally seen it flown on shore with a
white border, under an impression, apparently, that this difference was
necessary, but it is unmeaning, and there is no authority for it. In
numberless instances we see one or other of the marine Ensigns hoisted
on shore over gentlemen's houses, or used in street decoration on the
occasion of public rejoicings; but nothing could be more absurd, as the
ensign is exclusively a ship flag.
Any private individual entitled to armorial bearings may carry them on a
flag. In such cases the arms should not be on a shield, but filling the
entire flag.
The flags and banners represented in works on heraldry have almost
invariably a fringe; but this is optional. If a fringe is used it should
be composed of the livery colours, each tincture of the arms giving its
colour to the portion of the fringe which adjoins it. In the British
army the colours of the different regiments are fringed.
FOREIGN FLAGS: FRANCE.
My notice of foreign flags must be short. Those of France and America
have naturally most interest for us.
Previous to the Revolution the French can hardly be said to have had a
national flag. The colours of the reigning families--changing as they
did with each fresh dynasty, as was the case in our own early
history--were accepted in the place of national standards, while each
regiment in the army followed colours of its own. The celebrated _Chape
de Saint Martin de Tours_ and the _Oriflamme_ of the Abbey of Saint
Denis, were, like the labarum of Constantine, ecclesiastical banners,
symbolic of the two patrons of Christian France watching over her in her
battles. The Chape de Saint Martin was a banner imitating in form a cape
or cloak, and was of blue. The Oriflamme was red with a green fringe. By
the end of the tenth century this had become the royal standard. In one
of the windows of the Cathedral of Chartres (of the thirteenth century)
there is a representation of Henri Sieur de Argentin et du Mez, Marshall
of France under St. Louis, receiving from the hands of St. Denis a
banner which is supposed to be the Oriflamme. Fig. 30 is a copy of this
interesting old work of art. The banner, it will be observed, has five
points; but in other examples it has only three, each having attached to
it a tassel of green silk.
[Illustration: Fig. 30.--The Oriflamme, circa 1248.]
The royal banner of St. Louis was blue powdered with fleurs-de-lis in
gold, and these fleurs-de-lis have remained since the eleventh or
twelfth century a peculiarly French and royal device. It is indeed one
of extreme antiquity, the emblem of a long-forgotten worship--older by
many ages than any record of the doctrine of the Trinity, of which some
have supposed this flower to be an emblem.[44]
[44] Laughton's _Heraldry of the Sea_.
In the reign of Charles VI. the blue field ceased to be _powdered_ with
fleurs-de-lis, and was charged with three only--two and one. The white
flag which became the standard of the kings of France was probably not
introduced till the reign of Henry IV. But there is great confusion in
the history of the French flags, and this is increased by the use of
personal colours at sea, which continued among the French to a much
later period than among the English. In the colours of the French
regiments there has been great variety of design. Under the old monarchy
the regimental colours were of two kinds--one was the _drapeau-colonel_,
or royal; the other, called _drapeau d'ordonnance_, took its device from
the founder of the particular regiment which carried it, or from the
province of its origin. A common form of the royal colours was a white
cross on a blue field. In other examples, sometimes the cross and
sometimes the field were powdered with fleurs-de-lis. In some instances
the field was green. The flag displayed by the French in 1789 was a
white cross on a blue ground, with one fleur-de-lis at each corner of
the field, and the motto "Patrie et Liberte."
The Tricolour was introduced at the Revolution, but the origin of the
design is unknown. Possibly a trace of it may be found in an
illumination in one of the MS. copies of Froissart. It represents the
King of France setting out against the Duke of Brittany, and his majesty
is preceded by a man on horseback bearing a swallow-tailed pennon, the
first part containing the ancient arms of France, and each of the
tails--composed of three stripes--red, white, and green.
For some time after the Revolution the white field was retained. When
the three colours came to be used there appears to have been at first no
fixed order in arranging them, and in some cases they were placed
vertically, and in others horizontally. By a decree in 1790 it was
ordained that in the navy the flag on the bowsprit--the jack--should be
composed of three equal bands placed vertically, that next the staff
being red, the middle white, and the third blue. The flag at the stem
was to have in a canton the jack above described (occupying one fourth
of the flag), and to be surrounded by a narrow band, the half of which
was to be red and the other blue, and the rest of the flag to be white.
In 1794 this flag was abolished, and it was ordered "that the national
flag shall be formed of _the three national colours_ in equal bands
placed vertically, the hoist being blue, the centre white, and the fly
red." It would appear, however, that this arrangement was not for some
time universally adopted, and that old flags continued to be used. Thus,
in the great picture by De Loutherbourg at Greenwich, the French ships
are represented as wearing the suppressed flag of 1790; while, in a rare
print preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, representing the
magnificent ceremony at which the first Napoleon distributed eagles to
the troops in 1804, the banners suspended over the Ecole Militaire in
the Champ de Mars, where the ceremony took place, show the three colours
in fess, that is, in horizontal lines. But the vertical arrangement must
have been soon afterwards generally adopted, and this continued to be
the flag both of the French army and navy during the Empire. On the
return of the king in 1814, and again in 1815, it was abolished, and the
white flag restored; but the Tricolour was reintroduced in 1830, and it
has remained in use since.[45]
[45] See French Imperial Standard, and National Flag, Plate IV.
Nos. 2 and 3.
When the Emperor Napoleon assumed the sovereignty of Elba he had a
special flag made. It will be recollected that he was allowed to retain
the title of emperor, and although the island which comprised his
dominions was only sixty miles in circumference, the inhabitants barely
12,000, his household 35 persons, and his entire army only 700 infantry
and 60 cavalry, he considered it necessary to have a "national flag."
According to Sir Walter Scott, it bore on a white field a bend charged
with three bees. But the emperor was preparing another and very
different flag for his small army, of which I am able to give a
representation from a very rare coloured engraving.[46] It was the
tricolour of France, composed of the richest silk with the ornaments
elaborately embroidered in silver. It bore the imperial crown with the
letter N, and the eagle, on each of the blue and red portions, with the
imperial bees; and over all the inscription, "L'Empereur Napoleon a la
Garde Nationale de L'lle d'Elbe." To the staff, the top of which was
surmounted by a golden eagle, was suspended a tricoloured sash also
richly embroidered in silver. This splendid standard was presented by
Napoleon to his guards in Elba shortly before his invasion of France in
1815. On the reverse side there was subsequently embroidered the
inscription, "Champ de Mai"--the flag having been a second time
presented by the emperor to his guards at that celebrated meeting, a
short time before they marched for Waterloo. The standard was captured
by the Prussians, and on their entering Paris was sold to an English
gentleman who brought it to England.[47]
[46] See Frontispiece.
[47] When the drawing of it was taken it was in the possession
of BernardBrocas, Esq., at Wokefield.
[Illustration: Fig. 31.]
[Illustration: NATIONAL FLAGS AND STANDARDS. PLATE IV]
The lately-abolished Eagle (Fig. 31) was borne as a standard in the
French army during the Empire only. It was introduced by Napoleon I.,
who adopted it from the Romans. The ribbon attached was of silk five
inches wide and three feet long, and richly embroidered. After
Napoleon's fall the eagles were abandoned, but they were again
introduced by Napoleon III. In consequence of their intrinsic value,
they proved in the Franco-German war a much-coveted prize among the
Germans, who captured a considerable number of them on the successive
defeats of the French. The first Napoleon was very careful of the
Eagles. He himself tells us, in one of the conversations at St. Helena,
that he established in each regiment two subaltern officers as special
guardians of the Eagle. "Ils n'avaient d'autre arme," he says, "que
plusieurs paires de pistolets: d'autre emploi que de veiller froidement
a bruler la cervelle de celui qui avancerait pour saisir l'aigle."
The Dutch and Russian ensigns have the same tinctures as those of the
present French flag, but borne fess ways--that is horizontally. The
former has the red uppermost. The latter has _the metal_, the white,
uppermost, and the two _colours_, the blue and the red--against all our
notions of heraldic propriety--placed together below. (See Dutch and
Russian flags, Plate IV. Nos. 6 and 8.)
The Belgian colours adopted in 1831 are arranged as the French, but the
colours are black, yellow, and red. (Plate IV. No. 5.) The flag of
Prussia is also composed of three stripes-black, white, and red, but
arranged horizontally. (Plate IV. No. 4.) The flag of Mexico is arranged
like that of France, but the colours are green, white, and red. (Plate
IV. No. 10.)
THE AMERICAN FLAG.
The history of the American flag is interesting. Previous to the
Declaration of Independence the different colonies retained the
standards of the mother country with the addition of some local emblem.
Massachusetts, for example, adopted the pine-tree, a device which was
also placed on the coins. In 1775 "the Union with a red field"--a red
ensign--was displayed at New York on a liberty poll with the
inscription, "George Rex and the Liberties of America;" and it is
interesting to note that the first flag adopted as a national ensign by
the ships of the United States consisted of the horizontal stripes with
which we are familiar, but with the British Union still retained in a
canton. This was replaced by the stars on a blue ground. Some of the
flags first used--at the time when only twelve states had ratified the
articles of convention--bore only twelve stars. On the 14th of August,
1777, Congress resolved "that the flag of the United States be thirteen
stripes alternately red and white, and that the union be thirteen stars,
white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." (See Fig. 32.)
It has been said that the design of the flag was derived from arms borne
by the family of Washington; but there is no foundation for this. An
American writer--with probably as little ground for the statement--says:
"the blue field was taken from the Covenanters' banner in Scotland,
likewise significant of the League and Covenant of the United Colonies
against oppression, and incidentally involving vigilance, perseverance,
and justice. The stars were then disposed in a circle symbolizing the
perpetuity of the union, as well as equality with themselves. The whole
was a blending of the various flags used previous to the war, viz. the
red flags of the army and white colours of the floating batteries--the
gem of the navy."[48]
[48] Article on "Flags," by H. K. W. Wilcox, New York, _Harper's
Magazine_, July, 1873.
[Illustration: Fig. 32.]
In 1795 it was ordained that the stripes should be increased to fifteen
and the stars to the same number; but in 1818 Congress ordered a return
to the thirteen stripes but with twenty stars, and that on the admission
of any new state a star should be added. Thus the old number of stripes
perpetuated the original number of the states forming the union, while
the added stars show the union in its existing state. In consequence of
the greatly increased number of stars, the circular arrangement had to
be abandoned, and they are now disposed in parallel lines. (See flag of
the United States, Plate V. No. 8.) The construction of the first
national standard, from which the stars and stripes were afterwards
adopted, took place at Philadelphia in 1777 under the personal direction
of Washington aided by a committee of Congress.
The flag of the American admirals is composed of the stripes alone, and
the stars are used separately as a jack. One of the first American flags
used at sea, and bearing only the twelve stars, is still preserved. It
is the flag which was flown by the celebrated Paul Jones from his
privateer, the _Bon homme Richard_, in his engagement with the English
ship _Serapis_ on 23d September, 1799. In the course of the action the
flag having been shot away from the mast-head, Lieutenant Stafford, then
a volunteer in Paul Jones' ship, leaped into the sea after it, and
recovered and replaced it, being severely wounded while performing this
action. The flag thus saved was afterwards presented to him by the
marine committee of Congress, and it now (1880) belongs to his son.[49]
[49] Letter in _Daily Telegraph_, 18th March, 1880, by Mr. W.
Stafford Northcote.
[Illustration: NATIONAL FLAGS AND STANDARDS. PLATE V.]
I may mention that the white and red stripes are not peculiar to the
American flag. A flag of similar design was for a long time a well-known
signal in the British navy, being that used for the red division to draw
into line of battle.
OTHER FOREIGN FLAGS.
The flag of Liberia is very like that of the United States, being
composed of red and white stripes with a blue canton. The only
difference is that the latter bears only one star. (See the flag of
Liberia, Plate V. No. 6.) The flag of Bremen is also composed of red and
white stripes.
Spain from the first period of her greatness bore the Castilian flag,
quartering Castile and Leon. In an old illumination representing the
coronation of Henry, son of John, King of Castile, there are on the
king's left hand two men, unarmed, the one holding a banner of Castile
and Leon quarterly, the other a blue pennon charged with three kings'
heads-the banner of the three kings of Cologne. On his majesty's right
hand a man, also unarmed, holds a shield with the arms of Castile and
Leon. It was this last device, as a national flag, that was carried by
the ships of Columbus. But Columbus had also as a personal flag one
given to him by Queen Isabella--a white swallow-tailed pennon bearing a
Latin cross in green between the letters FY crowned. These two flags are
noteworthy as the first that crossed the Atlantic.
The present royal standard of Spain is of very complicated construction
(see Plate V. No. 1), embracing among its bearings the arms of Castile
and Leon, of Aragon, Sicily, Burgundy, and others. The national ensign
is in marked contrast by its simplicity. It is composed of yellow and
red stripes--derived from the bars of Aragon. (See Plate V. No. 2.)
Austria at first bore on her flag the Roman eagle. Now her war ensign is
red, white, and red placed horizontally, and in the centre a shield of
the same within a gold border (the arms of the Dukes of Austria),
surmounted by the royal crown. (See Plate V. No. 3.) The merchant flag
is the same without the shield and crown. The Austro-Hungarian flag has
the lower stripe half red and half green, with two shields, one on the
right containing the arms of Austria, and the other bearing the arms of
Hungary. (See Plate V. No. 4.)
The flag of Italy was designed by Napoleon I. on his declaration of the
Kingdom of Italy. It is a modification of the French, the division of
the field next the staff being, instead of blue, green, which, it is
known, was a favourite colour of the emperor. In the centre is a red
shield charged with a white cross--the arms of the Dukes of Savoy, now
borne by Italy. A representation of the Italian merchant flag will be
found on Plate V. No. 5. The war ensign is the same, except that the
shield is surmounted by the royal crown.
In the construction of the flag of Norway, curiously enough, the same
blunder has been committed as in our own Union. It is "described" as a
blue cross _fimbriated_ white; but the border, as the flag is worn, is
too broad, and it really represents two crosses, a blue cross
superimposed on a white one--just as our St. George's cross, as
represented in our national colours, is nothing but a red cross
superimposed on a white one. Mr. Laughton accordingly looking at the
Norwegian flag in this light, calls it the white flag of Denmark with a
blue cross over it,[50] which it was certainly not intended to be. The
flag is shown in Plate V. No. 11. The Swedish-Norwegian union in the
canton was introduced in 1817, when the two countries were united under
one king.
[50] _Heraldry of the Sea_, p. 23.
The Danish flag (see Plate V. No. 7) is the oldest now in existence. The
tradition is that it descended from Heaven ready made in the year 1219
in answer to the prayer of King Waldemar, as he was leading his troops
to battle against the pagans of the Baltic. Be that as it may, it
certainly dates from the thirteenth century.
The flag of Portugal has borne a conspicuous part in history, and the
devices in it carry us back to a very early period. The present royal
standard is red with a red shield in the centre charged with towers or
castles for the kingdom of Algarve, which Alphonsus III. got from the
King of Castile when he married the daughter of the latter in 1278; and
in the centre there is a white shield bearing on it the shields of the
five Moors placed crossways. The Portuguese national flag is per pale,
blue and white, and in the centre point is the same device as appears on
the royal standard. The present flag, however, is only a modification of
the old flag which was carried by the early discoverers, and which
brought glory to Portugal in the days of Prince Henry the Navigator.
(See the national flag of Portugal, Plate V. No. 12.)
The royal standards of Norway and Sweden, and also the ensign of these
kingdoms, are peculiar in preserving the ancient form of having the fly
ending in three points. (See the Swedish standard, Plate V. No. 10.)
Greece has adopted the colours of Bavaria in compliment to her first
king. (See Plate VI. No. 7.)
The devices on some of the Asiatic flags are peculiar. That of Burmah
bears a peacock; Siam, a white elephant; and China, a hideous-looking
dragon. (See these flags, Plate VI. Nos. 1, 2, 3.) On the flag of
Bolivia (Plate VI. No. 4) is the representation of a volcano, suggested
in all probability by the great volcano of Serhama, which rises in
Western Bolivia to the height of 23,000 feet. Japan, the land of the far
east, the source of the sun, as her name signifies, has adopted for her
flag the sun rising blood-red. (See Plate V. No. 9.)
[Illustration: NATIONAL FLAGS AND STANDARDS. PLATE VI.]
The flag of Brazil, which is very inartistic in its construction, bears
among other devices the armillary sphere of Portugal. (See Plate VI. No.
8.)
In Plates IV. V. and VI. will be found representations of the flags of
other kingdoms and republics. These speak for themselves, and do not
call for particular description.
But I must now bring these notices to a close. To the true patriot of
every country the national flag must be a subject of pride. If, as a
French writer observes, it does not always lead him to victory, it
inspires him to fight well, and if need be to die well. "We pay to it,"
says the same writer, "royal honours. When it is paraded--in rags it may
be, and with faded colours, bearing in letters of gold the names of
victories--the troops present arms, the officers salute it with the
sword, and the white heads of veteran generals are uncovered and bent
before the ensign." To the soldier its loss is one of the greatest
calamities. In Napoleon's disastrous retreat from Moscow in 1812 not
many of his flags remained with the Russians. Of those which were not
carried off most were burned, and of some of these the officers drank
the ashes. More recently the same thing is said to have been done at
Metz and Sedan. So a French writer tells us, and he characterizes the
act as "_communion sublime_!"
What the flag is, indeed, to the sailor and the soldier, whether when
shaken out in battle or when displayed in memory of great victories,
none but the soldier and the sailor can realize. At the interment of
Lord Nelson, when his flag was about to be lowered into the grave, the
sailors who assisted at the ceremony ran forward with one accord and
tore it into small pieces, to be preserved as sacred relics. "I know,"
says Charles Kingsley--in those _Brave Words_ which he addressed to our
soldiers then fighting in the trenches before Sebastopol, "I know that
you would follow those colours into the mouth of the pit; that you would
die twice over rather than let them be taken. Those noble rags,
inscribed with noble names of victory, should remind you every day and
every hour that he who fights for Queen and country in a just cause is
fighting not only in the Queen's army but in Christ's army, and that he
shall in no wise lose his reward."
INDEX.
A.
Armenian Flag, 110.
Army, British, Flags of, 96.
Artillery--have no colours, 101.
Assyrian Standards, 17, 19.
Austria, Flag of, 114.
Austro-Hungary, Flag of, 114.
B.
Banner of St. Cuthbert, 33.
Banner-bearers, 33.
Bannerets, 30.
---- their following, 32.
Banners, 29.
Belgian Flag, 109.
Beverly, Sir John of, his banner, 33.
Black Prince at Navarete, 31.
"Blue Blanket," 50, 51.
"Bluidy Banner" of Covenanters, 52.
Bolivia, Flag of, 116.
Brazil, Flag of, 117.
Bryon, Sir Guy de, banner-bearer of Edward III., 34.
Burmah, Flag of, 116.
---- British, Flag of, 71.
C.
Carlaverock, Siege of, 32.
Chandos, Sir John, made banneret, 31.
China, Flag of, 116.
Cochrane, Lord, 85, 86.
Colours of British Army, 96.
Colours of 24th Regiment, 96, 98.
---- of Foot Guards, 97.
---- of Cavalry, 101.
---- Presentation of new, 100.
Columbus, his flag, 113.
Commonwealth, Flag of, 56.
Constantine, Standard of, 25.
Consuls, Flags of, 71.
Coronations, Banners borne at, 35.
Covenanters, Flags of, 51, 52.
Custodiers of Banners, 34.
D.
Danish Flag, 115.
---- Standards, 27.
---- Flag, 109.
Deceiving enemy, Use of Flags in, 76.
Douglas. See Earl Douglas, 47, 48, 49.
Dragon--Standard of Romans and Dacians, 25.
Dragon--Standard of Germany and England, 25.
Dragoon Guards, Colours of, 101.
Dutch Fleets, 70.
E.
Eagle, Roman, 21.
---- French, 108.
Earl Douglas, his standard, 47, 48.
Earl Marshall, his standard, 46.
Earl Percy--love pledges, 48.
Edward III., his banner, 34.
---- his standard, 37.
Egyptian Standards, 13, 14, 15.
Engineers, Royal--have no colours, 101.
Ensign, The, 67.
F.
False Colours, when may be used, 83.
Firing at Colours of a friendly nation, 90.
Flag, waving, First introduction of, 26.
Flag of Mutiny, 75.
Flags, First forms of, 27.
---- Different kinds of, 28.
---- Hauling down enemy's, 86.
---- Usage, International, as to, 88.
---- of British army, 96.
---- of military authorities embarked in boats, 102.
Flags, Special, 71.