The Flags of the World: Their History, Blazonry, and Associations
by F. Edward Hulme · English · Gutenberg #40113 · 452,927 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Flags of the World: Their History, Blazonry, and Associations
Author: F. Edward Hulme
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Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
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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.
* * * * *
{29}
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 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.
Foremost amongst the flags of the British Empire the Royal Standard takes
its position as the symbol of the tie that unites all into one great State.
Its glowing blazonry of blue and scarlet and gold is brought before us in
Fig. 44. The three golden lions on the scarlet ground are the device of
England, the golden harp on the azure field is the device of Ireland, while
the ruddy lion rampant on the field of gold[18] stands for Scotland. It may
perhaps appear to some of our readers that the standard of the Empire
should not be confined to such narrow limits; that the great Dominion of
Canada, India, Australia, the ever-growing South Africa, might justly claim
a place. Precedent, too, might be urged, since in previous reigns, Nassau,
Hanover, and other States have found a resting-place in its folds, and
there is much to be said in favour of a wider representation of the greater
component parts of our world-wide Empire; but two great practical
difficulties arise: the first is that the grand simplicity of the flag
would be lost if eight or ten different devices were substituted for the
three; and secondly, it would very possibly give rise to a good deal of
jealousy and ill-feeling, since it would be impossible to introduce all. As
it at present stands, it represents the central home of the Empire, the
little historic seed-plot from whence all else has sprung, and to which all
turn their eyes as the {30} centre of the national life. All equally agree
to venerate the dear mother land, but it is perhaps a little too much to
expect that the people of Jamaica or Hong Kong would feel the same
veneration for the beaver and maple-leaves of Canada, the golden Sun of
India, or the Southern Cross of Australasia. As it must clearly be all or
none, it seems that only one solution of the problem, the present one, is
possible. In the same way the Union flag (Fig. 90) is literally but the
symbol of England, Scotland, and Ireland, but far and away outside its
primary significance, it floats on every sea the emblem of that Greater
Britain in which all its sons have equal pride, and where all share equal
honour as brethren of one family.
The earliest Royal Standard bore but the three lions of England, and we
shall see presently that in different reigns various modifications of its
blazonry arose, either the result of conquest or of dynastic possessions.
Thus Figs. 43 and 44, though they bear a superficial likeness, tell a very
different story; the first of these, that of George III., laying claim in
its fourth quartering to lordship over Hanover and other German States, and
in its second quarter to the entirely shadowy and obsolete claim over
France, as typified by the golden fleurs-de-lys on the field of azure.
How the three lions of England arose is by no means clear. Two lions were
assigned as the arms of William the Conqueror, but there is no real
evidence that he bore them. Heraldry had not then become a definite
science, and when it did a custom sprang up of assigning to those who lived
and died before its birth certain arms, the kindly theory being that such
persons, had they been then living, would undoubtedly have borne arms, and
that it was hard, therefore, that the mere accident of being born a hundred
years too soon should debar them from possessing such recognition of their
rank. Even so late as Henry II. the bearing is still traditional, and it is
said that on his marriage with Alianore, eldest daughter of William, Duke
of Aquitaine and Guienne, he incorporated with his own two lions the single
lion that (it is asserted) was the device of his father-in-law. All this,
however, is theory and surmise, and we do not really find ourselves on the
solid ground of fact until we come to the reign of Richard Coeur-de-Lion.
Upon his second Great Seal we have the three lions just as they are
represented in Figs. 22, 43, 44, and as they have been borne for centuries
by successive sovereigns on their arms, standards, and coinage, and as our
readers may see them this day on the Royal Standard and on much of the
money they may take out of their pockets. The date of this Great Seal of
King Richard is 1195 A.D., so we have, at all events, a period of over
seven hundred years, waiving a break during the Commonwealth, in which the
three golden lions on their scarlet field have typified the might of
England. {31}
The rampant lion within the tressure, the device of Scotland--seen in the
second quarter of our Royal Standard, Fig. 44--is first seen on the Great
Seal of King Alexander II., about A.D. 1230, and the same device, without
any modification of colour or form[19] was borne by all the Sovereigns of
Scotland, and on the accession of James to the throne of the United
Kingdom, in the year 1603, the ruddy lion ramping on the field of gold
became an integral part of the Standard.
The Scotch took considerable umbrage at their lion being placed in the
second place, while the lions of England were placed first, as they
asserted that Scotland was a more ancient kingdom than England, and that in
any case, on the death of Queen Elizabeth of England, the Scottish monarch
virtually annexed the Southern Kingdom to his own, and kindly undertook to
get the Southerners out of a dynastic difficulty by looking after the
interests of England as well as ruling Scotland. This feeling of jealousy
was so bitter and so potent that for many years after the Union, on all
seals peculiar to Scottish business and on the flags displayed north of the
Tweed, the arms of Scotland were placed in the first quarter. It was also
made a subject of complaint that in the Union Flag the cross of St. George
is placed over that of St. Andrew (see Figs. 90, 91, 92), and that the lion
of England acted as the dexter support of the royal shield instead of
giving place to the Scottish Unicorn. One can only be thankful that Irish
patriots have been too sensible or too indifferent to insist upon yet
another modification, requiring that whensoever and wheresoever the Royal
Standard be hoisted in the Emerald Isle the Irish harp should be placed in
the first quarter. While it is clearly impossible to place the device of
each nationality first, it is very desirable and, in fact, essential, that
the National Arms and the Royal Standard should be identical in arrangement
in all parts of the kingdom. The notion of unity would be very inadequately
carried out if we had a London version for Buckingham Palace, an Edinburgh
version for Holyrood, and presently found the Isle of Saints and "gallant
little Wales" insisting on two other variants, and the Isle of Man in
insurrection because it was not allowed precedence of all four.
Even so lately as the year 1853, on the issue of the florin, the old
jealousy blazed up again. A statement was drawn up and presented to Lord
Lyon, King of Arms, setting forth anew the old grievances of the lions in
the Standard and the crosses in the Flag of the Union, and adding that "the
new two-shilling {32} piece, called a florin, which has lately been issued,
bears upon the reverse four crowned shields, the first or uppermost being
the three lions passant of England; the second, or right hand proper, the
harp of Ireland; the third, or left hand proper, the lion rampant of
Scotland; the fourth, or lower, the three lions of England repeated. Your
petitioners beg to direct your Lordship's attention to the position
occupied by the arms of Scotland upon this coin, which are placed in the
third shield instead of the second, a preference being given to the arms of
Ireland over those of this kingdom." It is curious that this document
tacitly drops claim to the first place. Probably most of our
readers--Scotch, Irish, or English--feel but little sense of grievance in
the matter, and are quite willing, if the coin be an insult, to pocket it.
The border surrounding the lion is heraldically known as the tressure. The
date and the cause of its introduction are lost in antiquity. The mythical
story is that it was added by Achaius, King of Scotland, in the year 792,
in token of alliance with Charlemagne, but in all probability these princes
scarcely knew of the existence of each other. The French and the Scotch
have often been in alliance, and there can be little doubt but that the
fleurs-de-lys that adorn the tressure point to some such early association
of the two peoples; an ancient writer, Nisbet, takes the same view, as he
affirms that "the Tressure fleurie encompasses the lyon of Scotland to show
that he should defend the Flower-de-luses, and these to continue a defence
to the lyon." The first authentic illustration of the tressure in the arms
of Scotland dates from the year 1260. In the reign of James III., in the
year 1471 it was "ordaint that in tyme to cum thar suld be na double tresor
about his armys, but that he suld ber armys of the lyoun, without ony mur."
If this ever took effect it must have been for a very short time. We have
seen no example of it.
Ireland joined England and Scotland in political union on January 1st,
1801, but its device--the harp--was placed on the standard centuries before
by right of conquest. The first known suggestion for a real union on equal
terms was made in the year 1642 in a pamphlet entitled "The Generall Junto,
or the Councell of Union; chosen equally out of England, Scotland, and
Ireland for the better compacting of these nations into one monarchy. By H.
P." This H. P. was one Henry Parker. Fifty copies only of this tract were
issued, and those entirely for private circulation. "To persuade to union
and commend the benefit of it"--says the author--"will be unnecessary.
_Divide et impera_ (divide and rule) is a fit saying for one who aims at
the dissipation and perdition of his country. Honest counsellors have ever
given contrary advice. England and Ireland are inseparably knit; no
severance is possible {33} but such as shall be violent and injurious.
Ireland is an integral member of the Kingdom of England: both kingdoms are
coinvested and connexed, not more undivided than Wales or Cornwall."
The conquest of Ireland was entered upon in the year 1172, in the reign of
Henry II., but was scarcely completed until the surrender of Limerick in
1691. Until 1542 it was styled not the Kingdom but the Lordship of Ireland.
An early standard of Ireland has three golden crowns on a blue field, and
arranged over each other as we see the English lions placed; and a
commission appointed in the reign of Edward IV., to enquire what really
were the arms of Ireland, reported in favour of the three crowns. The early
Irish coinage bears these three crowns upon it, as on the coins of Henry V.
and his successors. Henry VIII. substituted the harp on the coins, but
neither crowns nor harps nor any other device for Ireland appear in the
Royal Standard until the year 1603, after which date the harp has remained
in continuous use till the present day.
In the Harleian MS., No. 304 in the British Museum, we find the statement
that "the armes of Irland is Gules iij old harpes gold, stringed argent"
(as in Fig. 87), and on the silver coinage for Ireland of Queen Elizabeth
the shield bears these three harps. At her funeral Ireland was represented
by a blue flag having a crowned harp of gold upon it, and James I. adopted
this, but without the crown, as a quartering in his standard: its first
appearance on the Royal Standard of England.
Why Henry VIII. substituted the harp for the three crowns is not really
known. Some would have us believe that the king was apprehensive that the
three crowns might be taken as symbolising the triple crown of the Pope;
while others suggest that Henry, being presented by the Pope with the
supposed harp of Brian Boru, was induced to change the arms of Ireland by
placing on her coins the representation of this relic of her most
celebrated native king. The Earl of Northampton, writing in the reign of
James I., suggests yet a third explanation. "The best reason," saith he,
"that I can observe for the bearing thereof is, it resembles that country
in being such an instrument that it requires more cost to keep it in tune
than it is worth."[20] {34}
The Royal Standard should only be hoisted when the Sovereign or some member
of the royal family is actually within the palace or castle, or at the
saluting point, or on board the vessel where we see it flying, though this
rule is by no means observed in practice. The only exception really
permitted to this is that on certain royal anniversaries it is hoisted at
some few fortresses at home and abroad that are specified in the Queen's
Regulations.
The Royal Standard of England was, we have seen, in its earliest form a
scarlet flag, having three golden lions upon it, and it was so borne by
Richard I., John, Henry III., Edward I., and Edward II. Edward III. also
bore it for the first thirteen years of his reign, so that this simple but
beautiful flag was the royal banner for over one hundred and fifty years.
Edward III., on his claim in the year 1340 to be King of France as well as
of England, quartered the golden fleurs-de-lys of that kingdom with the
lions of England.[21] This remained the Royal Standard throughout the rest
of his long reign. Throughout the reign of Richard II. (1377 to 1399) the
royal banner was divided in half by an upright line, all on the outer half
being like that of Edward III., while the half next the staff was the
golden cross and martlets on the blue ground, assigned to Edward the
Confessor, his patron saint, as shown in Fig. 19. On the accession of Henry
IV. to the throne, the cross and martlets disappeared, and he reverted to
the simple quartering of France and England.
Originally the fleurs-de-lys were scattered freely over the field, _semée_
or sown, as it is termed heraldically, so that besides several in the
centre that showed their complete form, others at the margin were more or
less imperfect. On turning to Fig. 188, an early French flag, we see this
disposition of them very clearly. Charles V. of France in the year 1365
reduced the number to three, as in Fig. 184, whereupon Henry IV. of England
followed suit; his Royal Standard is shown in Fig. 22. This remained the
Royal Standard throughout the reigns of Henry V., Henry VI., Edward IV.,
Edward V., Richard III., Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary and
Elizabeth--a period of two hundred years.
On the accession of the House of Stuart, the flag was rearranged. Its first
and fourth quarters were themselves quartered again, these small
quarterings being the French fleur-de-lys and the English lions; while the
second quarter was the lion of Scotland, and the third the Irish harp; the
first appearance of either of these latter kingdoms in the Royal Standard.
This form remained in use throughout the reigns of James I., Charles I.,
Charles II., and James II. The last semblance of dominion in France had
long {35} since passed away, but it will be seen that alike on coinage,
arms, and Standard the fiction was preserved, and Londoners may see at
Whitehall the statue still standing of James II., bearing on its pedestal
the inscription--"_Jacobus secundus Dei Gratia Angliæ, Scotiæ, Franciæ et
Hiberniæ Rex_."
During the Protectorate, both the Union Flag and the Standard underwent
several modifications, but the form that the personal Standard of Cromwell
finally assumed may be seen in Fig. 83, where the Cross of St. George for
England, St. Andrew for Scotland, and the harp for Ireland, symbolise the
three kingdoms, while over all, on a shield, are placed the personal arms
of the Protector--a silver lion rampant on a sable field.
William III., on his landing in England, displayed a standard which varied
in many respects from those of his royal predecessors, since it contained
not only the arms themselves, but these were represented as displayed on an
escutcheon, surmounted by the crown, and supported on either side by the
lion and unicorn. Above all this was the inscription "For the Protestant
Religion and the Liberties of England,"[22] while beneath it was "je
maintiendray." The arms on the shield are too complex for adequate
description without the aid of a diagram; suffice it to say that in
addition to the insignia of England, Scotland, Ireland, and France, were
eight others dealing with the devices of smaller Continental possessions
appertaining to the new monarch. When matters had settled down and his
throne was assured, the aggressive inscription, etc., disappeared, and the
Royal Standard of William and his Consort Mary, the daughter of King James,
reverted to the form used by the Stuart Sovereigns, plus in the centre a
small escutcheon bearing the arms of Nassau, these being a golden lion
rampant, surrounded by golden billets, upon a shield of azure.
The Royal Standard of Queen Anne bore the devices of England, Scotland,
Ireland, and France. On the accession of George I. the arms of Hanover were
added, and from 1714 to 1801 the flag was as shown in Fig. 43. The flag of
Anne was very similar to this, only instead of Hanover in the fourth
quarter, the arms of England and Scotland, as we see them in the first
quarter, were simply repeated in the fourth.
The Hanoverian quarter, Fig. 43, was made up as follows:--The two lions on
the red field are the device of Brunswick; the blue lion rampant,
surrounded by the red hearts, is the device of Lunenburg; the galloping
white horse is for Saxony; and over all is the golden crown of Charlemagne
as an indication of the claim set up of being the successor of that potent
Sovereign. The horse {36} of Saxony is said to have been borne sable by the
early kings, previous to the conversion to Christianity of Witekind, A.D.
785. Verstigan, however, tells us that the ensign of Hengist at the time of
the invasion of England by the Saxons was a leaping white horse on a red
ground. The white horse is still the county badge for Kent. The flag, as we
see it in Fig. 43, was that of George I. and George II., and remained in
use until the forty-second year of the reign of George III.
On January 2nd, 1801, the Fleurs-de-lys of France were at length removed,
and the flag had its four quarters as follows:--First and fourth England,
second Scotland, and third Ireland; the arms of Hanover being placed on a
shield in the centre of the flag. This remained the Royal Standard during
the rest of the reign of George III., and throughout the reigns of George
IV. and William IV. On the accession of Victoria the operation of the
Salique law severed the connexion of Hanover with England, and the present
Royal Standard is as shown in Fig. 44, being in its arrangement similar to
that of George IV. and William IV., except that the small central shield,
bearing the arms of Hanover, is now removed.[23]
We turn now to the National Flag. As the feudal constitution of the
fighting force passed away, the use of private banners disappeared, and
men, instead of coming to the field as the retainers of some great nobleman
and fighting under his leadership and beneath his flag, were welded into a
national army under the direct command of the king and such leaders as he
might appoint. The days when a great noble could change the fortunes of the
day by withdrawing his vassals or transferring himself and them, on the eve
of the fight, to the opposing party, were over, and men fought no longer in
the interests of Warwick or of Percy, but in the cause of England and
beneath the banner of St. George, the national Patron Saint.
"Thou, amongst those saints whom thou dost see,
Shall be a saint, and thine own nation's frend
And patron: thou Saint George shalt called bee,
Saint George of Mery England, the sign of victoree."[24]
{37}
At the siege of Antioch, according to Robertus Monachus, a Benedictine of
Rheims who flourished about the year 1120, and wrote a history of the
Crusade, "Our Souldiers being wearied with the long continuance of the
Battaile, and seeing that the number of enemies decreased not, began to
faint; when suddenly an infinite number of Heavenly Souldiers all in white
descended from the Mountains, the Standard-bearer and leaders of them being
Saint George, Saint Maurice, and Saint Demetrius, which when the Bishop of
Le Puy first beheld he cryed aloud unto his troopes, 'There are they (saith
he) the succours which in the name of God I promised to you.' The issue of
the miracle was this, that presently the enemies did turne their backs and
lost the field: these being slaine, 100,000 horse, beside foot innumerable,
and in their trenches such infinite store of victuals and munition found
that served not only to refresh the wearied Christians, but to confound the
enemy." This great victory at Antioch led to the recovery of Jerusalem. At
the Crusades England, Arragon, and Portugal all assumed St. George as their
patron saint.
Throughout the Middle Ages the war-cry of the English was the name of this
patron saint. "The blyssed and holy Martyr Saynt George is patron of this
realme of Englande, and the crye of men of warre," we read in the "Golden
Legend," and readers of Shakespeare will readily recall illustrations. Thus
in "King Richard II." we read:--
"Sound drums and trumpets, boldly and cheerfully,
God and St. George! Richard and victory."
or again in "King Henry V." where the king at the siege of Harfleur cries,
"The game's afoot,
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry, God for Harry, England, and St. George!"
while in "King Henry VI." we find the line,
"Then strike up, drums--God and St. George for us!"[25]
At the battle of Poitiers, September 19th, 1356, upon the advance of the
English, the Constable of France threw himself, Lingard tells us, across
their path with the battle shout, "Mountjoy, St. Denis," which was at once
answered by "St. George, St. George," and in the onrush of the English the
Duke and the greater part of his {38} followers were swept away, and in a
few minutes slain. In an interesting old poem on the siege of Rouen in
1418, written by an eye-witness, we read that on the surrender of the city,
"Whanne the gate was openyd there
And thay weren ready in to fare,
Trumpis blew ther bemys of bras,
Pipis and clarionys forsoothe ther was.
And as they entrid thay gaf a schowte
With ther voyce that was full stowte,
Seint George! Seint George! thay criden on height
And seide, Welcome oure kynges righte!"
We have before us, as we write, "The story of that most blessed Saint and
Souldier of Christ Jesus, St. George of Cappadocia," as detailed by Peter
Heylyn, and published in 1633, and the temptation to quote at length from
it is great, as it is full of most interesting matter, but into the history
of St. George space forbids us to go at any length. The author of the
"Seven Champions of Christendom" makes St. George to be born of English
parentage at Coventry, but for this there is no authority whatever, and all
other writers make Cappadocia his birthplace. The history of St. George is
more obscure than that of any name of equal eminence in the Calendar.
According to the "Acta Sanctorum" he was the son of noble parents, became
famous as a soldier, and, embracing Christianity, was tortured to death at
Nicomedia in the year 303.
"The hero won his well-earned place,
Amid the Saints, in death's dread hour;
And still the peasant seeks his grave,
And, next to God, reveres his power.
In many a Church his form is seen,
With sword, and shield, and helmet sheen;
Ye know him by his shield of pride,
And by the dragon at his side."
As Patron Saint, the dragon vanquisher is still seen on our crowns and
sovereigns, and reference to such a book as Ruding's history of our coinage
will show that it has for centuries been a popular device.
In 1245, on St. George's Day, Frederic of Austria instituted an order of
knighthood and placed it under the guardianship of the soldier-saint, and
its white banner, bearing the ruddy cross, floated in battle alongside that
of the Empire. In like manner on St. George's Day, in the year 1350, Edward
III. of England instituted the order of the Garter with great solemnity.
{39}
St. George's Day, April 23rd, has too long been suffered to pass almost
unregarded. The annual festivals of St. Andrew, St. Patrick, and St. David
are never overlooked by the members of the various nationalities, and it
seems distinctly a thing to be regretted that the Englishman should allow
the name day of his Patron Saint to pass unnoticed.[26] Whatever conduces
to the recognition of national life is valuable, and anything that reminds
Englishmen of their common ties and common duties--and reminds them, too,
of their glorious heritage in the past--should scarcely be allowed to fall
into disuse. Butler, in his "Lives of the Fathers and Martyrs," tell us
that at the great National Council, held at Oxford in 1222, it was
commanded that the Feast of St. George should be kept. In the year 1415, by
the Constitutions of Archbishop Chichely, St. George's Day was made one of
the greater feasts and ordered to be observed the same as Christmas Day. In
1545 a special collect, epistle, and gospel were prepared, and at the
Reformation, when many of the Saints' Days were swept away, this was
preserved with all honour, and it was not till the sixth year of the reign
of Edward VI., when another revision was made, that in "The Catalogue of
such Festivals as are to be Observed" St. George's day was omitted.
The Cross of St. George was worn as a badge,[27] over the armour, by every
English soldier in the fourteenth and subsequent centuries, even if the
custom did not prevail at a much earlier period. The following extract from
the ordinances made for the government of the army with which Richard II.
invaded Scotland in 1386, is a good illustration of this, wherein it is
ordered "that everi man of what estate, condicion, or nation thei be of, so
that he be of owre partie, here a signe of the armes of Saint George,
large, bothe before and behynde, upon parell that yf he be slayne or
wounded to deth, he that hath so doon to hym shall not be putte to deth for
defaulte of the cross that he lacketh. And that non enemy do bere the same
token or crosse of Saint George, notwithstandyng if he be prisoner, upon
payne of deth." It was the flag of battle, and we see it represented in the
old prints and illuminations that deal with military operations both on
land and sea. Ordinarily it is the Cross of St. George, pure and simple, as
shown in Fig. 91, while at {40} other times, as in Figs. 66, 67, 68, it
forms a portion only of the flag. The red cross on the white field was the
flag under which the great seamen of Elizabeth's reign traded, explored, or
fought; the flag that Drake bore round the world--that Frobisher unfolded
amidst the Arctic solitudes--that gallant Englishmen, the wide world over,
bore at the call of duty and died beneath, if need be, for the honour of
the old home land; and to this day the flag of the English Admiral is the
same simple and beautiful device, and the white ensign of the British Navy,
Fig. 95, is similar, except that it bears, in addition, the Union; while
the Union flag itself, Fig. 90, bears conspicuously the ruddy cross of the
warrior Saint.
Figs. 26, 27, 74 and 140 are all sea-pennants bearing the Cross of St.
George. The first of these is from a painting of H.M.S. _Tiger_, painted by
Van de Velde, while Fig. 27 is flying from one of the ships represented in
the picture by Volpe of the embarkation of Henry VIII. from Dover on his
way to the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Fig. 74 is from a picture of H.M.S.
_Lion_, engaging the French ship _Elisabethe_, on July 9th, 1745, the
latter being fitted out to escort the Young Pretender to Scotland. Though
the red, white, and blue stripes suggest the French tricolor, their
employment in the pennant has, of course, no reference to France. The
_Lion_ had at the foremast the plain red streamer seen at Fig. 25. Fig. 140
is the pennant flown at the present day by all Colonial armed vessels,
while the pennant of the Royal Navy is purely white, with the exception of
the Cross of St. George. In a picture by Van de Velde, the property of the
Queen, representing a sea fight on August 11th, 1673, between the English,
French, and Dutch, we see some of the vessels with streamers similar to
Fig. 140, thus ante-dating the Colonial flag by over two hundred years.
As we have at the present time the white ensign, Fig. 95, the special flag
of the Royal Navy; the blue ensign, Fig. 96, the distinguishing flag of the
Royal Naval Reserve; and the red ensign, Fig. 97, the flag of the Merchant
Service, each with the Union in the upper corner next the mast, so in
earlier days we find the white flag, Fig. 65, the red flag, Fig. 66, and
the blue, each having in the upper corner the Cross of St. George. Fig. 69
becomes, by the addition of the blue, a curious modification of Fig. 66. It
is from a sea piece of the sixteenth century. It was displayed at the poop
of a vessel, while Fig. 79 is the Jack on the bowsprit.
A hundred years ago or so, we may see that there was a considerable variety
in the flags borne by our men-o'-war. Such galleries as those at Hampton
Court or Greenwich afford many examples of this in the pictures there
displayed. In a picture of a battle off Dominica, on April 12th, 1782, we
find, one of the English {41} ships has two great square flags on the
foremast, the upper one being plain red, and the lower one half blue and
half white in horizontal stripes, while the main mast is surmounted by the
Cross of St. George, and below it a tricolor of red, white, and blue in
horizontal stripes. Other ships show equally curious variations, though we
need not stop to detail them, except that in one case both fore and mizen
masts are surmounted by plain red flags. In a picture of Rodney's Action
off Cape St. Vincent, on January 16th, 1780, we meet with all these flags
again. In the representation of an action between an English and French
fleet on May 3rd, 1747, off Cape Finisterre, we notice that the English
ships have a blue ensign at the poop, and one of them has a great plain
blue flag at the foremast, and a great plain red flag at the main-mast
head. In a picture of the taking of Portobello, November 21st, 1739, we
notice the same thing again. These plain surfaces of blue or red are very
curious. It will naturally occur to the reader that these are signal flags,
but anyone seeing the pictures would scarcely continue to hold that view,
as their large size precludes the idea. In the picture of H.M.S. _Tiger_
that we have already referred to, the flag with five red stripes that we
have represented in Fig. 70 is at the poop, while from the bow is hoisted a
flag of four stripes, and from the three mastheads are flags, having three
red stripes. These striped red and white flags may often be seen.
Perhaps the most extraordinary grouping of flags may be seen in a picture
of a naval review in the reign of George I. It was on exhibition at the
Great Naval Exhibition at Chelsea, and is in private ownership. All the
vessels are dressed in immense flags, and these are of the most varied
description. It must be borne in mind that these are government bunting,
not the irresponsible vagaries of private eccentricity. Besides the
reasonable and orthodox flags, such as those represented in Figs. 65, 66,
and others of equal propriety, we find one striped all over in red, white,
blue, red, white, blue, in six horizontal stripes. Another, with a yellow
cross on a white ground; a third, a white eagle on a blue field; another, a
red flag inscribed--"For the Protestant Religion and the Liberty of
England"; while another is like Fig. 65, only instead of having a red cross
on white, it has a blue one instead. An altogether strange assortment.
Figs. 67, 68, 72, and 78 are flags of the London Trained Bands of the year
1643. The different regiments were known by the colour of their flags, thus
Fig. 67 is the flag of the blue regiment, Fig. 68 of the yellow, Fig. 72 of
the green, and Fig. 78 of the yellow regiment auxiliaries. Other flags were
as follows:--white, with red lozenges; green, with golden wavy rays;
orange, with white trefoils; in each case the Cross of St. George being in
the canton. {42} In a list before us of the Edinburgh Trained Bands for
1685 we find that the different bodies are similarly distinguished by
colours.[28]
On the union of the two crowns at the accession of James VI. of Scotland
and I. of England to the English throne, the Cross of St. Andrew, Fig. 92,
was combined with that of St. George.
The Cross of St. Andrew has been held in the same high esteem north of the
Tweed that the Southrons have bestowed on the ensign of St. George. It will
be seen that it is shaped like the letter X. Tradition hath it that the
Saint, deeming it far too great an honour to be crucified as was his Lord,
gained from his persecutors the concession of this variation. It is
legendarily asserted that this form of cross appeared in the sky to
Achaius, King of the Scots, the night before a great battle with
Athelstane, and, being victorious, he went barefoot to the church of St.
Andrew, and vowed to adopt his cross as the national device. The sacred
monogram that replaced the Roman eagles under Constantine, the cross on the
flag of Denmark, the visions of Joan of Arc, and many other suchlike
illustrations, readily occur to one's mind as indicative of the natural
desire to see the potent aid of Heaven visibly manifested in justification
of earthly ambitions, or a celestial support and encouragement in time of
national discomfiture.
Figs. 75 and 76 are examples of the Scottish red and blue ensigns. The
first of these is from a picture at Hampton Court, where a large Scottish
warship is represented as having a flag of this character at the main, and
smaller but similar colours at the other mastheads and on the bowsprit.
The famous banner, the historic "blue blanket," borne by the Scots in the
Crusades, was on its return deposited over the altar of St. Eloi in St.
Giles' Church, Edinburgh, and the queen of James II., we read, painted on
its field of azure the white Cross of St. Andrew, the crown, and the
thistle. St. Eloi was the patron saint of blacksmiths, and this craft was
made the guardian of the flag, and it became the symbol of the associated
trades of ancient Edinburgh. King James VI., when venting his indignation
against his too independent subjects, exclaimed, "The craftsmen think we
should be contented with their work, and if in anything they be controlled,
then up goes the blue blanket." The craftsmen were as independent and
difficult to manage as the London Trained Bands often proved, but King
James VI. found it expedient to confirm them in {43} all their privileges,
and ordered that the flag should at all times be known as the Standard of
the Crafts, and later Sovereigns found it impossible to take away these
privileges when they had once been granted. This flag was borne at Flodden
Field. Beside the cross, crown, and thistle it bore on a scroll on the
upper part of the flag the inscription, "Fear God and honor the king with a
long lyffe and prosperous reigne," and on the lower portion the words, "And
we that is trades shall ever pray to be faithfull for the defence of his
Sacred Majesties' persone till deathe," an inscription that scarcely seems
to harmonise with the turbulent spirit that scandalised this sovereign so
greatly.
The flags borne by the Covenanters in their struggle for liberty varied
much in their details, but in the great majority of cases bore upon them
the Cross of St. Andrew, often accompanied by the thistle, and in most
cases by some form of inscription. Several of these are still extant. In
one that was borne at Bothwell Brig, and now preserved in the Museum of the
Society of Antiquaries, Edinburgh, the four blue triangles (see Fig. 92 for
these) are filled with the words, "For Religion----Couenants----King----and
Kingdomes." The Avondale flag was a white one, having the cross, white on
blue, as in Fig. 75, in the corner. On the field of the flag was the
inscription, "Avondale for Religion, Covenant, and King,"[29] and beneath
this a thistle worked in the national green and crimson. A very interesting
Exhibition of Scottish national memorials was held at Glasgow in 1888, and
many of these old Covenant flags were there displayed. At the great
Heraldic Exhibition held in Edinburgh in 1891, one of the most interesting
things shown was the Cavers Standard. This is of sage green silk, twelve
feet by three. It bears the Cross of St. Andrew next the staff, and divers
other devices are scattered over the rest of the flag. It is in excellent
preservation, and its special interest lies in the fact that it is said to
have been the standard of James, second Earl of Douglas and Mar, and borne
by his son at the battle of Otterburn in the year 1388. If this be so it is
one of the oldest flags in existence.
On the signet-ring of Mary Queen of Scots the white Cross of St. Andrew is
not shown on its usual blue ground, but on a ground striped blue and
yellow, the royal colours; in the same way that the St. George's Cross is
shown in Fig. 71, not on a {44} white ground, but on a ground striped white
and green, the Tudor colours.
Why St. Andrew was selected to be the Patron Saint of Scotland has never
been satisfactorily settled.[30] Some uncharitable enquirer has hazarded
the explanation that it was because it was this Apostle who discovered the
lad who had the loaves and fishes. Others tell us that one Hungus, a
Pictish prince, dreamt that the Saint was to be his champion in a fight
just then pending with the men of Northumbria, and that a cross--the symbol
of the crucifixion of this Apostle--appeared in the sky, the celestial omen
strengthening the hearts and arms of the men of Hungus to such effect that
the Northumbrians were completely routed. Should neither of these
explanations appear sufficiently explanatory, we can offer yet a third. On
the martyrdom of St. Andrew, in the year 69, at Patræ, in Achaia, his
remains were carefully preserved as relics, but in the year 370, Regulus,
one of the Greek monks who had them in their keeping, was warned in a
vision that the Emperor Constantine was proposing to translate these
remains to Constantinople, and that he must at once visit the shrine and
remove thence an arm bone, three fingers of the right hand, and a tooth,
and carry them away over sea to the west. Regulus was much troubled at the
vision, but hastened to obey it, so putting the relics into a chest he set
sail with some half-dozen other ecclesiastics, to whom he confided the
celestial instructions that he had received. After a stormy voyage the
vessel was at last dashed upon a rock, and Regulus and his companions
landed on an unknown shore, and found themselves in a dense and gloomy
forest. Here they were presently discovered by the aborigines, whose leader
listened to their story and gave them land on which to build a church for
the glory of God and the enshrining of the relics. This inhospitable shore
proved to be that of "Caledonia, stern and wild," and the little forest
church and hamlet that sprang up around it were the nucleus that thence and
to the present day have been known as St. Andrews, a thriving, busy town in
Fife, and for centuries the seat of a bishopric. On July 5th, 1318, Robert
the Bruce repaired hither and testified his gratitude to God for the
victory vouchsafed to the Scots at Bannockburn by the intercession of St.
Andrew, guardian of the realm, when thirty thousand Scots defeated one
hundred thousand Englishmen. What St. George could have been doing to allow
this, seems a very legitimate question, but we can scarcely wonder that the
Scots should very gladly appoint so potent a protector their patron, and
look to him for succour in all their national difficulties.
On the blending of the two kingdoms into one under the {45} sovereignty of
King James,[31] it became necessary to devise a new flag that should typify
this union and blend together the emblems of the puissant St. George and
the no less honoured St. Andrew, and the flag represented in Fig. 73 was
the result--the flag of the United Kingdoms of England and Scotland,
henceforth to be known as Great Britain.
The Royal Ordinance[32] ran as follows:--"Whereas some difference hath
arisen between our subjects of South and North Britain, travelling by seas,
about the bearing of their flags,--for the avoiding of all such contentions
hereafter we have, with the advice of our Council, ordered that from
henceforth all our subjects of this isle and kingdom of Greater Britain,
and the members thereof, shall bear in their maintop the Red Cross,
commonly called St. George's Cross, and the White Cross, commonly called
St. Andrew's Cross, joined together, according to a form made by our
Heralds, and sent by us to our Admiral to be published to our said
subjects: and in their fore-top our subjects of South Britain shall wear
the Red Cross only, as they were wont, and our subjects of North Britain in
their fore-top the White Cross only, as they were accustomed. Wherefore we
will and command all our subjects to be comparable and obedient to this our
order, and that from henceforth they do not use or bear their flags in any
other sort, as they will answer the contrary at their peril."
Such a proclamation was sorely needed, as there was much ill-will and
jealousy between the sailors and others of the two nationalities, and the
Union flag itself, when "our heralds" produced it, did not by any means
please the North, and the right to carry in fore-top the St. Andrew's Cross
pure and simple was a concession that failed to conciliate them. The great
grievance was that, as we see in Fig. 73, the Cross of St. George was
placed in front of that of St. Andrew, and the Scottish Privy Council, in a
letter dated Edinburgh, August 7th, 1606, thus poured forth their
feelings:--"Most sacred Soverayne, a greate nomber of the maisteris of the
schippis of this your Majesties kingdome hes verie havelie complenit to
your Majesties Counsell, that the forme and patrone of the flagges of
schippis sent down heir and command it to be ressavit and used be the
subjectis of both kingdomes is verie prejudiciall to the fredome and
dignitie of this Estate, and wil gif occasioun of reprotche to this natioun
quhairevir the said flage sal happin to be worne beyond sea, {46} becaus,
as your Sacred Majestie may persave, the Scottis Croce, callit Sanctandrois
Croce, is twyse divydit, and the Inglishe Croce, callit Sanct George,
drawne through the Scottis Croce, which is thereby obscurit, and no token
nor mark to be seene of the Scottis armes. This will breid some heit and
miscontentment betwix your Majesties subjectis, and it is to be feirit that
some inconvenientis sall fall oute betwix thame, for our seyfaring men
cannot be inducit to resave that flage as it is set down. They have drawne
two new drauchtis and patrones as most indifferent for both kingdomes,
whiche they presentid to the Counsell, and craved our approbation of the
same, but we haif reserved that to your Majestie's princelie
determinatioun, as moir particularlie the Erll of Mar, who was present, and
herd their complaynt, and to whom we haif remittit the discourse and
delyverie of that mater, will informe your Majestie and let your Heynes see
the errour of the first patrone and the indifferencie of the two newe
drauchties." These draughts are not to be found, nor does it appear that
any notice was taken of the complaint.
The Scottish Union flag, as carefully depicted in a scarce little work
published in 1701, and entitled "The Ensigns, Colours, and Flags of the
Ships at Sea, belonging to the several Princes and States in the World,"
may be seen in Fig. 88. In it will be noted that the Cross of St. Andrew is
placed in front of that of St. George--anyone comparing Figs. 73 and 88
will readily see wherein they differ. Though its appearance in a book of
sea-flags would seem to imply that such a flag had been made, we know of no
other instance of it. Fig. 84 was also suggested as a solution of the
problem, but here we get false heraldry, the blue in contact with the red,
and in any case a rather weak-looking arrangement.
The painful truth is that when two persons ride the same animal they cannot
both be in front, and no amount of heraldic ingenuity will make two devices
on a flag to be of equal value. The position next the staff is accounted
more honourable than that remote from it, and the upper portion of the flag
is more honourable than the lower.[33] At first sight it might appear that
matters are impartially dealt out in Fig. 81, but the position next the
staff is given to St. George, and in the quartered arrangement, Fig. 85,
the same holds true. Both these were suggestions made at the time the
difficulty was felt, but both were discarded in favour of the arrangement
shown in Fig. 73.
This Union Flag is not very often met with. It occurrs on one of the great
seals of Charles II., and is seen also as a Jack on the {47} bowsprits of
ships in paintings of early naval battles. It may, by good fortune, be seen
also on the two colours of the 82nd regiment that in the year 1783 were
suspended in St. Giles', Edinburgh, and a very good illustration of it may
be seen in the National Gallery, where, in a battle scene by Copley,
representing the death of Major Peirson, at St. Helier, Jersey, on January
6th, 1781, this Union flag is conspicuous in the centre of the picture. We
have it again in Fig 57, the original flag of the East India Company; the
difference between this and the second Union Flag, made on the admission of
Ireland's Cross of St. Patrick, may be very well seen on a comparison of
Figs. 57 and 61. We have it again in Figs. 142 and 143, flags of the
revolting American Colonists before they had thrown off all allegiance to
the Old Country.
A knowledge of the history of the flag has not only interest, but is of
some little importance. We remember seeing a picture of the sailing of the
_Mayflower_, in which, by a curious lack of a little technical knowledge,
the flag depicted was the Union Flag of to-day, which did not come into
existence until the first year of the present century, whereas the historic
event represented in the picture took place in the year 1620. In a fresco
in the House of Lords, representing Charles II. landing in England,[34] the
artist has introduced a boat bearing the present Union Flag. In each of
these cases it is evident that it should have been the first Union--that of
England and Scotland--that the flag should have testified to.
Charles I. issued a proclamation on May 5th, 1634, forbidding any but the
Royal ships to carry the Union flag; all merchantmen, according to their
nationality, being required to show either the Cross of St. George or that
of St. Andrew. Queen Anne, on July 28th, 1707, required that merchant
vessels should fly a red flag "with a Union Jack described in a canton at
the upper corner thereof, next the staff," while the Union Flag, as before,
was reserved for the Royal Navy. This merchant flag, if we cut out the
inscription there shown, would be similar to Fig. 142. This is interesting,
because, after many changes, so lately as October 18th, 1864, it was
ordered that the red ensign once again should be the distinguishing flag of
the commercial marine; the present flag is given in Fig. 97. It is further
interesting because this proclamation of Queen Anne's is the first time
that the term Union Jack, so far as we are aware, is officially used.
Technically, our national banner should be called the Union Flag, though in
ordinary parlance it is always called the Union Jack. {48} The latter flag
is a diminutive of the former, and the term ought in strictness to be
confined to the small Union Flag flown from the Jack-staff on the bowsprit
of a ship. The Union Flag is, besides this, only used as the special
distinguishing flag of an Admiral of the Fleet, when it is hoisted at the
main top-gallant mast-head, and when the Sovereign is on board a vessel, in
which case the Royal Standard is flown at the main and the Union at the
mizen. With a white border round it, as in Fig. 104, it is the signal for a
pilot: hence this is called the Pilot Jack. The sea flags now in use are
the white, red, and blue ensigns, Figs. 95, 96, 97, to be hereafter
described, while the Union flag is devoted especially to land service,
being hoisted on fortresses and government offices, and borne by the
troops.
Why the flag should be called "Jack" at all has been the subject of much
controversy. It is ordinarily suggested that the derivation is from
Jacques, the French word for James, the Union Jack springing into existence
under his auspices. Why it should be given this French name does not seem
very clear, except that many of the terms used in blazonry are French in
their origin. It never seems to have been suggested that, granting the
reference to King James, the Latin Jacobus would be a more appropriate
explanation, as the Latin names of our kings have for centuries supplanted
the earlier Norman-French on their coins, seals, and documents. Several
other theories have been broached, of varying degrees of improbability; one
of these deriving it from the word "jaque"[35] (hence our modern jacket),
the surcoat worn over the armour in mediæval days. This, we have seen, had
the Cross of St. George always represented on it; but there is no proof
that the jaque was ever worn with the union of the two crosses upon it, so
that the derivation breaks down just at the critical point. The present
flag came into existence in the reign of King George, but no one ever
dreams on this account, or any other, of calling it the Union George.
On the death of Charles I., the partnership between England and Scotland
was dissolved, and the Union Flag, Fig. 73, therefore, was disestablished,
and was only restored in the general Restoration, when the Commonwealth and
Protectorate had run their course, and Charles II. ascended the throne of
his forefathers.
The earliest Commonwealth Flag was a simple reversion to the Cross of St.
George, Fig. 91. At a meeting of the Council of State, held on February
22nd, 1648-49, it was "ordered that the ships at sea in service of the
State shall onely beare the red Crosse {49} in a white flag. That the
engravings upon the Sterne of ye ships shall be the Armes of England and
Ireland in two Scutcheons, as is used in the Seals, and that a warrant be
issued to ye Commissioners of ye Navy to see it put in execution with all
speed." The communication thus ordered to be made to the Commissioners was
in form a letter from the President of the Council as follows:--"To ye
Commissioners of ye Navy.--Gentlemen,--There hath beene a report made to
the Councell by Sir Henry Mildmay of your desire to be informed what is to
be borne in the flaggs of those Ships that are in the Service of the State,
and what to be upon the Sterne in lieu of the Armes formerly thus engraven.
Upon the consideration of the Councell whereof, the Councell have resolved
that they shall beare the Red Crosse only in a white flagg, quite through
the flagg. And that upon the Sterne of the Shipps there shall be the Red
Crosse in one Escotcheon, and the Harpe in one other, being the Armes of
England and Ireland, both Escotcheons joyned according to the pattern
herewith sent unto you. And you are to take care that these Flaggs may be
provided with all expedition for the Shipps for the Summer Guard, and that
these engraveings may also be altered according to this direction with all
possible expedition.--Signed in ye name and by order of ye Councell of
State appointed by Authority of Parliament.--Ol. Cromwell, Derby House,
February 23rd, 1648."
In a Council meeting held on March 5th, considerably within a month of the
one we have just referred to, it is "ordered that the Flagg that is to be
borne by the Admiral, Vice-Admiral, and Rere-Admiral be that now presented,
viz., the Armes of England and Ireland in two severall Escotcheons in a Red
Flagg, within a compartment."[36] This arrangement may be seen in Fig. 82.
A Commonwealth flag that is still preserved at the dockyard, Chatham,
differs slightly from this. The ground of the flag is red, but the shields
are placed directly upon it without any intervening gold border, and around
them is placed a large wreath of palm and laurel in dark green colour.
In the year 1787 an interesting book called the "Respublica" was published;
the author, Sir John Prestwich, deriving much of his material from MSS.
left by an ancestor of his who lived during the Interregnum. In this the
reader may find full descriptions of many of the flags of the
Parliamentarians. One of these is much like the Chatham example already
referred to, except that the ground of the flag is blue, and that outside
the shields, but within the wreath, is found the inscription--"_Floreat
Respublica._" {50}
The flag of the Commonwealth was borne to victory at Dunbar, Worcester, and
many another hard-fought field, and under its folds Blake, Monk, and other
gallant leaders gained glorious victories over the Dutch and Spaniards, and
made the English name feared in every sea.
"Of wind's and water's rage they fearful be,
But much more fearful are your flags to see.
Day, that to those who sail upon the deep,
More wish'd for and more welcome is than sleep,
They dreaded to behold, lest the sun's light
With English streamers should salute their sight."[37]
It was not until the year 1651 that Scotland was brought under the sway of
the Commonwealth, and the ordinance for its full union with England and
Ireland was not promulgated until April 12th, 1654. Somewhat later an Order
of Council recognised the new necessities of the case, and decreed that the
Standard for the Protectorate be as shown in Fig. 83. England and Scotland
are here represented by their respective crosses, while Ireland, instead of
having the Cross of St. Patrick, is represented by the harp. In Fig. 80 all
three crosses are introduced, but there seems somewhat too much white in
this latter flag for an altogether successful effect, and the blue of the
Irish quarter, balancing the blue of the Scottish, is more pleasing. The
Union Flag underwent yet another modification, and instead of being like
Figs. 82 or 86, the Union Flag of James I., Fig. 73, was reverted to, and
in the centre of the flag was placed a golden harp--"the Armes of England
and Scotland united, according to the anncient form, with the addicion of
the harpe." On the restoration of Charles II. this harp was removed, and
Ireland does not appear again in the Union Flag, Fig. 73, until January
1st, 1801.
A pattern farthing of this period--preserved in the magnificent numismatic
collection in the British Museum--shows on its reverse a three-masted ship:
at the stern is a large flag divided vertically, like Fig. 86, into two
compartments, the Cross of St. George in one and the harp in the other; the
main and mizen masts are shown with flags containing St. George's Cross
only, as in Fig. 91, while the foremast bears a flag with St. Andrew's
Cross upon it, a flag similar to Fig. 92.
For nearly fifty years before its rise, and for nearly one hundred and
fifty years after the downfall of the Protectorate, that is to say from
1602 to 1649 and from 1659 to 1801, the Union Flag was as shown in Fig. 73,
but in 1801 the Legislative Union of Ireland with Great Britain was
effected, and a new Union Flag, the one now in {51} use, was devised. This
may be seen in Fig. 90, the noblest flag that flies under heaven.
Though the National Flag is primarily just so much silk or bunting, its
design and colouring are full of meaning: and though its prime cost may be
but a few shillings, its value is priceless, for the national honour is
enwrapped in its folds, and the history of centuries is figured in the
symbolism of its devices. It represents to us all that patriotism means. It
is the flag of freedom and of the greatest empire that the world has ever
known. Over three hundred millions of people--in quiet English shires, amid
Canadian snows, on the torrid plains of Hindustan, amidst the busy energy
of the great Australian group of colonies, or the tropical luxuriance of
our West Indian possessions--are to-day enjoying liberty and peace beneath
its shelter. Countless thousands have freely given their lives to preserve
its blazonry unstained from dishonour and defeat, and it rests with us now
to keep the glorious record as unsullied as of old; never to unfurl our
Union Flag in needless strife, but, when once given to the breeze, to
emulate the deeds of our forefathers, and to inscribe on its folds fresh
records of duty nobly done.
How the form known as St. Patrick's Cross, Fig. 93, became associated with
that worthy is not by any means clear. It is not found amongst the emblems
of Saints, and its use is in defiance of all ecclesiastical tradition and
custom, as St. Patrick never in the martyrological sense had a cross at
all, for though he endured much persecution he was not actually called upon
to lay down his life for the Faith. It has been suggested, and with much
appearance of probability, that the X-like form of cross, both of the Irish
and of the Scotch, is derived from the sacred monogram on the Labarum of
Constantine, where the X is the first letter of the Greek word for Christ.
This symbolic meaning of the form might readily be adopted in the early
Irish Church, and thence be carried by missionaries to Scotland.
A life of St. Patrick was written by Probus, who lived in the seventh
century, and another by Jocelin, a Cistercian monk of the twelfth century,
and this latter quotes freely from four other lives of the Saint that were
written by his disciples.
St. Patrick was born in Scotland, near where Glasgow now stands. The date
of his birth was somewhere near the close of the fourth century, but as to
the year authorities differ widely--372, 455, 464, and 493 being all given
by various biographers.[38] His father was of good family, and, while the
future saint was still under the paternal roof, God manifested to him by
divers visions that he was {52} destined for the great work of the
conversion of Ireland, at that time plunged in idolatry. Hence he resigned
his birthright and social position, and devoted himself entirely to the
salvation of these barbarians, suffering at their hands and for their sakes
much persecution. He was ordained deacon and priest, and was ultimately
made a bishop. He travelled over the whole of Ireland founding monasteries
and filling the country with churches and schools of piety and learning.
Animated by a spirit of perfect charity and humility, he demonstrated not
only the faith but the spirit of his Master, and the result of his forty
years of labour was to change Ireland from a land of barbarism into a seat
of learning and piety, so that it received the title of the Island of
Saints, and was for centuries a land of mental and spiritual light.
On the Union of the Kingdom of Great Britain with Ireland in the year 1801,
the following notice was issued by Royal Authority:--"Proclamation, George
R.--Whereas by the First Article of the Articles of Great Britain and
Ireland it was declared: That the said Kingdoms of Great Britain and
Ireland should upon this day, being the First Day of January, in the Year
of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and One, for ever after be united
into One Kingdom, by the name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland: and that the Royal Style and Titles appertaining to the Imperial
Crown of the said United Kingdom and its Dependencies, and also the Ensigns
Armorial, Flags, and Banners thereof, should be such as We, by our Royal
Proclamation under the Great Seal of the said United Kingdom should
appoint: We have thought fit, by and with the advice of our Privy Council,
to appoint and declare that our Royal Style and Titles shall henceforth be
accepted, taken, and used as the same set forth in Manner and Form
following: Georgius Tertius, Dei Gratia, Britannarium Rex, Fidei Defensor;
and in the English Tongue by these words: George the Third, by the Grace of
God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, Defender of
the Faith; and that the Arms or Ensigns Armorial of the said United Kingdom
shall be Quarterly: first and fourth, England: second, Scotland: third,
Ireland: and it is Our Will and Pleasure that there shall be borne thereon
on an escutcheon of pretence, the Arms of Our Domains in Germany, ensigned
with the Electoral Bonnet:[39] And that the Union Flag shall be Azure, the
Crosses Saltire of St. Andrew and St. Patrick Quarterly, per Saltire
counterchanged Argent and Gules: the latter fimbriated of the second,
surmounted by the Cross of St. George of the third, fimbriated as the
Saltire." {53}
The heralds who devised the new flag of the extended Union, Fig. 90, have
been subjected to a very considerable amount of adverse criticism,[40] but
no one has really been able to suggest a better plan than theirs. It will
be noted in the illustration and in every Union flag that is made, that the
red Cross of St. Patrick, Fig. 93, is not in the centre of the white Cross,
Fig. 92, of St. Andrew. The scarlet Cross of St. George is equally fringed
on either side by the white border or fimbriation that represents the
original white field, Fig. 91, on which it was placed, and on the addition
of the white cross or saltire of St. Andrew on its field of blue, Fig. 92,
it fitted in very happily. When, however, another X-like cross had to be
provided for, on the admission of Ireland to the Union, a difficulty at
once arose. As the Irish Cross would, according to all rule and fairness,
be of the same width on the joint flag as that of St. Andrew, the result of
placing the second or red X over the first white one would be to entirely
obliterate the latter. Even then the Irish Cross would not be rightly
rendered, as it should be on a white ground, and by this method it would be
on a blue one, while if we placed the Irish Cross on that of St. Andrew,
but left a thin line of white on either side, St. Andrew's Cross would
still be obliterated, as the thin fimbriation of white would be the just
due of St. Patrick, and would not stand for St. Andrew at all. Besides,
Scottish indignation would not unjustly be aroused at the idea that their
noble white cross should become a mere edging to the symbol of St. Patrick.
Hence the somewhat awkward-looking compromise that breaks the continuity of
direction of the arms of the red cross of Ireland by its portions being
thrown out of the centre of the white oblique bands, so that in each
portion the crosses of Ireland and Scotland are clearly distinguished from
each other. This compromise notwithstanding, no more effective or beautiful
flag unfolds itself the round world over than the Union flag of Great
Britain and Ireland.
The crosses might have been quartered as we see them in Fig. 80, but it is
clearly better to preserve the idea of the unity and blend all three
crosses into one composition. No criticism or objection has ever come from
Ireland as to the Union flag, but even so lately as 1853 the Scotch renewed
their grievance against the Cross of St. Andrew being placed behind that of
St. George, "and having a red stripe run through the arms thereof, for
which there is no precedent in law or heraldry." If ever an Irishman cared
to hunt up a grievance, surely here is one at last--the cross of his patron
saint "a red stripe"! {54}
When the Union flag is flown, it should always be as we have drawn it in
Fig. 90, with the broad white stripe nearest to the head of the flagstaff.
It would be quite possible, our readers will see, on a little study of the
matter, to turn it with the red stripe uppermost; but this, as we have
indicated, is incorrect; and, trivial as the matter may appear, there is a
right and a wrong in it, and the point must not be overlooked.
Many suggestions at the time of the Union were made by divers writers in
the public prints, such as the _Gentleman's Magazine_, and the like. One
version preserved the flag of the first Union, Fig. 73, but placed in the
centre a large green circle having within it the golden harp of the Emerald
Isle; but this is objectionable, as it brings green on red, which is
heraldically false, and as Ireland has a cross as well as England and
Scotland, it seems more reasonable to keep the whole arrangement in
harmony. Another version, and by no means a bad one, is shown in Fig. 89,
where each cross is distinct from the two others. This appeared in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ for March 20th, 1803, and, like all the other
suggestions, good, bad, and indifferent, suffered from the fatal objection
that it saw the light when the whole matter was already settled and any
alteration scarcely possible.
In view of the changes from the simple Cross of St. George to its union
later on with that of St. Andrew, and later on still the union of both with
that of St. Patrick, it is sufficiently evident that Campbell's stirring
appeal to the mariners of England to defend the flag that for a thousand
years has braved the battle and the breeze, however excellent in spirit,
does not fit in with the literal facts, though we would not willingly
change it for such a version as
Ye mariners of England,
That guard our native seas:
Whose flag has braved since eighteen-one,
The battle and the breeze.
The "Queen's Regulations" are very precise as to the hoisting of the flag
at the various home and foreign stations and fortresses. Some few of these
have the Royal Standard for use on Royal Anniversaries and State occasions
only, and these flags are issued in two sizes--either twenty-four by twelve
feet, or twelve by six feet--according to the importance of the position;
thus Dover, Plymouth, and the Tower of London, for example, have the larger
size. In like manner the Union Flag is of two sizes: twelve by six feet, or
six by three feet. These flags at the various stations are either hoisted
on anniversaries only, or on Sundays in addition, or else daily; thus
Dover, besides its Standard, has a Union flag, twelve by six, for special
occasions, and another, six by three, {55} which is hoisted daily. Our
foreign stations, Bermuda, Cape of Good Hope, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Hong Kong,
Halifax, St. Helena, and so forth, are all equally rigidly provided for in
Regulations. There is no option anywhere in the matter. A particular
fortress has to fly a particular flag of a particular size on a particular
day.
The white ensign, Fig. 95, is the distinguishing flag of the Royal Navy. It
is hoisted at the peak of all vessels in commission, or in such other
conspicuous position of honour as their rig or (as in the case of some
ironclads) absence of rig will permit. It is a large white flag, having
upon it the Cross of St. George, the portion of the flag nearest the
mast-head being occupied by the Union.[41]
Until 1864 the Royal Navy was divided into the white, the blue, and the red
squadrons, distinguished by the flags shown in Figs. 95, 96, and 97, but
this arrangement, though it had lasted for over two hundred years,[42] was
found to have many inconveniences. It was very puzzling to foreigners, and
it was necessary that each vessel should have three sets of colours, so as
to be able to hoist the orthodox flag for the squadron in which, for the
time being, it might be placed. It was also a difficulty that peaceful
merchantmen were carrying a red ensign, Fig. 97, exactly similar to the war
flag of the vessels of the red squadron. It was inconvenient in action,
too; hence, Nelson at Trafalgar ordered the whole of his fleet to hoist the
white ensign. An Order of Council, dated October 18th, 1864, put an end to
this use of differing flags, declaring that henceforth the white ensign
alone should be the flag of the Royal Navy. In the old days the red was the
highest, the white the intermediate, and the blue the third in rank and
dignity.
Her Majesty's ships, when at anchor in home ports and roads, hoist their
colours at 8 o'clock in the morning from March 25th to September 20th, and
the rest of the year an hour later; and on foreign stations, at either of
these hours as the commanding officer shall direct; and either abroad or at
home they remain flying throughout the day until sunset.[43] When at sea,
on passing, meeting, {56} joining or parting from any other of Her
Majesty's ships or on falling in with any other ship the flag is hoisted,
and also when in sight of land, and especially when passing any fort,
battery, lighthouse, or town.
When salutes are fired on the occasion of a foreign national festival, such
as the birthday of the sovereign, the flag of the nation in question is
hoisted at the main during the salute and for such further time as the war
ships of such nation are be-flagged, but if none are present, then their
flag remains up till sunset. Should a British war vessel arrive at any
foreign fortified port, the flag of the foreign nation is hoisted at the
main during the exchange of salutes.
It is a rank offence for any vessel to fly any ensign or pendant similar to
those used in the Royal Navy. It will at once be boarded by any officer of
Her Majesty's Service, the offending colours seized, and the vessel
reported. The penalty for the offence is a very heavy one.
The admiral has as a flag the white flag with the Cross of St. George
thereon, Fig. 91, and this must be displayed at the main top-gallant
mast-head, since both the vice and rear-admirals are entitled to fly a
similar flag, but the former of these displays his from the fore, and the
latter from the mizen top-gallant mast-head; it being not the flag alone
but the position of it that is distinctive of rank. The commodore's broad
pendant is a very similar flag, but it tapers slightly, and is
swallow-tailed.
The "Naval Discipline Act," better known as "The Articles of War,"
commences with the true and noble words--"It is on the Navy, under the Good
Providence of God, that our Wealth, Prosperity, and Peace depend," and we
may trust that the glorious traditions of this great service may be
maintained to the full as effectually under the White Ensign as in any
former period for the defence of
"This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise;
This fortress built by nature for herself,
Against infection, and the hand of war;
This happy breed of men, this little world;
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands;
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England."
The blue ensign, Fig. 96, is the flag of the Royal Naval Reserve, and may
be flown by any merchant vessels that comply with the {57} Admiralty
conditions respecting that service. Such vessels must be commanded by
officers of the Reserve, and at least one-third of their crew must belong
to it: they then, the structural conditions being satisfactory, receive a
Government subvention and an Admiralty Warrant to fly the blue ensign.
Officers commanding Her Majesty's ships, meeting with ships carrying the
blue ensign, are authorised to go on board them at any convenient
opportunity and see that these conditions are strictly carried out,
provided that they are of superior rank to the officers of the Royal Naval
Reserve. The men of the Reserve receive an annual retainer and drill pay.
The number of men in the Reserve, at the time we write these lines, is
10,600 in the first class and 10,800 in the second. The first class Reserve
is composed of the men on the long voyage ships, the second being the
fishermen and coasting crews. In addition to this there are some 3,000
engineers and stokers, and some 1,500 or so of officers, all equally
prepared to rally to the pennant and to take their place in the national
defence.
This utilisation of the faster vessels of the Mercantile Marine as cruisers
in war time has seriously engaged the attention of the Admiralty. The
Government gives an annual subsidy, and then claims the right to the vessel
at a fixed charge in case of emergency. Such vessels would be of immense
service in time of war in many ways: for scouting, for transporting troops,
and for engaging such of the enemy as she felt fairly a match for. When,
some few years ago, it seemed as though war with Russia was imminent, the
_Massilia_ and the _Rosetta_ of the Peninsula and Oriental Company's fleet
were put in commission by telegraph at Sydney and Hong Kong respectively.
These vessels were provided at once with warlike stores, and were at gun
practice off the ports referred to a few hours after the receipt of
instructions, and ready to go anywhere. This Company, during the Crimean
War, carried over sixty thousand men to the scene of operations, and during
the Indian Mutiny, the war in the Soudan, and all other possible occasions,
has rendered the greatest aid to the State. The _Teutonic_ and the
_Majestic_, of the White Star Line, each carry twelve Armstrong guns, and
could either of them land two thousand infantry at Halifax in five days, or
at Bombay in fourteen days, or at Hong Kong in twenty-one; and many other
armed cruisers of the Mercantile Marine, that we need not stay to
particularise, could do as much, and as effectively, flying the Blue Ensign
as worthily as those we have named.
"Little England! Great in story!
Mother of immortal men!
Great in courage! Great in glory!
Dear to Freedom's tongue and pen!
{58}
If the world combine to brave thee,
English hearts will dare the fight,
English hands will glow to save thee,
Strong for England and the right!"[44]
The Red Ensign, represented in Fig. 97, is the special flag of the ordinary
merchantman. "The Red Ensign"--lays down the "Merchant Shipping (Colours)
Act"--"usually worn by merchant ships, without any defacement or
modification whatsoever, is hereby declared to be the proper national
colour of all ships and boats belonging to any subject of Her Majesty,
except in the case of Her Majesty's ships or boats, or in the case of any
other ship or boat for the time being allowed to wear any other national
colours, in pursuant of a Warrant from Her Majesty or from the Admiralty."
This Act goes on to say that any ship belonging to any subject of the Queen
shall, on a signal being made to her by one of Her Majesty's ships, or on
entering or leaving any foreign port, hoist the red ensign, and if of fifty
tons gross tonnage or upwards, on entering or leaving any British port
also, or incur a penalty not exceeding one hundred pounds. A merchantman
may also fly the Union Jack from the bowsprit, but if so the flag, as in
Fig. 104, must have a broad white border.
The earliest form of red ensign is seen in Fig. 66. In a picture at Hampton
Court, representing the embarkation of William of Orange for England, in
the year 1688, his ship is shown as wearing two flags, one a red one with
St. George's Cross in the canton, as in Fig. 66, while the other, also red,
has the Union Flag in the canton. We get, therefore, a regular sequence of
red ensigns: that with St. George's Cross alone in the corner next the
masthead; that with the Union of St. George and St. Andrew--this picture at
Hampton Court being the earliest example known of its use; and, thirdly,
that of to-day with the crosses of St. George, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick.
Some little degree of flag-lore is valuable not only to the soldier, the
seaman, or the traveller, but to everyone. For want of this knowledge,
ludicrous and serious mistakes are often made. Discussing these matters
with a man of good general knowledge, we found that he had a notion that
there were two kinds of "Union Jack," one, that had most red in it, being
the Army flag; while the other, in which blue preponderated, was the flag
of the Navy! Outside a large provincial theatre we saw a conspicuous notice
indicating that the piece then running was entitled "The Old Flag." To
emphasise this was a picture of a square of British linesmen surrounded by
{59} Zulus, while in the centre of the square rose the Royal Standard! As a
set-off to this we saw, not far off, a public house called the "Royal
Standard," flying from its roof the white Ensign! A friend of ours brought
home for his son a really capital toy model of an ironclad, with turrets,
ram, fighting tops, etc., and yet flying the red ensign of the harmless
merchantman!
At a church we occasionally pass, the living being in the gift of the
Queen, the Royal Standard is hoisted on such Church festivals as Christmas
Day, while at other times, for no apparent reason, the white Ensign is
substituted--the special flag of the War Navy. Anyone venturing to point
out to the authorities thereof that, as the old church could scarcely take
up its position as a unit in our fighting fleet--having, in fact, quite
another mission in the world--the special flag of the Royal Navy was not
the most appropriate, would probably derive from the interview the
impression that, after all, to the churchwardens a flag was a flag, and
that it was quite possible to make a mountain out of a molehill.
To one who knows anything about it, the eruption of silk bunting, and baser
fabrics innumerable that comes to the fore on any occasion of national
rejoicing, is a thing of horror, not merely in the festal disfigurements of
the patchwork counterpane or cotton pockethandkerchief type, seeing that to
some people any coloured piece of stuff that will blow out in the wind is a
valid decoration, but in the painful ignorance shown in the treatment of
recognised ensigns. Some little time ago, for instance, we found ourselves
in a town gaily beflagged and radiant in bunting on the occasion of a great
popular rejoicing. The Royal Standard, betokening the presence in the house
of some member of the Royal Family, was flying with a profusion that made
it impossible to believe that all the people displaying it could be
entertaining such distinguished guests. As a set-off, others were decking
their houses with red flags, the symbols of revolution and bloodshed, or
with yellow ones, leaving us to infer that such houses were to be avoided
as nests of yellow fever or such-like deadly infection. The Stars and
Stripes of the United States were, in almost every case, upside down, as
indeed were many others; a thing that, except for the ignorance that was
its excuse, might be considered as an insult to the various Foreign Powers,
while the repeated reversal of the red ensign implied a signal of distress.
The good folks really meant no harm to anybody, and they were quite happy
to believe, as they strolled in their thousands up the leading streets of
the town, that their decorations were a great success. At the same time, a
little more knowledge would have done them no harm. As it is an insult to
hoist one national flag below another, it is a rigid law that in all
official decorations national flags may not be so placed, but {60}
enthusiastic and irresponsible burgesses, in the depth of their ignorance,
ignore all such considerations of international courtesy, and in the length
of a short street commit sufficient indiscretion to give umbrage to all
mankind. It may be said that
"Happiness too swiftly flies,
Thought would destroy their Paradise"--
that "he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow," that
"From ignorance our comfort flows,
The only wretched are the wise"--
but despite all this philosophy, that "where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly
to be wise," no one is the worse for knowing something about the matter
with which he is dealing; and if proverbial philosophy is to count for
anything in the matter, a not inappropriate moral may be quoted as to the
rushing in of fools where their betters feel a judicious modesty. The
confidence of knowledge is better than the confidence of ignorance, and
would certainly, in street flagging, produce a more satisfactory result.
We have in Plate VI. some few examples of these vagaries from sketches that
we made at the time. Fig. 45, if it had not got the Union in the canton,
would nearly be the Danish flag, Fig. 225, but the addition of the canton
makes it sheer foolishness. Fig. 46 is a good example of the notion that
anything will do if it be only bright enough: it is a mere piece of
patchwork, not by any means the only one in evidence. Figs. 47 and 50
explain themselves; it is evident that in one case the decorator started
with a white ensign and in the other with a blue one, and then, feeling
that they were a little small and insignificant looking, tacked on a goodly
amount of red material to bring them up to their notion of what would be
sufficiently conspicuous in size. Fig. 48 is very quaint: there is a notion
of the white ensign hovering about it, but the Royal Standard employed as a
canton in one quarter is outside all the proprieties, and in any case all
the arm of the cross that one would expect to see below the canton is
absorbed by it. The addition of the two red tails to the Royal Standard in
Fig. 49 is not by any means legitimate, while in Fig. 51 the Royal Standard
is made the canton of a red ensign, and, as if this were not bad enough in
itself, the whole thing is flown upside down. Many of the so-called flags
had no semblance to anything, some were strange and abnormal tricolors;
others, chequers: one, we remember, was deep crimson, with a broad
bordering round three of its edges of light blue. Whatever opportunity of
going wrong seemed to be at all feasible appeared to be eagerly seized by
some well-meaning burgess, so that the result was a perfect museum of
examples of how not to do it, and therefore of immense interest.
* * * * *
{61}
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.
Having now dealt with the Union Flag and the Red and Blue Ensigns, we
proceed to see how these are modified by the addition of various devices
upon them.
The flags of the army claim the first place in our regard. Each infantry
regiment has two "colours," one being called the "Queen's Colour," and the
other the "Regimental Colour." On turning to Barret's "Theorike and
Practike of Modern Warres," a book published in the year 1598, we find the
following passage:--"We Englishmen do call them of late colours, by reason
of the variety of colours they be made of, whereby they be the better noted
and known." This we may doubtless accept as a sufficient explanation of the
word, and the passage is interesting, too, as approximately fixing a date
for the introduction of the term, and showing that it has been in use for
at least three hundred years.
The Queen's Colour in every regiment of the line is the flag of the Union,
Fig. 90, bearing in its centre the Imperial crown and the number of the
regiment beneath it in Roman figures worked in gold, and its territorial
designation.
The regimental Colour is of the colour of the facings of the regiment,
except when these are white, in which case the body of the flag is not
plain white all over, but bears upon it the Cross of St. George. Whatever
the colour, it bears in its upper corner the Union, and in the centre of
the flag the crown and title of {62} the regiment, and around it whatever
devices, or badges, or other distinctions have been specially conferred
upon it, together with the names of the actions in which the regiment has
taken part, the records of its gallant service in many a hard-fought
struggle in the Peninsula, on the sultry plains of India, beneath the
burning sun of Africa, or wherever else the call of honour and of duty has
added to its laurels. Thus the regimental flag of the 1st regiment of the
line bears the proud record--St. Lucia, Egmont-op-Zee, Egypt, Corunna,
Busaco, Salamanca, Vittoria, St. Sebastian, Nive, Peninsula, Niagara,
Waterloo, Nagpore, Maheidpore, Ava, Alma, Inkermann, Sebastopol, and
several other records of struggles in which they bore gallant share; and
many another regiment could show as fine a record of service.
In Fig. 94 we have a representation of the regimental colour of the 24th
Regiment. As the facings of this distinguished corps are green,[45] the
body of the flag is of that colour. Beneath its territorial designation
will be seen its special badge, the Sphinx, bestowed upon it for
distinguished service in Egypt, and around are grouped the names of famous
victories which it contributed to win.
The 24th Regiment, now in the territorial arrangement in vogue known as the
2nd Warwickshire, was first formed in the year 1689. In 1776 it embarked
for Canada and greatly distinguished itself in the American struggle. In
1801 we find it in Egypt, where by its gallantry it won the right to bear
the Sphinx.[46] From 1805 to 1810 it was fighting its way along at the Cape
of Good Hope, and then went on to India. In 1829 we find it sent off to
Canada again to suppress rebellion, and it did not return to England till
1841. In 1846 we see it in the thick of the Punjaub struggle, taking its
part right well in the brilliant engagements of Chillianwallah and
Goojerat, and in 1857 it is in the thick of the sanguinary Mutiny in India;
and, after fifteen years in India, lands in 1861 in England once more. In
1874 we find it again at the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1877-78 engaged in
the Kaffir war, and in all times and in all places taking a gallant share
in upholding the national cause.
In 1804 a second battalion was added to the regiment. This only existed ten
years, but in that time it earned by its distinguished {63} bravery the
names of the Peninsula battles for the flag,[47] and at the conclusion of
the struggle it was so weak in numbers that it was disembodied. In 1858 a
new second battalion was formed, and did good service in Burmah, South
Africa, etc. Both battalions were in Zululand in 1879, and with the
exception of one hundred men detailed for special duty, the regiment, save
nine men, was wiped out of existence in the fatal field of Isandhlwana.
Lieutenants Melville and Coghill tore the colours from their staffs and
wrapped them around their bodies, and after the fight was over and the
enemy had retired they were recovered. On the arrival of the colours in
England they were taken by Royal Command to Osborne, where the Queen
fastened to each a wreath of immortelles, and bestowed on the two dead
heroes the Victoria Cross as the highest acknowledgment then possible to
her of her deep appreciation of the sacrifice that these young gallant
officers had made for her, for England, and for the honour of the flag. The
colours, therefore, that we have represented in Fig. 94, in all their broad
blazon of gallant service, even in the hour of defeat never fell into the
hands of the enemy, to be hung in triumph in some Zulu kraal, but were
brought back in honour and proud rejoicing, since defeat so valiantly met
was no disgrace, and the honour of the flag and of the gallant 24th was
without stain.
As one more illustration of regimental colours we may instance those of the
25th Regiment, the King's Own Borderers. Here the groundwork of the flag is
blue, with, of course, the Union in the upper corner next the staff. In the
centre of the flag is a representation of Edinburgh Castle, and within a
band the words, "King's Own Borderers." Outside this we have a wreath of
rose, shamrock, and thistle, surmounted by the crown. Below this is a
sphinx for service in Egypt, and below this again the word "Martinique." On
either side is inscribed "Minden" and "Egmont op Zee," and above all,
"Afghanistan." In the upper outer angle of the flag is the lion on the
crown and the motto "_In veritate religionis confido_," and in the lower
outer angle the white horse of Hanover and the motto "_Nec aspera
terrent_."[48] This was originally known as the Edinburgh Regiment, as it
was raised in four hours in 1689 to defend that city; but George III., for
some reason more or less {64} satisfactory to himself, changed the name to
the one it has ever since borne--the King's Own Borderers.
In the year 1811 the Prince Regent, on behalf of the King, issued an order
to regulate the colours of the Army, and, amongst other things, sanctioned
the custom that had sprung up of inscribing the names of victories on the
flags. The custom of inscribing these honours, the names of the actions
fought, did not begin till the battle of Minden, so that the victories of
Marlborough and all other glorious achievements prior to the year 1759
would have gone unrecorded; but in July, 1881, sanction was given for the
Grenadiers and the 1st, 3rd, 8th, 10th, 15th, 16th, 18th, 21st, 23rd, 24th,
26th, and 27th Regiments of the Line to add Blenheim and Ramilies to their
colours. Oudenarde, Malplaquet, and Dettingen[49] were also added to the
colours of those regiments that were there engaged.
By the "Queen's Regulations" these colours are required to be of silk, and
to be three feet nine inches in length and three feet in breadth; the cords
and tassels are to be of mixed crimson and gold; the staff is to be eight
feet seven inches long, and surmounted by a golden crown on which stands a
lion. They are to be carried on parade by the two junior lieutenants, and
guarded by two sergeants and two privates. These form what is called "the
colour party." The distinguishing badge of the colour-sergeant consists of
crossed colours, embroidered on the sleeve above the chevrons of his rank.
It has taken something like a thousand years of time to build up the
British Empire, while the lavish outlay of toil and forethought of
statesmen, the ceaseless spending of blood and treasure, the brilliant
strategy by land and sea of a long line of distinguished commanders have
all contributed to its birth and proud maintenance; and of all this
devotion in the past and the determination to uphold it in the future, the
flag is the living concrete symbol. It is the flag beneath whose folds
Nelson and Wellington and countless heroes more were carried to their rest;
it waved in triumph on the Heights of Abraham, and its honour was safe with
Elliot at Gibraltar; it was unfurled on many a battlefield in the
Peninsula, and nerved the arms of those who scaled the heights of the Alma
and stood unconquerable in the stubborn fight of Inkerman; and it waved
triumphant in the breeze at Sebastopol. The sight of it was strength,
comfort, and hope in the dark days of Lucknow and Cawnpore. It floated, a
symbol of duty, over the heroes of the burning _Birkenhead_, and to Ross,
Parry, Franklin and McClure, in the icy wastes of the far North it was an
incentive to renewed {65} effort and a symbol of home. It was the flag of
Speke and Livingstone in savage Africa, of Burke and Wills in their
explorations in Australia; and for the honour of England that it symbolises
men have thought no sacrifice too great.
The Queen's Colour is a pledge of loyalty to the Sovereign, an emblem of
the unity of all, while the second colour deals with the honour that
specially appertains to each regiment--a subject of legitimate pride in the
past and an incentive to prove not unworthy in the future of those who
gained it such distinction.
For some recondite reason the Guards reverse the arrangement that holds in
the Line regiments, as with them the Queen's Colour is crimson and bears
the regimental devices and honours, while the Union Flag is the Regimental
Colour. William IV., in 1832, gave the Grenadier Guards a special flag of
crimson silk, bearing in its centre the royal cypher W.R., interlaced in
gold, and having grouped together in the four corners the rose, thistle,
and shamrock.
The Governor-General in India issued in the year 1803 a general order that
all the regiments engaged in Wellington's greatest Indian
victory--Assaye--should be entitled to the special distinction of a third
flag, and the Royal authority confirmed the honour. This flag, borne by the
74th Highlanders, the 78th or Ross-shire Buffs, and other distinguished
regiments, was of white silk, having in its centre an elephant, beneath
this the regimental number, and around it a wreath. On blue bands above and
below were inscribed in gold the words Assaye and Seringapatam. In the year
1830 the general use on parade of these flags was discontinued by order,
and they were reserved for very special occasions.
The number of colours borne by the different regiments was formerly very
irregular: sometimes it was one to a company, sometimes only one to a whole
regiment, now it is two to each battalion. During the eighteenth century
several regiments carried three colours, and the 5th, or Northumberland
Fusiliers, continued to do so until 1833. By an unfortunate accident these
were then all burnt, and when the question of granting new colours came
forward, the right to carry the third was objected to, and the claim had to
be surrendered. King Charles's Royal Regiment of Foot Guards lost eleven
out of thirteen colours at Edgehill.
The Standards carried by the Life Guards, Horse Guards, and Dragoon Guards
are of crimson silk, thirty inches by twenty-seven; and the guidons of the
dragoon regiments are forty-one inches by twenty-seven, are slit in the fly
and have the outer corners rounded off. The tassels and cords are of
crimson silk and gold, and each flag bears the Royal or other title of the
regiment in letters of gold in a circle, and beneath it the number of the
regiment, all being surmounted by the crown, surrounded by a {66} wreath of
rose, shamrock, and thistle, and the honours. Where a regiment has a
particular badge, such device will be placed in the centre, and the
territorial and numerical position placed outside; thus the Scots Greys
(the 2nd Royal Dragoons) bear as their badge the Imperial Eagle of France,
because at Waterloo this distinguished regiment captured the eagle of the
French 45th Regiment, on which were inscribed the words Jena, Austerlitz,
Wagram, Eylau, and Friedland.[50] The 3rd Dragoons have as their badge the
white horse of Hanover, and, as record of good service, Salamanca,
Vittoria, Toulouse, Peninsula, Cabool, Moodkee, Sobraon, Ferozeshah,
Punjaub, Chillianwallah, Goojerat. The Lancers and Hussars, like the Royal
Engineers, the Royal Artillery, and the Rifle Brigade, have no colours, and
therefore bear their badges, devices, etc., on their appointments. Thus,
for instance, King George II. ordered the 17th Light Dragoons (now the 17th
Lancers) to wear the device of the skull and cross-bones, and beneath it
the words "or glory" on the front of their caps and on the left breast.
This device the "Death or Glory Boys" still retain, like the famous
Pomeranian Horse and the Black Brunswickers, continental corps from whom
the Anglo-Hanoverian monarch doubtless derived the idea.[51]
The presentation of colours to a regiment is always an imposing ceremony,
as with prayer of consecration, martial music, and stirring address they
are delivered into its custody, but the bestowal of the old colours in some
honoured place of safe keeping is yet more impressive. In the one case
there are the hopes and dangers of the future, while in the other the hopes
have all been abundantly realised, the dangers triumphantly passed, as the
tattered colours--storm tossed, torn by shot and shell--are borne in honour
to their last resting place, where, strife for ever over, they rest in
peace in the Sanctuary of God, a memorial to all men, until their last
shreds fall to decay, of duty nobly and fully done.
Visitors to Canterbury Cathedral will scarcely fail to have noticed the
flags therein suspended. The colours of the 1st Battalion of the Buffs (the
East Kent Regiment) there find fitting resting place, and the last of these
were added so lately as October, 1892.[52] On their entrance, with imposing
military ceremony, into the {67} Cathedral, they were met by the clergy and
choir, and a hymn of thanksgiving for victory and of safe return from war
was sung, commencing--
"Grateful, we bring from lands afar,
Torn, shattered, but unstained,
Banners that Thy servant blessed
Ere the stern conflict came;
Lord, let their fragments ever rest
Where dwells Thy Holy name."
After a short service of prayer and praise the Dean of Canterbury addressed
the great congregation. It might be asked, he said, why they, who were the
Ministers of the Prince of Peace, should take such interest in these
military proceedings. It was because they recognised in them the greatest
force for peace that there was in our land, for it was through them that
this country of ours had not been trampled for centuries under the feet of
any foreign foe, it was through them that the _Pax Britannica_ prevailed,
and that everywhere where the British Flag was present it carried with it
peace, and tranquillity, and justice. It was through the help of the army
that the peaceful people of this country could carry on their avocations
and serve God and do His work in peace; and therefore the clergy gratefully
acknowledged their services, and hoped and prayed that everywhere the
colours of each regiment might still be not only unstained, but covered
with laurels in struggling for right and for justice.
Colonel Hobson then addressed the vast audience, reminding the younger
soldiers present that the regiment to which they had the honour to belong
was formed more than three hundred years ago, and was, therefore, the
oldest in the Army. It had won honour and renown in every part of the
world, and the colours which they were that day appropriately laying to
rest in the Warriors' Chapel of Canterbury Cathedral represented as
glorious a record as that of any regiment in the British Army. The earliest
existence of the regiment dated from the movement set on foot in this
country in the latter half of the sixteenth century, to assist the cause of
civil and religious liberty in the Netherlands. The dragon, which is on the
colours, was the crest of the City of London, from whose Trained Bands the
regiment was formed in 1572; and the regimental march, so familiar to them
all, was given them by Queen Elizabeth. After enumerating some few of the
services that the regiment had rendered, he concluded by saying:--"The few
words I have still to say I want you young soldiers especially to listen to
and to take to heart. The colours of a regiment are symbolical of what
ought to be the watchword of an army--duty; the Queen's Colours--duty to
{68} your Sovereign and to your country; the Regimental Colours--duty
towards the regiment. In these days the material side of the profession of
arms is much insisted upon, but I tell you that an army without something
higher than that, however well cared for in other respects, is a bad army,
and that when thoughtfulness and care for the good name of a regiment is
sacrificed for selfish, individual advancement, the regiment, as a whole,
will suffer. The spirit which animated the regiments of the British
Army--who placed those names, of which we are so proud to-day, on those
colours--was, duty first, self afterwards; and it will be a bad day for the
British Army if that spirit is ever allowed to depart from it. There was no
position in the army, however humble, in which men could not sustain the
credit and honour of their regiment and thus contribute to their country's
welfare."
The Dean thereupon solemnly accepted the care of the colours and pronounced
the Benediction, and the whole audience then joined heart and voice, with
thrilling effect, in singing the National Anthem.
It seems so natural to write of England and of Englishmen, so stilted to
put Great Britain and Ireland, that one may possibly forget that,
comprehensive as we intend the terms to be, we may, perhaps, wound the
susceptibilities of our fellow subjects and brother Britons across the
Tweed. Let us then turn to a companion picture, and see how, with equal
honour and devotion, the flags of our gallant Highlanders are borne to
their rest.
A movement was, some time ago, set on foot to gather in the old flags from
the various Scottish regiments and to place them all in the Cathedral
Church of Edinburgh. This was effected, and the perspective effect of
these, as they line the nave on either side, is very fine. The oldest
colours there are those of the 82nd, the Duke of Hamilton's regiment,
presented in the year 1782, and still in excellent preservation.
When on November 14th, 1883, the old colours borne by the various Scottish
regiments were deposited in St. Giles' Cathedral, they were escorted in all
honour and military pomp from the Castle; and says one who was there: "When
the colours came in sight, the multitude raised a shout and cheered, but
the impulse was but momentary, for at sight of the array of shattered rags
the noise of the tumult died away, and a half-suppressed sound was heard as
through the hearts of the people there flashed a thrill of mingled pride
and pain. Those who saw it will never forget the scene. In the centre the
tattered silk of the Colours, and on the fringe and in the background a
wonder-stricken crowd, as past uncovered heads, past dimmed eyes and
quivering lips, the old flags were carried."
When the flags had been received with service of prayer and {69} praise,
the meaning of it all was summed up in burning words of love, devotion, and
pride. "We have gathered to-day," said the speaker, "for a noble
purpose--to receive with all honour into this national church these flags,
which have been borne by our soldiers through many a hard fight and in many
a distant land. 'In the name of the Lord,' said the inspired Psalmist long
ago, 'we will set up our banners.' In the spirit in which he spoke, these
banners were first unfurled; and in that great Name they were blessed by
God's ministers ere they were committed to those who were to carry them, as
a testimony that, as a nation, we believe in God, and desire that He should
guide our destinies alike in war and in peace; and now, after the lapse of
years, they are brought back to rest in God's house as a testimony to the
same truth, that we acknowledge Him as the supreme source of all our
national success and greatness. 'Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the
power, and the victory, and the majesty! Both riches and honour come of
Thee, and in Thine hand it is to make great and to give strength unto all.'
It is in this spirit that we place these emblems in Scotland's great
historic church. The associations that gather around these faded banners
are of the tenderest and most touching kind. They are such as cause the
heart to swell and the tear to come to the eye. Few, I feel sure, in this
vast assemblage have not felt in some degree their power. There are
soldiers here whom they carry back to old days, and to comrades with whom
they stood shoulder to shoulder in many a perilous hour. The old flag has
for the British soldier a meaning so deep and powerful that it is
impossible to put it into words. It is but a piece of silk, often faded and
tattered, and rent with shot: but it is a symbol, and symbols are amongst
the most sacred things on earth. It means for the soldier his Queen and his
country, and all the honour, loyalty, truth, and heroism they demand of
him. Therefore it is that men will follow their colours down into the
dreadful pit, and would be willing to die twice for them rather than let
them be taken by an enemy; and in the hour of defeat, like the heroes of
Isandlwhana, will fall pierced through with wounds, but with these precious
symbols, still untarnished, wrapped around them. And though to the peaceful
citizen these emblems can never mean all they stand for to those who have
served under them, even to him, as they hang here, they may speak of things
that it is good for him to remember. They may well tell him of the history
of his country, and the wonderful way by which God has led her, and of the
brave men He has raised up to fight for her. Nor can we help specially
remembering that these are the colours of our Scottish regiments. Scotland
is a poor country compared to the great neighbour with whom it is happily
united, but it possesses a distinct national life {70} of its own which all
true Scotchmen would not willingly let die. We are proud of our Scotch
regiments. We feel that they, of the whole army, belong especially to
ourselves; and they too, as they have swept on to battle with the cry,
'Scotland for ever!' feel, we believe, that they belong specially to us.
Providence, said Napoleon sneeringly, is generally on the side of the
strongest battalions. Be it so; but will anyone deny that the character of
the soldier has much to do with the strength of the battalion they form?
And was it not the character of our soldiers--a character fostered by the
traditions of their native land, fostered still more, perhaps, by the
religious teaching of their native church and parish school--that made them
strong on many a memorable day, and never more than on that memorable day
at Waterloo, when the great commander I have named generously exclaimed, as
he saw his own ranks yielding before the onslaught, 'Les braves Ecossais!'
May the sight of these banners inspire every soldier who looks on them,
whether Lowland or Highland, to echo the desire to hand down the name they
bear without a blemish! And should the day ever come when we as a people
are tempted to succumb to sloth and luxury, first to undervalue, and
finally to give up, national power and privileges which are an heritage
from God, and have been dearly purchased by those who went before us--may
these emblems, and the stirring memories that cling to them, help us in
some degree to wake up the last drop of blood left in our hearts, and nerve
us to bear ourselves like the children of our sires. 'We have heard with
our ears, O God, and our fathers have told us, what Thou didst in their
days in the times of old. For they got not the land in possession by their
own sword, neither did their own arm save them, but Thy right hand and
Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance, because Thou hadst a favour
unto them. Through Thee will we push down our enemies; through Thy name
will we tread them under that rise up against us.'" This impressive and
imposing ceremony closed with the magnificent "Hallelujah Chorus" of
Handel, and the final Benediction.
That colours do not always perish in honour may be seen by the following
extract from the _Scots' Magazine_ of June, 1746, where the citizens of
Edinburgh assisted at a very different function to the one we have just
described. "Fourteen rebel colours," says the ancient newsman, "taken at
Culloden, were brought into Edinburgh on the 31st May, and lodged in the
castle. On Wednesday, the 4th of June, at noon, they were brought down to
the Cross, the Pretender's own standard carried by the hangman, and the
rest by chimney sweepers. The sheriffs, accompanied by the heralds,
pursuivants, trumpeters, city constables, etc., and escorted by the city
guard, walked to the Cross, where a proclamation was {71} made that the
colours belonging to the rebels were ordered by the Duke of Cumberland to
be burnt by the hands of the common hangman. The Pretender's standard was
then put on a fire that had been prepared, and afterwards all the rest one
by one--a herald always proclaiming to whom each belonged, the trumpets
sounding, and the populace, of which there was a great number assembled,
huzzaing."
Various government officials have their special flags. The flag of the
Union having been established by "Queen's Regulations" for the naval
service, as the distinguishing flag to be borne by the admiral of the
fleet, great inconvenience arose from the use of the same flag when
military authorities, diplomatic and consular agents were embarking in
boats or other vessels; so it became necessary to make some modification in
the flag. It is therefore now ordered that a general or other officer
commanding a military station shall have, in the centre of the Union, a
blue shield bearing the Royal initials, surmounted by a crown and
surrounded by a garland; those in the diplomatic service shall have, in the
centre of the Union, a white shield bearing the Royal Arms, and surrounded
by a garland; while consuls-general, consuls, or consular agents have the
Blue Ensign as their distinguishing flag, and in the centre thereof the
Royal Arms. The flag of the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland is the Union, and in
its centre, as we may see in Fig. 106, a blue shield bearing the golden
harp.
Different Government Departments have their special flags also. Thus the
Transport Service has the blue ensign with a golden anchor, placed
horizontally, in the fly, while the Victualling Department has the blue
ensign again, but this time as shown in Fig. 98, with two crossed anchors.
On the blue ensign of the Board of Trade is found in the fly a white
circle, and within this a ship in full sail (see Fig. 105). The Ordnance
Department flag, represented in Fig. 108, bears a shield with cannons and
cannon balls upon it, while vessels and boats employed on submarine mining
service are authorized to carry the blue ensign with--as its special
badge--a hand issuing from a mural crown, and grasping a thunderbolt. The
Telegraph branch of the Post-Office has a very striking device: a
representation of Father Time with his hour glass smashed by lightning. The
red ensign is employed by the Custom House and the Excise, in the first
case having, as we see in Fig. 107, a golden crown in the fly, and, in the
second, a crown and star. The flag of the Admiralty is a very striking one
(Fig. 99). This association of the anchor with the Admiralty is a very
natural one; we see it not only in our English flag, but in those of
France, Italy, Germany, Russia, etc. Our Admiralty flag is hoisted on any
ship when the Commissioners {72} of the Admiralty are on board,[53] and it
is also hoisted at the fore top-gallant mast of every ship on which the
Queen may be on board. Vessels carrying Her Majesty's mail fly on the
fore-mast a white burgee, having in its centre a crown, and on one side of
it the word "Royal" and on the other "Mail"; the words Royal Mail and the
crown being in red on the white field of the flag.
The White Ensign, Fig. 95, the special flag of Her Majesty's Navy, is, by
very exceptional privilege, allowed to be flown by the Royal Yacht
Squadron. This distinction was conferred on that Club in the year 1829, the
Club itself being established in 1812.[54] In the old days, when the Royal
Navy used the red, white, and blue ensigns, the red ensign was of the
highest dignity; and it was this from 1821 to 1829 that the Royal Yacht
Squadron flew, but, as the red ensign was also used by merchant vessels,
they adopted in 1829 the white ensign as being more distinctive. In 1842
the Admiralty drew up a Minute that no warrant should be issued to any
other yacht club to fly the white ensign, and that those privileged Clubs
that already had it must henceforth forego it. Copies of the minute were
accordingly sent to the Royal Western of England, Royal Thames, Royal
Southern, and some two or three other clubs, but, by some oversight, the
Royal Western of Ireland was overlooked, and that Club continued to use the
white ensign until the mistake was discovered by the Admiralty in the year
1857. Since that date the Royal Yacht Squadron, which has always been under
the special patronage of Royalty, has been alone in its use. Its value is
purely sentimental; it carries no substantial privilege. A rather marked
case arose, in fact, to the contrary in 1883, when Lord Annesley's yacht,
the _Seabird_, was detained by the Turkish authorities at the Dardanelles
in consequence of her bearing the white ensign. No foreign man-of-war is
allowed to pass the Dardanelles without special permission; and the white
{73} ensign of the Royal Navy brought her within that category. On account
of this, all yacht owners were warned that should they wish to pass the
Dardanelles under the white or blue ensign, the latter being also the flag
of the Royal Naval Reserve, they must first obtain an Imperial Iradé,
otherwise they were recommended to display the red ensign. Austria-Hungary,
Spain, Denmark, Italy, Sweden, Norway, and France have each, in like
manner, given to the leading club of the country the privilege of flying
the naval flag. In America and Russia a special ensign has been accorded to
all yacht clubs, and all take equal rank. Some years ago the Royal Cork
Yacht Club wished to adopt a green ensign, but the Admiralty refused to
sanction a new colour.
The Blue Ensign is conferred on certain Yacht Clubs by special Admiralty
warrant. The Royal Eastern, Royal Barrow, Royal Clyde, Royal Highland,
Royal Northern, Royal Western of England, Royal Cinque Ports, Royal Albert,
Royal Dorset, etc., fly the Blue Ensign pure and simple; others have a
distinguishing badge on the fly, thus the Royal Irish has a golden harp and
crown, the Royal Ulster a white shield with the red hand, the Royal
Cornwall the Prince of Wales' Feathers, the Royal Harwich a golden rampant
lion, and so forth. The clubs flying the Red Ensign change it slightly from
that flown by the Merchant Service; thus the Royal St. George, Royal
Victoria, and Royal Portsmouth have a golden crown in the centre of the
Union canton, while the Royal Yorkshire has a white rose and gold crown on
the fly, and the Royal Dart a golden dart and crown. Each club has also its
distinguishing burgee, and ordinarily of the same colour as its ensign;
thus, though the Royal Clyde and the Royal Highland both fly the plain blue
ensign, the Royal Clyde burgee has on it the yellow shield and red lion
rampant, while the Royal Highland has the white cross of St. Andrew. Fig.
100 is the burgee of the Ranelagh Club, Fig. 101 of the Yare, Fig. 102 of
the Royal Thames, Fig. 103 of the Dublin Bay Club.
Besides these club ensigns and burgees, each yacht bears its owner's
individual device, that is supposed to distinguish it from all others,
though one finds, in looking through a series of such flags, that some of
the simpler devices are borne by more than one yacht. Every yacht club has
its special burgee, which is flown by each yacht in the club at her truck,
but when the vessel is racing the individual flag takes its place. Many of
these flags, though simple in character, are very effective and striking.
The lower flags on Plate XII. are good typical examples. Fig. 121 is the
yacht flag of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales--the flag of the
well-known _Britannia_; and Figs. 122 and 123 are those respectively of the
equally-famed _Ailsa_ and _Valkyrie_. {74}
Merchant vessels are permitted to adopt any House or Company flag on
condition that it does not resemble any national flag. Its great use is
that it should be clearly distinctive; and many of the flags employed are
of strict heraldic propriety, and very attractive, while others are about
as unsatisfactory and bald as they well could be. It would clearly be a
painful and invidious thing to pick out any of these latter, so we can only
suggest that any of our readers who have an opportunity of visiting busy
ports, such as London, Southampton, Bristol, Liverpool, should collect
their own awful examples and paint them in the margin of this page.
We may point out, by the way, that anyone sketching flags would be greatly
assisted by knowing the symbols for the various colours, as it may well be
that anyone might have only a pencil in his pocket when desiring to make
such a memorandum. White is expressed by simply leaving the paper plain,
yellow by dotting the surface over, red by a series of upright lines, blue
by horizontal lines, green by sloping lines, and black by a series of
upright lines crossed by others at right angles to them. These are the
colours used in books on heraldry, and they are very easily remembered. On
some of our coins the colours of the arms in the shield are thus expressed,
and on heraldic book-plates and the like they may be also seen--wherever,
in fact, colour has to be expressed or notified without the actual use of
it. Our readers will find that if they will sketch out in black and white
some few of our examples they will soon gain a useful facility that may
stand them in good stead whenever for this or any other purpose they want
to make a colour memorandum, and have only a pencil or pen and ink to make
it with.
In the upper portion of Plate XII. we have several illustrations of Company
flags. Fig. 109 is the well-known ensign of Green's Blackwall Line, while
Fig. 110 is that of the Cunard. The Peninsular and Oriental flag (Fig. 111)
is divided by lines from corner to corner into four triangles, the upper
one white, the lower yellow, the hoist blue, and the fly red. This division
into triangles is a rather favourite one; we see it again in Fig. 112, the
Flag of the Australasian Steam Navigation Company. In the flag of the
Demerara and Berbice Steamship Company the upper and lower portions are
white, and the two side portions red; in the flag of the vessels belonging
to Galbraith, Pembrok
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