Flags of the world, past and present : their story and associations

Front matter

ear arhet erate

Sua Eeerise

Schott ty

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE I, Inrropuctory . ; : : j : 1 I], Tue Royat Sranparp and our NAtIoNAL

Fuacs. . 37 III, Fiacs or tHe Navy, Army, AND PuBLic

DEPARTMENTS 72 IV. Fracs oF Greater Britain. : : = HOF V. Monicipat Fiagcs. ; “ : 112 VI. Cius Fiacs anp House Fiaas eel9

Chapter I Introductory

YMBOLS are sacred things: and one of the chief that every man holds dear is the national flag. Deep down in our nature is the strong emotion that swells the heart and brings the tear and makes us follow the flag and die round it rather than let it fall into the hands of anenemy. This is no new emotion, no growth of a few generations, but an inheritance from the ages. before history began.

When man became what we know as man the need of a token distinguishing family from family occurred to him, leading him on to totemism, which in some of its aspects is practically heraldic. A special sign by. which he could be known from others must have been adopted early; and from this, as a generalization of the totem, came the tribal symbols which in time developed into those distinctive of nations and took the form of the insignia from which we eventually derived our flags.

Around these venerable symbols memories gathered which made them emblems of the triumphs and sacrifices of the community: and the influence remains. We salute the Colours as we salute the King as the personification of the State. The Union Jack; the Trico!our, the Stars and Stripes, the Dannebrog are the pride of those born beneath them and tell of the glories of the.

1 Cc past, the hopes of the future, and the duty, if need be, to die for the people of which the flag is the symbol.

The earlier national symbols were ordinary images or badges wrought in metal, stone or wood, and carried at the top of a pole or spear. Thus the host of Egypt marched to war beneath the sacred emblems of their gods or the fan of feathers of the Pharaohs, while the Assyrian insignia were circular discs bearing devices such as a running bull or two bulls tail to tail, both these and the Egyptian having occasionally in addition a small streamer attached to the. staff immediately below the device. The Greeks in like manner used symbols of their deities such as the owl of Athens, or legendary animals like the pegasus of Corinth, the minotaur of Crete, the bull of Beeotia, and, strangest of all, the torto‘se of the Peloponnesus, though Homer makes Agamemnon use a purple veil as a rallying signal. =

The sculptures of Persepolis show us that the Persians adopted the figures of the sun, the eagle and the like which in time were replaced by the blacksmith’s apron. In Rome the original standard was the simple wisp of straw which has now come so low in the world as to be used by our roadmenders and hung under our bridges as a sign of no thoroughfare. Under the later Dictators this gave place to a hand erect; or the figure of a horse or wolf or other animal was used until the eagle alone was adopted. Pliny tells us that Marius in his second consulship ordered that the Roman legions should have the eagle only as their standard. ‘‘For before that time the eagle marched foremost with four others, wolves, minotaurs, horses and bears, each one in its proper — order. Not many years passed before the eagle alone began to be advanced and the rest left behind in the camp. But Marius rejected them altogether, and since then there has rarely been a camp of a legion in winter quarters without a pair of eagles ”’—the eagle being the bird of Jove. .

There were, however, other insignia. The vexillum or cavalry flag was according to Livy a square piece of textile material fixed to a cross-bar at the end of a spear, often richly fringed and either plain or with devices, and was undoubtedly a flag ; and the insignia which distinguished the allied forces from the Roman legions were also more or less flags, as may be seen on the sculptured columns of Trajan and Antonine, the arch of Titus, and many coins and medals of ancient Rome. Later on the Romans adopted for their auxiliaries the dragon of Parthia which in time became the standard of the Emperors of the West and the origin of the golden dragon of Wessex and the red dragon of Wales. The Jutes carried the rampant white horse, at first as an image, which became the flag of the Men of Kent; the Danes carried the raven, also at first as an image and then as a flag which when captured in 878 was a small triangular banner, fringed, bearing a black raven on a blood-red field. The Gauls fought under a carved lion, bull or bear until they adopted the Roman eagle. The Imperial Standard or Labarum of Constantine and his successors resembled the cavalry vexillum. It was of purple silk richly embroidered with gold, and, though generally hung from a horizontal cross-bar like that we now know as a banner, was in later days. occasionally displayed in accordance with present usage by attaching one of the sides to a staff—a style adopted from the Saracens.

The Roman standards were guarded with religious veneration in the temples of the chief cities, and, after Christianity was adopted, and particularly after the emperor’s portrait appeared on them, in the churches ; and modern practice follows ancient precedent. At the presentation of colours to a regiment a solemn service of

A FLAGS OF THE WORLD prayer and praise is held, for which there is a special service book, and when they return in honour, torn and tattered from victorious conflict, they are reverently deposited in some church or public building, such as the forty in Edinburgh cathedral, never to be removed until nothing is left but the staff on which they were borne.

The Israelites, besides their tribal devices, carried the sacred standard of the Maccabees with the initial letters of the Hebrew text, ‘“‘ Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods?” The Emperor Constantine caused the sacred monogram of Christ (the Ch R, being the two first letters of Christos) to be placed on the Labarum which when the degenerate successors of Theodosius had ceased to appear in person at the head of their armies was deposited as a venerable but useless relic in the palace of Constantinople. The sacred standard of the Turks, fabled to have been given to Mohammed by the angel Gabriel, was used by the prophet as a curtain which, when he was dying, was torn down by Ayesha and given by her to serve as the chief banner of Islam, and it is still preserved, being of green silk on a pole surmounted by a golden hand that holds a copy of the Koran. Pope — Alexander II sent a consecrated white banner to William of Normandy previous to his expedition against Harold, and the Normans fought under it at Hastings; and when the armies of Christendom went forth to rescue the Holy — Land from the infidel they received their banners from the foot of the altar. For centuries banners were so consecrated and delivered, the practice being familiar _to many as the motive of Longfellow’s Hymn of the Moravian Nuns :—

“Take thy banner! May it wave Proudly o’er the good and brave ; When the battle’s distant wail Breaks the sabbath of our vale,

INTRODUCTORY "7 o®

To the hearts of these lone hills, When the spear in conflict shakes, And the strong lance shivering breaks.

Take thy banner! and, beneath The battle-cloud’s encircling wreath, Guard it !—till our homes are free!

Guard it !—God will prosper thee !

In the dark and trying hour,

In the breaking forth of power,

In the rush of steeds and men,

His right hand will shield thee then.

Take thy banner! But, when night Closes round the ghastly fight,

If the vanquished warrior bow,

Spare him !—By our holy vow,

By our prayers and many tears,

By the mercy that endears,

Spare him !—he our love hath shared: Spare him !—as thou wouldst be spared!”

This recognition of the King of kings led to the captured banners of the enemy being at first placed over the tombs of victorious generals, and, later, hung in gratitude and thanksgiving in our churches and town-halls. Thus Speed tells us that on the dispersal and defeat of the Armada, Queen Elizabeth commanded solemn thanksgiving to be celebrated at St. Paul’s, which was done on Sunday, the 8th of September, when eleven of the Spanish ensigns were hung, to the great joy of the beholders, as ‘ ysalmes of praise” for England’s deliverance from peril. Very appropriately, too, in the chapel of Chelsea Hospital, the home of the old soldiers who helped to win them, were hung the flags taken at Martinique, Seringapatam, Barrosa, Salamanca, Waterloo and many another hardfought struggle. At the United Service Museum there are quite a number of captured flags ; and in like manner the tomb of Napoleon I is surrounded, although on March 30th, 1814, the evening before the entry of the allies into Paris, about 1,500 flags—the trophies of Napoleon—were burnt in the courtyard of the Invalides to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy.

The first reference to banners in England is in Bede’s description of the interview between King Ethelbert and St. Augustine where the followers of the latter are said to have borne “ a silver cross for a banner ’’—clearly showing that banners were then in use but St. Augustine did not have one. Banners of this type were formerly part of the usual ornaments of the altar and are still largely used 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 vogue they did not supplant ecclesiastical symbols. The banners of the original orders of Knighthood belong to the religious group. That of the Knights Hospitallers was a silver cross on a black field. The Templars carried before them

to battle a banner black over white horizontal which they called Beauséant ‘‘ because they were fair and favourable to the friends of Christ but black and terrible to His enemies.” The Teutonic Knights bore the black cross patée on a white field which survives in the Iron Cross.

The national banner of England for centuries—the red cross of her patron St. George—was a religious one, and whatever other banners were carried this was the first in the field. The royal banner of Great Britain and Ireland 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 similarly symbolizes the three nations of the United Kingdom by the allied crosses, two of which are the old crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, the third being the saltire assigned to St. Patrick in the seventeenth century.

INTRODUCTORY ese a

Ecclesiastical flags were often purely pictorial in character, being actual representations of the Trinity, the Madonna, or different saints. At other times the religious houses bore banners heraldic in character as the chiefs of the church were lords temporal, in respect of many of their possessions, as well as lords spiritual, and took their places by self or deputy among the fighting men at the head of the retainers they were required to maintain in aid of the national defence. In such cases the distinguishing banner of the contingent conformed in character to the banners of the other barons. In a ballad 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 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 on the field not only his own arms but in special prominence the banners of the Trinity, St. George and St. Edward. Such banners of religious significance were often borne from the monasteries to the field of battle while monks in attendance on them invoked the aid of Heaven during the combat. In an old statement of accounts we read that Edward I made a payment of eightpence halfpenny per day to a priest of Beverley for carrying throughout one of his campaigns a banner bearing the figure of the St. John, Bishop of York, who founded that monastery. This banuer with those of St. Wilfrid from Ripon and St. Peter from York, all three displayed from a ship’s mast fitted into a four-wheeled caroccio, were brought on to the field at Northallerton and constituted the standard from which that battle derived its name. At the battle of Lewes also Simon de Montfort displayed his standard from a pole rising from acar. The banner of St. Denis, - the original oriflamme, was carried in the armies of St. Louis and Philip the Fair ; and the banner of St. Cuthbert of Durham was borrowed by the Earl of Surrey and borne at Flodden where it so nearly lost its reputation of assuring victory to those who fought under it. It was suspended from a horizontal bar below a spear-head, and wasa yard or so in breadth and a little more in depth, the lower edge having five deep indentations. The material was 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 on it, the central portion protecting a relic of the saint. It had been in action before, -at Neville’s Cross where it is said to have done wonders for Queen Philippa.

In the old days religious banners were used at the 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 re-. presentation of St. George. Such banners were ordinarily four in number, and carried at the four corners of the bier. Thus we read in the diary of 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 ij herroldes in ther cotes of armes, and bare iij 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. occur. Anyone having old records before them would find it easy enough to multiply illustrations of this 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 painted and embroidered representations of various saints.

A standard is that which stands by itself, as an upright post or pole, and the word came to be used as descriptive of the flag which flew from it, just as the Union Jack derives its name from the jack, or small upright spar in the ship’s bows, from which it was originally flown as leading the ship into action. In England the term became applied to any flag of noble size that had the Cross of St. George next to the staff, with the rest of the flag 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 being richly fringed or bordered, the motto and badges of the owner introduced, and the length considerably in excess of the breadth. Such standards were in use chiefly during the fifteenth century, though examples of earlier and later date are met with. In the Percy standard, for instance, the blue lion, the crescents, and the fetterlocks are all family badges, while the silver key shows relationship by marriage with the Poynings, the bugle-horn with the Bryans, and the falchion withthe Fitzpaynes. The. old badge of the Percies was the white lion statant—

D

‘* Who, in field or foray slack, Saw the blanch lion e’er give back ?”

—but Henry Percy, the fifth earl, turned it from white into blue. The silver crescent is the only badge of the family that has remained in continuous use, and we find frequent references to it in the old ballads.

The motto was an important part of the standard, though it is occasionally omitted. Its less or greater length or its repetition may cut up the surface of the flag into any number of spaces; the first space after the cross being always occupied by the most important badge, and in a few cases the spaces beyond being empty.

Standards in the true heraldic sense were not used until the reign of Edward III, who adopted as his own the royal arms with the blue field of the French quarter extended along to the end bearing a row of golden lilies, the red of the English quarter being similarly continued bearing a row of passant golden lions. Though exceptions are rare a standard is not necessarily of two colours, one above the other, nor is it always edged. The rule is laid down in the Harleian Manuscripts No. 2358 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,” but standards were not always “slitte” at, the end, for a few are found which were evidently pointed:

There is at the College of Arms a drawing of the standard of Sir Henry de Stafford, K.G., which is strictly in accordance with the description. It is charged with the banner of St. George, and, on a black over red field, has the white swan of the Bohuns with a ruddy crescent on the swan’s breast as a mark of cadency, three silver Stafford knots and the motto “ Humble et Loyal,” and eight more knots te i he idk

PLATE: IL.

BANNERS AND STANDARDS.

TSMR} Do

Banner of St. Edmund.

Banner of St. Edward.

Banner of St. Alban.

Banner of De Montfort.

Percy Standard.

Stafford Standard.

Douglas Standard.

Pl. Il.

Banners and Standards.

and a black and red edging or fringe. The cross of St. George is in all cases significant, showing that the bearer was first and foremost an Englishman.

Our mention of the Percy standard reminds us that one of the oldest flags in existence, the very standard of the Douglas at the battle of Otterburn, that is Chevy Chase, in 1388, is still in the possession of Douglas of Cavers at the family seat in Roxburghshire together with the trophy won on that occasion from Sir Henry Percy, known to us generally as Harry Hotspur, when he was surrounded and captured with his brother Ralph instead of being killed as in the ballad. It bears the saltire, the bleeding heart, the lion of Galloway and the silver star.

This standard is known as the Douglas Banner, which is not according to English usage, but the words were often used as synonyms though the two flags were distinct. Richard II, for instance, not only flew the royal banner, that is the royal standard now so called, but had a personal standard of his own—white and green, a white hart couchant between four golden suns, the motto “ Dieu et mon droit,” with two golden suns in the next space and four in the next. Henry V also had two, the personal one being white and blue, a white antelope standing between four red roses, the motto ‘‘ Dieu et mon droit,”’ and in the interspaces more red roses. Edward IV had a white lion and six white roses. While no one could have more than one banner, this being composed of his heraldic arms, the same individual might have two or three standards, these being mainly made up of badges he could multiply at discretion, and a motto or poesy he might change every day. Hence the standards of Henry VII were mostly green and white, which were the Tudor livery colours ; or else white over blue edged with white and blue ; in one was “a red firye dragon,” in another “was peinted a donne kowe,”’ in another the white swan of Bohun, while yet another had a silver greyhound between red roses. Stow and others 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 in solemn state to St. Paul’s, and there deposited.

We have seen that the pomp of funerals led to the use of pictorial flags from churches and abbeys, and with these were associated others that dealt with the rank and position of the deceased. Thus we find Edmonson 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.”

Unfortunately the names bestowed upon flags have varied from time to time, the various authorities differing in their definitions occasionally, so that, while the more salient forms are distinguishable, doubt creeps in when we endeavour to givea definite form to a name we meet with, particularly among the poets who have thought more of the general effect of the description and the necessities of rhyme and metre than of the accuracy of the terms they have used: For instance Sir Walter Scott might have done better in his oft-quoted lines.in Marmion:

“Nor marked they Jess, where in the air 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.”

Wherein the scroll is the narrow rectangular motto-ribbon which was never used by itself; the pennon, and not the pensil, being the swallow-tail; the pensil, that is the pencel, being the narrow pennant; and the bandrol the banner-roll mentioned by Edmonson above, which was ‘never flown over a tent. Happier he was by far in the lines that follow:

The royal banner, floating wide ;

The staff, a pine-tree strong and straight, Pitched deeply in a massive stone, Which still in memory is shown,

Yet bent beneath the standard’s weight, ~

Whene’er the western wind unrolled,

With toil, the huge and cumbrous fold, And gave to view the dazzling field, Where, in proud Scotland’s royal shield,

The ruddy Lion ramped in gold.”

The banner in the earlier days of chivalry was usually square, though, later, it may be found greater in length than in depth, and in some early examples is considerably greater in depth than in its width from the lance, that is in its hoist than in its fly. The size, at one period, varied with the rank of the owner.

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 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 proportions of the shield 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 is better to avoid this when possible.

The Rolls of Arms prepared on various occasions by the heralds form an admirable storehouse of examples. Some of these have been reproduced in facsimile, and are, therefore, more or less accessible, such as the roll of the arms of the spiritual and temporal peers who sat in Parliament in the year 1515, and the roll of Karlaverok. This Carlaverock, as Sir Harris Nicolas spells it, was the home of the Maxwells, Caerlaverock Castle, the Ellangowan of Guy Mannering, on the north side of Solway Firth at the mouth of the Nith, which it was necessary for Edward I to reduce on his invasion of Scotland in the year 1300; and its investment and all the details ‘of the siege are minutely described by a contemporary writer, Walter of Exeter, the author of the romantic history of Guy Earl of Warwick about the year 1292; and he gives the arms and names of all the nobles engaged in it.. This valuable old poem is written in Norman French of which the following passage is an example :—

Pi. IIL. D. 15.

Banners from the Roll of Carlaverock.

Ss

Pe Oe Oo aR ee i IST ee

PLATE ‘IIT.

BANNERS FROM THE ROLL OF CARLAVEROCK.

Sir John Botetourte (Admiral of the Fleet of Edward I1) \ Sir Ralph de Monthermer (Earl of Gloucester and Hertford) Sir Emlam Touches.

Sir William de Rider, Banneret

Sir Hugh Bardolf (Lord of Wirmegey)

Sir John de Holdeston

Sir Henri de Percy (Lord of Topclive)

Sir Hugh de Courtenay (Earl of Devon)

Sir Aymer de Valence (Earl of Pembroke)

Sir John de Bar

Sir William Grandison, ha oe Basie cd os 5 Sig) ios en

That is to say, there were many rich devices embroidered on silks and satins, many a beautiful pennon fixed on lance, many a banner displayed.

Of these numerous banners—over a hundred of them —we will give a few examples.. One belongs to him ““ who, with a light heart, doing good to all, bore a yellow banner, and pennon with a black saltire engrailed, was called John Botetourte,” afterwards admiral of the fleet of Edward II. Near it is the banner of Ralph de Monthermer, afterwards Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, the banner being the.one he bore during the siege, which was that of Clare, the family whose honours he temporarily enjoyed, though he was attired in his own arms which were yellow with a green eagle. The six yellow martlets are the device of Emlam Touches, “a knight of good fame.” The blue “with crescents of brilliant gold,” was the banner of William de Rider, otherwise William de Rithre, banneret. Sir John de Holdeston, ‘‘ who at all times appears well and promptly in arms,” bore the fretted silver on the red field ; while the three gold cinquefoils distinguish the banner of Hugh Bardolf, “a man of great appearance, rich, valiant and courteous,” described as Lord of Wirmegey when a party to the letter from the barons to the Pope in 1301.

Prominent is the well known lion of the Percies which . is here on the banner of Henri de Percy, styled Lord of Topclive in the same letter, who bought Alnwick Castle as a seat for the family. The red roundels are on the banner of “ good Hugh de Courtenay,” afterwards Earl of Devon; and by its side is that of the valiant Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, whose tomb is in Westminster Abbey. Below are the barbels of John de Bar ; and our last example is the banner of Sir William Grandison who was so prominent in the Scottish wars.

As soon as the castle fell into Edward’s hands he caused his banner and those of St. Edmund, St. George and St. Edward to be displayed on its battlements. His banner is duly emblazoned with the rest in the Roll and is what we should now call the Royal Standard, which is a misnomer. The Royal Standard correctly speaking is the Royal Banner, since it bears the arms of the Sovereign in precisely the same way as our examples bear the arms of the knights with whom the King associated, and especially in the case of Monthermer whose banner was that which went with his domains. A standard was an entirely different kind of flag, but the term in its modern meaning is too firmly established to be beyond alteration, and, like Union Jack, which is also a misnomer, must be accepted under protest with regret.