LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
COLOURED PLATES.
Plate Page
I. Standard presented by Napoleon I. to his Guards at Elba, a short time before he invaded France in 1815, [Frontispiece]
II. The "Bluidy Banner" carried at Bothwell Brig, A.D. 1670, [54]
III. Union Flags and Pendant, [62]
IV. National Flags and Standards, [108]
V. Do. do. [112]
VI. Do. do. [116]
WOODCUTS.
Fig.
1. Ancient Egyptian Standards, [14]
2. Other forms of Egyptian Standards, [15]
3. Do. do. [15]
4. Assyrian Standard, [17]
5. Another form of Assyrian Standard, [17]
6. Assyrian Standards and Standard-bearers, [18]
7. Other varieties of Assyrian Standards, [19]
8. Persian Standard, [20]
9. Turkish Horse-tail Standard, [20]
10. Standard of Turkish Pacha, [21]
11. Roman Eagle, [21]
12. The Roman Wolf on Standard, [21]
13. Group of Roman Standards, [22]
14. Roman Standard—Various Devices on same Staff, [23]
15. Another form with different Devices, [23]
16. Other Roman Standards, [24]
17. Roman Labarum, [24]
18. Standard of Constantine, [25]
19. Dragon used as Roman Standard, [25]
20. Standard of Earl of Warwick, 1437, [45]
21. Flag of the Earl Marshall, [46]
22. Standard of Earl Douglas, 1388, [48]
23. Later Banner of the Douglas's, [49]
24. The "Blue Blanket," 1482, [51]
25. Flag of the Covenanters, 1679, [52]
26. The Union Flag as now borne, [59]
27. The Union on the Bronze Penny, [64]
28. Regimental Colours of 24th Regiment, [97]
29. Queen's Colours of 24th Regiment as presented to the Queen, [98]
30. The Oriflamme, circa A.D. 1248, [104]
31. The French Eagle, during the Empire, [108]
32. United States Flag, as used in 1777, [111]
FLAGS.
On that morning when the news arrived from South Africa of the disaster at Isandlana, there was general mourning for the loss of so many brave men; but there was mourning also of a different kind,—with some perhaps even deeper—for the loss of the colours of the 24th Regiment. And yet, after all, it was only a bit of silk which had been lost, having on it certain devices and inscriptions—a thing of no intrinsic value, and which could be replaced at a cost merely nominal. But it possessed extrinsic qualities which could be measured by no money value, and every one felt that the loss was one to redeem which, or rather to redeem what that loss represented, demanded, if necessary, the putting forth of the strength of a great nation. And so, when it was found that the colours never had been really lost—that they had been saved by brave men who had laid down their lives in defending them—there was throughout the nation a feeling of intense relief that national honour had been saved; a feeling of rejoicing far beyond what was evoked by the news of the capture of the Zulu king and the termination of the war. So at sea. In our great wars in which the navy of Great Britain played so prominent a part, we became so accustomed to see the flag of the enemy bent on under our own ensign, that if an exceptional case occurred where the position of the two flags was reversed, it went home to the heart of every loyal subject with a pang which the loss of many ships by storm and tempest would not have produced.
Yet how few of us know what the national colours are, what the Union is, what the Royal Standard is. Not to speak of civilians, are there many officers, in either the army or the navy, who, without a copy before them, could accurately construct or describe the flag of the nation under which they fight, or tell what its component parts represent? I doubt it. And, after all, they would not be so much without excuse, for even at the Horse Guards and the Admiralty, there is some confusion of ideas on the subject. I have before me "The Queen's Regulations and Orders for the Army," issued by the Commander-in-chief, in which flags which can be flown only on shore are confounded with flags which can be flown nowhere but on board ship. Yet the subject is really an interesting one, and, connected as it is with national history, it is deserving of a little study.
Flags are of many kinds, and they are put to many uses. They are the representatives of nations; they distinguish armies and fleets, and to insult a flag is to insult the nation whose ensign it is. We see in flags, says Carlyle, "the divine idea of duty, of heroic daring—in some instances of freedom and right." There are national flags, flags of departments, and personal flags; and as signals they are of the greatest value as a means of communication at sea.
ANCIENT STANDARDS.
It is chiefly of our own flags that I intend to speak, but it may be interesting to say something of those which were in use among the peoples of ancient history.
From the earliest times of which we have authentic records, standards or banners were borne by nations, and carried in battle. It was so in Old Testament times, as we know from the mention of banners as early as the time of Moses. They are repeatedly referred to by David and Solomon. The lifting up of ensigns is frequently mentioned in the Psalms and by the Prophets, while the expression, "Terrible as an army with banners," shows the importance and the awe with which they were regarded.
Fig. 1.—Egyptian Standards.
We find representations of standards on the oldest bas-reliefs of Egypt. Indeed, the invention of standards is, by ancient writers, attributed to the Egyptians. According to Diodorus, the Egyptian standards consisted generally of the figures of their sacred animals borne on the end of a staff or spear, and in the paintings at Thebes we find on them such objects as a king's name and a sacred boat. One prominent and much used form was a figure resembling an expanded semicircular fan, and another example shows this form reversed and surmounted by the head of the goddess Athor, crowned with her symbolic disk and cow's horns. Another figure also used as a standard resembles a round-headed table-knife. Examples of these, and of the sacred ibis and dog, are shown in Fig. 1.[1] But on the Egyptian standards—those which were no doubt used in Pharaoh's army—there were various other figures, including reptiles such as lizards and beetles, with birds crowned with the fan-like ornament already referred to. A group of these is given in Fig. 2; but they had many other forms. Those represented in Fig. 3, and which show some curious symbolic forms, are taken from the works of Champollion, Wilkinson, and Rosellini.
[1] For this, and figures 6, 14, and 15, I am indebted to the courtesy of Messrs. A. and C. Black. They appear in the Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. ix. p. 276.
Fig. 2.—Egyptian Standards.
Fig. 3.—Egyptian Standards.
That the Hebrews carried standards after the exodus is, as I have already said, certain, and the probability is that they derived the practice from the Egyptian nation, from whose bondage they had just escaped, for they bore as devices figures of birds and animals, and also human figures, just as the Egyptians did. One of the earliest of the divine commands given to Moses was that "every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard with the ensign of their father's house."[2] The ensign probably meant the particular device borne upon the standard by each tribe; and tradition has assigned as these the symbolic cherubim seen in the visions of Ezekiel and John—Judah bearing a lion, Reuben a man, Ephraim an ox, and Dan an eagle. This is the opinion of the later Jews. The Targumists believe that, besides these representations, the banners were distinguished by particular colours—the colour for each tribe being analogous to that of the precious stone in the breastplate of the high-priest. They consider also that each standard bore the name of the tribe with a particular sentence from the Law. The modern opinion, however, is that the Hebrew standards were distinguished only by their colours, and by the name of the tribe to which each belonged.
[2] Numbers ii. 2.
Apart from the direct Scripture evidence on the subject, this bearing of distinguishing standards is what might be expected in a military organization such as that of the Israelites, just as we find them using warlike music. It is interesting to note that even the particular trumpet signals to be used for the assembling and advance of the troops, and in cases of alarm in time of war, are carefully prescribed,[3] while the association of their military standards with the trumpet is indicated in the exclamation of Jeremiah: "How long shall I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?"[4]
[3] Numbers x. 3.
[4] Jer. iv. 21.
Fig. 4.—An Assyrian Standard. Fig. 5.—Another Assyrian Standard.
As the standard was among all nations regarded with reverence, so the standard-bearer was selected for his strength and courage. So important was this considered that Isaiah, in describing the ruin and discomfiture that was about to fall on the King of Assyria, could find no stronger expression than to say that his overthrow would be "as when a standard-bearer fainteth."[5]
[5] Isa. x. 18.
Fig. 6.—Assyrian Standards and Standard-bearers.
The standards of the Assyrians, like those of the Egyptians, consisted of figures fastened on the end of spears or staffs; but of these very few varieties have been yet discovered. Layard says[6] that "standards were carried by the Assyrian charioteers. In the sculptures they have only two devices [Figs. 4, 5, 6]: one a figure, probably that of a divinity, standing on a bull and drawing a bow; in the other, two bulls running in opposite directions. These figures are inclosed in a circle and fixed to a long staff ornamented with streamers and tassels. The standards appear to have been partly supported by a rest in front of the chariot, and a long rope connecting them with the extremity of the pole. In a bas-relief of Khorsabad this rod is attached to the top of a standard." The interesting illustration given in Fig. 6 is from a sculpture in which these standards are represented with the figures of the standard-bearers, and in which also the ropes or supports of the staff are indicated.
[6] Nineveh and its Remains.
Fig. 7.—Assyrian Standards.
There were, however, varieties in the forms of the Assyrian standards other than those mentioned by Layard. In the annexed cut (Fig. 7) the one to the left is from a sculpture in the British Museum. The others are given on the authority of Botta.
Fig. 8.—Persian Standard. Fig. 9.—Turkish Horse-tail Standard.
Fig. 10.—Standard of Pacha.
The Persians, like the Assyrians, carried their standards, in battle, on staffs or spears attached to chariots. Their royal standard was a golden eagle with wings expanded carried on the end of a spear. They had also a figure of the sun which they used on great occasions when the king was present with the army. Quintus Curtius describes one of these figures of the sun, inclosed in a crystal, as making a very splendid appearance above the royal tent. But the proper royal standard of the Persians for many centuries, until the Mahommedan conquest, was a blacksmith's leather apron, around which the people had been at one time rallied to a successful opposition against an invader (Fig. 8). Many other national standards have had their origin in similar causes. Something which was at hand was seized in an emergency, and lifted up as a rallying point for the people, and afterwards adopted from the attachment which clung to it as an object identified with patriotic deeds. In this way originated the horse-tails borne as a standard by the modern Turks (Fig. 9). Under the old system, among that people, the distinction of rank between the two classes of pachas was indicated by the number of these horse-tails, the standards of the second class having only two tails, while those of the higher had three. Hence the term a pacha of two tails or three. A further mark of distinction appears to have been the elevation of one of the tails above the others, and the surmounting of each with the crescent, as shown in Fig. 10.
Fig. 11.
Fig. 12.
The Romans had various forms of standards, some composed entirely of fixed figures of different devices, including figures of animals. The eagle, according to Pliny, was the first and chief military ensign. In the second consulship of Caius Marius (B.C. 104) the eagle (Fig. 11) alone was used, but at a subsequent period some of the old emblems were resumed. These were the minotaur, the horse, and the wild boar; and on the Trajan Column we find as one of their standards the historic wolf (Fig. 12).
Fig. 13.—Roman Standards.
One of the most ancient of the Roman standards had an origin similar to that of the apron of the Persians and the horse-tails of the Turks. It was derived from a popular rising which took place in the time of Romulus, and was composed of a wisp of hay attached to the end of a pole (as seen in Fig. 13), and carried into battle. From its name, manipulus, the companies of foot soldiers, of which the hastati, principes, and triarii of each legion were composed, came to be called maniples—manipuli. Another standard borne by the Romans was a spear with a piece of cross wood at the top with the figure of a hand above, and having below a small round shield of gold or silver, as shown in Fig. 13. On this circle were at first represented the warlike deities Mars and Minerva, but after the extinction of the commonwealth it bore the effigies of the emperors and their favourites. From these coin-shaped devices the standards were called numina legionum. The eagle was sometimes represented with a thunderbolt in its claws, of which an example will be seen in Fig. 13. Under the later emperors it was carried with the legion, which was on that account sometimes termed aquila. The place for this standard was near the general, almost in the centre.
Fig. 14.
Fig. 15.
Another common form of the Roman standard consisted in a variety of figures and devices exhibited on the same staff, one over the other. On the top of one of these will be seen a human hand (Fig. 14). This by itself, or inclosed, as here, within a wreath, was, as I have mentioned, a frequent device, and was probably of oriental origin. It is also found as a symbol in ancient Mexico; and at the present day the flagstaffs of the Persians terminate in a silver hand. Among the pieces composing this form of standard are also found the eagle, and figures of the emperors inclosed in circles, with other devices (Fig. 15). A common form is that numbered 5 in Fig. 16. This example is taken from the Arch of Titus. The eagle surmounting the thunderbolt with the letters S P Q R (No. 3) was also a common form. The letters indicate Senatus Populusque Romanus. The examples Nos. 1 and 2 in Fig. 16 are from Montfaucon. No. 4 is given by Mr. Hope.
The vexillum of the Romans was a standard composed of a square piece of cloth fastened to a cross bar at the top of a spear, sometimes with a fringe all round as shown in Fig. 13, and sometimes fringed only below (No. 4, Fig. 16), or without a fringe, but draped at the sides (Fig. 17). When placed over the general's tent it was a sign for marching, or for battle.
Fig. 16.—Roman Standards.
Fig. 17.
Fig. 18.
Fig. 19.
The labarum of the emperors was similar in form, and frequently bore upon it a representation of the emperor, sometimes by himself and sometimes accompanied by the heads of members of his family. It has been said that the Emperor Constantine bore on the top of his standard the sign of the cross, but this was not so. The cross at that time was known only as a heathen emblem, and was not adopted by the Christians till afterwards. That which Constantine bore was what in his time was the only recognized Christian emblem—the first two letters of our Lord's name (Fig. 18)—the Greek X (English CH) and P (in English R). The labarum was made of silk. The term is sometimes used for other standards, and its form may still be recognized in the banners carried in ecclesiastical processions. The labarum, like the vexillum, had sometimes fringes with tassels or ribbons.
The dragon, an ensign of the Parthians, was adopted by the Romans as the standard of their cohorts. It appears as such on the Arch of Severus. It was also the device of the Dacians, and indeed seems to have been a general ensign among barbarians. Besides being carried as a separate figure in metal—as shown in Fig. 19—it was frequently embroidered in cotton or silk on a square piece of cloth borne on a cross bar elevated on a gilt staff; the bearer being called draconarius. From the Romans the dragon came to the Western Empire. It was borne by the German Emperors. In England also it was for some time the chief standard of the kings, and of the Dukes of Normandy, and according to Sir Richard Bacon it was the standard of Utor Pendragon, king of the Britons.[7] The golden dragon was in the eighth century the standard of Wessex, and it was displayed in a great battle in 742 when Ethelbald, the king of Mercia, was defeated. It was also borne on a pole by King Harold as a standard. It was borne by Henry VII. at Bosworth Field, and at a later date it was carried as a supporter by Henry VIII. and Edward VI., and also by Elizabeth. In many of the illuminations of MSS. in the fifteenth century we also find a gold dragon on a red pennon, as one of the ensigns in the French armies.
[7] Nisbet's Heraldry, vol. i. p. 343.
The infantry flag of the Romans was red, that of the cavalry blue, and that of a consul white.
The banners of the Parthians resembled those of the Romans, but they were more richly decorated with gold and silk.
In early times the Greeks carried as a standard a piece of armour on a spear, but although they had an ensign, the elevation of which served as a signal for giving battle either by land or by sea, they were not regularly marshalled by banners. In their later history their different cities bore different sacred emblems. Thus the Athenians were distinguished by the olive and the owl, and the Corinthians by a Pegasus.
At what time the form of standard which we call a flag was first used is not known. It was certainly not the earliest but the ultimate form which the standard assumed. The original form was some fixed object such as we have seen on the Egyptian and Roman examples, and the vexillum and labarum were transitional forms. The waving flag is said to have been first used by the Saracens. Another account is that the flag first acquired its present form in the sixth century, in Spain. The banners which Bede mentions as being carried by St. Augustine and his monks, when they entered Canterbury in procession, in the latter part of the sixth century, were probably in the form of the Roman labarum. He calls them little banners on which were depicted crosses.
Of our own national flags the earliest forms were those which bore the cognizance of the ruler for the time being. The well-known ensign of the Danes at the time of their dominion in Britain was the raven. The dragon, as we have seen, was in the eighth century the cognizance of Wessex, and the Saxons had also on their standards a white horse. Of our later royal standards and those of other nations I shall speak afterwards.
The forms of flags in our own country have varied very much. It was not till the time of the Crusades, when heraldry began to assume a definite form, that they became subject to established rules. Up to that period flags were, as a rule, small in size, and they usually terminated in points, like the more modern pennon. Such were the standards of the Normans. At the Battle of the Standard in 1138 the staff of the English standard was in the form of the mast of a ship, having a silver pyx at the top, containing the host, and bearing three sacred banners dedicated respectively to St. Peter, St. John of Beverley, and St. Wilfrid of Ripon, the whole being fastened—like the standards of the Persians and Assyrians—to a wheeled vehicle.
From an early period the practice has prevailed of blessing standards, and this has continued to our own day in the British army when new colours are presented to a regiment—there being a special form of service at the consecration. The banner of William the Conqueror was one blessed and sent to him by the pope. Indeed, it has been the practice of the popes in every age to give consecrated banners where they wished success to an enterprise.
DIFFERENT KINDS OF FLAGS—GONFANON—PENNON—PENONCEL.
In the middle ages almost every flag was a military one. A very early form, borne near the person of the commander-in-chief, was the Gonfanon. It was fixed in a frame made to turn like a modern ship's vane. That of the Conqueror, as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, had three tails, and was charged with a golden cross on a white ground within a blue border.
Of other forms of flags the principal varieties were the penoncel, the pennon or guidon, the banner, and the standard.
The Pennon was a purely personal flag, pointed, borne below the lance-head by a knight-bachelor, and charged with the arms, or crest, and motto of the bearer. But in early times no knight displayed a pennon who had not followers to defend it—the mounting of this ensign being a matter of privilege, not of obligation. The order of knight-bachelor was the most ancient and originally the sole order, being the degree conferred by one knight on another without the intervention of prince, noble, or churchman, and its privileges and duties approached nearly to those of the knight-errant.[8]
[8] Sir Walter Scott, Essay on Chivalry, p. 79.
The Penoncel, which was carried by the esquire, was the diminutive of the pennon, being one-half its breadth. It was borne at the end of a lance, and usually bore the cognizance or "avowrye" of the bearer. This flag was not carried by the esquire after the fight began, but was then either held by an inferior attendant, or put up by the owner's tent.
BANNERS.
The Banner was the flag of a troop, and was borne by knights, called after it bannerets, an order which held a middle rank between knights-bachelors and the barons or great feudatories of the crown. The flag of a knight-banneret was square at the end, but not an exact square on all the sides. The perfectly square banner was the flag of a baron, and of those of higher rank.
It was only on the field of battle, and in presence of the royal standard, that a knight-banneret could be created. It was the custom for the commander of the host thus to reward the distinguished services of a knight-bachelor bearing a pennon, and he did so by tearing off the "fly," or outer part of that flag, and by so doing giving it a square form, thus making it a banner, and its bearer a knight-banneret. The ceremony is thus described by Blome.[9] "The king (or his general), at the head of the army, drawn up into battalia after a victory, under the royal standard displayed, attended with all the field-officers and nobles of the court, receives the knight led between two renowned knights or valiant men-at-arms, having his pennon or guydon of arms in his hand; and before them the heralds, who proclaim his valiant achievements, for which he deserves to be made a knight-banneret, and to display his banner in the field. Then the king (or general) says unto him Advances toy, Bannaret, and causes the point of his pennon to be rent off; and the new knight, having the trumpets before him sounding, the nobles and officers accompanying him, is remitted to his tent, where they are nobly entertained."
[9] Analogia Honoria. London, 1637; p. 84.
But knights were thus promoted before a battle as well as after it. Froissart relates the manner in which the celebrated Sir John Chandos was made banneret by the Black Prince before the battle of Navarete. The whole scene forms a striking picture of an army of the middle ages moving to battle. Upon the pennons of the knights, penoncels of the squires, and banners of the barons and bannerets, the army formed, or, in modern phrase, dressed its line. The usual word of the attack was, "Advance banners in the name of God and Saint George." "When the sun was risen," writes Froissart, "it was a beautiful sight to view these battalions, with their brilliant armour glittering with its beams. In this manner they nearly approached to each other. The prince, with a few attendants, mounted a small hill, and saw very clearly the enemy marching straight towards them. Upon descending this hill he extended his line of battle on the plain, and then halted. The Spaniards, seeing the English halted, did the same, in order of battle; then each man tightened his armour and made ready as for instant combat. Sir John Chandos then advanced in front of the battalions, with his banner [pennon] uncased in his hand. He presented it to the prince, saying 'My lord, here is my banner; I present it to you that I may display it in whatever manner shall be most agreeable to you, for, thanks to God, I have now sufficient lands that will enable me so to do, and maintain the rank which it ought to hold.' The prince, Don Pedro being present, took the banner in his hands, which was blazoned with a sharp stake gules, on a field argent; and after having cut off the tail to make it square, he displayed it, and, returning it to him by the handle, said, 'Sir John, I return you your banner: God give you strength and honour to preserve it.' Upon this Sir John left the prince, and went back to his men with the banner in his hand."[10]
[10] Johnes' Froissart, vol. i. p. 731.
A banneret was expected to bring into the field at least thirty men-at-arms—that is, knights or squires mounted—at his own expense; and each of these, again, besides his attendants on foot, ought to have had a mounted crossbow-man, and a horseman armed with a bow and axe—forming altogether a large troop. The same force might be arrayed by a knight under a pennon, but his accepting a banner bound him to bring out that number at least. After the reign of Charles IV. this obligation fell into disuse in France, and in England, soon after that time, it also ceased to be observed.[11] Judging, however, from the contemporary heraldic poem of the "Siege of Carlaverock" (June, 1300), it would appear that early in the fourteenth century there was a banner to every twenty-five or thirty men-at-arms. At that period the English forces comprised the tenants in capite of the crown, who were entitled to lead their contingent under a banner of their arms—either by themselves or under a deputy of equal rank. Thus at Carlaverock the Bishop of Durham sent 160 of his men-at-arms, with his banner intrusted to John de Hastings. But his banner on this occasion bore, not the cognisance of the see, but simply his paternal arms. Having mentioned this old poem—in which the arms of every banneret in the English army are accurately blazoned—it may be interesting to give one of the opening verses, as an example of the Norman French of the period—
"La ont meinte riche garnement
Brode sur cendeaus et samis,
Meint beau penon en lance mis,
Meint baniere desploie."
In English—There were many rich caparisons, embroidered on silks and satins, many a beautiful penon fixed to a lance, and many a banner displayed.
[11] Sir Walter Scott, Essay on Chivalry.
In the Scottish wars, the banner of St. Cuthbert was, in the English army, carried by a monk. This continued to be done so late as the reign of Henry VIII. In the same way the banner of St. John of Beverley was carried by one of the vicars of Beverley College—who, by the way, received eight pence halfpenny per diem as his wages, to carry it after the king—a large sum in those days—and a penny a day to carry it back.[12] The bearer of a banner, or bannerer as he was called, was in these early times a very important personage. In the old paintings in MSS. the persons holding the national or royal banners are generally represented in the same kind of armour as the chief leaders. And they were liberally rewarded for their services. In 1361 Edward III. granted Sir Guy de Bryon 200 marks a year for life for having discreetly borne the king's banner at the siege of Calais in 1347.[13]
[ [12] Prynne's Antiquæ Constitutiones Angliæ, vol. iii. p. 118.
[ [13] Calend. Rot. Patent. p. 173.
We learn from the "Siege of Carlaverock" that a pennon hung out by the besieged was the signal for a parley. When the castle surrendered there were placed on its battlements, we are told, the banners of the king, of St. George, of St. Edmund, and St. Edward, together with those of the marshall and constable of the army. To these were added the banner of the individual to whose custody the castle was committed. But it is doubtful whether in the fifteenth century any others but those of the king and St. George were affixed to captured fortresses.
In France the office of custodier of national banners—such as the Oriflamme—was hereditary. It was the same in Ireland, which claims a higher antiquity in the use of banners than any other European nation; and in Scotland the representative of the great house of Scrymgeour enjoys the honour of being banner-bearer to the sovereign.[14]
[ [14] Vicissitudes of Families and other Essays, by Sir Bernard Burke, 1st series, p. 387.
It was the custom in early times to have banners suspended from trumpets. At the battle of Agincourt the Duke of Brabant, who arrived on the field towards the close of the conflict, is said, by St. Remy, to have taken one of the banners from his trumpeters, and, cutting a hole in the middle, made a surcoat of arms of it. To this circumstance Shakespeare thus alludes—
"I will a banner from my trumpet take
And use it for my haste."
Chaucer, too, notices banners being suspended from trumpets—
"On every trump hanging a brod banere,
Of fine tartarium full richly bete,
Every trumpet his lorde's armes bere."[15]
[ [15] Flour and the Leafe, 1 211.
At coronations banners were also used; and in the fifteenth century heralds, when despatched on missions, appear to have carried a banner bearing their sovereign's arms. Banners were also for a long time used at funerals. It was not till about the period of the Revolution that the practice fell into comparative desuetude.
STANDARDS—THE ROYAL STANDARD.
The Standard was a large long flag, gradually tapering towards the fly. According to the representation of a standard, in a heraldic MS. at least as early as the reign of Henry VII., in the British Museum, it was not quite so deep but very much longer than a banner,[16] and it varied in size according to the rank of the owner. In England that of a duke was seven yards in length, of a banneret four and a half, and of a knight-bachelor four yards.
[ [16] Harleian MSS. 2259, f. 186.
The Royal Standard of England, when the sovereign in person commanded the army, appears to have been of two sizes. According to the MS. referred to, one of these standards is to be "sett before the Kynges pavillion or tente, and not to be borne in battayle, and to be in length eleven yards." The other—"the Kynges standard to be borne"—is to be "in lengthe eight or nine yards."
The Royal Standard is a flag personal to the sovereign. It was not always exclusively so, for in the seventeenth century the Lord High Admiral, when personally in command of the fleet, and sometimes also other commanders-in-chief, flew as their flag of command, not the Union, but the Standard. It was so flown at the main by the Duke of Buckingham as Lord High Admiral, on the occasion when he disgraced the English flag in the unfortunate expedition against the Isle of Rhé in 1627. But now the Royal Standard is used only by the sovereign in person, or as a decoration on royal fête days. There are depicted on it the royal arms, which have had various forms in different periods of our history. The standard of Edward the Confessor was azure a cross floré between five martlets, or. The arms of William Duke of Normandy, emblazoned on his standard, were two lions, and they were borne by him and his successors, as the royal arms of England, till the reign of Henry II. That monarch married Eleanor, daughter and co-heiress of the Duke of Aquitaine, whose arms—one lion—Henry added to his own. Hence the three lions passant gardant in pale, borne ever since as the ensigns of England. These now occupy the first and fourth quarters of the standard, but they did not always do so. The fleurs-de-lis of France were, till a comparatively recent period, quartered with the English arms, having been first borne by Edward III. when he assumed the title of King of France. Many noble families, both in this country and on the Continent, have quartered the French lilies to show their origin, or in acknowledgment of the tenure of important fiefs there. Among the last may be mentioned the arms of Sir John Stewart of Darnley, who obtained from Charles VII. the lands and title of Aubigny, and the right to quarter the arms of France with his own. But in all these instances the fleurs-de-lis occupied a secondary place. So if Henry II. had desired merely to show his French connection, by maternal descent, he would have placed them in the second and third quarters. But he placed them in the first quarter, as arms of dominion, to indicate that he claimed the kingdom by right, and our sovereigns continued this idle pretence till so late as the reign of George III. It was not till the union with Ireland that it was discontinued.
Some of the English kings bore personal standards besides the flag of their own arms. Edward IV., besides his royal standard, generally bore a banner with a white rose. Henry VII. at the battle of Bosworth Field had three personal standards, in addition to the standard of his own arms. The blazon of these three, and how the king disposed of them after the battle, are thus described in a contemporary manuscript:—"With great pompe and triumphe he roade through the Cytie to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul where he offered his iij standards. In the one was the image of St. George; in the second was a red firye dragon beaten upon white and green sarcenet; the third was of yellow tarterne [17]
[ [17] Lansdowne MSS. 255, f. 433.
The Royal Standard of Scotland was a red lion rampant on a gold field within a red double tressure, floré counterfloré, of which the origin is veiled in the mists of antiquity. Our great heraldic authority, Nisbet, in common with earlier writers, adopts the tradition which assigns the assumption of the rampant lion to Fergus I., who is alleged to have flourished as King of Scotland about 330 years before Christ. He also refers to the celebrated league which Charlemagne is said to have entered into in the beginning of the ninth century with Achaius, King of Scotland, on account of his assistance in war, "for which special service performed by the Scots the French king encompassed the Scots lion, which was famous all over Europe, with a double tressure, flowered and counterflowered with flower de luces, the armorial figures of France, of the colour of the lion, to show that it had formerly defended the French lilies, and that these thereafter shall continue a defence for the Scots lion and as a badge of friendship."[18] On the other hand Chalmers observes that these two monarchs were probably not even aware of each other's existence, and he suggests that the lion—which first appears on the seal of Alexander II.—may have been derived from the arms of the old Earls of Northumberland and Huntingdon, from whom some of the Scottish kings were descended. He adds, however, that the lion was the cognisance of Galloway, and perhaps also of all the Celtic nations. Chalmers also mentions an "ould roll of armes," preserved by Leland, said to be of the age of Henry III. (1216), and which the context shows to be at least as old as the reign of Edward I. (1272), in which the arms of Scotland are thus described: "Le roy de Scosce dor a un lion de goules a un bordure dor flurette de goules."[19] In 1471 the parliament of James III. "ordanit that in tyme to cum thar suld be na double tresor about his armys, but that he suld ber hale armys of the lyoun without ony mar." If this alteration of the blazon was ever actually made, it did not long continue.[20]
[ [18] System of Heraldry, vol. ii. part iii. p. 98.
[ [19] Caledonia, i. 762, note (i.).
[ [20] Seton's Law and Practice of Heraldry in Scotland, p. 425.
With one noted exception Scotland never quartered the arms of any kingdom with her own. The exception was when Mary Stuart claimed the arms and style of England, and quartered these arms on her standard. This was perhaps the first, and, as it proved, an inexpiable provocation to Elizabeth.[21] Mary's mode of blazoning was peculiar. She bore Scotland and England quarterly—the former being placed first, and, over all, the dexter half of an escutcheon of pretence, charged with the arms of England, the sinister half being obscured in order to intimate that she was kept out of her right.[22]
[ [21] Hallam's Constitutional History, 4th edit. i. 127.
[ [22] Strype's Annals, quoted by Mr. Seton, p. 427.
On the accession of James I. the Royal Standard of England was altered. The arms of France and England quarterly appeared in the first and fourth quarters, those of Scotland in the second, and in the third the golden harp of Ireland, which had taken the place of the three crowns. But an exception occurred in the case of William III., who, on his landing in England, had a standard bearing the motto, "The Protestant Religion and Liberties of England," and, under the royal arms of England, instead of "Dieu et mon Droit," the words "And I will maintain it." Afterwards he impaled on his standard the arms of Mary with his own. They are represented in this form in a MS. of the Harleian Library, on a banner per pale orange and yellow. After his elevation to the throne William placed over the arms of the queen, which were those of her father James II., his own paternal coat of Nassau.[23]
[ [23] Willement's Regal Heraldry, p. 95.
George III. when he left out the ensigns of France marshalled on his standard those of his Germanic states in an escutcheon of pretence—a small shield in the centre point. This was omitted on the accession of Queen Victoria, who bears on her standard the arms of England in the first and fourth quarters, Scotland in the second, and Ireland in the third. (See Plate IV. No. 1, p. 108.)
But while the Royal Standard was, on the accession of James I., altered for England in the way I have described, it was displayed according to a different blazon in Scotland. For a long period, whenever the standard was used to the north of the Tweed, the Scottish arms had precedence by being placed in the first and fourth quarters. On the great seal of Scotland this precedence is still continued, and the Scottish unicorn also occupies the dexter side of the shield as a supporter. But on the standard the arms of Scotland have now lost their precedence, those of England being placed in the first quarter, and although there has been much controversy on the subject, I agree with Mr. Seton[24] that it is better that the arrangement should be so. The standard is the personal flag of the sovereign of one united kingdom, and heraldic propriety appears to require that only one unvarying armorial achievement should be used on it—that of the larger and more important kingdom taking precedence, although Nisbet[25] claims precedence for the Scottish arms on the achievement of Great Britain as those of "the ancientest sovereignty."[26] I certainly do not agree with Mr. Seton, however, that either in the arms or supporters precedence ought to be granted to England "in accordance with the sentiment of certain well-known classical lines:—
"'The Lion and the Unicorn
Were fighting for the Crown,
The Lion beat the Unicorn
All round the town.'"[27]
[ [24] Scottish Heraldry, p. 445.
[ [25] Vol ii. part iii. p. 90.
[ [26] Sir George Mackenzie says: "The King of Scotland being equal in dignity with the Kings of England, France, and Spain, attained to that dignity before any of these." He therefore claims precedence for Scotland over all these kingdoms. Treatise on Precedency, p. 4.
[ [27] Scottish Heraldry, p. 446.
I do not know where Mr. Seton got that version, inconsistent as it is alike with patriotism and with historical accuracy. It is certainly not the correct one. The true version, familiar to every boy in Scotland, is more impartial, and it has more fun in it. It runs thus:—
"The Lion and the Unicorn,
Fighting for the Crown:
Up came a little dog
And knocked them both down."
—the "little dog" being the small lion which stands defiantly on the crown, and constitutes the royal crest at the top of the achievement.
The supporters of the Scottish arms were two unicorns. In England, previous to the accession of the Stuarts, the supporters of the royal arms were changed at the caprice of the sovereign, and almost every king or queen adopted new ones. From these, and from the royal badges, came many of the curious names which may be found in old lists of ships. Such as the "Antelope," which refers to one of the supporters of Henry VI.; the "Bull" of Edward IV.; the "Dragon" of Henry VIII. and of Elizabeth. So also the badges: the "Sun," "Rose in the Sun," and "Falcon in the Fetterlock," were all worn by Edward IV. The "Double Rose" speaks for itself, and the "Hawthorn" belonged to Henry VIII.[28] The supporters assumed by King James, and continued to all his successors, were a lion on the dexter side, and on the sinister one of the Scottish unicorns—the latter displacing the red dragon of the Tudor family.
[ [28] Heraldry of the Sea, by J. K. Laughton, M.A.R.N., 1879.
In ships the Royal Standard is never hoisted now except when her Majesty is on board, or a member of the royal family other than the Prince of Wales. When the latter is on board his own standard is hoisted. It is the same as that of the Queen, except that it bears a label argent of three points, with the arms of Saxony on an escutcheon of pretence. The standard of the Duke of Edinburgh is the same as that of the Prince of Wales, except that the points of the label are charged, the first and third with a blue anchor, and the second with the St. George's cross. Wherever the sovereign is residing the Royal Standard is hoisted; and on royal anniversaries and state occasions it is hoisted at certain fortresses or stations—home and foreign—specified in the Queen's Regulations.
STANDARDS BORNE BY NOBLES.
Standards borne by subjects were, in early times, according to the Tudor MS. to be "slitt at the end," but they appear to have been also borne square. This is the form in an old standard of Richard, Earl of Warwick—circa 1437—bearing his badge of the bear and ragged staff (Fig. 20). Shakespeare[29] alludes to this device when he puts into the mouth of Warwick the words—
"Now by my father's badge, old Neville's crest,
The rampant bear chained to the ragged staff."
Fig. 20.—Standard of the Earl of Warwick, A.D. 1437.
But Shakespeare was out in his heraldry here, first in confounding the badge with a crest, and secondly in calling it Neville's, for the bear and the ragged staff had been the badge not of the Nevilles but of the Beauchamps, who preceded Warwick in the earldom.[30] This old Earl of Warwick had a similar device on the flag which he flew in his ship. It was a long flag, having the cross of St. George on the upper part—then the bear and ragged staff, and the remainder covered with ragged staffs. It is interesting to note that the account for this and other flags made for the earl in 1437, is preserved. The one just referred to is described as "a great Stremour for the ship of xi yerdis length and viij yerdis in brede," and the price for making it was "jli vis viiid."[31]
[ [29] King Henry VI. part ii. act v. sc. 1.
[ [30] Seton's Scottish Heraldry, p. 252.
[ [31] Antiquities of Warwickshire.
In the Advocates' Library there is preserved an interesting flag, which is said to have been the standard borne by the Earl Marshall at the battle of Flodden (Fig. 21). It is thus described in the paper which accompanies it: "The standard of the Earl Marshall of Scotland, carried at the battle of Flodden, 1513, by black John Skirving of Plewland Hill, his standard-bearer. Skirving was taken prisoner, having previously, however, concealed the banner about his person. The relic was handed down in the Skirving family, and presented to the Faculty of Advocates by William Skirving of Edinburgh, in the beginning of the present century. The arms and motto are those of the Keith family."
Fig. 21.—Flag of the Earl Marshall.
The flag may have been borne by the earl at Flodden, but the devices on it are certainly not his arms. The arms of the Earl Marshall were, argent, on a chief gules three pallets or; or, as it is otherwise given by Nisbet, pallé of six, or and gules. The crest of the earl, however, was a hart's head, and he had for supporters two harts. His motto also was that which appears on the banner, "Veritas vincit." That the full arms should not appear on the standard I can understand, for it was not common to place them there, and in England the Tudor MS. prescribes that, besides the cross of St. George, standards and guidons are to have on them not the arms, but only the bearers "beast or crest, with his devyce and word." It is possible, therefore, that the earl may have placed on his flag his well-known crest with the heads of the two harts forming his supporters, though such an arrangement would be unusual.
Fig. 22.—Standard of Earl Douglas, A.D. 1388.
The relic of a still older fight than that of Flodden is still preserved in Scotland in the standard borne by Earl Douglas at Otterburn—one of the most chivalrous battles, according to Froissart, that was ever fought. The story, as told in all the histories,[32] is that shortly before the battle, in a skirmish before Newcastle, Douglas, in a personal encounter with Percy, won the pennon of the English leader, and boasted that he would carry it to Scotland and plant it on his castle of Dalkeith; and till lately this standard was supposed to be the flag so captured. But recent investigation has shown that the flag—which, by the way, is not a pennon but a standard thirteen feet long—is that of Douglas himself, which of course his son would be careful to preserve and bring back. The flag is now much faded, and the second word of the motto was, when I saw it lately, not legible, but the motto is undoubtedly that of Earl Douglas, "Jamais arriere" (Fig. 22). The devices are not the arms as borne by his descendants the Dukes of Douglas;—indeed they are not arranged as a coat of arms at all. But the lion rampant for Galloway, the saltire for the lordship of Annandale, and the heart and the star, are all Douglas bearings. Curiously enough, there are two hearts, while the later earls bore only one, and there is only one star, while on their shields they carried three. The real trophies, the capture of which, in all probability, precipitated the battle, are to be found in two other relics which are preserved along with the flag. They consist of two lady's gauntlets, fringed with filigree work in silver, on each of which is embroidered the white lion of the Percys. The gloves are of different sizes, and were perhaps love pledges, carried by Percy suspended from his spear or helmet, as was the fashion of the time; and the loss of such tokens was quite as likely as the loss of a personal flag, to cause the Northumbrian knight to pursue Douglas and force him to battle.[33] These relics are in the possession of the family of Douglas of Cavers in Roxburghshire, descended from the earl who was slain at Otterburn.
[ [32] Tytler's History of Scotland, ii. 365, &c.
[ [33] Paper read by Mr. J. A. H. Murray of Hawick to the Hawick Archæological Society.
Fig. 23.—Banner of the Douglas's.
Along with them is preserved another old flag of the Douglas's, but evidently of a later date. It is a good example of the square banner borne by knights of noble rank. It is about 28 inches square, and bears on a shield the Douglas arms, but with the heart as originally borne before it was ensigned with a crown, and the chivalric motto still used by the Cavers family, "Doe or die" (Fig. 23).