FOOTNOTES:
[1] I.e. Flag (Danish and Norse), Flagg (Swedish), Flagge (German), Vlag (Dutch).
[2] See [Plate II], fig. 10.
[3] E.g. Albert of Aix: longissima hasta quod vocant standart. Baldric of Dol: admiravisi stantarum. Peter Tudebode: Quod stantarum apud nos dicitur vexillum. Robert the Monk: vexillum admiravissi quod standarum vocant.
[4] Historia, lib. vi: this with the other authorities quoted will be found in the Recueil des Historiens des Croisades.
[5] Unde quia stat fortissime compaginatum in signum populorum a stando standardum vocitatur.
[6] In 1337 streamers were from 14 to 32 ells long and 3 to 5 cloths wide; standards were 9 ells long and 3 cloths wide; while banners were 1¾ ells long and 2 cloths wide.
[7] E.g. those of William II, Henry I, Stephen and Alexander I of Scotland.
[8] The Theorike and Practike of moderne warres, 1598.
[9] The fact that the object represented is really a boat has been disputed, but there seem to be no good grounds for the objections made. The question is discussed by Dr Wallis Budge in his Egypt in the Neolithic and Archaic Periods (Books on Egypt and Chaldea, vol. ix), pp. 71 et seq.
[10] They are represented in de Morgan's Recherches sur les Origines de l'Egypte, in Dr Wallis Budge's work just cited, p. 78, and in Capart's Primitive Art in Egypt, p. 210.
[11] Ezekiel, chap. xxvii.
[12] See the British Museum Catalogue of Greek coins (Phoenicia), edited by Mr G. F. Hill, and Mr Hill's remarks in his introduction, p. xxii.
[13] In Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 5.
[14] For a more detailed discussion of these standards see papers by Dr Assmann and Mr Hill in the Zeitschrift für Numismatik, vol. xxv, and by Prof. E. Babelon in the Revue Numismatique for 1907. Prof. Babelon holds that this cruciform staff is the object which the Greeks called στυλις, a word whose meaning has never been satisfactorily determined, and that its primary object was to support the "aphlaston." The other writers do not concur. His theory that the boards which formed the aphlaston were movable and, supported by the "stylis," served to aid the navigation of the ship will not, I think, command many adherents.
[15] Pontremoli et Collignon: Pergame, Restauration et description des Monuments de l'Acropole, Paris, 1900.
[16] See the instances quoted in the chapter on signals, [p. 140].
[17] τὸ βαρβαρικὸν ἀνέτεινε σημεῖον. Strategemata, viii, 53 (iii). Polyaenus flourished circa 150 a.d. and was therefore writing long after the event he relates, but he appears to have had access to earlier authors whose works have now perished.
[18] Herodotus, vii, 100, 128.
[19] Strategemata, iii, 11 (xi).
[20] E.g. Diodorus Siculi, xiii, 46, 77; Polyaenus, i, 48 (ii); Polybius, ii, 66 (ii).
[21] Φοινικις said to be derived from Φοίνιξ dark red or purple. Φοίνιξ which also denotes a Phoenician is of doubtful etymology and may have been derived from the name of the date palm.
[22] Vide Stuart Jones, Companion to Roman History.
[23] Natural History, Book x, 5 (4).
[24] Caesar, B.G. ii, 20: vexillum proponendum, quod erat insigne, quum ad arma concurri oporteret.
[25] Tacitus, Hist. v, 22: Namque praetoriam navem vexillo insignem, illic ducem rati, abripiunt.
[26] De Re Militari, iii, 5: "Muta signa sunt aquilae, dracones, vexilla, flammulae, tufae, pinnae. Quocunque enim haec ferri iusserit ductor, eo necesse est signum suum comitantes milites pergant." He is here using the word signum in the sense of signal, and divides these signals into vocalia or orders given by word of mouth, semi-vocalia or those given by trumpet, and muta or those denoted by the movement of the standards.
[27] Du Cange, Glossarium: Tufa genus vexilli apud Romanos ex confertis plumarum globis.
[29] De Bello Civili, ii, 6: Conspirataeque naves triremes duae navem D. Brut quae ex insigni facile agnosci poterant, duabus ex partibus sese in eam incitaverant.
[30] Appian, v, 111: ἐπὶ δὲ τῇ παρακλήσει τὰ στρατηγικὰ σημεῖα, ὡς ἐν κινδύνῳ μάλιστα ὤν, ἀπέθετο.
[31] Dio, li, 21: σημείῳ κυανοειδεῖ ναυκρατητικῷ. Suetonius ii: caeruleo vexillo donavit.
[32] Civil Wars, v, 55.
[33] Alemannus, De Lateranensibus parietinis.
[34] De Rebus Hispaniae, iii, 18: Arabum ... qui sua capita tegunt vittis, ... habentes vestis diversis coloribus variegatas, tenentes gladios et ballistas, et vexilla in altum tensa.
[35] Germania, vii: effigiesque et signa quaedam detracta lucis in praelium ferunt.
[37] "There in the midst of all, the guiding star of the whole army, floated the consecrated banner, the gift of Rome and of Hildebrand.... There rode the chief of all, the immediate leader of that choicest and central division, the mighty Duke himself." Freeman, Norman Conquest, 2nd edition, iii, 463. It is true that (p. 465) Freeman says "I cannot see the banner in the tapestry," but if he was looking for a "banner" he certainly would not find one at this early date, and Wace (v, 11451) expressly says that it was a "gonfanon": "L'Apostoile...un gonfanon li enveia." Freeman supposes (p. 768) that at this point Eustace is giving advice to which William will not listen, but surely this is a misconception of a striking incident spiritedly portrayed by the designer.
[38] "The Bayeux Tapestry" in Monthly Review, Dec. 1904.
[39] Op. cit. p. 400: "the lantern on the Duke's mast is shown plainly in the Tapestry."
[40] William of Poitiers (his chaplain) says: "Verum ne prius luce littus, quo intendunt, attingentes, iniqua et minus nota statione periclitentur; dat praeconis voce edictum, ut cum in altum sint deductae, paululum noctis conquiescant non longe a sua rates cunctae in anchoris fluitantes, donec in ejus mali summo lampade conspecta, extemplo buccinae clangorem cursus accipiant signum."
[41] See [Plate II], fig. 10 and [p. 31].
[42] The chroniclers adopt no technical terms for the flags, but use vexillum or signum indiscriminately, the former word being no longer restricted to hanging flags, and being occasionally used for a standard or even for a cross.
[43] Thus Albert of Aix; Tudebode substitutes Theodore for Mercurius, and Robert the Monk, Maurice.
[44] Ogier l'Ardenois, v. 1744: A trois claus d'or son gonfanon lacié. Ibid. v. 9910: A cinq claus d'or.
[45] Itin. Regis Ricardi: regium cum leone vexillum.
[46] [Plate I], fig. 4. Vexillum balzanum, so named from "balzan," a piebald horse; the word was subsequently corrupted to "beauseant."
[47] Known as the Maltese Cross—Malta having been handed over to the Knights after their ejection from Rhodes by the Turks in 1522.
[48] Baluzius, Epistolarum Innocentii III Pontificis lib. undecim. 1682: Praetendit autem non sine mysterio crucem et claves; quia beatus Petrus Apostolus et crucem in Christo sustinuit et claves a Christo suscepit. Repraesentat itaque signum crucis, etc.
[49] Laurentius Veronensis, De Bello majoricano.
[50] The plural form vexilla seems to have been necessitated by the scansion of the verse.
[51] Michael de Vico in his Breviarium Pisanae Historiae, written in 1371, says this was red (vexillum vermileum) and that thereafter the Pisans always flew a red flag.
[52] Reproduced in colour in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores, vol. 18. The ms. itself has also been reproduced in photographic facsimile.
[53] The tarid at this date was shorter and broader than the galley, and therefore able to carry a heavier burden, but it was on this account less mobile, and therefore defensive rather than offensive in action. These tarids were fitted out with fighting castles (hediffitia (aedificia) mirabilia ad proelium) to increase their defensive qualities.
[54] Depictae colore albo cum crucibus per totum, dimisso tunc glauco colore quo depingi solebant.
[55] Chief Magistrate or "President" of the Republic.
[56] The term "Protentinus" was adopted from the Normans then ruling in Sicily, who had acquired it from the Byzantines. As in Sicily, the Protentinus appears to have been primarily the chief magistrate of one of the districts (compagnae) into which the state territory was divided for administrative purposes, the "comitus" being one of his subordinate officers. Thus the fleet was organised on a territorial basis. The term "comitus" was afterwards applied to the officer occupying the position of boatswain in a galley, but it has not that meaning at this date.
[57] A medal of Doge Pietro Candiano, 887 a.d., has on the reverse a war vessel with a flag at the mast, too small to show any distinctive marks.
[58] lxvi: furent drecies les banieres et li gonfanon es chastiaus des nés, et les houces ostées des escuz et portendu li bort des nés.
[59] Sismondi, History of the Italian Republics in the Middle Ages, ed. by Wm. Boulting, p. 252.
[60] Bella Duffy, The Tuscan Republics, pp. 78-80.
[61] Collection de Lois Maritimes, ii, 337.
[62] In the seventeenth century this red flag was charged with a white castle.
[63] Pardessus, ii, 411.
[Chapter II]
Early English, Scottish, and Irish Flags
[(i) ENGLAND]
So far as may be judged from the scanty records that remain, the ancient inhabitants of these islands do not seem to have known the use of flags until the Romans made them acquainted with their military signa. Adopted by the Saxons either directly from the Romans before they left their homes on the continent or from the Britons whom they subdued, flags formed, from the seventh century onwards, an important part of the regalia. Speaking of Eadwin King of Northumbria, under date 628 a.d., the Venerable Bede says:
his dignity was so great throughout his dominions that banners (vexilla) were not only borne before him in battle, but even in time of peace when he rode about his cities and towns or provinces the standard bearer was wont to go before him. And when he walked about the streets that sort of standard which the Romans call Tufa, and the English Tuuf, was borne before him[64].
A few years later, on the translation of the bones of King Oswald, the royal vexillum of purple and gold (auro et purpura compositum) was placed above the tomb, a practice that was followed through many centuries.
The Saxons of Wessex adopted as their principal war standard the dragon, which in various forms was destined to appear at many crucial moments in English history. At the battle of Burford in 752, according to Henry of Huntingdon, the Wessex standard was a golden dragon, while the Mercians used the vexillum[65].
The Danish vikings, who commenced their descents upon the southern coasts of England in the middle of the ninth century, had as their ensign a raven embroidered in a flag, which appears to have been used for divination. In the year 878 Hubba
the brother of Hingwar and Halfdene, with 23 ships ... sailed to Devon, where with 1200 others he met with a miserable death, being slain before the castle of Cynuit[66]. There (the Christians[67]) gained a very large booty, and amongst other things the flag called Raven [68], for they say that the three sisters of Hingwar and Hubba, daughters of Lodobroch, wove that flag and got it ready in one day. They say moreover that in every battle wherever that flag went before them, if they were to gain the victory a live raven would appear flying in the middle of the flag, but if they were doomed to be defeated it would hang down motionless, and this often proved to be so[69].
From this description it is clear that the raven flag was attached by one side to a staff, instead of by the top to a crosspiece like the Roman vexillum. We meet with it next at the beginning of the eleventh century, when the Danish hordes again invaded England under Sweyn and Cnut and conquered it. The anonymous author of the Encomium of Queen Emma, the wife of Cnut, gives a description of the flag and attributes to it magical properties, in which he is good enough not to expect his readers to believe. He says:
For they had a flag of wondrous portent, which, though I may well believe this to be incredible to the reader, yet because it is true I will mention it in this truthful account. Of a truth, although it was woven of quite plain white silk and there was no image of any kind in it, yet in time of war there always appeared in it a raven, as though it were woven thereon, which when its own party was victorious appeared with open beak, shaking its wings and moving its legs, but when that party was defeated, very quiet and with its whole body hanging down (toto corpore demissus)[70].
Possibly this flag was triangular, for in the early years of the tenth century the viking kings of Northumbria introduced into the reverse of their coins a triangular flag affixed laterally to a staff[71]. The top edge of this was horizontal and the lower, which was inclined upward from the staff, was heavily fringed. In the field was a small cross, which had—possibly under the influence of a nominal christianity—replaced the raven, although that bird is found on the obverse of some of the later coins[72]. These coins are of especial interest to us as they contain the earliest representation of a flag of any of the northern nations. This triangular flag appears first in a coin of Sihtric, who, after being driven from Dublin by the Irish in 920, reigned at York and died about 927, and later in a coin of Regnald (King of Northumbria in 943) and upon coins of Anlaf (949-952)[73].
It is about this period that flags first become associated with particular saints. Among the treasures sent by Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks, to King Æthelstan in 927 was a banner of St Maurice, which is said to have been of especial assistance to Charlemagne in his Spanish wars[74]. We do not know what form this banner took, presumably it was a representation of the saint, but it is of especial significance to us that this saint had been a soldier, for it enables us in some measure to understand why St George had such an extraordinary vogue a few centuries later.
At the battle of Assandune (1016) in which the English under Eadmund Ironside were defeated by the Danes under Sweyn and Cnut, the Raven was opposed to the Dragon and to another ensign described as a "Standard." This is the first occasion on which an English king appears in the field with two different "standards," and it is of interest to note that his place in battle was between them[75].
It is to be regretted that Henry of Huntingdon did not explain what this royal "Standard," for which he has no exact Latin equivalent, was like. He tells us that Harold also had a "Standard" (signum regium quod vocatur Standard) at the Battle of Hastings, and that a band of Norman knights bound themselves by oath to seize it: an effort in which they were successful, although many were slain. This Standard was apparently the "Dragon" seen in the Bayeux Tapestry in the hands of Harold's standard-bearer[76]. According to William of Malmesbury[77], Harold, who was fighting on foot, placed himself with his brothers near his vexillum, which was in the likeness of a man fighting, and was sumptuously adorned with gold and precious stones. After the battle William presented it to the Pope. Probably this fighting man was the emblem of the South-Saxons, for on the Sussex Downs above Wilmington—once the home of Earl Godwin, Harold's father—may be seen the outline of a gigantic figure armed with a staff or lance in either hand[78]. Evidently Harold's position was between the Dragon standard, and his personal ensign, a position similar to that occupied "according to custom" by Eadmund fifty years before.
Of these two the "signum regium," or principal "standard" appears to have been fixed in a central position or rallying point, while the other, the Dragon, was carried in the hands of a standard-bearer chosen for his personal strength and prowess. In September of the year 1191 when Richard was fighting in the Holy Land in company with the French under the Duke of Burgundy, and the crusading army was drawn up for battle, Richard fixed his standard in the midst of the forces and handed the Dragon to Peter des Preaux to carry, despite the claim of Robert Trussebut to bear it by hereditary right[79]. By this time the royal "standard" supported an heraldic banner that displayed the lion which Richard placed upon his first great seal and which on his return to England he multiplied by three; but why did a symbol so obviously pagan as the Dragon survive the Conquest and that greater attention to religion—or at any rate to its outward observance—that the Conquest had brought in its train? William of Normandy had conquered England beneath the aegis of the gonfanon with golden cross that the Pope had blessed for him, yet we hear no more of it. The battle of the Standard in 1138 was fought around a ship's mast bearing aloft the banners of St Peter, St John of Beverley and St Wilfred of Ripon. The very crusade in which Richard was engaged had been inaugurated with the solemn assumption of coloured crosses by the combatants at the hands of the Archbishop of Tyre, white for the English, red for the French, and green for the men of Flanders[80]. Yet the standard under which the English crusaders were led to the attack was none of these, but the same Dragon under which the Parthians had fought the Romans and the men of Wessex had beaten the men of Mercia. And the chronicler who records this fact was an eye-witness.
When, in the twenty-eighth year of his reign, Henry III was about to visit the Abbey at Westminster, which he was rebuilding,
he commanded Edward FitzOdo to make a Dragon in the manner of a Standard or Ensign of red Samit, to be embroidered with gold, and his tongue to appear as though continually moving and his eyes of Saphires or other stones agreeable to him[81]
which was to be placed in the Abbey Church against the King's coming thither. What then was its religious significance?
But we must leave this question to the student of folklore[82]. Suffice it to say that the Dragon was borne in the English army at Lewes in 1216, at Creçy in 1346, and finally at Bosworth Field in 1485, whence, in company with two banners, one containing the image of St George and the other a Dun Cow, it was carried in state to St Paul's Cathedral. Under all the Tudor sovereigns the Dragon formed one of the supporters of the Royal Arms, it appeared on the streamers of the Henri Grace à Dieu, and to this day it supports the Arms of the City of London and gives a name to one of the Officers of Arms—Rouge Dragon.
Before we turn aside to retrace the steps by which St George became the patron saint of England and the red cross on white ground England's national flag, we must first briefly notice the other saintly banners with which, for a time, it contested the pre-eminence. Mention has already been made of the "Standard" from which the battle of 1138 took its name. This standard consisted of the mast of a ship fixed on a four-wheeled frame. At the top was placed a silver pyx containing a consecrated wafer, and beneath this were suspended the banners of St Peter (of York), St John (of Beverley), and St Wilfred (of Ripon). The entirely religious nature of this standard is no doubt due to the fact that the English levies had been gathered under the direction of Thurstan, the aged Archbishop of York[83].
The banner of St John of Beverley was again in evidence during the Scottish wars of Edward I, and during these same wars there appears for the first time the banner of another north of England saint, St Cuthbert of Durham. Both these banners were carried by ecclesiastics, who were paid by the king for their services. In addition to these, which seem to have been carried only in the Northern wars, there were in use, as appears from the Wardrobe Accounts for 1299-1300[84], five other banners: two of the Arms of England, one of the arms of St George, one of the arms of St Edmund, and one of the arms of St Edward.
A description of the banner of St Cuthbert has been preserved for us in a MS. of the sixteenth century[85]:
There was also a Baner ... called Sanct Cuthbertes Baner which was five yards in length. All the pippes of it were of sylver to be sleaven on a long speire staffe, and on the overmost pype on the hight of yt was a ffyne lytle silver crosse, and a goodly Banner cloth perteyned to yt. And in the mydes of the banner cloth was all of white velvett, halfe a yerd squayre every way, and a faire crose of Read velvett over yt, and within ye said white velvett was ye holy Relique, ye Corporax that ye holy man Sancte Cuthbert did cover the chalyce withall when he sayd mess. And the Resydewe of ye Banner clothe was all of Read velvett, imbrodered all with grene sylke and goulde most sumtuousle.
The arms of England were at this period the three leopards (or lions): those of St George the well-known red cross. St Edmund's arms are believed to have been three golden crowns on a blue field[86], those of St Edward (Edward the Confessor) were, also on a blue field, a cross flory between five martlets, gold[87]. Some of Edward's coins show on the reverse a cross between four small birds that may be taken to be martlets, the heraldic swallow without feet or beak. These alone of all the saintly "arms" appear to have had any direct connection with the man with whose name they are associated.
Under Henry V there was added to these a banner emblematic of the Holy Trinity[88], which was carried at Agincourt. In addition to these we hear of a banner of St William, carried in the Earl of Surrey's army in the north in 1513.
It will have been noticed that, with the exception of the two apostles, only one of these saints, St George, is of foreign extraction. How did it come to pass that this foreign saint completely eclipsed those who, in the literal sense of the word, were strictly national?
Few saints have been so universally honoured as St George, and yet there is not a saint in the calendar about whose life so little that is authentic is known. He was a soldier who attained the crown of martyrdom during the reign of Diocletian. That is the extent of our knowledge, and on this meagre foundation the wildest, the most incredible legends have been embroidered. Even the date of his death is not certain[89], yet from an early age he was one of the most popular of saints, especially in the East, where he was revered by Mahometan and Christian alike. And here it is to be noted that he is not the George of Cappadocia, the Arian Bishop of Alexandria who met with the death his acts had amply merited at the hands of the populace in the year 361, although so eminent an authority as Gibbon[90] has declared them one and the same.
The cult of St George spread from East to West. In the fifth century he was honoured in Gaul. The monastery at Thetford, founded in the reign of Canute, was dedicated to him[91], and the churches of St George at Fordington (now a part of Dorchester) and Southwark were founded before the Norman Conquest. But although his feast day (23rd April) had been included by the Venerable Bede in his Martyrologium it does not appear to have been generally observed in England till a later date. One of the payments in the Misae roll of 14 John (1213)[92] is dated as the day before the feast of St George, and this feast was included among the minor festivals by the Council at Oxford in 1222[93], yet it is not mentioned in the Constitutions of the Bishop of Worcester in 1240[94]. It is included in the list of saints' days drawn up by the Synod of Exeter in 1287, but it is not included in lists drawn up by Archbishops of Canterbury in 1332 and 1400, nor in one drawn up by the Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1342[95].
The explanation of this lies in the fact that St George was not a churchman's but a soldier's saint. It is to our crusading kings, Richard and Edward I, and to their followers that he owes a popularity that extends to numbers that do not reverence saints and would be hard put to it to name offhand half a dozen others.
St George became especially popular among the crusaders, and his miraculous intervention was believed to have decided victory in their favour on several occasions. The early sculptured tympanum over the south door of St George's Church at Fordington is supposed to represent the saint intervening in behalf of the Christians at the battle of Antioch in 1098. The same subject occurs in a mural painting in the church at Hardham in Sussex[96]. Both painting and sculpture are assigned to the twelfth century. In both instances the saint is on horseback and carries a lance; with the butt end he strikes down the foe. Near the head of the lance is a gonfanon the fly of which is split into long tails. No sign of the cross now remains in the painting, but in the sculpture it is plainly visible at the head of this gonfanon. As the earliest representation in England of St George's flag, this sculpture is of especial interest.
As already remarked in the previous chapter, the date at which the red cross on a white field first became associated with St George is not known. Jacobus de Voragine, the thirteenth century author of the Legenda Aurea, quotes an earlier history of Antioch as his authority for the statement that at the Siege of Jerusalem (1099) the Christians hesitated to ascend the scaling ladders until St George, clad in white armour marked with the red cross, appeared and beckoned them on.
The date at which St George's cross became accepted as the English national flag has also yet to be ascertained. It does not appear to have been used as such at the time of the Third Crusade. In January, 1188, when Henry II and his followers enrolled themselves in response to the preaching of William of Tyre, they received white crosses, while the French took red and the Flemings green ones[97]. At first sight it may seem that there is some error in this statement. We know that at a later period the English had adopted the red cross on white ground while the French made use of a white one on a blue ground. Cleirac[98], writing in 1661 and knowing of no other authority for the statement than Matthew Paris, attempted to solve this difficulty by "restoring" the text and interchanging "red" and "white," but this simple expedient is not allowed to the modern student. The statement occurs not only in Matthew Paris, who had probably taken it from the Abbot Benedict's Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi, but also in the works of John de Oxenedes, Bartholomew de Cotton, Roger de Wendover and Ralph de Diceto. It is not probable that so many contemporary, or nearly contemporary, writers would make or repeat such a statement if it were erroneous.
Time and circumstances have not permitted of an absolutely exhaustive examination of the public records, but after a lengthy search in all likely places the author has not been able to find any mention of the "arms" or flag of St George in English earlier than the year 1277. In the roll of accounts[99] relating to the Welsh War of that year (the fifth of Edward I) occur payments to Admetus, the king's tailor, for the purchase of white and coloured cloth, buckram, etc., for the manufacture of pennoncels and bracers "of the arms of St George." In the original these entries have all been struck through, probably because they were accounted for elsewhere in some roll now perished. While this account only mentions three streamers of the king's arms, it includes the comparatively large number of 340 pennoncels of St George's arms. It is probable that banners of the king's arms and of the arms of St Edward and St Edmund were also in use, together with banners of the feudal lords taking the field, just as we find them in use twenty-three years later at the siege of Carlaverock[100], but it is evident from the entries above referred to that the arms of St George were in great, if not exclusive, demand for the smaller flags, which in some cases are expressly stated to be for the king's foot soldiers (pro peditibus regis).
We have, therefore, in determining the probable date of the introduction of St George's cross as an English national flag to take into account the following facts.
In the year 1188 the red cross was not a mark of English nationality, although it was certainly in use in the East and by the Genoese as a religious emblem associated with St George.
In 1213 the feast of St George was recognised by the Court officials and used in dating payments, but was not yet generally observed by the people.
In 1222 this feast was included among the minor festivals to be observed in the English Church, but its omission in later lists shows that it was not universally observed and that no special importance was attached to it.
The cross of St George is definitely referred to in 1277 in circumstances that leave no doubt that it was then in use in England as a national emblem.
We must now briefly recall the state of affairs in England during those ninety years. After Henry II assumed the cross in 1188 his quarrel with Philip of France and with his own son prevented him from proceeding to the Holy Land. Richard, who succeeded him in 1189, spent only six months of his ten years' reign in England. On his return in 1194 after his long absence at the Crusades and in captivity, he spent only two months in this country and then went to France, where the remainder of his life was spent. The whole of John's reign was spent in quarrels with his subjects. Henry III, throughout his long reign of fifty-six years, took up an attitude which was decidedly un-English. On the other hand, Edward I is generally recognised by historians as the first king of "English" nationality. At the date of his succession to the throne he was absent at the Crusades, and as the country was enjoying peace at the hands of those entrusted with the administration of the government he did not return to England until 1274. This peace was not broken until the attempt of Llewellyn to secure the absolute independence of Wales brought on the Welsh War of 1277.
Having all these circumstances in view, it seems on the whole probable that the cross of St George, although more or less familiar to the English, was first erected by Edward I into a national symbol for a people that, by the incorporation of the foreign elements introduced at the Norman Conquest (assisted by the loss of the greater part of the continental possessions of its kings) had at length become a homogeneous nation. From the entries in the roll above referred to and from similar entries in later rolls of Edward I it appears that the cross of St George was almost entirely confined to the pennoncels on the spears of the foot-soldiers and to the "bracers" which the archers bore on their left forearms. Why the bracer should be singled out for this distinction is not clear, but it will be remembered that little over a hundred years later the bracer of Chaucer's "Yeoman" was a conspicuous part of his dress.
And in his hond he bar a mighty bowe * * * * * Upon his arme he bar a gay bracer And by his side a swerd and a bokeler[101].
We may suppose that the cross of St George, the simplest and most conspicuous of all the saintly devices, was chosen as the distinctive badge of all those not entitled to armorial bearings and not clothed in the livery of the feudal lords. Indeed, from the expression "for the King's footsoldiers" (pro peditibus regis), which occurs in more than one of the rolls, it would seem that the St George's cross was used instead of the royal arms for the soldiery raised directly by the king and not brought into the field under the banner of any of the nobles. It is not until the reign of Richard II that we meet with an order for the whole of the army to be ensigned with the St George's cross.
Among the greater banners that of St George was not as yet supreme; it was indeed only one of four, for when the Castle of Carlaverock was taken in the year 1300:
Puis fist le roy porter amont
Sa baniere et la Seint Eymont
La Seint George et la Seint Edwart
Et o celes par droit eswart
La Segrave et la Herefort
Et cele au Seignour de Clifford
A ki li chasteaus fut donnes [102].
Then the king caused his banner
and that of St Edmund, St George,
and St Edward to be displayed on
high, and with them, by established
right, those of Segrave and Hereford
and that of the Lord of Clifford
to whom the castle was entrusted.
The first step towards the promotion of St George to a position of predominance seems to be due to Edward III, who in gratitude for his supposed help at the Battle of Creçy founded the Chapel of St George at Windsor in 1348. It is from this time that we may date the actual dethronement of Edward the Confessor from the position of "patron saint" of England and the definite substitution of St George in his place. This process was completed under Henry V after the Battle of Agincourt. A Convocation of the province of Canterbury held at St Paul's towards the end of 1415 raised the festival of St George to the position of a "double major feast" and ordered it to be observed throughout the province (which includes England and Wales south of Cheshire and Yorkshire) with as much solemnity as Christmas Day. The Archbishop[103], in his formal communication to the Bishop of London of the decision arrived at, refers to St George as being "as it were the patron and special protector" of the nation, "For by his intervention, as we unhesitatingly believe, not only is the armed force of the English people directed in time of war against hostile incursions, but by the help of such a patron the struggles of the unarmed clergy[104] in time of peace are frequently strengthened[105]."
When the Prayer Book was revised under Edward VI, the festival of St George was abolished, with many others. Under the influence of the Reformation the banners of his former rivals, St Edward and St Edmund, together with all other religious flags in public use, except that of St George, entirely disappeared, and their place was taken by banners containing the royal badges.
We have seen that the appearance of the red cross on the clothing of the soldiery can be traced back to the "bracer" of the archers of 1277. The Ordinances of War made by Richard II at Durham in 1385, when on his way to repel a threatened invasion from Scotland, required every man in the king's army to bear a large cross of St George on his clothing before and behind. Richard appears to have adopted this expedient from the Scots, though they were of course not the first people to make use of it. On the 1st of July in that year orders had been issued for the soldiers of the Scottish army to be marked with a white St Andrew's cross (see [p. 47]). At that date Richard was at Westminster; he left there about the 4th of July, was at Leicester on the 7th, and at York from the 17th to 22nd. On the 26th he had reached Durham; he remained there till the 28th, and arrived at Morpeth by the 31st. The ordinances which he issued at Durham must therefore be dated at the end of July[106], and as there is no evidence that the English were at this time in the habit of marking their coats with the red cross before and behind, we may reasonably infer that it was then done for the first time in direct imitation of the Scots. This provision is also found in the similar ordinances made by Henry V at Mantes in 1419, the only difference between them being that while under the older orders no prisoner was allowed to wear this cross, under the later ones prisoners in the custody of their captors might do so.
Ordinances of War made by King Richard II at Durham Ao 1385. Cott. MS. Nero D. vi, f. 89.
Item que chescun, de quel estat condicion on nacion qil soit, issint qil soit de nostre partie, porte un signe des armes de Seint George large devant et autre aderer, sur peril qe sil soit naufre ou mort en defaute dycel, cely qe le naufra ou tue, ne portera nul juesse pur li, et que nul enemy ne porte le dit signe de Seint George, coment qil soit prisoner ou autrement sur peyne destre mort[107].
Ordinances of War made by Henry V at Mawnt (Mantes, prob. July, 1419). Lansdowne MS. 285.
Also, that every man of what estate, condicion or nacion that he be, of oure partie, bere a band of Seint George suffisant large, upon the perile, if he be wounded or dede in the fawte thereof, he that hym wounded or sleeth shall bere no peyn for hym: and that none enemy bere the said signe of Seint George, but if he be prisoner & in the warde of his maister, upon peyn of deth therefore[108].
There is no record of the flags flown on English ships earlier than the thirteenth century, but there can be little doubt that in the eleventh and twelfth centuries they were of the rudimentary form (little more than wind vanes) depicted on the ships of the Bayeux Tapestry. The invention of the banner of arms about the middle of the thirteenth century provided a ready means of distinguishing the nationality, port of origin, or ownership of a ship at sea, and its use for that purpose is indicated in a number of seals of seaport towns which may be dated from the latter half of that century. Thus the seal of Lyme Regis ([Plate III], fig. 1), incorporated in the reign of Edward I, shows in addition to the early type of gonfanon simply charged with a cross, displayed from the masthead, banners of arms on spears amidships, the arms being those of England and of Castile and Leon, the latter in compliment to Eleanor of Castile, Queen of Edward I. The seal of Sandwich ([Plate III], fig. 4), somewhat earlier in design if not in actual date, shows in addition to a small pendant at the masthead, a banner on the forecastle and two banners on the aftercastle. The ship in the seal of Faversham ([Plate III], fig. 5) displays a pendant at the masthead, the banner of St George on the forecastle, and a banner charged with three chevronels on the aftercastle, while the ship of Hastings ([Plate III], fig. 6) displays the banner of the Cinque Ports ([Plate I], fig. 13) at the bow and the banner of England on the aftercastle, in addition to a gonfanon at the masthead. From the closing years of this century onwards a number of documents have survived in the Public Records which give indications of the nature of the flags displayed at sea. Thus the accounts[109] of the ship sent from Yarmouth to fetch the "Maid of Norway" in 1290 show that this ship was provided with banners of the Royal Arms and silken streamers, and in the year 1294 sum of 5s. 6d. was expended in the purchase of a streamer, and 20d. for a banner containing the figure of St George, for a galley building at York, while for one building at Southampton in the same year no less than 40s. (relatively a large sum) was expended in purchasing two streamers and twenty-five banners of the Royal Arms. The most interesting documents of that period are, however, first an ordinance made at Bruges on 8th March, 1297, between Edward I and the Count of Flanders[110] which provided that all ships of England, Bayonne and other places under the English crown going to Flanders should display a banner of the Royal Arms (le signal des armes du Roy d'Engleterre) and that the ships of Flanders should display the arms of the Count and be provided with letters patent sealed with the seal of their port of origin confirming their right to do so—probably the earliest instance of the existence of "ships' papers" upon record. The second document[111] is a long recital of disputes at sea between the mariners of England and Bayonne on the one side and the Normans on the other, during the years from 1292 to 1298. From this it appears that in a pitched battle which took place off the coast of Brittany the Normans had flown at the mastheads streamers of red sendal 30 yards long and 2 yards broad called "baucans," and "signifying death without quarter and mortal war in all parts where mariners are to be found."
When we enter upon the fourteenth century the sources of information become more ample and the flags show greater diversity of device. The ship in the seal of Dover of 1305 ([Plate III], fig. 3) displays the banner of the Cinque Ports on the stern castle and a gonfanon at the masthead. The accounts of the king's armourer in 1322 contain entries of eighty penoncels for galleys with the royal arms in chief, a large number of banners of the arms of St Edmund ([Plate I], fig. 7) and of the arms of St Edward ([Plate I], fig. 6), standards of the royal arms, penoncels of St George for lances, and three banners of St George, but it is not clear whether any of the above, except the 80 penoncels, were for the king's ships. The material used, in addition to sendal, was worsted, sindon and cloth of Aylsham.
A roll of the expenses of John de Bukyngham, clerk of the great wardrobe, shows the following flags to have been manufactured under his directions for the king's ships in 1350:
2 penoncels of sindon, 7¼ yards long and 2 cloths wide, red with a white pale charged with 3 blue garters,
2 penoncels 3¼ yards long and 3 cloths wide, charged with a shield of the royal arms surrounded by a blue garter,
2 streamers for the "Jerusalem," one 32 yards long and 5 cloths wide with the royal arms in chief and striped red and white fly; the other 30 yards long, of red worsted, charged with white dragons, green lozenges and leopards' heads,
2 standards for the same ship, 8 yards square,
A streamer for the "Marye," 32 yards long with figure of St Mary in chief, and the royal arms quarterly in the fly,
A streamer for the "Edward" 33 yards long with an "E" in chief and the royal arms in the fly,
Streamers for the "John," "Edmund" and several other ships with figures of the saint appropriate to the name painted upon linen cloth in chief,
3 streamers 5, 10, and 30 yards long with the royal arms in chief and fly chequered green and white powdered with green and red roses,
A streamer 24 yards long and 4 cloths wide for the ship assigned to the King's Wardrobe, charged with the royal arms, with a black key in chief, and 6 standards for the same ship with a leopard at the head followed by a black key and the royal arms.
A few years later we have an indenture dated in the forty-third year of Edward III whereby John de Haytfeld, clerk of the armour and artillery of the king's ships, acknowledges the receipt from Thomas de Carleton, the king's armourer[112], of a number of flags of the following types:
Streamers with the royal arms in chief varying in length from 8 to 38 yards
Standards with the royal arms in chief varying in length from 7 to 12 yards
Banners of the royal arms
Banners of St George
A Gonfanon of council of red tartaryn worked with nine golden angels supporting a shield of the royal arms, each angel having on his head a chaplet of the Order of the Garter (Un gonfanon de conseil de tartaryn rouge batuz od ix angelis dor tenantz un escu des armes du Roy eiant suz les testes chapeles de garetters des conflarie de saint George)
A gonfanon blue and white with a shield of the royal arms surrounded by a garter powdered with a golden fleurs de lis.
A similar indenture made with John of Sleaford, Clerk of the Privy Wardrobe, mentions 18 standards of worsted of the royal arms, and 234 standards of linen of the arms of St George with leopards of worsted in chief.
The flags of the fifteenth century were of similar type. A roll of the tenth year of Henry V[113], containing a long list of articles supplied for the royal ships, mentions the following flags:
For the "Trinity Royal"
A banner of council of the royal arms and St George,
Gittons of the Holy Trinity, St Mary, St Edward, royal arms,
St George, the ostrich feather, and swan,
Standards of St Mary, St George, the ostrich feather and royal
arms.
For the "Holy Ghost"
A streamer of the "Holy Ghost,"
Gittons of the Holy Ghost, antelope, royal arms, swan and
St Edward,
Standards of the Holy Ghost, St George, antelope and swan.
For the "Gabriel"
A streamer of St Katherine,
A gitton of St Edward.
For the "Nicholas"
A streamer of St Nicholas,
Gittons of St Edward, royal arms and ostrich feather,
Standards of St Edward and St George.
For the "Grace Dieu"
A streamer of St Nicholas,
A gitton of St Edward.
This exuberance of design persisted until the Reformation in England put the saints out of favour. While in the early years of Henry VIII the 'Henri Grace à Dieu' was provided with banners of England, England and Spain, Castile, Guienne, Wales, Cornwall, the pomegranate and rose, the rose of white and green, and St Edward streamers "with a dragon" 45 and 42 yards long, one with a lion 36 yards long, one with a greyhound 18 yards long and two "litell streamers with crosse of saint George" 15 and 12 yards in length respectively, and other ships had banners of St Peter, St Katherine, St Edward, St Anne, the dragon, greyhound, portcullis and red lion, towards the end of his reign the saintly flags had disappeared for ever, except for the red cross of St George, and the royal arms and royal badges alone remain. Thus the ship reproduced in the frontispiece from a plan of Calais harbour[114] made about the year 1545 displays, in addition to the huge streamer of St George, only the royal arms and the royal badges of the fleur-de-lis and crown, ostrich feather, portcullis and crown, and rose and crown.
The rolls of Anthony Anthony, prepared in the last year of Henry VIII, show streamers party green and white (the Tudor colours) with St George's cross in chief; banners of St George and of the Tudor colours in horizontal stripes, and a few banners of the royal arms, and of the fleur-de-lis badge.
The accounts for the year 1574, when ensigns appear for the first time among sea stores, give the following details as to their construction. There were twenty-four of them made "for her Mats newe shippes," the material being "bolonia sarcenett of diverse coulors." Staves were provided, one with a gilt and the others with steel heads, with a pair of tassels to each. The flags were provided with canvas sockets. For the banners red and blue say was provided, with buckram for the socket, and "mockadoe fringe." Streamers and banners were primed, painted and coloured in oil colours by Wm Herne, the queen's serjeant painter, and the streamers were of the following lengths:
84 feet long and 9 feet broad at the head
60 " " 7 " " "
54 " " 8 " " "
45 " " 6 " " "
36 " " 6 " " "
There were besides four banners of fine linen cloth, fringed, and quartered with the royal arms, each being 15 feet long and 13 feet 6 inches deep. "And more twoe banners of damask thone of crymson with a lyon of gold, thother of purple with affaulcon of silver fringed with silke."
When Drake and Hawkins set out for their last voyage in 1594 they were provided with
4 flags gilt with her Majesty's arms costing 60s. each
30 flags of St George costing 16s. and 8d. a piece
3 streamers with the Queen's badges in silver and gold that cost £8 each.
80 other streamers costing 25s. each, and
26 ensigns;
the total cost of these flags reaching the large amount (for those days) of £221.
Very little record remains of the flags flown by British merchant ships during this period. It has been already remarked that those going to Flanders at the end of the thirteenth century were ordered to fly the royal arms, and banners of these arms appear on the ships in the early seals of Lyme Regis, Hastings and Bristol. The fifteenth century seal of Yarmouth ([Plate III], fig. 2) shows the banner of St George on the forecastle, a pendant with cross of St George in chief at the masthead, and a banner of the arms of Yarmouth[115] (closely resembling the Cinque Ports flag but with herrings' tails substituted for the dimidiated hulks) upon the stern castle. In the seal of Tenterden ([Plate III], fig. 7) and of Rye, also of the fifteenth century, the banner of St George is prominent. It seems probable that from the fourteenth century onwards ships not belonging to the king or the nobility flew the flag of St George when they flew any flag at all. In ships belonging to the greater nobles the custom appears to have been to display a streamer of the owner's badges; thus the ships in the "Warwick Pageant[116]," drawn circa 1490, display streamers containing the badges of the bear and ragged staff with St George's cross in chief. Ships of lesser owners, belonging to an important seaport such as the Cinque Ports or Yarmouth, appear to have flown the recognised flag of that port in addition to a flag or streamer of St George.
By the end of the sixteenth century the use of the royal arms had become confined to the Admiral of the Fleet; the royal badges had nearly disappeared from the sea, though they are occasionally to be met with during the next century, and the flag of St George had taken the lead as the distinguishing characteristic of English ships, both men-of-war and merchantmen.
PLATE III — Seals
[(ii) SCOTLAND]
The history of the national flags of Scotland is much less complicated than that of the flags of England, for the northern nation had decided upon their patron saint at a much earlier date than their neighbours south of the Tweed. There was a similar struggle for supremacy among competing saints, but the issue was decided in the eighth century and appears to have remained unchallenged ever since. In the words of Wm Forbes Skene, the Scottish historian,
With the departure of the Columban Clergy, the veneration of St Columba as the apostle of the northern Picts seems to have been given up, at least by the southern portion of that people, and St Peter now became the patron saint of the kingdom and continued to be so till the year 736, when Angus the son of Fergus established his power by the defeat of Nectan himself, and the other competitors for the throne. As the king rapidly brought the territories of the other Pictish families under his sway, and even added Dalriada to his kingdom, he seemed desirous to connect a new ecclesiastical influence with his reign, for in the same year that he completed the conquest of Dalriada he founded a church at St Andrews, in which he placed a new body of clergy, who had brought the relics of St Andrew with them, and this apostle soon became the more popular patron saint of the kingdom, while the previous patronage of St Peter disappeared from the annals[117].
It is probable that the cross-saltire was adopted by the Scots as a national ensign at a very early period, but there seems no direct evidence of this before the fourteenth century. The earliest Scottish records were unfortunately lost at sea in the ship that was sent to return them to that country, whence they had been carried off, with the Stone of Destiny, by Edward I.
In the summer of the year 1385 the Scots planned a raid into England, in which they were assisted by a considerable contingent of French. The Ordinances for the allied army drawn up by the Council for this occasion and promulgated on the 1st July contained the following proviso:
Item every man French and Scots shall have a sign before and behind, namely a white St Andrew's Cross, and if his jack is white or his coat white he shall bear the said white cross in a piece of black cloth round or square[118].
It will be noted that the field on which the cross-saltire was to be placed was immaterial, but if the coat happened to be white the field was to be black. There is other evidence that the ground colour was not an essential part of the design, although the prevailing colour at a later date seems to have been blue. In the Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland[119] for the year 1512 there is recorded a payment for a roll of blue say for the banner of a ship "with Sanct Androis cors in the myddis." In 1513 the ground colour was also blue. In 1523, however, when orders were again issued for each man to bear the white saltire before and behind, no ground was mentioned, while in 1540 and 1542 the ground colour of the ensigns was yellow and red (the Stuart livery colours) or red, as the following entries show:
1540
Item, the x day of Junii deliverit to Thomas Arthur to be iii anseƷeis[120] to the schippis xvj elnis reid and Ʒallow taffites of cord, price of the elne xviij s.
Summa xiiij li. viij s.
Item, deliverit to him to be the croces thairof iiij elnes half elne quhyte taffites of Janis[121] price the elne xv s.
Summa iij li. vij s. vj d.[122]
1542
Item, the vij day of August, deliverit to Charles Murray to be and ansenƷe, x elnis raid and Ʒallow taffitis of cord, price of the elne xviij s. and twa elnis quhite taffites of Janis to be croces thairto, price of the elne xiiij s.
Summa x li. viij s.[123]
There is a similar entry on the 12th for 8 ells red, and 2½ ells white for the cross.
Cleirac, in his Explication des Termes de Marine, etc.[124], gives for the Scotch flag a ground of red or blue, and also a ground of red, yellow and green, with the saltire in a canton or overall[125]. It is probable, however, that he was relying on obsolete information, for there seems no other evidence of a parti-coloured field so late as 1670[126], though a red ensign for ships, with white saltire in a blue canton[127], was in use until the Legislative Union of 1707.
It remains to say a few words about the royal banner, which may be considered in a sense national although it is the personal heraldic flag of the sovereign and ought not to be used by any subject. The rampant lion with a tressure fleur-de-lisé first appears in a seal of Alexander II appended to a Charter dated 1222[128]. Except for the period during which Mary Queen of Scots, after her marriage with the Dauphin, impaled the French Arms with her own it has remained unaltered, in the form in which we now see it quartered in the Royal Standard, since the thirteenth century.
The Raven and the Dragon Standards found their way into Scotland, but are not met with after the twelfth century. In the early years of the eleventh century Sigurd, Earl of Orkney, who afterwards carried the Raven standard against the Irish at Clontarf, was challenged by Finleic, Earl of the Scots, to battle at Skedmire.
Sigrod sought his mother that she might divine unto him upon the matter, for she was a wise woman. The earl told her that the odds in number between his foeman and his own men would not be less than seven to one. She answered, "I would have brought thee up all thy life in my wool-basket, if I had known that thou wert bent upon living for ever; but 'tis Fate that settles a man's days whatever he is. It is better to die with honour than to live with shame. Now take this banner, which I have wrought for thee with all my skill! And I say, by my knowledge, that the victory shall be to them before whom it is borne, but deadly shall it be to them that bear it." The banner was made with much fine needle-work, and with exceeding art. It was wrought in the likeness of a raven, and when the wind blew upon the banner it was as if the raven flapped his wings in flight. Earl Sigrod was very angry at his mother's words; and gave the Orkneymen their ethel-holdings free to raise a levy for him; and went to Skedmire to meet Earl Finleic, and each of them set his host in array. And as soon as the battle was joined, Earl Sigrod's standard-bearer was shot to death. The Earl called upon another man to carry the standard, and he bore it for a short while and then fell also. Three of the Earl's standard-bearers fell indeed, but he won the victory[129].
The Dragon appeared as the Scottish Royal Standard at the Battle of the Standard (1138). According to the contemporary "Relatio de Standardo[130]," written by St Aelred, Abbot of Rielvaulx Abbey in Yorkshire, when the Scots broke and fled those in flight saw from the position of the royal standard, which was in the likeness of a dragon[131], that their king was not slain, and gathering themselves to him they renewed the fight. On this occasion the Scottish king's son made use of the following ruse. Finding himself cut off with a few companions, he told them to throw away the banners by which they were to be recognised from the English and then, mixing with the latter as though fighting on their side, they reached his father in safety.
Except for a short period during the reign of James IV (1473-1513) a Scots navy was either non-existent or of little importance, and it is therefore not to be expected that any great development took place in its flags; nevertheless, from the Lord High Treasurer's accounts it appears that no less a sum than £72. 7s. 6d. was expended upon the "mayn standert" of the "Great Michael" in 1513. This flag appears to have had a St Andrew's cross on a blue ground at the head, and a fly of red and yellow on which the royal badges of the red lion and white unicorn appeared. Other flags of this period were the banners of St Andrew and St Margaret, and a banner and standards with the red lion upon a yellow field.
[(iii) IRELAND]
In St Patrick the Irish possess a patron saint who is in the truest sense national. Although a native of Scotland, the best of his life and work was devoted to the people among whom in early youth the fortune of war placed him. He seems, moreover, never to have had a serious competitor for their favour[132], and they have been unwavering in their allegiance to him. Nevertheless, there is no ancient flag, and no symbol except the shamrock, associated with his name.
Flags do not seem to have been in use at a very early period among the celtic nations, and when we meet with them in Irish literature in the eleventh century the terms used for them are not native Irish words but had apparently been borrowed from the Danish invaders who wrought such havoc to the ancient Irish civilisation from the ninth to the eleventh centuries. The word used by the author of the Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh is "mergi[133]," which is believed to be borrowed from the Scandinavian "merke" (mark), while the other word met with, "confingi," seems to be derived from the Norse "gunfana."
At the great battle of Clontarf fought in the year 1014 between the Irish under their king Brian Borumha and the Danish invaders of Ireland under the Earl Sigurd, assisted by the revolted king of Leinster, the Irish under Brian had many banners, but these banners were known by their colours rather than by any particular device in them.
Brian looked out behind him and beheld the battle phalanx ... and three score and ten banners over them, of red, and of yellow, and of green, and of all kinds of colours; together with the everlasting, variegated, lucky, fortunate banner that had gained the victory in every battle and in every conflict, and in every combat ... namely the gold-spangled banner of Fergal Ua Ruairc[134].
These banners appear to have been personal to the chiefs and to have been taken down when they were slain, even if their forces still remained undefeated. During the conflict Brian, who on account of his age took no part in the battle and was engaged in prayer at a little distance, enquired repeatedly of his attendant whether the banner of his eldest son, Murchadh, still remained aloft. Towards the end he asked once more, and the attendant reported that it was far from Murchadh but still standing. Brian said "The men of Erinn shall be well while that banner remains standing because their courage and valour shall remain in them all, as long as they can see that banner." At length Murchadh was mortally wounded, and although the enemy were defeated his banner was taken down. When his father asked again, the attendant answered, "... the foreigners are now defeated and Murchadh's banner has fallen." "That is sad news," said Brian, "... the honour and valour of Erinn fell when that banner fell and Erinn has fallen now indeed."
It may be concluded from this narrative that the Irish of the eleventh century had no national flag common to the whole people. This, together with the fact that after the death of Brian no Irish king arose great enough to secure the allegiance of the whole nation, may explain why the Irish never developed a national flag as did the English and Scots.
The red saltire on white ground which represents Ireland in the Union flag had only an ephemeral existence as a separate flag. Originating as the arms of the powerful Geraldines, who from the time of Henry II held the predominant position among those whose presence in Ireland was due to the efforts of the English sovereigns to subjugate that country, it is not to be expected that the native Irish should ever have taken kindly to a badge that could only remind them of their servitude to a race with whom they had little in common, and the attempt to father this emblem upon St Patrick (who, it may be remarked, is not entitled to a cross—since he was not a martyr) has evoked no response from the Irish themselves.
The earliest evidence of the existence of the red saltire flag[135] known to the author occurs in a map of "Hirlandia" by John Goghe dated 1567 and now exhibited in the museum of the Public Record Office. The arms at the head of this map are the St George's cross impaled with the crowned harp, but the red saltire is prominent in the arms of the Earl of Kildare and the other Geraldine families placed over their respective spheres of influence. The red saltire flag is flown at the masthead of a ship, possibly an Irish pirate, which is engaged in action in the St George's Channel with another ship flying the St George's cross. The St George's flag flies upon Cornwall, Wales and Man, but the red saltire flag does not appear upon Ireland itself, though it is placed upon the adjacent Mulls of Galloway and Kintyre in Scotland. It is, however, to be found in the arms of Trinity College, Dublin (1591), in which the banners of St George and of this saltire surmount the turrets that flank the castle gateway.
The Graydon MS. Flag Book of 1686 which belonged to Pepys does not contain this flag, but gives as the flag of Ireland (which, it may be noted, appears as an afterthought right at the end of the book) the green flag with St George's cross and the harp, illustrated in [Plate X], fig. 3. The saltire flag is nevertheless given as "Pavillon d'Ierne" in the flag plates at the commencement of the Neptune François of 1693, whence it was copied into later flag collections.
Under the Commonwealth and Protectorate, when England and Scotland were represented in the Great and other Seals by their crosses, Ireland was invariably represented by the harp, and in the Union flag of 1658, as will be seen later, it was the harp that was added to the English and Scottish crosses to form a flag representative of the three kingdoms. At the funeral of Cromwell the Great Standards of England and Scotland had the St George's and St Andrew's crosses in chief respectively, but the Great Standard of Ireland had in chief a red cross (not saltire) on a yellow field[136].
When the Order of St Patrick was instituted in 1783 the red saltire was taken for the badge of the Order, and since this emblem was of convenient form for introduction into the Union flag of England and Scotland it was chosen in forming the combined flag of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1801.
Ireland has been represented in the royal standard since 1603 by the golden harp on a blue field, but it would seem that this is not the original arms of that country, for the augmentation of arms granted by Richard II to his favourite Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, whom he created Duke of Ireland in 1386, was azure, three crowns, or, and these are said to have been confirmed as the true arms of Ireland by a commission of enquiry under Edward IV. The harp, which appears to have been an ancient badge of Ireland, was formally adopted as the arms of that country by Henry VIII in the year when he changed the royal style from "Dominus Hiberniae" to "Rex Hiberniae." The change in the colour of the field from blue to green, as is commonly seen in the flags of Irishmen in rebellion against English rule, is believed to have originated with Owen Roe O'Neill in 1642.
There is very little information as to the flags flown in Irish ships. From a date at least as early as the thirteenth century certain of the Irish ports were accustomed to supply ships for the king's service[137]. Such ships would have flown the English or Cinque Ports flag. There is indeed a mention in the State Papers of 1586[138] of an Irish ship attacking an English merchantman under the Scots flag, "showing forth a Skottish ensigne," and a passage in Dudley's voyage in 1594[139] from which it may be inferred that there was no recognised Irish flag at that date. In Feb. 1785, a brig from Dublin hoisted at Antigua a green ensign with the harp and crown in the centre, which was seized by Collingwood's orders, and later in the same year another ship from Belfast, flying a similar ensign, was detained until the master had gone ashore and bought proper colours for the vessel[140].