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.