So it happened when, nearly six centuries afterwards, the Sardinians again came to the aid of their southern brethren, and the King of Sardinia was crowned as ruler over the new united Italian kingdom, the old emblem won in defence of ancient liberties was further perpetuated on the banner of the new kingdom of liberated and united Italy.
The colours of the Greek flag preserve the memory of a dynasty. In 1828, the Greeks, after rising in successful rebellion, had freed their land from Mohammedan domination and the power of the Sultan of Turkey. The several States formed themselves into one united kingdom, and seeking a king from among the royal houses of Europe, obtained, in 1832, Otho I., a scion of the ruling house of Bavaria. The dynasty at that time set upon the throne of Greece has since been changed, the Bavarian having parted company with the kingdom in 1861. The throne was then offered to Prince Alfred of England, but declined by him. The present king, chosen in 1863, after the withdrawal of his predecessor, is a member of the Royal House of Denmark; yet, notwithstanding this change in the reigning family, the white Greek Cross upon a light blue ground in the upper quarter, and the four alternate stripes of white on a light blue ground in the field, which form the national flag of Greece (Pl. [II.] , fig. 3), still preserve the blue and white colours of Bavaria, from whence the Greeks had obtained their first king.
The Tri-colour as displayed by the present Republic in France (Pl. [II.] II., fig. 6) has been credited with widely differing explanations of its origin, as its plain colours of blue, white and red admit of many different interpretations.
One story of its origin is, that its colours represent those of the three flags which had been carried in succession in the early centuries of the nation. The early kings of France carried the plain blue banner of St. Martin. To this succeeded, in A.D. 1124, the flaming red flag, or Oriflamme, of St. Denis, to be afterwards superseded, in the fifteenth century, by the white "Cornette Blanche," the personal banner of the heroic Joan of Arc.
It was under this royal white flag (Pl. [II.], fig. 5), bearing upon it the lilies of ancient France, that Cartier, in 1534, had sailed up the St. Lawrence, and Champlain, in 1608, had founded Quebec. Under this flag Canada was colonized; to it belonged the glories of the Jesuit Fathers and Dollard; with it La Salle and Marquette explored the far West, planting three fleur-de-lis as the sign of their discoveries. Under it Frontenac, Montcalm and Levis[4] achieved their renown, and all the annals of early Canada are contained under its régime until, in 1759, after the assault by Wolfe, it was exchanged, at the cession of Quebec, for the British Union Flag.
The tri-colour of Republican France was never carried by the forefathers of the French Canadians of the Province of Quebec, nor has it any connection with the French history of Canada. In fact, it did not make its appearance as an emblem until the time of the revolution in France in 1789, or thirty years after the original French régime in Canada had closed its eventful period.
More detailed evidence of the origin of this flag states that the creation of the tri-colour arose from the incident that, when the revolutionary militia were first assembled in the city of Paris, at the revolution of 1789, they had adopted blue and red, which were the ancient colours of the city of Paris, for the colours of their cockade; between these they placed the white of the soldiery of the Bourbon régime, who afterwards joined their forces, and thus they had combined the blue, white and red in the "tri-colour" as their revolutionary signal.[5]
Whether or not its colours record those of the three ancient monarchical periods, or those of the revolution, the tri-colour as a French ensign for use by the people of France, as their national flag both on land and sea, was not regularly established until a still later period, in 1794. Then it was that the Republican Convention passed the first decree[6] authorizing an ensign and directing that the French national flag (Pl. [II.] , fig. 6) shall be formed of the three colours placed vertically in equal bands—that next the staff being blue, the centre white, and the fly red.
This was the flag under which Napoleon I. won his greatest victories, both as General and Emperor; but whatever glories may have been won for it by France, yet many years before it had been even designed, or the prowess of Napoleon's armies had created its renown, the French Canadian had been fighting under the Union Jack as his patriotic ensign and adding to the history of its valiant glory by victory won by himself in defence of his own Canadian home.[7] When in Canada the tri-colour is seen flying it is raised solely out of compliment and courtesy to the French-speaking friends in modern France. The fact that the tri-colour has received any acceptance with the French-speaking Canadian may have arisen from the reason that, side by side with the Union Jack, it had participated in all the struggles and glories of the Crimea, when the two flags, the tri-colour and the Union Jack, were raised together above Sebastopol.