"A Proclamation appointing the flags as well for our Navie Royall as for the ships of our subjects of South and North Britaine.
"We taking into our Royal Consideration it is Meete for the honour of Oure Shipps in our Navie Royall and of such other shipps as are or shall be employed in Our immediate service that the same bee, by their flags distinguished from the shipps of any other of Our Subjects doe herebye straitly prohibite and forbid that none of our Subjects of any of our Nations and Kingdoms shall from henceforth presume to carry the Union Flagge in the maintoppe or other part of any of their shipps that is the St. George's Crosse and the St. Andrew's Crosse joyned together upon pain of Our High displeasure; but that the same Union Flagge be still reserved as an ornament proper for Our Owne Shipps and shipps in our immediate service and pay and none other. And likewise Our further will and pleasure is that all the other shipps of Our subjects of England or South Britaine bearing flags, shall from henceforth Carry the Red Crosse commonly called St. George his Crosse as of olde time hath been used; and also that all the other shipps of Our Subjects of Scotland or North Britaine shall from Henceforth carry the White Crosse commonly called St. Andrew's Crosse. Whereby the several shippes may be distinguished, and wee thereby better discerne the number and goodness of the same; Wherefore wee will and straitly command all Our Subjects foorthwith to be conformable and obedient to this Our Order, as they will answer the contrary at their perill.
"Given at our Court at Greenwich this 5th day of May in the tenth yeare of Oure Reigne of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc. God Save the King."
Imprinted at London by Robert Barker, printer to the King's Most Excellent Majestie, and by the Assignee's of John Bill, 1634.
This proclamation of Charles I. made a very great change in the position of the "Union Flagge" of James, by restricting its use to one class of ships. That it had never been intended at that time to serve as a "national" flag is again clearly evidenced by the renewed declaration that it was the special signal of the Sovereign, to be used exclusively on the ships of the Royal Navy. Further, the merchant vessels owned by "subjects of any of our Nations and Kingdoms," which had thus lost the "additional" Jack, were ordered to continue to use, as of "olde time hath been used," their distinctive national flags. For the continued preservation of the peace, it was again required that each ship should display only the flag of the nation to which it belonged, namely, the St. George's crosse, or old English Jack, on English merchant ships, and St. Andrew's crosse, or Scotch Jack, on the Scotch merchant ships.
The position of the three flags at this time was thus clearly distinguished:
| A.D., 1634. | |
| The Royal Navy | The two-crossed Jack. |
| English Merchantmen | The St. George crosse. |
| Scotch Merchantmen | The St. Andrew crosse. |
This first change in the position in the using of this first two-crossed Jack is shown in a drawing given of the "King's ships."
The battleship Sovereign of the Seas, which was built in 1637, was the glory of the fleet of Charles I., and proved herself, during her sixty years of active service, one of the best men-of-war of the time, and "so formidable to her enemies that none of the most daring among them would willingly lie by her side."[43]