The Danish flag is the oldest now in existence. In the year 1219, King Waldemar of Denmark in a critical moment in his stormy career, saw, or thought he saw, or said he saw, a cross in the sky. He was then leading his troops to battle against the Livonian pagans, and he gladly welcomed this answer to his prayers for Divine succour, this assurance of celestial aid. This sign from Heaven he forthwith adopted as the flag of his country, and called it the Dannebrog, i.e., the strength of Denmark. As a definite chronological fact, apart from all legend, this flag dates from the thirteenth century. There was also an Order of Dannebrog instituted in 1219, in further commemoration and honour of the miracle; and the name is a very popular one in the Danish Royal Navy, one man-of-war after another succeeding to the appellation. One of these Dannebrogs was blown up by the fire of Nelson's fleet in 1801.
The Danish Man-of-War Ensign is shown in Fig. [224]. The Royal Standard, like the Ensign, is swallow-tailed, but in the centre of the cross is placed a white square, indicated in our illustration, Fig. [224], by dots. This central, square space contains the Royal Arms, surrounded by the Collars of the Orders of the Elephant and of the Dannebrog. The merchant flag, Fig. [225], is rectangular.
In the year 1397, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark all formed one kingdom under the rule of the latter, but in 1414 the Swedes waged with more or less success an arduous struggle for liberty, and their independence was definitely acknowledged in the year 1523. The flag of Sweden is the yellow cross on the blue ground shown in Fig. [231]. The blue and yellow are the colours of the Swedish arms,[[77]] and they were then doubtless chosen for the flag as the colours of freedom and independence.
Norway had no separate political existence until the year 1814, but in that year the Norwegians seceded from Denmark, and declared their independence. Their first flag was still a red flag with a white cross on it, and the arms of Norway in the upper corner next the flagstaff, but this being found to too closely resemble the Danish flag, they substituted for it the device seen in Fig. [230], which it will be noted is still the Danish flag, plus the blue cross on the white one. The administration of Norway is entirely distinct from Sweden, and it retains its own laws, but in 1814 the two Kingdoms were united under one Sovereign. As a sign of the union there is carried in the upper square, next to the flagstaff in the flags of both countries, a union device, a combination of the Swedish
and Norwegian National colours. After considerable dispute, the Union Jack shown in Fig. [229] was accepted as the symbol of the political relationship of the two nations. It is a very neat arrangement, for if we look at the upper and lower portions we see the flag (Fig. [230]) of Norway, if we study the two lateral portions we find they are the flag (Fig. [231]) of Sweden. Both the Swedish and Norwegian war flags are swallow-tailed, and have the outer limb of the cross projecting; we may see this very clearly in Fig. [228], where the main body of the flag is Norwegian. The merchant flag is with each nationality rectangular; in Fig. [227] we have the flag of a Swedish merchant vessel. Both in the Norwegian and Swedish flags, as we may note in Figs. [227] and [228], it will be noticed that the Union device is conspicuously present. The Norwegian man-of-war flag, Fig. [228], would be that of a Norwegian merchant if we cut off the points in the fly; the Swedish merchant flag, Fig. [227], would be that of a Swedish man-of-war if instead of the straight end we made it swallow-tailed. As Sovereign of Sweden, the King places his arms in the centre of the large yellow cross; as Sovereign of Norway, in the centre of the large blue cross; hence we get the Swedish and Norwegian Royal Standards, the one for use in the one country, and the other for service in the other, the Union device being present in the upper corner in each case, and the outer portion of the flags swallow-tailed. The Standard is, in fact, the war flag plus the royal arms. The Post Service has in the centre of the flag a white square, with a golden horn and crown in it; the Customs flag has a similar white square at the junction of the arms of the cross, and in its centre is placed a crowned "T."
Fig. [232], on the same sheet as the flags of Norway and Sweden, is the simple and beautiful flag of Switzerland. Like the crosses of St. George, St. Andrew, St. Patrick, or that on the flag of Denmark, its device has a religious significance. Gautier tells us that:—"La première fois qu'il en est fait mention dans l'histoire écrite est dans la Chronique du Bearnois Justinger. Il dit, après avoir fait l'énumération des forces des Suisses quittant Berne pour marcher contre l'armée des nobles coalisés en 1339—'Et tous étaient marqués au signe de la Sainte Croix, une croix blanche dans un écusson rouge, par la raison que l'affranchissement de la nation était pour eux une cause aussi sacrée que la délivrance des lieux saints.'"
Its twenty-two cantons are united by a Constitution, under one President and one flag, but each canton has its own cantonal colours. Thus Basel is half black and half white; St. Gallen, green and white; Geneva, red and yellow; Aargau, black and blue; Glarus, red, black, and white; Uri, yellow and black; Berne, black and red; Fribourg, black and white; Lucerne, blue and white;
Tessin, red and blue; and so forth. In each case the stripes of colour are disposed horizontally, and the one we have each time mentioned first is the upper colour.
Within the walls of the City of Geneva was held, in 1863, an International Conference, to consider how far the horrors of war could be mitigated by aid to the sick and wounded. This Conference proposed that in time of war the neutrality should be fully admitted of field and stationary hospitals, and also recognised in the most complete manner by the belligerent Powers in the case of all officials employed in sanitary work, volunteer nurses, the inhabitants of the country who shall assist the wounded, and the wounded themselves—that an identical distinctive sign should be adopted for the medical corps of all armies, and that an identical flag should be used for all hospitals and ambulances, and for all houses containing wounded men. The distinctive mark of all such refuges is a white flag with a red cross on it—the flag of Switzerland reversed in colouring—and all medical stores, carriages, and the like, bear the same device upon them; while the doctors, nurses, and assistants, have a white armlet with the red cross upon it, the sacred badge that proclaims their mission of mercy. In deference to the religious feelings of Turkey a red crescent may be substituted for the cross in campaigns where that country is one of the belligerents. These valuable proposals were confirmed by a treaty in August, 1864, signed by the representatives of twelve Powers, and known as the Geneva Convention. Since then all the civilised Powers in the world, with the exception of the United States, have given in their adhesion to it. In 1867 an International Conference was held at Paris for still further developing and carrying out in a practical manner the principles of the Geneva Conference, and another at Berlin in 1869 for the same object. One notable feature of these two Conferences was the extension of the principles accepted for land conflict to naval warfare.
Holland, as an Independent State, came into existence in the year 1579. From 1299 we find the country under the rule of the Courts of Hainault, and in 1436 it came into the hands of the Dukes of Burgundy, who in turn were subjugated by the Spaniards. The tyranny and religious persecution to which the Netherlanders were exposed by the Spaniards led to numerous revolts, which at last developed into a War of Independence, under William, Prince of Orange. The Hollanders adopted as their flag the colours of the House of Orange—orange, white, and blue. At first there was great latitude of treatment, the number of the bars of each colour and their order being very variable, but in 1599 it was definitely fixed that the flag of the Netherlands was to be orange, white, blue, in three horizontal stripes of equal width. How the orange became