Standard. This word presents great difficulty, and it has undergone a radical change in meaning which (so far as I am aware) has never been explained. As no historical survey of the development of the flag can fairly ignore the need for such an explanation it will be necessary to treat it at some length. At different periods in history since the eleventh century the word under one or more of its many forms (e.g. estandart, standart, standardum, standarz, standarum, standalem), has had the following meanings:
(i) A tall pole or staff supporting some object that was not a flag.
(ii) A tall pole or mast set in a four-wheeled chariot, supporting various objects, including one or more flags.
(iii) An elongated tapering flag containing the arms or badges of a king or noble.
(iv) A rectangular banner containing the royal arms.
One of the earliest appearances of the word is in the Chanson de Roland. The oldest existing ms. of this poem was, it is true, not written before the latter part of the twelfth century, but it is well known that the poem itself is much older. In this long poem of some 4000 lines the word occurs thrice only, and is confined to the episode which relates to Baligant, Emir of Babylon, which M. Gaston Paris considers to be the work of another author. The passages in question are:
3265. Li amiralz mult par est riches hum
Dedavant lui fait porter sun dragun
E l'estandart Tervagan e Mahum.
[The Emir is a very great man
Before him he has carried his dragon
And the standard of Tervagan and Mahomet.]
3329. Carles li magnes, cum il vit l'amiraill
E le dragun, l'enseigne, e l'estandart,
[Charlemagne, when he saw the emir
And the dragon, the flag and the standard,]