Chapter IV (2)

The precise date when the golden fleurs-de-lys were added to the blue flag is open to doubt, but we find the form at a very early date, and from the first recognition of heraldic coats of arms this blazon was the accepted cognizance of the kings of France. We see this represented in Fig. 184. Originally the fleurs-de-lys were powdered, as in Fig. 188, over the whole surface, but in the reign of Charles V., A.D. 1365, the number was reduced to three.[67]

The meaning of the fleur-de-lys has given rise to much controversy; some will tell us that it is a lily flower or an iris, while others affirm that it is a lance-head. Some authorities see in it an arbitrary floral form assumed by King Louis,[68] and therefore the fleur-de-Louis; while others are so hard put to it that they tell us of a river Lys in Flanders that was so notable for its profusion of yellow iris that the flower became known as the fleur-de-Lys. The ancient chronicles gravely record that they were lilies brought from Paradise by an angel to King Clovis in the year 496, on the eve of a great battle fought near Cologne. Clovis made a vow that if he were victorious he would embrace the Christian faith, and the angel visitant and the celestial gift were a proof that his prayers were heard and his vow accepted. As the belief that France was in an especial degree under Divine protection was a very flattering one, the lilies were held for centuries in great favour; and the fleur-de-lys did not finally disappear from the flag of France until the downfall of Louis Philippe in the year 1848, a date within the recollection, doubtless, of some of our readers. Finality, indeed, may not even yet have been reached in the matter. As the bees of Napoleon I. reappeared in the arms of Napoleon III., so the fleur-de-lys may yet again appear on the ensigns of France. By virtue of a Napoleonic decree in 1852 against factious or treasonable emblems, it was forbidden to introduce the fleur-de-lys in jewellery, tapestry, or any other decorative way, lest its introduction might peril the position of a {107} sovereign who rose to power by lavish bribery, and the free outpouring of blood. Napoleon the First, and at least by contrast the Great, when at Auch enquired the reason why many of the windows of the cathedral were partially concealed by paper, and he was informed that it was because it was feared that he would be offended at the sight of certain ancient emblems there represented. "What!" he exclaimed, "the fleurs-de-lys? Uncover them this moment. During eight centuries they guided the French to glory, as my eagles do now, and they must always be dear to France and held in reverence by her true children."

The white cross frequently appears on the early French flags. Fig. 188, the flag of the French Guards in the year 1563, is a good example of this. We find Favyn, in a book published in Paris in 1620, "Le Théâtre d'honneur et de Chevalerie," writing: "Le grand estendard de satin bleu celeste en riche broderie de fleurs de lys d'or a une grande croix plein de satin blanc, qui est la croix de France." Figs. 180 and 181 are taken from a MS. executed in the time of Louis XII., A.D. 1498, illustrating a battle scene; these two flags are placed by the side of the fleur-de-lys flag, Fig. 184. When Louis XI., in 1479, organised the national infantry we find him giving them as the national ensign a scarlet flag with white cross on it; and some two hundred years later we find the various provincial levies beneath flags of various designs and colours, but all agreeing in having the white cross as the leading feature. Fig. 182, for example, is that of the Soissonois. Desjardins, in his excellent book on the French flag,[69] gives a great many illustrations of these. In the Musée d'Artillerie in Paris we find a very valuable collection of martial equipments from the time of Charlemagne, and amongst these a fine series (original where possible, or, failing this copies) of the flags of France from the year 1250.

The Huguenot party in France adopted the white flag, and when King Henry III., 1574 to 1589, himself a Protestant, came to the throne, the white flag became the royal ensign, and was fully adopted in the next reign, that of Henry IV., the first king of the house of Bourbon, as the national flag. The whole history of the flag prior to the Great Revolution, is somewhat confused, and in the year 1669, which we may consider about the middle of the Bourbon or white flag period,[70] we find the order given by the {108} Minister of the Marine that "the ensigns are to be blue, powdered with yellow fleurs-de-lys, with a large white cross in the middle." Merchant ships were to wear the same flag as the ships of war except that in the canton corner was to be placed the device of their province or town. Before the end of the year a new order was issued to the effect that "the ensigns at the stern are to be in all cases white," while the merchants were to fly the white flag with the device of the port in the corner. The white flag was sometimes plain, as in Fig. 183, and at other times provided with yellow fleurs-de-lys. On the restoration of the Bourbons in 1814, after the Republic, Consulate, and Empire, the white flag was again the flag of the nation, and remained so until 1830, its last appearance in France, unless or until the house of Bourbon again arises to the throne, when the restoration of the _drapeau blanc_ would probably follow. The white flag has therefore been the national ensign of France for over two hundred years.

In a book in the library of the Science and Art Department, South Kensington, we found the flag represented in Fig. 185 figured as the French Standard, with Fig. 187 apparently as an alternative, while the National flag of France is represented as the tricolor with bordering shown in Fig. 189, and the Admiral's flag is given as pure white. The book is entitled "A Display of Naval Flags of all Nations." It was published in Liverpool; no date is given, but we can arrive approximately at this, as the British Standard is represented as including the arms of Hanover; this limits its publication to between the years 1714 and 1837.

The well-known tricolor of France, Fig. 191, dates from the era of the Revolution and came into existence in 1789. It has, with the exception of the short Bourbon Restoration, been the flag of France for over a century, and it remains so to this day, though it underwent some few modifications ere it settled down to the present form. Thus, for instance, on October 24th 1790, it was decreed that the colour next the staff was to be red, the central strip white and the outer blue, but on February 15th, 1794, it was ordered that "the flag prescribed by the National Assembly be abolished. The national flag shall be formed of the three national colours in equal bands placed vertically, the hoist being blue, the centre white, and the fly red." On the Revolution of 1848, the provisional government ordered on March 5th that the colours were to run thus--blue, red, white, but the opposition to this was so strong that only two days later the order was cancelled. In 1790 the tricolor was made the Jack, and the ensign was as shown in Fig. 190. This ensign was to be common to both the men-of-war and the flags of the merchant navy, but the arrangement was not of long continuance. The spirit of change that was felt in every department affected the flags {109} likewise, and some little time elapsed before the matter was satisfactorily settled.

The arms of Paris are a white galley on a red ground, and above this are three golden fleurs-de-lys on a blue band or strip. On July 14th, 1789, it was determined that a civic guard of forty thousand men should be raised, and that its colours should be those of the city, the gules and azure of the groundwork of the escutcheon, to which, on the proposal of Lafayette, the white of the royal _drapeau blanc_ was added.

During the first and second Empire the Imperial Standard was still the tricolor, but it bore in the centre of the white strip the eagle; and all three strips were richly diapered over with the golden bees of the Napoleons. The national flag was the tricolor pure and simple, both for the Imperial and the Commercial Navy. As the flags of the army were borne on staffs surmounted by a golden eagle, the term "eagle" was often applied to these colours.[71]

On the outbreak of the second Republic in 1848, the people immediately on its proclamation demanded the adoption of the ill-omened red flag. Lamartine, the leading member of the provisional Government, closed an impassioned address with the words: "Citizens, I will reject even to death this banner of blood, and you should repudiate it still more than myself, for this red flag you offer us has only made the circuit of the Champs de Mars bathed in the blood of the people, while the tricolor has made the circuit of the world, with the name, the glory, and the liberty of your country." Louis Blanc and other members of the Government were in favour of the red flag, and at last a compromise was effected and the tricolor was accepted with the addition of a large red rosette. Louis Blanc, not unreasonably, as a Republican, pointed out that Lafayette had in 1789 associated the white of the Bourbon flag with the red and blue of the arms of the City, and that the tricolor flag was therefore the result of a compromise between the king and the people, but that in 1848 the king having abdicated, and monarchy done away with, there was no reason why any suggestion of the kingly power should continue. Doubtless the suppression of the flag of the barricades, the symbol of civil strife, {110} of anarchy and bloodshed, and the retaining of the tricolor was the wiser and more patriotic course, though it required no mean amount of courage and strong personal influence to effect the change.

The Imperial Eagle, so long a symbol of victory, has now in these Republican days[72] disappeared from the national colours. The flag of the French army is now surmounted by a wreath of laurel traversed by a golden dart with the letters R.F. and the regimental number, while on one face of the flag itself is, in the middle, the inscription "Republique Française, Honneur et Patrie," each corner being occupied by a golden wreath enclosing the number of the regiment. The name of the regiment and its "honours" occupy the other side.

The pendant of the French man-of-war is simply, Fig. 186, the tricolor elongated. The Admiral flies a swallow-tailed tricolor, while the Rear-Admiral and the Vice-Admiral have flags of the ordinary shape, like Fig. 191, except that the former officer has two white stars on the blue strip near the top of it, and the latter three. Maritime prefects have the three white stars on the blue plus two crossed anchors in blue in the centre of the white strip. The Governor of a French colony has such a special and distinctive flag as Fig. 96 would be if, instead of the Union canton on the blue, we placed in similar place the tricolor. There are naturally a great many other official flags, but the requirements of our space forbid our going into any further description of them.

The war and mercantile flags of Spain have undergone many changes, and their early history is very difficult to unravel; but on May 28th, 1785, the flags were adopted that have continued in use ever since. Fig. 192 is the flag of the Spanish Navy; it consists, as will be seen, of three stripes--a central yellow one, and a red one, somewhat narrower, above and below. The original proportion was that the yellow should be equal in width to the two red ones combined. This central stripe is charged, near the hoist, with an escutcheon containing the arms of Castile and Leon, and surmounted by the royal crown. The mercantile flag, Fig. 193, is also red and yellow. The yellow stripe in the centre is without the escutcheon, and in width it should be equal to one-third of the entire depth of the flag, the remaining thirds above and below it being divided into two equal strips, the one red and the other yellow. This simple striping of the two colours was doubtless {111} suggested by the arms of Arragon, the vertical red and yellow bars[73] of which may be seen also in the Spanish Royal Standard, Fig. 194. Spain, like Italy, has grown into one monarchy by the aggregation of minor States. In the year 1031 we have the Union of Navarre and Castile; in 1037 we find Leon and Asturias joining this same growing kingdom, and in the year 1474 Ferdinand II. of Arragon married Isabella of Castile, and thus united nearly the whole of the Christian part of Spain into one monarchy. In 1492 this same prince added to his dominions Moorish Spain by the conquest of Granada.

Legend hath it that in the year 873 the Carlovingian Prince Charles the Bold honoured Geoffrey, Count of Barcelona, by dipping his four fingers in the blood from the Count's wounds after a battle in which they were allied, and drawing them down the Count's golden shield, and that these ruddy bars were then and there incorporated in the blazon. Barcelona was shortly afterwards merged into the kingdom of Arragon, and its arms were adopted as those of that kingdom. Its four upright strips of red, the marks of the royal fingers, are just beyond the upper shield in Fig. 194.

The pendant of the Spanish Navy bears at its broad end a golden space in which the arms and crown, as in Fig. 192, are placed; the rest of the streamer is a broad strip of yellow, bordered, as in Fig. 192, by two slightly narrower strips of red.

The Royal Standard of Spain, Fig. 194, is of very elaborate character, and many of its bearings are as inappropriate to the historic facts of the present day as the retention in the arms of Great Britain of the French fleurs-de-lys centuries after all claim to its sovereignty had been lost. In the upper left hand part of the flag we find quartered the lion of Leon and the castle of Castile.[74] At the point we have marked "C" are the arms of Arragon. "D" is the device of Sicily. The red and white stripes at "E" are the arms of Austria; we have already encountered these in Fig. 213. The flag of ancient Burgundy, oblique stripes of yellow and blue within a red border, is placed at "F." The black lion on the golden ground at "G" is the heraldic bearing of Flanders, while the red eagle "H" is the device of Antwerp. At "I" we have the {112} golden lion of Brabant, and above it at "J" the fleurs-de-lys and chequers of ancient Burgundy. The upper small shield contains the arms of Portugal, and the lower contains the fleurs-de-lys of France.[75]

The Portuguese were an independent nation until Philip II. of Spain overran the country, and annexed it in the year 1580 to his own dominions, but in the year 1640 they threw off the Spanish yoke, which had grown intolerable, and raised John, Duke of Braganza, to the throne. The regal power has ever since remained in this family.

The Royal Standard bears on its scarlet field the arms of Portugal, surmounted by the regal crown. These arms were originally only the white shield with the five smaller escutcheons that we see in the centre of the present blazon. Would the scale of our illustration (Fig. 195) permit it, each of these small escutcheons should bear upon its surface five white circular spots. Portugal was invaded by the Moors in the year 713, and the greater part of the country was held by them for over three centuries. In the year 1139 Alphonso I. defeated an alliance of five great Moorish princes at the Battle of Ourique, and the five escutcheons in the shield represents the five-fold victory, while the five circles placed on each escutcheon symbolise the five wounds of the Saviour in whose strength he defeated the infidels. The scarlet border with its castles was added by Alphonso III., after his marriage in 1252 with the daughter of Alphonso the Wise, King of Castile, the arms of which province, as we have already seen in discussing the Spanish Standard, are a golden castle on a red field.

In an English poem, written by an eye-witness of the Siege of Rouen in the year 1418, we find an interesting reference to the arms of Portugal, where we read of

"The Kyngis herandis and pursiuantis,
In cotis of armys arryauntis.
The Englishe a beste, the Frensshe a floure
Of Portyugale bothe castelle and toure,
And other cotis of diversitie
As lordis beren in ther degre."[76]

The Portuguese ensign for her vessels of war and also for the merchant service bears the shield and crown, but instead of the {113} scarlet field we find the groundwork of the flag half blue, and half white, as shown in Fig. 196. The choice of these special colours, no doubt, arose from the arms on the original shield, the five blue escutcheons on the white ground. The Portuguese Jack has the national arms and royal crown in the centre of a white field, the whole being surrounded by the broad border of blue.

Italy, for centuries a geographical expression, is now one and indivisible. Within the recollection of many of our readers the peninsula was composed of the Kingdom of the two Sicilies, the Pontifical States, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchies of Parma and Modena. There was also in the north the Kingdom of Sardinia, while Lombardy and Venetia were in the grip of Austria. It is somewhat beside our present purpose to go into the wonderful story of how Victor Emmanuel of Savoy, aided by Cavour, Garibaldi, and many another noble patriot, by diplomacy, by lives freely laid down on the Tchernaya, on the fields of Magenta and Solferino, by the disaster at Sedan, by bold audacity at one time, by patient waiting at another, was finally installed in Rome, the Capital of United Italy, as king of a great and free nation of over thirty millions of people. Suffice it now to say that this Kingdom of Italy, as we now know it, did not achieve until the year 1870 this full unity under one flag that had been for centuries the dream of patriots who freely shed their blood on the battlefield or the scaffold, or perished in the dungeons of Papal Rome, or Naples, or Austria for this ideal.

On the downfall in 1861 of the Bourbon Government in the Kingdom of the two Sicilies before the onslaught of the Volunteers of Garibaldi, the first National Parliament met in Turin, and proclaimed Victor Emmanuel King of Italy. The title was at once acknowledged by Great Britain, and, later on, by the other Powers, and the capital of the rising State was transferred to Florence. The Papal States were still under the protection of France, "the eldest Son of the Church"; and the young Kingdom, unable to wrest Rome from the French, had to wait with such patience as it could command for the consummation of its hopes. The long-looked-for day at last arrived, when amidst the tremendous defeats inflicted in 1870 by Germany on France, the French garrison in Rome was withdrawn, and the Italians, after a short, sharp conflict with the Papal troops, entered into possession of the Eternal City, and at once made it the Capital of a State at last free throughout its length and breadth--no longer a geographical expression, but a potent factor to be reckoned with and fully recognised.

Napoleon I. formed Italy into one kingdom in the year 1805, but it was ruled by himself and the Viceroy, Eugene Beauharnois, he appointed; and on his overthrow this, like the various other political {114} arrangements he devised, came to nought. The flag he bestowed was a tricolor of green, white, and red, his idea being that, while giving the new Kingdom a flag of its own, it should indicate by its near resemblance to that of France the source to which it owed its existence. In 1848, the great revolutionary period, this flag, which had passed out of existence on the downfall of Napoleon, was reassumed by the Nationalists of the Peninsula, and accepted by the King of Sardinia as the ensign of his own kingdom, and charged by him with the arms of Savoy. This tricolor, so charged (see Fig. 197) was the flag to which the eyes of all Italian patriots turned, and it is to-day the flag of all Italy. The flag we have represented is the ensign of the Merchant Service; the flag of the armed forces military and naval, is similar, save that the shield in the centre is surmounted by the Royal Crown. The Royal Standard, the personal flag of the King, has the arms of Savoy in the centre, on a white ground, the whole having a broad bordering of blue.

This shield of Savoy, the white cross on the red field, was the device of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, an order semi-religious, semi-military, that owed its origin to the Crusades. In the year 1310 the Knights captured Rhodes from the Saracens, but being hard pressed by the infidels, Duke Amadeus IV., of Savoy, came to the rescue, and the Grand Master of the Order conferred upon him the cross that has ever since been borne in the arms of Savoy. The Jack or bowsprit flag of the Italian man-of-war, Fig. 234, is simply this shield of the Knights of St. John squared into suitable flag-like form.

The Minister of Marine has the tricolor, but on the green portion is placed erect a golden anchor. The vessels carrying the Royal Mail fly a burgee of green, white, red, having a large white "P" on the green; and there are many other official flags, the insignia of various authorities or different departments, but lack of space forbids our dwelling at greater length upon them.

The war flag of the defunct temporal power of the Pope was white, and in its centre stood figures of St. Peter and St. Paul, and above them the cross keys and tiara. Fig. 198 was the flag of the merchant ships owned by the subjects of the States of the Church. The combination of yellow and white is very curious. In the banner borne by Godfrey, the Crusader King of Jerusalem, the only tinctures introduced were the two metals, gold and silver, five golden crosses being placed upon a silver field. This was done of deliberate intention that it might be unlike all other devices, as it is in all other cases deemed false heraldry to place metal on metal. The theory that these metals were selected because of the reference in the Psalms to the Holy City, may also be a very possible one--"Though ye have lien amongst the pots, yet shall ye {115} be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold." However this may be, the yellow and white of the arms of Jerusalem was adopted by the Papal Government.

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 {116} 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; {117} 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 {118} changed to red is very doubtful; Fournier, writing in 1643, we see refers to the Dutch flag as a tricolor of red, white, blue.

Fig. 237 represents the Royal Standard of Holland; the army and navy and commercial flags are similar, except that the Royal Arms are not introduced.

During the general effervescence caused by the French Revolution, the naval flag of Holland had in the upper staff-corner a white canton, charged with a figure of Liberty, but the innovation was not at all popular, as the sailors preferred the old tricolor under which the great victories of Reuter and Van Tromp were gained, and in 1806 it was deemed expedient to revert to it.

The brilliant scarlet, yellow, and black tricolor represented in Fig. 236 is the flag of Belgium. The Standard has, in addition, the Royal Arms placed in the centre of the yellow strip. The black, yellow, and red, are the colours of the Duchy of Brabant, and these were adopted as the national flag in 1831.

From 1477 onwards we find Belgium under Austrian domination, and in 1566 it fell into the hands of Spain. In 1795, and for some years following, it was held by France, and in 1814 was handed over to the Prince of Orange, but in 1830 the Belgians rose against the Hollanders, and before the end of the year their independence was acknowledged by the Great Powers, and Leopold of Coburg, in the following year, became first King of Belgium. Within a month of his accession to the throne, the Dutch recommenced the struggle, and it was only in 1839 that a final treaty of peace was signed in London between Belgium and Holland, and its claims to independence frankly recognised by the Dutch.

Greece, originally invaded by the Turks in the year 1350, remained for nearly five hundred years under their oppressive yoke, rising from time to time against their masters, only to expose their country, on the failure of their attempts, to the greater tyranny and the most dreadful excesses. Over ten thousand Greeks were slaughtered in Cyprus in 1821, while the bombardment of Scio in 1822, and the horrible massacre on its capture, stand out in lurid colours as one of the most atrocious deeds the world has ever known: over forty thousand men, women, and children fell by the sword. Seven thousand who had fled to the mountains were induced to surrender by a promise of amnesty, and these, too, were murdered. The towns and villages were fired, and the unfortunate inhabitants, hemmed in by the Turks, perished in the flames or fell beneath the swords of their relentless foes if they attempted to escape. Small wonder, then, that the heart of Europe was stirred, and that Lord Byron and thousands more took up the cause of Greek independence, by contributions of arms and money, by fiery denunciation, and with strong right hand. Missolonghi, Navarino, {119} and many another scene of struggle we cannot here dwell upon, suffice it to say that at last the victory was won and Greece emerged, after a tremendous struggle, from the bondage of the Turks, and took its place in Europe as a free and independent nation, the Porte acknowledging the inexorable logic of the _fait accompli_ on April 25th, 1830. After a short Presidency under one of the Greek nobles, Otho of Bavaria was elected King of Greece in 1833, and the new Kingdom was fairly launched.

The Greeks adopted the blue and white, the colours of Bavaria, as a delicate compliment to the Prince who accepted their invitation to ascend the throne of Greece. The merchant flag of Greece is shown in Fig. 233. It will be seen that it consists of nine stripes, alternately blue and white, the canton being blue, with a white cross in it. The navy flag is similar, except that in addition there is placed a golden crown in the centre of the cross. The Royal Standard is blue with a white cross; the arms of the cross are not, as in Fig. 233, of equal length, but the one next the staff is shorter, as in the Danish flag, Fig. 225. In the open space at the crossing of the arms is placed the Royal Arms.

The Turkish Empire has undergone many changes and vicissitudes, and has in these latter days shrunk considerably. European Turkey now consists of about seventy thousand square miles, while Turkey in Asia, Syria, Asia Minor, Palestine, Armenia, etc., is over seven hundred thousand.[78]

The crescent moon and star, Figs. 239 and 240, were adopted by the Turks as their device on the capture of Constantinople by Mahomet II., in 1453. They were originally the symbol of Diana, the Patroness of Byzantium, and were adopted by the Ottomans as a badge of triumph. Prior to that event, the crescent was a very common charge in the armorial bearings of English Knights, but it fell into considerable disuse when it became the special device of the Mohamedans, though even so late as the year 1464 we find René, Duke of Anjou, founding an Order of Knighthood having as its badge the crescent moon, encircled by a motto signifying "praise by increasing." Though the crescent was, as we have seen, originally a Pagan symbol, it remained throughout the rise and development of the Greek Church the special mark of Constantinople, and even now in Moscow and other Russian cities the {120} crescent and the cross may be seen combined on the churches, the object being to indicate the Byzantine origin of the Russian Church.

The crescent may be seen on the coins and medals of Augustus, Trajan, and other Emperors. The origin of the symbol was as follows: Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, meeting with many unforeseen difficulties in carrying on the siege of the city, set the soldiers to work one dark night to undermine the walls, but the crescent moon appearing the design was discovered and the scheme miscarried; and in acknowledgment the Byzantines erected a statue to Diana, and made the crescent moon--the attribute of the Goddess--the symbol of their city.

The War Flag of Turkey is the crescent and star on the scarlet field, as shown in Fig. 239. The flag of the Merchant Service seems less definitely fixed. In the Official Flag Book[79] of the English Admiralty, Fig. 239 is given as both the man-of-war flag and the merchant flag for Turkey, Egypt, and Tripoli, while in an excellent book on the subject, published at Vienna in 1883, Fig. 235 is given as the flag of the commercial marine; and we have also seen a plain red flag with a star in the upper corner of the hoist, and another divided into three horizontal bands, the upper and lower being red, and the central one green.

The Military and Naval Service of Tunis has the flag represented in Fig. 240, while the Tunisian commercial flag is simply red, without device of any kind.

In a map bearing the date 1502 the Turkish Dominions are marked by a scarlet flag having three points and bearing three black crescents, while in a sheet of flags with the comparatively modern date of 1735, "Turk" is represented by a blue flag with three crescents in white upon it.

The personal flag of the Sultan, corresponding to our Royal Standard, is scarlet, and bears in its centre the device of the reigning sovereign: hence it undergoes a change at each accession to the throne. This device, known as the Tughra, is placed on the coinage, postal stamps, etc., as well as on the Royal Flag, and consists of the name of the Sultan, the title Khan, and the epithet _El muzaffar daima_, signifying the ever-victorious. The history of the Tughra is curious: When Sultan Murad I. entered into a treaty of peace with the Ragusans, he was not sufficiently scholarly to be able to affix {121} his signature to the document, so he wetted his open hand with ink and pressed it on the paper, the first, second, and third fingers making smears in fairly close proximity, while the thumb and fourth finger were apart on either side. Within the mark thus made, the Ottoman Scribes wrote the name of Murad, his title, and the epithet that bore testimony to his ever-victorious career. The Tughra remains the symbol of this, the three upright forms being the three fingers of Murad, the rounded line to the left the thumb, and the line to the right the little finger; these leading forms do not vary, but the smaller characters change with the change of sovereign. This Murad, sometimes called Amurath, ascended the throne in the year 1362.[80]

The personal flag of the Khedive of Egypt is green, and has in its centre the crescent and three white stars.

By the Treaty of Berlin, July 1878, the provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia, formerly a portion of the Turkish Empire, and the territory of the Dobrudscha, were recognised as an independent State, and were formed into the kingdom of Roumania somewhat later, the sovereign who had previously held the rank of prince being crowned king in March, 1881. The flag of Roumania is the brilliant blue, yellow and red tricolor shown in Fig. 242.

The flag of Servia, another small kingdom of Eastern Europe, is shown in Fig. 243; the royal standard is similar, except that the arms are placed in the centre of the blue stripe. It will be seen that the flag of Servia is that of Russia, Fig. 218, reversed. By the Berlin Treaty of 1878, Servia received a large increase of territory, and was created an independent State, its princely ruler being crowned king in March, 1882.

The State of Bulgaria is another of the creations of the Berlin Treaty. It is governed by a prince who is nominally under the suzerainty of Turkey. Its war flag is shown in Fig. 241; the mercantile flag has no leonine canton, but is simply a tricolor of white, green, and red.

Having already dealt with the United States, we propose now to turn our attention to the other Governments of the New World. The simple and effective ensign of Chili is represented in Fig. 161. This flag is used both by the Chilian men-of-war and by the vessels of the mercantile marine. Fig. 157 is so much of the pendant of a man-of-war as the limits of our page will permit. The Chilian Jack is the blue canton and white star of Fig. 161, treated as a distinct {122} flag, and the flags of the various naval ranks are also blue with a varying number of white stars.

Fig. 164 is the merchant flag of New Granada; the Government ensign has in addition the shield of arms in the centre of the blue stripe. It will be observed that the colours in this tricolor are the same as those of Roumania, Fig. 242, only differently disposed. New Granada is composed of nine small States, and in 1863 these bound themselves into a closer confederation, and changed their collective name from New Granada to that of the United States of Colombia, and adopted a tricolor of yellow, blue, and red, only disposed horizontally instead of as in Fig. 164, vertically. This sounds identical with the flag of Venezuela, but in the centre of the Colombian flag is placed a different device, and the yellow stripe takes up half the space, the other two being only half its width. Fig. 165 is the flag of Uruguay, a State that was formerly a province of Brazil, but declared its independence in the year 1825. The next flag on our plate, Fig. 166, is the war ensign of Guatemala: the shield in the centre bears a scroll with the words "Libertad 15 de Setiembre, 1821," surmounted by a parrot, surrounded by a wreath, and having behind it crossed rifles and swords. The merchant flag is the plain blue, white, blue, without the shield. In the year 1525 the country was conquered by Don Pedro de Alvarado, one of the companions of Cortes, and it remained subject to Spain until 1821, when it gained its independence, the "Libertad" of the scroll. It then went in vigorously for several years of civil war, and the outcome of this was that the country known under Spanish rule as Guatemala, a country embracing all Central America, split up in 1839 into five Republics, all absolutely independent of each other, viz., Guatemala, San Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.

The next flag, Fig. 167, is the ensign of Costa Rica: the one represented is that of the Merchant Service. The war ensign differs from it in having in the centre the arms of the State, surrounded on either side by a trophy of three flags, and beneath all a wreath. Fig. 168, the flag of Paraguay, is very suggestive of the colours of Holland, though the device in the centre serves to differentiate it. Paraguay is the only State in America that has no sea-board, and therefore no Mercantile Marine.

Brazil, discovered by the Portuguese in 1500, remained in their possession until a revolutionary struggle in the year 1821 ended in favour of the Brazilians, when an Empire was shortly afterwards established. Compared to the other States of South America, it has passed through long periods of rest and prosperity, but of late years its political position has been one of considerable uncertainty, the Emperor having been dismissed and the rival {123} ambitions for the Presidentship leading to civil war. These political changes have necessarily produced modifications in the flag. The present flag, Fig. 169, is not altogether unlike that of the late Empire, though in this latter case the yellow diamond on the green ground held a shield and Imperial crown, flanked by sprays of coffee and tobacco. In the present flag this yellow diamond has a blue sphere spotted over with stars and a white band running across it, that bears in blue letters the legend _Ordem e progresso_.[81] Fig. 173 is the upper portion of the man-of-war pendant, a blue ground with white stars. Fig. 169 is the ensign, both of the War and Merchant Navy of Brazil.

The yellow, blue, and red tricolor, Fig. 170, is the merchant ensign of Venezuela; the war flag has the same stripes, and in addition the shield of the arms of the State is placed on the yellow band at the staff corner. When the Spaniards arrived off the coast in the year 1499, they found on landing that some of the native Indians were living in huts built on piles, hence they called the country Venezuela, or little Venice.

Bolivia, formerly comprised in the Spanish Vice-Royalty of Colombia, derives its present name from Simon Bolivar, the leader of the revolution that gained it its freedom. Its commercial flag is shown in Fig. 171; the war flag only differs in having the arms of the State placed in the centre of the red strip.

The familiar green, white, red of Italy is repeated in the flag of Mexico, but instead of the cross of Savoy, we have the eagle and serpent. The Mexican merchant ensign is the plain tricolor of green, white, red, the central device we see in Fig. 172 marking it as the war flag. Mexico was discovered in 1518, and conquered, with infamous cruelties, by Cortes. After a lengthened revolutionary struggle, the yoke of Spain was finally thrown off in 1829, and the independence of Mexico was recognised by all the great European Powers.

Peru was discovered by the Spaniards in 1513, and was soon afterwards, under the command of Pizarro, added to the dominions of the King of Spain. Peru remained in subjection to the Spaniards (who murdered the Incas and all their descendants, and committed the most frightful cruelties) until 1826, when the independence of the country, after a prolonged struggle, was completely achieved. The Peruvian war ensign is given in Fig. 174, the merchant flag being the plain red, white, red.

San Salvador, the smallest of the Central American Republics, {124} established itself in 1839, on the break-up of the Spanish State of Guatemala. Its flag is shown in Fig. 175.

The country now held by the Argentine Republic was discovered in 1517, and settled by the Spaniards in 1553. The war ensign is represented in Fig. 176; the merchant ensign has the three stripes, but the golden sun is missing.

The Government of Ecuador has Fig. 177 as its war flag, the merchant ensign being without the ring of white stars. The last flag on the sheet (Fig. 178) is the merchant flag of Haiti; the Government flag has the blue and red reduced to a broad border, the central portion of the flag being white. In the centre of this white portion stands a palm tree, and below it a trophy of arms and flags, flanked on either side by a cannon.

The flag of the Cuban national forces in conflict with Spain has at the hoist a triangular portion of blue, one side of this triangle being the depth of the flag itself, and on this blue field is a white, five-pointed star. The rest of the flag is made up of the following horizontal and equal stripes--red, white, red, white, red.

Japan--known to the Japanese as Niphon, derived from _Nitsu_, Sun, and _Phon_, the rising--the Land of the Rising Sun,[82] has adopted this rising sun as its emblem. Japan claims to possess a written history of over 2,500 years, but the fairly authentic portion begins with the year 660 B.C., when the present hereditary succession of rulers commenced. English merchants visited Japan in 1612, and the Portuguese almost a century before. By 1587 the converts of the Portuguese Jesuit Missions numbered some six hundred thousand. At this time some Spanish Franciscans appeared on the scene, and political and religious discord soon followed. The Japanese ruler took alarm at the Papal claim to universal sovereignty, and the Buddhist Priesthood and the English and Dutch Protestant traders fanned the flame of suspicion and jealousy. This was done so effectually that the Japanese Government banished all foreigners, and closed the country against them. This state of things lasted for over two centuries, and it was only in the year 1853 that Japan was re-opened to the outside world. The flag of Japan, the rising sun, is represented in Fig. 244. The red ball without the rays is used as a Jack, in which case it is placed in the centre of the white field. Fig. 245 is the Standard of the Emperor. The chrysanthemum is the emblem of Japan, and its golden flower, somewhat conventionally rendered it must be admitted, is the form we see introduced in Fig. 245.[83] Figs. 246 and 248 are the transport flag and the guard flag respectively of the Japanese war marine. {125}

The Imperial Standard of China is yellow with a blue dragon. The official flag book of the Admiralty gives the flag of a Chinese Admiral as made up of the following horizontal stripes: yellow, white, black, green, red, a blue dragon on a white ground being the canton in the staff-head corner. The merchant ensign is shown in Fig. 247. Amongst the Chinese flags captured in 1841, and preserved in the Royal United Service Institution, is one with a blue centre with an inscription in white upon it, and with a broad notched border of white; another has its centre of a pale blue and a darker blue dragon upon it, the whole being surrounded by a broad and deeply-notched border of red.

The flag of Siam is scarlet with a white elephant thereon. Before Xacca, the founder of the nation, was born his mother dreamt that she brought forth a white elephant, and the Brahmins affirm that Xacca, after a metempsychosis of eighty thousand changes, concluded his very varied experiences as this white elephant, and thence was received into the company of the Celestial Deities. On this account the white elephant is held a sacred beast, and the Siamese rejoice to place themselves beneath so potent a protector. The flag of Korea bears the tiger. In the thickly-wooded glens of the interior, the royal tiger is found in formidable numbers.

The flag of Sarawak, a territory of some forty thousand square miles, on the north-west of Borneo, is shown in Fig. 252. The Government was obtained in 1842 from the Sultan of Borneo by an Englishman, Sir James Brooke, and it is still ruled by one of the family, a nephew of the first Rajah.

In Africa, the only flags that we need particularize are those of the Orange Free State, Liberia, the Congo State, and the South African Republic.