Chapter 8 No.8

Item, the vij day of August, deliverit to Charles Murray to be and ansen?e, x elnis raid and ?allow taffitis of cord, price of the elne xviij s. and twa elnis quhite taffites of Janis to be croces thairto, price of the elne xiiij s.

Summa x li. viij s.[123]

There is a similar entry on the 12th for 8 ells red, and 2? ells white for the cross.

Cleirac, in his Explication des Termes de Marine, etc.[124], gives for the Scotch flag a ground of red or blue, and also a ground of red, yellow and green, with the saltire in a canton or overall[125]. It is probable, however, that he was relying on obsolete information, for there seems no other evidence of a parti-coloured field so late as 1670[126], though a red ensign for ships, with white saltire in a blue canton[127], was in use until the Legislative Union of 1707.

It remains to say a few words about the royal banner, which may be considered in a sense national although it is the personal heraldic flag of the sovereign and ought not to be used by any subject. The rampant lion with a tressure fleur-de-lisé first appears in a seal of Alexander II appended to a Charter dated 1222[128]. Except for the period during which Mary Queen of Scots, after her marriage with the Dauphin, impaled the French Arms with her own it has remained unaltered, in the form in which we now see it quartered in the Royal Standard, since the thirteenth century.

The Raven and the Dragon Standards found their way into Scotland, but are not met with after the twelfth century. In the early years of the eleventh century Sigurd, Earl of Orkney, who afterwards carried the Raven standard against the Irish at Clontarf, was challenged by Finleic, Earl of the Scots, to battle at Skedmire.

Sigrod sought his mother that she might divine unto him upon the matter, for she was a wise woman. The earl told her that the odds in number between his foeman and his own men would not be less than seven to one. She answered, "I would have brought thee up all thy life in my wool-basket, if I had known that thou wert bent upon living for ever; but 'tis Fate that settles a man's days whatever he is. It is better to die with honour than to live with shame. Now take this banner, which I have wrought for thee with all my skill! And I say, by my knowledge, that the victory shall be to them before whom it is borne, but deadly shall it be to them that bear it." The banner was made with much fine needle-work, and with exceeding art. It was wrought in the likeness of a raven, and when the wind blew upon the banner it was as if the raven flapped his wings in flight. Earl Sigrod was very angry at his mother's words; and gave the Orkneymen their ethel-holdings free to raise a levy for him; and went to Skedmire to meet Earl Finleic, and each of them set his host in array. And as soon as the battle was joined, Earl Sigrod's standard-bearer was shot to death. The Earl called upon another man to carry the standard, and he bore it for a short while and then fell also. Three of the Earl's standard-bearers fell indeed, but he won the victory[129].

The Dragon appeared as the Scottish Royal Standard at the Battle of the Standard (1138). According to the contemporary "Relatio de Standardo[130]," written by St Aelred, Abbot of Rielvaulx Abbey in Yorkshire, when the Scots broke and fled those in flight saw from the position of the royal standard, which was in the likeness of a dragon[131], that their king was not slain, and gathering themselves to him they renewed the fight. On this occasion the Scottish king's son made use of the following ruse. Finding himself cut off with a few companions, he told them to throw away the banners by which they were to be recognised from the English and then, mixing with the latter as though fighting on their side, they reached his father in safety.

Except for a short period during the reign of James IV (1473-1513) a Scots navy was either non-existent or of little importance, and it is therefore not to be expected that any great development took place in its flags; nevertheless, from the Lord High Treasurer's accounts it appears that no less a sum than ￡72. 7s. 6d. was expended upon the "mayn standert" of the "Great Michael" in 1513. This flag appears to have had a St Andrew's cross on a blue ground at the head, and a fly of red and yellow on which the royal badges of the red lion and white unicorn appeared. Other flags of this period were the banners of St Andrew and St Margaret, and a banner and standards with the red lion upon a yellow field.

(iii) IRELAND

In St Patrick the Irish possess a patron saint who is in the truest sense national. Although a native of Scotland, the best of his life and work was devoted to the people among whom in early youth the fortune of war placed him. He seems, moreover, never to have had a serious competitor for their favour[132], and they have been unwavering in their allegiance to him. Nevertheless, there is no ancient flag, and no symbol except the shamrock, associated with his name.

Flags do not seem to have been in use at a very early period among the celtic nations, and when we meet with them in Irish literature in the eleventh century the terms used for them are not native Irish words but had apparently been borrowed from the Danish invaders who wrought such havoc to the ancient Irish civilisation from the ninth to the eleventh centuries. The word used by the author of the Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh is "mergi[133]," which is believed to be borrowed from the Scandinavian "merke" (mark), while the other word met with, "confingi," seems to be derived from the Norse "gunfana."

At the great battle of Clontarf fought in the year 1014 between the Irish under their king Brian Borumha and the Danish invaders of Ireland under the Earl Sigurd, assisted by the revolted king of Leinster, the Irish under Brian had many banners, but these banners were known by their colours rather than by any particular device in them.

Brian looked out behind him and beheld the battle phalanx ... and three score and ten banners over them, of red, and of yellow, and of green, and of all kinds of colours; together with the everlasting, variegated, lucky, fortunate banner that had gained the victory in every battle and in every conflict, and in every combat ... namely the gold-spangled banner of Fergal Ua Ruairc[134].

These banners appear to have been personal to the chiefs and to have been taken down when they were slain, even if their forces still remained undefeated. During the conflict Brian, who on account of his age took no part in the battle and was engaged in prayer at a little distance, enquired repeatedly of his attendant whether the banner of his eldest son, Murchadh, still remained aloft. Towards the end he asked once more, and the attendant reported that it was far from Murchadh but still standing. Brian said "The men of Erinn shall be well while that banner remains standing because their courage and valour shall remain in them all, as long as they can see that banner." At length Murchadh was mortally wounded, and although the enemy were defeated his banner was taken down. When his father asked again, the attendant answered, "... the foreigners are now defeated and Murchadh's banner has fallen." "That is sad news," said Brian, "... the honour and valour of Erinn fell when that banner fell and Erinn has fallen now indeed."

It may be concluded from this narrative that the Irish of the eleventh century had no national flag common to the whole people. This, together with the fact that after the death of Brian no Irish king arose great enough to secure the allegiance of the whole nation, may explain why the Irish never developed a national flag as did the English and Scots.

The red saltire on white ground which represents Ireland in the Union flag had only an ephemeral existence as a separate flag. Originating as the arms of the powerful Geraldines, who from the time of Henry II held the predominant position among those whose presence in Ireland was due to the efforts of the English sovereigns to subjugate that country, it is not to be expected that the native Irish should ever have taken kindly to a badge that could only remind them of their servitude to a race with whom they had little in common, and the attempt to father this emblem upon St Patrick (who, it may be remarked, is not entitled to a cross-since he was not a martyr) has evoked no response from the Irish themselves.

The earliest evidence of the existence of the red saltire flag[135] known to the author occurs in a map of "Hirlandia" by John Goghe dated 1567 and now exhibited in the museum of the Public Record Office. The arms at the head of this map are the St George's cross impaled with the crowned harp, but the red saltire is prominent in the arms of the Earl of Kildare and the other Geraldine families placed over their respective spheres of influence. The red saltire flag is flown at the masthead of a ship, possibly an Irish pirate, which is engaged in action in the St George's Channel with another ship flying the St George's cross. The St George's flag flies upon Cornwall, Wales and Man, but the red saltire flag does not appear upon Ireland itself, though it is placed upon the adjacent Mulls of Galloway and Kintyre in Scotland. It is, however, to be found in the arms of Trinity College, Dublin (1591), in which the banners of St George and of this saltire surmount the turrets that flank the castle gateway.

The Graydon MS. Flag Book of 1686 which belonged to Pepys does not contain this flag, but gives as the flag of Ireland (which, it may be noted, appears as an afterthought right at the end of the book) the green flag with St George's cross and the harp, illustrated in Plate X, fig. 3. The saltire flag is nevertheless given as "Pavillon d'Ierne" in the flag plates at the commencement of the Neptune Fran?ois of 1693, whence it was copied into later flag collections.

Under the Commonwealth and Protectorate, when England and Scotland were represented in the Great and other Seals by their crosses, Ireland was invariably represented by the harp, and in the Union flag of 1658, as will be seen later, it was the harp that was added to the English and Scottish crosses to form a flag representative of the three kingdoms. At the funeral of Cromwell the Great Standards of England and Scotland had the St George's and St Andrew's crosses in chief respectively, but the Great Standard of Ireland had in chief a red cross (not saltire) on a yellow field[136].

When the Order of St Patrick was instituted in 1783 the red saltire was taken for the badge of the Order, and since this emblem was of convenient form for introduction into the Union flag of England and Scotland it was chosen in forming the combined flag of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1801.

Ireland has been represented in the royal standard since 1603 by the golden harp on a blue field, but it would seem that this is not the original arms of that country, for the augmentation of arms granted by Richard II to his favourite Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, whom he created Duke of Ireland in 1386, was azure, three crowns, or, and these are said to have been confirmed as the true arms of Ireland by a commission of enquiry under Edward IV. The harp, which appears to have been an ancient badge of Ireland, was formally adopted as the arms of that country by Henry VIII in the year when he changed the royal style from "Dominus Hiberniae" to "Rex Hiberniae." The change in the colour of the field from blue to green, as is commonly seen in the flags of Irishmen in rebellion against English rule, is believed to have originated with Owen Roe O'Neill in 1642.

There is very little information as to the flags flown in Irish ships. From a date at least as early as the thirteenth century certain of the Irish ports were accustomed to supply ships for the king's service[137]. Such ships would have flown the English or Cinque Ports flag. There is indeed a mention in the State Papers of 1586[138] of an Irish ship attacking an English merchantman under the Scots flag, "showing forth a Skottish ensigne," and a passage in Dudley's voyage in 1594[139] from which it may be inferred that there was no recognised Irish flag at that date. In Feb. 1785, a brig from Dublin hoisted at Antigua a green ensign with the harp and crown in the centre, which was seized by Collingwood's orders, and later in the same year another ship from Belfast, flying a similar ensign, was detained until the master had gone ashore and bought proper colours for the vessel[140].

FOOTNOTES:

[64] Beda, Historia Ecclesiastica, ii, 137. For Tufa, see ante, p. 11.

[65] Historia Anglorum: "Aciebus igitur dispositis, cum in directum tendentes appropinquarent, Edelhun praecedens West sexenses, regis insigne draconem scilicet aureum gerens, transforavit vexilliferum hostem."

[66] Probably Combwich, vide Major, Early Wars of Wessex, 1913.

[67] Under the Devon earldorman Odda, Alfred being then in hiding at Athelney.

[68] "Vexillum quod Reafun nominant." Cf. the A. S. Chronicle, "t?r w?s se guefana genumen te hie Hraefn."

[69] Asser, Life of King Alfred.

[70] Emmae Reginae Anglorum Encomium, lib. ii.

[71] Plate II, fig. 10.

[72] Plate II, fig. 11.

[73] Anlaf seems to have lived alternately in Ireland, Scotland, and Northumbria, and to have been King of Dublin in 945. On his final expulsion from Northumbria in 952 he returned to Ireland, and after the battle of Tara in 980 became a monk at Iona. See Todd, War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill (Rolls Series).

[74] William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Regum Anglorum: "Vexillum Mauricii beatissimi martyris Thebae legionis principis, quo idem rex in bello Hispano quamlibet infestos et confertos inimicorum cuneos derumpere et in fugam solitus erat cogere."

[75] Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum: "Cum enim Dacos solito acrius pugnare videret (Edmund) loco regio relicto, quod erat ex more inter draconem et insigne quod vocatur 'Standard,' cucurrit terribilis in aciem primam."

[76] Plate I, fig. 2; see p. 16.

[77] Gesta Regum Anglorum: "Rex ipse pedes juxta vexillum stabat cum fratribus...vexillum illud post victoriam papae misit Willelmus, quod erat in hominis pugnantis figura, auro et lapidibus arte sumptuosa intextum."

[78] There is a smaller figure of a man in the act of striking with a club on the downs near Cerne Abbas in Dorset. Possibly both these figures are pre-Saxon. The horse, a favourite subject for treatment in this manner, is almost certainly pre-Saxon; yet it was adopted by the Saxons of Kent.

[79] Roger de Hoveden, Chronica "cum ... rex Angliae fixisset signum suum in medio, et tradisset draconem suum Petro de Pratellis ad portandum contra calumniam Roberti Trussebut, qui illum portare calumniatus fuit de jure praedecessorem suorum."

[80] See p. 37.

[81] Dart, Westmonasterium, 1742.

[82] See especially Elliot Smith, The Evolution of the Dragon, 1919.

[83] In this same battle the Scots were led under the Dragon standard. See p. 49.

[84] Liber quotidianus Contrarotulationis Garderobae 29 Edward I. This was printed by the Society of Antiquaries in 1787.

[85] Rites of Durham (Surtees Society), 1903.

[86] Plate I, fig. 7.

[87] Plate I, fig. 6.

[88] Plate I, fig. 12.

[89] It is usually taken as 303 but the Rev. Baring Gould in his Lives of the Saints shows good reason for believing the actual date to be 285.

[90] Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. xxiii.

[91] Baring Gould, Curious Myths, 1872.

[92] Exchequer Accounts, 349/2.

[93] Bail, Summa Conciliorum.

[94] Wilkins, Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae.

[95] Ibid.

[96] Keyser, Norman Tympana and Lintels, 1904; Sussex Archeological Collections, xliv.

[97] Benedict Abbas, Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi: "Praedicti vero reges in susceptione crucis ad distinguendam gentem suam signum evidens providerunt. Nam rex Franciae et gens sua cruces rubeas susceperunt, et rex Angliae et gens sua cruces albas susceperunt, et comes Flandriae cum gente sua cruces virides suscepit."

[98] Les Us et Coutumes de la Mer.

[99] Exchequer Accounts, 3/15. Rotulus forinsecus de guerra Walliae anno regni regis Edwardi quinto.

"Flind. Die martis in Festo Sancti Laurentii [pro tribus peciis de Buckeram et tribus peciis telae de Aylesham emptis per manus Admeti cissoris ad faciendum C Braceria et xx*xj penuncella de Armis sancti Georgii et pro emendendum et sudendum eorundem Bracerium et penuncellorum. ci s vi d. Item pro sex peciis telae de Aylesham emptis ad faciendum Braceria et penuncella pro peditibus Regis per manus eiusdem A. xx s. Item pro cl ulnis telae tinctae emptis pro eodem c s. Item pro custura cxx penuncellorum de Armis sancti Georgii per manus eiusdem A. xxiij s] (other similar entries for material for Bracers) ... pro tribus Stemeris emptis ad fracandum intus arma Regis vij s. vj d.

[100] Vide Nicolas, Siege of Carlaverock.

[101] Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, II. 108 et seq.

[102] Nicolas, Roll of Carlaverock.

[103] Henry Chicheley.

[104] I.e. fighting against ghostly enemies.

[105] Wilkins, Concilia, iii, 375: "Hujus itaque dispositionis ex clementissima et benignissima Dei Salvatoris nostri misericordia procedentis consideratione, nationis Anglicanae plebs fidelis, etsi Deum in sanctis suis omnibus laudare ex debito teneatur, ipsum tamen, ut orbis affatus, ipsaque gratiae desuper concessae experientia, rerum cunctarum interpres optima, attestantur, in suo martyre gloriosissimo, beato Georgio, tanquam patrone et protectore dictae nationis speciali, summis tenentur attollere vocibus, laudibus personare praecipuis et specialibus honoribus venerari. Hujus namque, ut indubitanter credimus, interventu, nedum gentis Angligenae armata militia contra incursus hostiles bellorum tempore regitur, sed et pugna cleri militaris inermis in sacrae pacis otio sub tanti patroni suffragio celebriter roboratur."

[106] In the ms. they are dated xvii July, but this is apparently an error for xxvii.

[107] Twiss, The Black Book of the Admiralty, i, 456.

[108] Ibid. i, 464.

[109] Exchequer Accounts, 4/26.

[110] Rymer, Foedera, ii, 759 and Marsden, Law and Custom of the Sea (N.R.S.), i, 46.

[111] Printed in Lettres des Rois, etc. (Documents inédits sur l'histoire de France) i, 392, and in part by Mr Marsden (op. cit. i, 50). See also p. 160.

[112] Exchequer Accounts, 30/16.

[113] Exchequer Accounts, 49/29.

[114] B. M. Cott. Aug. i, ii, 57b.

[115] Plate I, fig. 14.

[116] Cott. Julius E. iv.

[117] Chronicles of the Picts, Chronicles of the Scots and other early Memorials of Scottish History (Rolls Series), Preface, clix.

[118] The Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, i, 191: "Item que tout homme francois et escot ait un signe devant et derrere cest assauoir une croiz blanche saint andrieu et se son Jacque soit blanc ou sa cote blanche il portera la dicte croiz blanche en une piece de drap noir ronde ou quarree."

[119] Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland (Rolls Series), edited by Sir Jas. B. Paul, iii, 90.

[120] Ensigns.

[121] White taffety of Genoa (jean).

[122] Op. cit. vii, 189.

[123] Ibid. ix, iii.

[124] Rouen 1670, bound with his Les Us et Coutumes de la Mer.

[125] Escosse le Sauteur d'argent qui est la Croix des Chevaliers Saint Andre, au drap de gueles ou d'azur: portent aussi face de gueles d'or et de Synope qui est verd, le Sauteur au quanton ou sur le tout.

[126] The work appears, however, to have been written in 1634.

[127] Plate X, fig. 1.

[128] Dunbar, Scottish Kings, p. 89.

[129] Orkney Saga, xi.

[130] Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, etc. (Rolls Series), iii, 181.

[131] Regale vexillum, quod ad similitudinem draconis figuratam facile agnoscebatur.

[132] Except possibly in St Brigit and St Columcille.

[133] Elsewhere "meirge."

[134] War of the Gaedhill with the Gaill (Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh). Ed. with translation by J. H. Todd (Rolls Series), p. 156.

[135] Plate I, fig. 10.

[136] Prestwich, Respublica.

[137] E.g. Nicholas quotes an example in 1233, when the inhabitants of Dublin were directed to prepare their new great galley for the king's service, and ships from Waterford, Dublin, Youghal, Ross and Drogheda were supplied for the Flanders expedition in 1304. Some, perhaps all, of these ports were affiliated to the Cinque Ports, as, for instance, Youghal, which became "one of the Petylymmes of the Cinque Ports in Ireland" in 1462. (Cal. Pat. Rolls.)

[138] S. P. D. Eliz. clxxxvii, 13.

[139] See p. 198.

[140] It may be pointed out, however, that under the present Merchant Shipping Act the flying of such a flag, if it did not imitate the British or other national colours, would not be illegal, but the ship must show the red ensign when required under Art. 74 of that Act.

* * *

Chapter III

The Union Flags and Jacks

In the preceding sketch of the early history of the British flags we have, so far as evidence is available, followed the steps by which the red cross on a white ground came to represent the people of England, and we have seen, though less clearly, how the white saltire on a blue ground became the chosen flag of the Scottish nation. It now remains to trace the process by which these two flags became united in one, and finally, by the addition of a red saltire to represent Ireland, developed into the present Union flag.

On the death of Queen Elizabeth in March, 1603, the succession to the crown lay open.

There had been no repeal of the stipulation made by Henry VIII, both in Act of Parliament and in his will, that after the death without heirs of his three children, Edward, Mary and Elizabeth, the crown should descend to the heirs of his younger sister, Mary.... Consequently, the rightful heir when Elizabeth lay dying was no scion of the Scottish House, but the eldest representative of the Suffolk line-Princess Mary's great-grandson, Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp. But Elizabeth's ministers were not the slaves of legal niceties. The Queen's neutrality left their choice unfettered; and though expectation of personal profit largely moved them, their action proved politic. Lord Beauchamp was a man of insignificant position and character; James VI, however contemptible in many respects, had experience as a ruler, and a contiguous kingdom to add to the endowments of the English Crown[141].

PLATE IV - Union Flag

But the union of crowns brought about by Elizabeth's ministers with the tacit approval of the two nations did not directly lead to the union of peoples. The Parliaments remained separate; national jealousies ran high, especially in England, and James was foiled in his efforts to bring about the closer union he sought. Nevertheless, he was determined[142] that the union of the two nations should have some other outward expression than the change in the royal standard, and in the beginning of the fourth year of his reign he issued a proclamation in the following words:

A Proclamation declaring what Flags South and North Britains shall bear at Sea.

Whereas some difference has arisen between our Subjects of South and North Britain, Travelling by Sea, about the bearing of their flags, for the avoiding of all such contentions hereafter, We have with the advice of our Council ordered That from henceforth all our subjects of this Isle and Kingdom of Great Britain and the Members thereof shall bear in their maintop the Red Cross, commonly called St George's Cross, and the White Cross, commonly called St Andrew's Cross, joined together, according to a form made by our Heralds and sent by Us to our Admiral to be published to our said Subjects[143]. And in their foretop Our Subjects of South Britain shall wear the Red Cross only as they were wont, and our Subjects of North Britain in their Foretop the White Cross only as they were accustomed. Wherefore We will and command all our Subjects to be conformable and obedient to this Our Order, and that from henceforth they do not use to bear their flags in any other Sort, as they will answer the contrary at their Peril.

Given at our Palace of Westminster the 12th. day of April in the 4th. year of our Reign of Great Britain France and Ireland Annoq. Domini 1606.

Unfortunately the naval records of the early years of the seventeenth century have almost entirely disappeared from the State archives; the "State Papers" themselves are but fragmentary remains; and the English Privy Council Registers from 1602 to 1613 were destroyed by the fire at Whitehall in 1618, so that it is impossible to say what were the points of contention referred to in the Proclamation.

The birth of the flag that is now the pride of so many millions was indeed obscure. Intended at first for use only at sea, it appears to have excited no attention except from those directly concerned with shipping. The royal and merchant navies were alike dwindling away, and the sea did not fill that place in the minds of James' subjects that it had filled in the greater days of Elizabeth.

The only strictly contemporary evidence of the actual design chosen in 1606 is to be found in the following appeal from the shipmasters of Scotland, whom it did not by any means please.

Edinburgh

7 Aug. 1606

Most sacred Soverayne. A greate nomber of the maisteris and awnaris of the schippis of this your Majesteis kingdome hes verie havelie compleint to your Majesteis Counsell that the form and patrone of the flaggis of schippis, send doun heir and commandit to be ressavit and used be the subjectis of boith kingdomes, is very prejudiciall to the fredome and dignitie of this Estate and will gif occasioun of reprotche to this natioun quhairevir the said flage sal happin to be worne beyond sea becaus, as your sacred Majestie may persave, the Scottis Croce, callit Sanctandrois Croce is twyse divydit, and the Inglishe Croce, callit Sanct George, haldin haill and drawne through the Scottis Croce, whiche is thairby obscurit and no takin nor merk to be seene of the Scottis Armes. This will breid some heit and miscontentment betwix your Majesteis subjectis, and it is to be feirit that some inconvenientis sall fall oute betwix thame, for oure seyfairing men cannot be induceit to ressave that flag as it is set doun. They haif drawne two new drauchtis and patronis as most indifferent for boith kingdomes which they presented to the Counsell, and craved our approbatioun of the same; bot we haif reserved that to your Majesteis princelie determination,-as moir particularlie the Erll of Mar, who wes present and hard thair complaynt, and to whome we haif remittit the discourse and delyverie of that mater, will inform your Majestie, and latt Your Heynes see the errour of the first patrone and the indifferencie of the two new drauchtis. And sua, most humelie beseiking your Majestie, as your Heynes has evir had a speciall regaird of the honnour, fredome and libertie of this your Heynes antient and native kingdome that it wuld pleis your sacres Majestie in this particulair to gif unto your Heynes subjectis some satisfactioun and contentment, we pray God to blisse your sacred Majestie with a lang and prosperous reignne and eternall felicitie[144].

There is nothing to show that this appeal met with any response, but the Scots never took kindly to the new flag and rarely used it until after the Legislative Union of 1707. Sir Edward Nicholas in 1634 was doubtful "whether the Scots have used to carry that Flag of the Union."

It is unfortunate that these "drafts and patterns" have disappeared, perhaps in the same fire that consumed the "form" made by the heralds. There is no doubt about the main outline, but the absence of precise detail has led several writers-purists in heraldic matters-to contend that the white border of the red cross was simply a narrow fimbriation[145]. I think, however, that examination of the available evidence will show that this border did not originate as a mere "fimbriation," that it was in fact part of the field of the English flag, and that the new flag was, as described by Sir James Balfour[146], "the flagis of St Andrew and St George interlaced," not merely the red cross surmounting the Scots flag. Material proof that it was so regarded sixty years later is in existence in Amsterdam in the shape of actual flags captured during the Second and Third Dutch Wars, and belonging therefore to the second half of the seventeenth century. These show a very wide border to the red cross, and in two instances[147] the red cross, the white border and the white saltire are each of the same width.

The heralds had been faced by a dilemma. It was impossible to combine the two flags so as to form a new one without giving precedence to one of them. If quartered, the upper canton next the staff was the place of honour, and both could not occupy it at the same time. In the reign of James II this difficulty was solved, in the case of the Royal Arms, by placing the Scots' Lion in the first quarter in the Great Seal of Scotland. Possibly a similar solution was suggested by the Scottish shipmasters. But there was a precedent for a closer union than this quartered form, which no doubt the heralds had in mind. Elizabeth had granted the Levant Company, by her charters of 1581 and 1592, the right to wear as a flag "the Armes of England with the redde crosse in white over the same[148]." We may be quite sure that in consenting to such an arrangement Elizabeth had no thought of giving the national flag precedence over the royal standard, but merely wished to signify their intimate union and the extension of the royal protection to the company. The method adopted in 1606 was exactly the same, the "red cross in white" being placed over the Scots flag.

The quarterly arrangement of the crosses appears to have been used on one occasion; the dispatch of a fleet in 1623 to bring back Prince Charles and the Duke of Buckingham from Spain. Mr Serjeant Knight, in a "discourse" on the St George's flag written in 1678 at the request of Pepys[149], stated that he had in his possession the Order from the Great Wardrobe directed to his father, Mr Thomas Knight, Arms Painter, who was to paint the banners and streamers required for the Prince. The principal flag was to be that shown in Plate V, fig. 1: "Imprimis in ye Prince's ship wherein he goes, on ye top ye Crosses of St. Andrew and St. George." Mr Knight assured Pepys that he could not be mistaken about this "cobled Banner," as he scornfully called it, "ye severall arms being trickt in ye margin of ye Order," and he proceeded to give a sketch of it. Indeed, he was disposed to believe this to be the original form of the Union flag:

having seen severall Flaggs with St. George and St. Andrew quarterly and may every Lord Mayor's Day be seen born by some of ye Companies Barges, these flags being made much about that time, all men being willing to flatter their new king.

The evidence of the Privy Council Register of Scotland is, however, sufficient to prove that this inference was incorrect.

The documents of 1606 do not give any name to the flag they describe. It appears first to have been called the "Britain" or "British" flag[150], and I have not found the name "Union" earlier than 1625, when it appears in the list of the flags and banners used at the funeral of James I[151]. Three years later it appears in the Sailing Instructions of the Earl of Lindsey[152], but the older name still persisted at sea and is found in inventories of stores and in sailing and fighting instructions until 1639[153].

Hitherto this "British" or "Union" flag had, like the old English flag of St George, been flown equally by merchantman and man-of-war, strangers being expected to distinguish the latter by their more warlike appearance.

PLATE V - Union Flags and Jacks

Towards the year 1633, however, the old question of the salute in the Narrow Seas was becoming more and more acute, "because," in the words of Sir Wm Monson, "both the French and Hollanders seek to usurp upon his Majesties right[154]." Sir John Pennington, the "Admiral of the Narrow Seas," seized on this as an excuse to advocate a difference in the flags of the king's and the merchants' ships. In a letter dated 7th April, 1634, asking for instructions on various points relative to his duties as Admiral of the Narrow Seas he writes:

For alteringe of the Coulers whereby his Mats owne Shippes may be knowne from his Subiects I leave to yor Lopps more deepe consideration. But under correction I conceive it to bee very materyall and much for his Mats Honor, and besides will free disputes with Strangers, for when they omitt doinge their Respectes to his Mats Shippes till they bee shott at they alleadge they did not know it to be the kinges Shippe[155].

The plea that the existing arrangement caused confusion in the minds of foreigners was quite justified, but it is probable that there was a deeper underlying cause, jealousy of the mercantile marine. Be this as it may, Pennington's suggestion was favourably received, and the approval of the king was obtained to the issue of the following Proclamation:

A Proclamation appointing the Flags, as well for our Navie Royall as for the Ships of our Subjects of South and North Britaine.

Wee taking into Our Royall consideration that it is meete for the Honour of Our owne Ships in Our Navie Royall and of such other Ships as are or shall be employed in Our immediate Service, that the same bee by their Flags distinguished from the ships of any other of Our Subjects, doe hereby straitly prohibite and forbid that none of Our Subjects, of any of Our Nations and Kingdomes, shall from hencefoorth presume to carry the Union Flagge in the Maine toppe, or other part of any of their Ships (that is) S. Georges Crosse and S. Andrews Crosse joyned together upon paine of Our high displeasure, but that the same Union Flagge bee still reserved as an ornament proper for Our owne Ships and Ships in Our immediate Service and Pay, and none other.

And likewise Our further will and pleasure is, that all the other Ships of Our Subjects of England or South Britaine bearing flags shall from hencefoorth carry the Red-Crosse, commonly called S. George his Crosse, as of olde time hath beene used; And also that all the other ships of Our Subjects of Scotland or North Britaine shall from hencefoorth carry the White Crosse commonly called S. Andrews Crosse, Whereby the severall Shipping may thereby bee distinguished and We thereby the better discerne the number and goodnesse of the same. Wherefore Wee will and straitly command all Our Subjects foorthwith to bee conformable and obedient to this Our Order, as they will answer the contrary at their perills.

Given at Our Court at Greenwich this fifth day of May in the tenth yeere of Our Reigne of England Scotland France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith &c.

The ostensible reason for this distinction in flags-to enable the "number and goodnesse" of the ships of the two nations to be more readily discerned-is obviously an afterthought[156]; a sugar coating to the pill. The customs officers of the various ports could, of course, have provided any information desired relative to the shipping, and were not dependent on the flags for their knowledge of the ships' nationalities. The point is of some interest as it marks a distinct step in the exaltation of the Navy Royal and its officers into a position of superiority over the mercantile marine.

It will also be observed that the proclamation of 1634 does not require the flags to be hoisted at the masthead as did that of 1606. Probably this was no accidental omission but was the outcome of the general introduction of the "Jack" on the bowsprit a year or two before. Flags had no doubt been occasionally carried on the bowsprit from the time when that spar was first invented, but the practice had been exceptional, at any rate in the English navy. An early instance was depicted in a contemporary picture in Cowdray Castle, since destroyed by fire, which represented "the encampment of the English forces near Portsmouth, together with a view of the English and French fleets at the commencement of the action between them on the 19th of July, 1545." In this picture, which fortunately was reproduced in an engraving by the Society of Antiquaries in 1780, the Lord Admiral's ship, the 'Henri Grace à Dieu,' was seen flying a royal standard on the bowsprit. Drake, also, had flown a striped flag in this position in that last voyage which ended for him in his death at sea in January, 1596[157]. Yet when Captain Young submitted his "Noates for Sea Service" to the Earl of Essex[158] he wrote as though the idea were unusual:

and that the cullers maye bee the better knowne from those of the enemies and yf they chance to have the like it shalbe then convenient that upon or misson flagge-staves or th ende of or bowlesprits and that theare bee but a smawle litle flagge with a red Crosse yt being but a litle bigger than a vaine of a great Catche[159].

As remarked by Admiral Sir Massie Blomfield[160], this "jack" is not shown in the "illustrations of the flagships of the Expedition of 1596 reproduced in the 'Naval Miscellany,'[161]" so that the suggestion was probably not received with favour.

There is no mention of, or provision for, "jacks" in the inventories which accompanied the report of the committee that inquired into the state of the navy in 1618. Sir Julian Corbett has pointed out[162] that the earliest instance of the use of the word "jack" to denote a flag occurs in the orders issued by Sir John Pennington to one of his captains on 3rd July, 1633. The original has not survived, but the copy[163] is in a contemporary hand and is corroborated by Pennington's Journal, now among the MSS. of Lord Muncaster.

In the summers of the years 1631, 1633 and 1634 Pennington was in command of a small squadron as Admiral of the Narrow Seas, charged especially with the duty of freeing the coast from pirates. He tells us in his journal[164], under the above date (3rd July, 1633):

In the morninge it blew very hard at SW by W. Aboute noone we weyed-leavinge the 8th Whelpe in Catt Water and stoode of to sea with the rest of our Fleete, knowinge it to bee a very hard matter for any small vessels to keepe the sea in such fowle weather, and the likelyest place for them to shelter in with these winds was Torbaye, for which place we stoode, causinge the 10th Whelpe to goe a head of us and close aboard the shore, with her coullers and ordynance in, that shee might not bee suspected to bee one of our Fleete, the better to intrap any Pyrates.

The order, which is dated the same day on board the 'Vanguard,' Pennington's flagship, is evidently the one given to the 10th Whelp[165]. It contains instructions as to rendezvous in case the ships lost company, and continues as follows:

you are to looke out carefully for these pirates night and day; that if it be possible wee maie intrapp them. You are alsoe for this present service to keepe in yor Jack at yor Boultsprit end and yor Pendant and yor Ordinance[166].

The fact that the position of the "Jack" is defined in this order tends to show that the term had not yet become common, and this is fully confirmed by a passage added by Sir Nathaniel Boteler to one[167] of the manuscript copies of his well-known Six Dialogues about Sea Services, written about the year 1634.

Boteler, who last served at sea in the Ile de Ré Expedition of 1627, says:

but of late ther hathe bin invented an order that none of our Englishe shypps should be allowed to carry the king's flagge (that is the English Crosse quartered[168] wh the Scottish, and called the Brittish flagge or Colours) save only such shyps as are either of his Maties owne or serve under his paye, and every such vessel, though but a Catche, is permitted and enjoined to weare one of thes in a smale volume in her Boltsprites Topp. And the flaggs thus worne are tearmed Jacks.

The "Order" referred to is evidently the Proclamation of 1634, which, as already remarked, was the outcome of Pennington's request for instructions. It seems highly probable that it is to the same outstanding personality[169] that we owe the institution of the "Jack" on the bowsprit.

From 1634 until the death of Charles I the royal ships continued to be distinguished from the merchant ships by this difference in their flags, although, as a distinct favour, merchant ships were, in a few special cases, granted permission to carry the Union flag.

The execution of Charles I on 30th January, 1649, dissolved the dynastic union between England and Scotland. The two nations, which only a few years before had been united in a "Solemn League and Covenant" against Charles, had been gradually drifting apart, and on the proclamation by the Scots of Charles' son as king the two governments fell into open enmity. In these circumstances the Union flag had become meaningless. On the 22nd of February the Parliament decreed that the "Admiralty" should be settled in the Council of State[170], and the "Navy Committee," that is, the Committee of the Council, who were managing those affairs of the navy that had formerly been within the jurisdiction of the "Principal Officers of the Navy," immediately applied to the Council to know what they were to do about flags.

This Committee taking notice of the arms yt are engraven upon ye sternes of ye shipps belonging to ye Comonwealth & intended for this Summers fleet doe think fit to inform the Comtee of State therewith that so directions may be given what arms shalbe placed in their steed & likewise what characters shalbe given to the flaggs that are to be worne in this service[171].

The Council of State promptly decided "That the Ships at Sea in service of the State shall onely beare the red Crosse in a white flag [172]," thus bringing the navy back to the old English flag and once more into line with the merchant shipping. The royal arms were ordered to be removed from the sterns and replaced by "the Armes of England and Ireland in two Scutcheons[173]."

Two days later the Generals at Sea were informed, in answer to a further inquiry, that if Scots ships were found "bearing either the red cross or the Armes heretofore called the King's Armes" they were to admonish them to "forbeare the carrying of them for the future[174]."

It is probable that the order of 22nd Feb. was not altogether welcome to the navy officers, for on 5th March, only a few days after the above order had been issued, the Council of State decided upon a new union flag for naval use. The union now to be symbolised was that of England and Ireland. Although Ireland had been more or less under the rule of the kings of England from the time of Henry II, it was not until the accession of James I in 1603 that she had found recognition in the royal standard, and it remained for the Commonwealth to give her due recognition in the national flag. The entry in the Council Minute Book runs: "That the fflagg that is to be borne by the Admirall be that now presented, viz: the Armes of England and Ireland in two severall Escotchons in a red flagg wth in a Compartiment (or)[175]."

At the same time two other variants of this design were introduced, a standard and a jack. The order for these cannot be found, but they are referred to in the following letter to the Committee of the Navy signed by Deane and Blake (two of the Generals at Sea[176]) and dated 21st April, 1649:

Gentlemen

Touching the flaggs &c. It seems strange you referre the proportions to bee ascertained by us, yorselves knowing best the former allowaunces, which wee suppose are alike in number in every expedition, but since the Issue depends on or resolution wee think needfull that you make up what you have allready sent, for orselves three Standards, or viceadmll and Rereadmll with the Admll Viceadmll & Rereadmll of Ireland three flaggs apiece, with two Jackes for every Shipp in the ffleet. ffor the Ensignes and pendants you best know how many are wanting, which (whatsoever they are) with the flaggs &c. we desire may bee noe longer delayed[177].

In the standard, intended to replace the royal standard, and to be used by the Generals at Sea, the yellow "compartment" was omitted and the two escutcheons were surrounded by green branches of laurel and bay. Fortunately, an actual specimen[178] has survived of this interesting flag, which was destined to wave over Blake's ship at the heroic battle of Santa Cruz and to see the rise of the English navy to an eminence unequalled even in the days of Elizabeth.

The jack contained only the cross and harp on their white and blue fields, corresponding with the centre part of the Admirals' flags. It is to be seen in several pictures of battles of the First Dutch War[179]. Apparently this jack was also used by ships having letters of marque; "privateers" as we should now call them. In December, 1652, the captain of a small frigate, called the 'Helena,' fought with two armed ships from Brest, "putting out the Parliament Jack on the bowsprit end and the English ensign on the poop, the enemy having hung out the disunion flag or late King's colours[180]."

Early in 1653 the junior Admiral's flag with the red border and yellow compartment seems to have been abandoned, and a flag like the jack, with the harp and cross only, substituted for it[181], probably because the red border would cause confusion when flown in the white and blue squadrons.

Scotland was formally re-united to England by an Ordinance of the Commonwealth Parliament dated 12th April, 1654, and the cross of St Andrew was ordered to be brought once more into conjunction with that of St George:

And that this Union may take its more full effect and intent Be it further ordained by the Authority aforesaid That the Arms of Scotland viz: a Cross commonly called Saint Andrews Cross be received into and borne from henceforth in the Arms of this Commonwealth as a Badge of this Union.

In the new great seal which was prepared in 1655 the St Andrew's cross was quartered with St George's cross and the Irish harp, but it was not at once introduced into the naval flags, although placed on the obverse of naval medals struck in 1654.

The cross of St Andrew was re-introduced into the naval flags by the following order of the Council of State dated 18th May, 1658[182]:

That the Standard for the Generall of his Highness ffleete be altered, and doe beare the Armes of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with his Highness Escutcheon of pretence, according to the impression of the Great Seale of England; and that the Jack fflaggs for the fflagg officers of the ffleete and for the severall Shipps of Warre of his Highness be the Armes of England and Scotland united, according to the auncient forme, With the addition of the Harpe, according to a Modell now showd; and that the Comrs of the Admty and Navy to take order That the standard and Jacke fflaggs be prepared accordingly.

In the standard the two crosses and the harp were borne "quarterly" surmounted by an inescutcheon (sable, a lion rampant argent), the personal arms of Cromwell[183], but in the other Admirals' flags and the jack the crosses were superposed, as in the Union flag of 1606, with the addition of a harp in the centre. The "model" has disappeared, like all its predecessors, and nothing remains to show for certain whether this harp was placed in a blue escutcheon as in the earlier Commonwealth flags or not, but since a request was received from Chatham in the following November for 200 yards of blue bewper "for ye altering of all ye fflaggs and Jacks here yt are of ye former fashion into ye new forme[184]" it seems on the whole probable that the harp was in an escutcheon with a blue field.

This return towards the flag of 1606, prophetic of the coming restoration, lasted for a few months only. In September Cromwell died, and his son, the shadow of a great name, after being tolerated as a mere figurehead for a few months, was in the following May forced to abdicate. The remnant of the Long Parliament, which had just re-assembled, passed an "Act for the Great Seal of England" which restored the seal of 1651 with its map of England and Ireland and shields with the St George's cross and the Irish harp. The cross of Scotland vanished and the Commonwealth "Cross and Harp" jack supplanted Cromwell's Union Jack.

In March, 1660, the Navy Commissioners were told to furnish General Mountagu, then in command of the Fleet [185], "with Standards for the Naseby suitable to the Jacks now worne in the ffleete[186]." This was the standard which Mountagu was flying when ordered to cross to the Hague and bring back the king.

On 1st May, 1660, the newly assembled Houses of Parliament passed a joint vote for the restoration of the ancient government, and a few days later, before Charles was publicly proclaimed, the Commissioners of the Admiralty and Navy, at the instance of the Council of State, issued the following order to their subordinate Board:

In pursuance of an order of the Councell of State of the 5th of this instant May It is ordered that it be referred to the Comrs for the Navy forthwith to take care that such Standards, fflags and Jacke Colours for the ffleete be forthwith prepared as were in use before 1648 and that they be sent downe with all speed to Generall Mountagu as alsoe that Carvers and Painters be appointed to goe down for the altering of the Carved workes according to such directions as they shall receive from Comr Pett, who is ordered by ye Councell forthwth to goe to ye Generall. And the said Comrs are to give order for the sending downe to the Generall One silke Standard and one silke Ensigne and Jacke and such other silke fflags as may compleate a suite for the Naseby[187].

Instructions to this effect must have reached the fleet before it left England, but the flag-makers had evidently not had sufficient time to prepare the new royal standard, for on the 13th May, on the way over, (so Pepys, then secretary to Mountagu, tells us[188])

the tailors and painters were at work cutting out some pieces of yellow cloth into the fashion of a crown and C.R. and put it upon a fine sheet and that into the flag instead of the State's arms[189] which after dinner was finished and set up.... In the afternoon a Council of War only to acquaint them that the Harp must be taken out of all their flags, it being very offensive to the King.

The Union flag, like the Government, now reverted to its original form, but the right to fly it remained the special prerogative of the State's ships, a prerogative much sought after by merchant ships, and often assumed by them without warrant. For the next half century a long-drawn struggle was waged by the merchant shipping for the possession of this right. It begins with a special instruction sent by the Lord High Admiral, James Duke of York, to the Corporation of Trinity House on 9th March, 1661:

I desire you will give notice unto all Commanders and Masters of Shipping belonging to the Subjects of the King, my Sovereign Lord and Brother, that from henceforward they forbear to wear the Flag of Union; and also acquaint them, that such as presume to wear the said Flag contrary hereunto, the King's Ships will have orders to take it from them[190].

The Trinity House issued orders to this effect, but although the prohibition had been stiffened with a threat that the flag would be taken by force from those displaying it, the notices seem to have had so little effect that, on 19th Nov., when a royal proclamation was issued "For prohibiting the Imbezlement of His Majesties Stores," the opportunity was taken to make the further threat that the Commander of the ship would be seized also:

And for preventing the abuse which hath been of late practised concerning Flags, Pendents and other Ornaments His Majesty doth hereby strictly prohibit & forbid the use of His Majesties Colours in Merchant Ships, and doth Authorize and Command all Commanders and Officers of any His Majesties Ships of War not only to take from Merchants Ships all such Colours but likewise to seize the Commander of such Merchant Ships, wherein after the first day of April next they shall be used, and to bring them to condign punishment[191].

It is interesting to find here, as in 1634, an excuse made for the order which is not the main reason for it. No doubt a certain number of colours were embezzled and sold by the boatswains of the king's ships, just as the gunners embezzled and sold the powder, but the desire of the merchant shipping to fly the Union flag was not due to the fact that they might occasionally pick that flag up cheap, it was due rather to the privileges, especially freedom from pilotage and port dues in foreign ports, which the flag assured them.

Probably the further threat of imprisonment checked the practice for a time, but not entirely, for the Lord High Admiral was again taking action in 1666.

Warrant for taking into custody such Mars of Mercht Ships as shall presume to Wear the Kings Jack.

Whereas I am informed yt the Mars of severall Merchant Shipps outward bound from the River of Thames have presumed to Wear the Kings Jack without having leave from myself or the Prinle Officers & Commrs of His Matys Navy or any other just pretence for so doing These are therefore to will and require you forthwith to goe down the River of Thames and examine and enquire what Merchant Ships either do or have lately Wore the Kings Jack not being hired nor carrying goods for His Matys Service and yt you apprehend the Mars of them ... (except the Ship Tryall whereof Hope for Bendall is Mar, which is bound for New England & is to carry some Goods for me) and keep them in safe custody that they may be punished for their presumption.

And all Mayrs Sheriffs &c.

Dated 11th May 1666.

James[192].

Deterred by these measures from a direct attempt to make use of the Union flag, the merchant shipping hit upon the device of flying a flag which was a sufficiently close imitation of the forbidden colours to deceive foreign powers[193] without falling within the strict letter of the law. In 1674 this practice had evidently become common, for Pepys acquainted the Trinity House, in June, of the King's intention to put a stop to it[194]. Three months later the following proclamation was issued:

Whereas by ancient usage no merchant's ship ought to bear the Jack, which is for distinction appointed for his Majesty's ships; nevertheless his Majesty is informed that divers of his Majesty's subjects have of late presumed to wear his Majesty's Jack on board their ships employed in merchants' affairs, and thinking to evade the Punishment due for the same, bear Jacks in shape and mixture of colours so little different from those of his Majesty as not to be without difficulty distinguisht therefrom, which practice is found attended with manifold Inconveniences; for prevention whereof for the future his Majesty hath thought fit, with the advice of his Privy Council, by this his Royal Proclamation, strictly to charge and command all his subjects whatsoever, that from henceforth they do not presume to wear his Majesty's Jack (commonly called The Union Jack) in any of their ships or vessels, without particular warrant for their so doing from his Majesty, or the Lord High Admiral of England, or the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral for the time being; and his Majesty doth hereby further command all his loving subjects, that without such warrant as aforesaid, they presume not to wear on board their ships or vessels, any Jacks made in imitation of his Majesty's, or any other flags, Jacks, or Ensigns whatsoever, than those usually heretofore worn on merchants' ships, viz., the Flag and Jack White, with a Red Cross (commonly called Saint George's Cross) passing right through the same; and the Ensign Red, with a like Cross in a Canton White, at the upper corner thereof next to the staff.

And his Majesty doth hereby require the principal officers and Commissioners of his navy, Governors of his Forts and Castles, the Officers of his Customs, and Commanders or officers of any of his Majesty's ships, upon their meeting with, or otherwise observing any merchants' ships or vessels of his Majesty's subjects wearing such a flag, jack, or ensign, contrary hereunto, whether at Sea or in Port, not only to cause such flag, jack or ensign to be forthwith seized, but to return the names of the said ships and vessels, together with the names of their respective masters, unto the Lord High Admiral, Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, or the Judge of the High Court of Admiralty for the time being, to the end the Persons offending may be duly punished for the same.

And his Majesty doth hereby command and enjoyn the Judge and Judges of the High Court of Admiralty for the time being, that at the several Sessions to be hereafter held by his Majesty's Commission of Oyer and Terminer for the Admiralty, they give in charge, that strict enquiry be made of all offences in the premises, and that they cause all offenders therein to be duly punished. And all Vice Admirals and Judges of Vice Admiralties, are also to do the same, and to attend the due observation hereof, within the several Ports and Places of their respective Precincts.

Given at our Court at Whitehall the Eighteenth Day of September 1674, in the Six and Twentieth Year of our Reign.

By his Majesty's Command.

A new competitor for the privilege now appeared in the yacht-a type of pleasure-boat introduced from the Netherlands at the Restoration. In 1676 the request of the Governor of Dover "to have the liberty of wearing his Majts Jack upon his private yacht" was refused by the king in Council[195], but the practice of hoisting the Union Jack upon yachts without warrant had become sufficiently widespread by 1686 to attract the notice of the navy authorities, as shown by the following memorandum of Pepys:

Notes about the Jack taken by S. P. at the Navy Board the 20th of Septr 1686 upon occasion of the liberty taken by Private Yachts to wear the Kings Jack without License.

Memorandum. That the temptations to this Liberty (besides the pride of it) are

1st. That in Holland they are freed by it from taking a Pilot.

2dly. As to France they are by the Jack excused from paying the Duty of 50 Sous by Tun paid by every Mercht Man coming into a French Port.

3dly. All our Merchant Men lower their Topsails below Gravesend to any ship or vessel carrying the King's Jack, be it but a Victualling Hoy[196].

About this time another form of jack had come into use in the Mediterranean. Its origin is obscure: we first meet with it in some notes of matters to be looked into jotted down by Pepys about 1687: "Quaere, the Practice of wearing Colours in Boats? And the Budgee[197] Jack now familiarly used abroad (as lately by St Loe [198]) being the Union Jack in a Canton upon a Red Flag." It will be seen from this note that it was of similar design to the red ensign instituted in 1707, and from the juxtaposition of "Colours in Boats" it may be inferred that it was a combination of the jack and red ensign for use in boats only. It was afterwards made the distinctive jack of a privateer[199].

For the next few years more serious matters than the misuse of the Union Jack occupied the attention of the authorities, but in 1694[200], when William III was safely seated on the throne, another Proclamation, similar to that of 1674, was issued forbidding merchant ships, except those having letters of marque, to wear other colours than the "Flag and Jack white with a Red Cross commonly called St George's Cross passing quite through the same and the Ensign Red with the like Cross in a Canton White at the upper corner thereof next the staff." The privateers were to wear the same ensign as other merchant ships, but were to have the red (Budgee) jack.

Another Proclamation in identical terms was issued in the first year of Queen Anne's reign[201].

Meanwhile yet another variant of the Union Jack had been created for the use of ships commissioned by the Governors of the North American Colonies. In July, 1701, the Admiralty complained to the Council of "the inconvenience by Merchant Ships wearing the King's Colours in and among the Plantations abroad, under colour of Commissions from the Governors of the said Plantations," and obtained the Council's approval to the use by such vessels of a distinctive Jack which is thus described in the Instructions to the Governors.

Whereas great inconveniences do happen by Merchant Ships and other Vessels in the Plantations wearing the Colours born by our Ships of War under pretence of Commissions granted to them by the Governors of the said Plantations, and that by trading under those Colours, not only amongst our own Subjects, but also those of other Princes and States, and Committing divers Irregularities, they do very much dishonour our Service-For prevention whereof you are to oblige the Commanders of all such Ships, to which you shall grant Commissions, to wear no other Jack than according to the Sample here described, that is to say, such as is worn by our Ships of War, with the distinction of a White Escutchion in the middle thereof and that the said mark of distinction may extend itself to one half of the depth of the Jack and one third of the Fly thereof[202].

In 1707 was brought about that complete union of England and Scotland that James had worked for a hundred years before. The first article in the Treaty of Union provided that the crosses of St George and St Andrew should be conjoined in such manner as the queen thought fit. After due consideration of various designs suggested by a Committee of the Privy Council in conjunction with the Heralds College, it was finally decided by an Order in Council of 17th April, 1707, "That the Union Flag continue as at present." Coloured drawings of the Royal Standard, Union Flag, and Red Ensign were formally communicated to the Admiralty by a further Order in Council with instructions that these designs were to be adhered to in the flags flown at sea[203].

But although no change was made in the Union flag an important alteration was made in the Ensign; the English and Scots navies being now united, the Union was introduced into its canton in place of the St George.

In promulgating[204] this change of ensign opportunity was taken to repeat the thunders of the former proclamations against the offending merchant service, but with the inclusion of the Union in the ensign the fight practically came to an end. Before long the general introduction of fore and aft headsails led to the disappearance of the sprit topmast on which the jack had been displayed, and as the flagstaff on the bowsprit, which took its place, was in the way of the jib when headsails were set, it became the common practice to fly a jack only when the ship was in harbour.

With the opening of the nineteenth century came the final change in the design of the Union flag. By the Act of 1800 the union of Great Britain and Ireland was to take effect from the first day of the new century, and by the first of the Articles of Union the "Ensigns, Armorial Flags and Banners" were to be such as the king by "Royal Proclamation under the Great Seal of the said United Kingdom should appoint."

The Privy Council, after consulting the Heralds, recommended to the king "that the Union Flag should be altered according to the Draft thereof marked (C) in which the Cross of St George is conjoined with the Crosses of St Andrew and St Patrick." This proposal was approved by Order in Council of the 5th November, 1800.

The Proclamation[205] was issued on the 1st January, 1801. It decreed

that the Union Flag shall be azure, the Crosses Saltires of St Andrew and St Patrick Quarterly per Saltire, counterchanged Argent and Gules; the latter fimbriated of the Second[206] surmounted by the Cross of St George of the Third[207], fimbriated as the Saltire.

In his desire to adhere to those pedantic formulae which came into being during the decadence of heraldic art, the draftsman of this clause was unfortunately obscure in a matter that called for the clearest precision. The "Draft marked C" showed a fimbriation or border for the St George's cross nearly as wide as the counterchanged saltires[208]. This drawing and the verbal blason of it above recited, were supplied to the Council by Sir Isaac Heard, the Garter King-at-Arms, and since in so important a matter he is not likely to have been guilty of carelessness, while there is no question of incompetence, it is clear that "fimbriated as the saltire" was not intended to denote that the border was to be of the same width as for the saltire, but simply that this border was to be of the same colour. In other words, a fimbriation was not so strictly defined as to width in 1800 as some persons at the present day would have us believe.

There would be no need to dwell upon this point were it not for the importance of this flag and the confusion into which the details of its construction have fallen.

It may seem an extraordinary statement to make, but it is a fact that the Union flag is never made in strict accordance with the original design.

In the pattern approved for the navy[209], which is also that flown on the Houses of Parliament and on the Government Offices, and is that adopted almost universally by private individuals of British nationality, the Irish saltire is reduced in width by having its fimbriation taken from itself instead of from the blue ground. Apparently this has been done to bring the outer boundaries in line across the flag, but it seems neither heraldically nor historically correct, for the saltire representing Ireland[210] should be of equal width with that of Scotland.

The other pattern in use is that established in 1900 by the War Office, in an attempt to comply with the literal terms of the Proclamation of 1st January, 1801, as interpreted by modern heraldic definitions[211]. In this pattern the two saltires are of equal breadth, but the "fimbriation" of the St George's cross has been reduced to the same width as that of St Patrick's saltire.

However, these differences are of no serious importance, and indeed this flag seems doomed to misrepresentation, which extends even to its name. A "Union Jack" is, correctly speaking, a small Union flag intended to be flown in one particular place, the bows of one of H.M. ships: yet for many years past this technical distinction has been lost sight of[212] and the misapplication of the term "Jack" has become almost universal, so much so that we have the Government solemnly announcing that "The Union Jack should be regarded as the national flag[213]."

The Union Pendant, that is a pendant with St George's Cross at the head and with the fly striped longitudinally red, white and blue (see Plate V, fig. 2) appears to have been first instituted in 1661 as a pendant which combined the colours of the Union flag and which, like that flag, was to be flown only by H.M. ships. It was afterwards known as the "Ordinary" or "Common" Pendant[214]. It went out of use when the squadronal colours were abandoned in 1864, though it survives in a smaller form (in which the fly is not slit) to this day as a signal that the ship's company is engaged in divine service.

FOOTNOTES:

[141] Cambridge Modern History, iii, 360.

[142] Mr Oppenheim suggests that this was partly due to James's natural vanity and his jealousy of anything that could remind the English seamen of their late Queen.

[143] This was sent to the Lord High Admiral to be communicated to the Navy and Mercantile Marine, vide draft letter S. P. D. Jas I, App. xxxviii, 16. An earlier draft altered from a signet warrant of James I, and now in part illegible, is to be found in S. P. D. Jas I, App. xxxv, 23, misplaced among the papers of 1603. The deleted ninth and tenth lines, however, read: "Given under [our signet?] at our Pallace of Westmr the first day of April in the fourth year of or raigne of Great Britaine ffrance and Ireland."

A writer on the Union flag in the Archeological Journal, 1891, misled by the date at the top of the page containing the entry of the above Proclamation in the Syllabus to Rymer's Foedera, has stated that there was an earlier proclamation issued in 1605; an error that has been repeated by several subsequent writers.

[144] The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vii, 498.

[145] The object of a fimbriation is to prevent colour touching colour or metal touching metal, and, according to modern heraldic rules, it should be as narrow as possible consistent with this result. White is of course a metal: "argent."

[146] Annales of Scotland (s.v. 1606), written about 1640.

[147] In the Rijks Museum. There are many illustrations of the Union flag in late seventeenth century mss., one of the most important of these being the Flag Book of Lieut. Graydon (1686) in the Pepysian Library. They all show a broad border.

[148] See p. 134.

[149] Pepys MSS., Miscellanea, ix.

[150] S. P. D. Jas I, ci, 8: A Survey of the present rigging of all His Majs Ships 1618.

1 Imperiall fflag wh the kings armes of taffaty guilded.

1 Brittish fflag of 15 clothes of taffaty.

1 of St George of 12 breadths of taffaty.

[151] S. P. D. Chas I, i, 98: "the Banner of the Union with the Crosses of both kingdoms."

[152] Ibid. cxvi, 50: "When you shall heare a piece of ordnance from ye Admll of the fleete and see ye Union fflagg in ye misne shrowds yt shalbe a signe for ye Counsell of Warre to come aboard."

[153] Ibid. ccccxv, 49: Instructions given by Sir John Pennington, 26th March, 1639. "And when you see ye British Flagg spread upon my Mizen Shrowds...."

[154] Really because the English navy had become so weak that other nations saw no longer any reason to yield those marks of respect formerly exacted of them.

[155] S. P. D. Chas I, cclxv, 23.

[156] It is not mentioned in the Council's warrant to the Attorney General directing him to prepare the proclamation.

[157] See "An Atlas of Drake's last voyage," by Dr Jules Sottas, Mariner's Mirror, May, 1912.

[158] Probably about June, 1596.

[159] S. P. D. Eliz. cclix, 48. For full transcript of the second section of these notes see The Naval Tracts of Sir Wm Monson, edited by Mr Oppenheim (Navy Records Society), iv, 202. The first part has never been published.

[160] Mariner's Mirror, April, 1911.

[161] Navy Records Society, vol. xx, 1902.

[162] Fighting Instructions 1530-1816 (N.R.S.), 1905, p. 108.

[163] B. M. Sloane MS. 2682. The copy was probably made in 1638.

[164] See Hist. MSS. Com. Report x, App. iv, p. 280.

[165] The 'Lion's Whelps,' ten in number, were built in 1628. They were small craft, of the "Pinnace" type, ship-rigged, with spritsail-topmasts.

[166] On a later occasion the two Whelps were ordered to take down their topgallant masts as well, to complete the disguise.

[167] B. M. Sloane MS. 2449, a holograph copy: the page is headed "of the Flagge called the Jacke." It does not occur in Sloane 758 or Harleian 1341, or in the Bodleian MS. Rawlinson A 463.

[168] He is using this word incorrectly.

[169] Pennington was the principal figure at sea on the royalist side until the Parliament drove him from the navy in 1642.

[170] S. P. D. Inter. i, 62, p. 7: the Act was, however, dated 23rd. See Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, ii, 13.

[171] Bodl. Rawlinson MS. A 224. The entry is dated 22nd Feb.

[172] S. P. D. Inter. i, 62, p. 8. In the letter to the Navy Commissioners the words "quite through the flagg" were added.

[173] Ibid. The order about the Arms does not appear to have been immediately acted upon, for it was repeated on 6th June.

[174] Ibid. p. 24.

[175] Ibid. i, 62, p. 53. See Plate VIII, fig. 3.

[176] The Commissioners (Blake, Deane, and Popham) for exercising the office of "Admiral and General of the Fleet" created by Act of Parliament 24th Feb. 1649, usually known as the "Generals at Sea." They stood in much the same position as that formerly occupied by the late Lord High Admiral, the Earl of Warwick, so far as the management of the fleet was concerned, though without the Lord Admiral's full legal powers, which were vested in the Council of State.

[177] S. P. D. Inter. i, 65.

[178] See Plate VI, fig. 5. This flag, which tradition connects with Blake himself, has been preserved at Chatham Dockyard from time immemorial, but was recently loaned by the Admiralty to the Royal United Service Institution, where it may now be seen. Mr Fraser has discussed its connection with Blake in his book The Fighting Fame of the King's Ships, 1910, p. 110.

[179] E.g. R. Nooms (Zeeman), Zeegevecht voor Livorno (1653), and J. A. Beerstraten, Zeeslag by ter Heide 1653, in the Rijks Museum at Amsterdam. Also in etchings by Zeeman. See Plate V, fig. 3.

[180] Letters and Papers relating to the First Dutch War (N. R. S.), iii, 189.

[181] Bodl. Rawlinson A 227. Order of Navy Commissioners hastening supply of flags for the fleet, dated 2nd March, 1653: "3 Standards of ye usuall colors wth ye field Red, 4 fflags of ye Jack colors." Cf. also Instructions of Vice Adm. Goodson to Penn 21 June, 1655: "You shall wear the jack-flag upon the maintop masthead during your continuance in the service aforesaid" (Memorials of the Professional Life and Times of Sir Wm Penn, ii, 116.)

[182] S. P. D. Inter. i, 78, p. 627.

[183] See Plate VI, fig. 6. The quarterly form was best adapted to admit of this surcharge, as the harp was to occupy the centre of the Union flag.

[184] S. P. D. Inter. cxcv, 162. Presumably "ye former fashion" refers to the pre-Commonwealth flags still in store, as the Parliament jack and flag would not lend itself to conversion into the new form.

[185] Nominally in joint commission with Monk as General at Sea.

[186] S. P. D. Inter. cciii, 69. This standard was the same as that in use from 1649 to 1658.

[187] Ibid. cci, 15.

[188] Diary, 13th May, 1660.

[189] I.e. covering over the escutcheons containing the cross and harp.

[190] Memoirs of the English Affairs, chiefly Naval..., 1729.

[191] B. M. 1851, c, 8 (129).

[192] Adm. Lib. D'Eon MS. p. 367.

[193] Not a difficult matter, to judge from some of the "union flags" flown by foreign men-of-war at the Naval Review at Spithead in 1911.

[194] Mayo, The Trinity House of London, 1905, p. 44.

[195] Pepys MSS. Miscellanea, ix.

[196] Ibid.

[197] The name "Budgee," in flag-books of the early eighteenth century, is derived from Bugia (Bougie) in Algeria. In the tenth century this was one of the most important seaports in North Africa, but in the seventeenth century it was fast falling into decay, and beyond the fact that the Algerine pirates lying there were successfully attacked by Sir Edward Spragge in 1673 there was nothing to connect the name with the English navy.

[198] George St Lo.

[199] By the Proclamation of 1694. "All such ships as shall have Commissions of Letters of Mart or Reprisals shall, besides the colours which may be worn by Merchants' ships, wear a Red Jack, with the Union Jack described in a Canton of the upper corner thereof next the staff." It retained this use until privateering was abolished in 1856.

[200] 17 July, 1694. B. M. 21 h, 3 (157).

[201] 18 Dec. 1702. London Gazette, 3872.

[202] See Plate V, fig. 6, and page 127.

[203] 21st July, 1707, Adm. Sec. In. Lrs. 5151. The illustration in Plate IV, fig. 1, is a reduced facsimile of the Union flag as therein depicted. It will be seen that the St George's cross has a comparatively wide white border, and that the blue was of a lighter colour than that which afterwards became customary.

[204] Proclamation 28th July, 1707, London Gazette, 4356.

[205] London Gazette, No. 15324.

[206] I.e. the second colour named: argent, or white.

[207] I.e. gules, or red.

[208] See the flag in Plate IV, fig. 2, which is a reproduction of the original drawing preserved in the Privy Council Register.

[209] See Plate V, fig. 8.

[210] For discussion of the question how this came to represent Ireland see Chapter ii.

[211] The Union flag flown by the War Office on ceremonial days is, however, of naval pattern.

[212] Probably because after the seventeenth century the Union flag was rarely seen at sea in any other position.

[213] The Earl of Crewe, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, in the House of Lords 14th July, 1908.

[214] Pepys calls it "the Ordinary or Union Pendant used by the King's ships only."

* * *

Chapter IV

Flags of Command

(i) THE ROYAL STANDARD

Highest in dignity among the flags which have been used to denote the leader of a British fleet comes the Royal Banner commonly spoken of as the Royal Standard.

Its use in this connection has for very many years been obsolete, but before noting the occasions on which it has been flown for this purpose it will be convenient to sketch its history down to our own times.

The royal arms make their first[215] appearance in 1189 in the Great Seal of Richard I as a single lion rampant contourné upon the king's shield. In Richard's second seal, made in 1198 to replace the first one which was lost during his captivity, the single lion became the three lions[216] passant guardant in pale which have remained in the arms of England until the present day. In 1339 Edward III, angered at the assistance given by Philip of France to the King of Scotland, took steps to assert a claim to the throne of France, and, in earnest of this, in January, 1340, he formally assumed the title and arms of King of France, quartering the arms of France (azure semé of fleurs-de-lis) with those of England in the royal banner and on the great seal. In doing this he, somewhat unpatriotically, placed the arms of France in the first and third quarters, thereby giving them precedence over those of England.

PLATE VI - Royal Standards

From this date[217] until the death of Elizabeth these were the royal arms of England, but during the reign of Richard II (1377-99) the legendary arms of Edward the Confessor (or, a cross patoncé between five martlets on a field azure) were impaled with them, and Queen Mary, after her marriage with Philip of Spain, impaled the arms of Spain. About the year 1411 Henry IV, in imitation of the change made by Charles V in his arms, reduced the fleurs-de-lis to three in number. On the accession of James I it became necessary to add the arms of Scotland (or, a lion rampant within a double tressure flory and counterflory, gules) and in doing this James took the opportunity to add arms representing Ireland. For these he took the badge chosen for Ireland by Henry VIII (a harp or, stringed argent). Mr Serjeant Knight, in the memorandum referred to on p. 57 becomes very indignant over this harp, and gives vent to his feelings in the following words:

At the same time (upon what consideration I am ignorant) something was to be added for ye Kingdome of Ireland or something that might signify so much and ye Harpe (as at present borne) it seems resolv'd on. But for what reasons am as ignorant as for ye former, ye Harpe being no more the Armes of that Kingdome or of any one from whence that King was lineally descended than any other Constellation or any of ye Signes of the Zodiack. Having often contemplated this, ye only satisfaction I could forme to myselfe was from ye temper of ye times & doe suspect ye Leaven of Puritanisme in it by soe readily foysting this to ye exclusion of that of his Maty had (as has all his Posterity) an indisputable Hereditary Right unto, equal to that of England, ... viz the Arms of Ulster: or, a cross gules.

This harp was not the ancient arms of Ireland. Those arms are supposed to have been three crowns in pale in a blue field, but as there was never a native king of the whole of Ireland it is clear that there could never have been a native coat of arms representative of the whole country. Placing the arms quarterly of France and England in the first and fourth quarters of his shield, James put those of Scotland in the second quarter and those of Ireland in the third. This arrangement was, however, not invariable. In some of the Irish seals[218] Ireland is found in the second place and Scotland in the third, while in the Great Seal of Scotland made in James II's reign the arms of Scotland occupy the first and fourth quarters, with England second and Ireland third.

After the execution of Charles I, the royal standard was replaced by the Commonwealth standard, with the cross and harp[219]. During the Protectorate (1653-9) the standard consisted of: 1 and 4 the cross of St George, 2 the cross of St Andrew, and 3 the Irish harp, with an inescutcheon of the arms of Cromwell (sable a lion rampant, argent)[220]. The Commonwealth standard came back for a few months in 1659-60, to be replaced by the royal standard of James I; the makeshift used by Mountagu while on his way to fetch Charles II back to the throne has already been described.

The remaining changes have been succinctly described by Mr Fox-Davies[221] as follows:

When William III and Mary came to the throne an inescutcheon of the arms of Nassau (Azure, billetty and a lion rampant or) was superimposed upon the Royal Arms as previously borne, for William III, and he impaled the same coat without the inescutcheon for his wife. At her death the impalement was dropped. After the Union with Scotland in 1707 the arms of England (Gules, three lions, etc.) were impaled with those of Scotland (the tressure not being continued down the palar line), and the impaled coat of England and Scotland was placed in the first and fourth quarters, France in the second, Ireland in the third.

At the accession of George I. the arms of Hanover were introduced in the fourth quarter. These were: Tierced in pairle reversed, 1. Brunswick, gules, two lions passant guardant in pale or; 2. Luneberg, or, semé of hearts gules, a lion rampant azure; 3. (in point), Westphalia, gules a horse courant argent, and on an inescutcheon (over the fourth quarter) gules, the crown of Charlemagne (as Arch Treasurer of the Holy Roman Empire).

At the union with Ireland in 1801 the opportunity was taken to revise the Royal Arms, and those of France were then discontinued. The escutcheon decided upon at that date was: Quarterly, 1 and 4, England; 2. Scotland; 3. Ireland, and the arms of Hanover were placed upon an inescutcheon. This inescutcheon was surmounted by the Electoral cap, for which a crown was substituted later when Hanover became a kingdom.

At the death of William IV., by the operation of the Salic Law, the crowns of England and Hanover were separated, and the inescutcheon of Hanover disappeared from the Royal Arms of this country, and by Royal Warrant issued at the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria the Royal Arms and badges were declared to be: 1 and 4, England; 2. Scotland; 3. Ireland.

PLATE VII - Royal Standards

The principles which governed the use of the royal standard at sea prior to the sixteenth century are somewhat obscure. In the thirteenth century and early part of the fourteenth the three lions (or leopards) of England appear to have been regarded not only as the personal arms of the Sovereign but also as the English national emblem, and to have been used as such by all ships, royal and merchant. By the addition, in January, 1340, of the arms of France, Edward III adopted a royal standard that could no longer be regarded in this light. Yet although the royal standard now became more peculiarly the personal ensign of the king it is clear, from the frequency with which this flag occurs in inventories of ships' stores, that its use was not confined to ships in which the king or his admiral were embarked. It seems, however, to have been flown only on ships temporarily or permanently in the king's service, and to have been displayed by such ships from the deck, in company with the flag of St George and other flags containing royal badges, or emblems representative of the saints after whom the ships were named.

There was, however, some distinction by which the presence of the king could be denoted, and this difference lay most probably in the position of the standard. We know that the "banner of council" placed in the shrouds as a signal to call the council to the flagship, which is the earliest signal recorded as used in the English fleet, dates from this period, and that it contained the royal arms, with angelic supporters, or impaled with the cross of St George, and that from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century this "banner" was the royal standard[222]. But the most prominent position for a flag worn in a ship is at the masthead, and it would seem that it was this position of the standard that was reserved for the king or his deputy, the Lord Admiral. When Edward III led the English fleet to the attack on the French fleet at Sluys in June, 1340, his ship was decorated with banners and streamers containing the new royal arms, and had a silver-gilt crown at the masthead.

Li rois estoit en un vassiel moult fort et moult biel qui avoit esté fais, ouvrés et carpentés a Zandwich et estoit armés et parés de banières et d'estramières très rices, ouvrées et armoiies des armes de France et d'Engleterre esquartelées; et sus le mast amont avoit une grande couronne d'argent dorée d'or qui resplondisoit et flambioit contre le soleil[223].

It was, however, not the gilt crown but the flags that denoted the king's presence, for Froissart explains that it was by these flags that the French knew the king was himself present. "Bien veoient entre yaus[224] li Normant par les banières que li rois d'Engleterre y estoit personelment[225]."

In 1495, when Henry VII was encouraging John Cabot and his sons in their voyages of discovery, he granted them the right to fly the royal banners and flags: "plenam ac liberam authoritatem, facultatem et potestatem navigandi ad omnes partes ... sub banneris, vexillis, et insigniis nostris[226]," presumably in the same way as they were flown on the royal ships.

The earliest surviving orders directing the Lord High Admiral to fly the royal standard at the masthead are those of 1545, at the end of Henry VIII's reign. "Item the Lord Admiral shall beare one banner of the Kings Majts Arms in his mayne topp and one flag of saint George crosse in his foretopp[227]."

The royal standard was flown at the main, with the St George at the fore, by Howard during the Armada fights in 1588 and during the Cadiz Expedition of 1596. In 1618, by arrangement with the Marquis (afterwards Duke) of Buckingham, Howard (then Earl of Nottingham) resigned the office, which was transferred to the Marquis. Buckingham made his first appearance at sea as Lord High Admiral when he accompanied Prince Charles on his return from Spain in 1623. For this voyage, a not inconsiderable sum of money was expended in flags, which included:

Ye great silke flagg wth ye Kings Armes for ye Prince

the great fflag wth ye Princes Armes & ye armes of Spaine empaled

a fflag for ye foretop wth the Prince of Wales armes

a fflag of Bewpers of 24 breadthes wth the Kings Armes

a fflag of 18 breadthes wth the Kings Armes

an Ensigne of 16 breadthes wth ye Lord Admiralls armes

an Ensigne wth ye Ld Admiralls Badge and Motto[228]

with a number of other flags, ensigns and pendants. As the Prince had a special silk standard, it would seem that one of the other standards was for Buckingham[229]. The Earl of Rutland was in command of this fleet on its outward voyage to Santander, and apparently he was given permission to fly the standard while in supreme command.

The following year Sir R. Bingley was instructed to put his lieutenant, with the king's standard, in a ship to transport the Spanish Ambassador across the Channel[230]. This was a somewhat extraordinary use of the standard, for, with the disuse of flags placed along the bulwarks, it had ceased to be generally flown on ships-of-war. The standard was, however, flown on special occasions by high officers other than the Lord High Admiral when in command of fleets. Wimbledon wore it in the Cadiz Expedition of 1625, and no less than ￡36 (equivalent to about ￡400 to-day) was spent on "the great silke fflagg wth his Mats Armes guilded wth fyne gould and wrought wth oyle Collrs," and it was worn by the Earl of Denbigh in 1628: but when the Earl of Lindsey, who had been appointed one of the Commissioners for the Admiralty after the murder of Buckingham, moved heaven and earth for permission to wear it while in command of the fleet in 1635, alleging among other reasons that it had been flown by the Earls of Arundel and Rutland and by Sir Robert Mansell, and that he himself had had the honour previously, his repeated applications were in vain; and so "a little maimed" he had to content himself with the Union flag at the mainmasthead.

During the Civil War the Lord High Admiral's standard held a very anomalous position. In 1642 the Parliament had appointed the Earl of Warwick to the office in defiance of the king's wishes, and, although in active opposition to the king, he flew the royal standard. In the summer of 1648 the fleet he commanded lay off the Dutch coast, watching the royalist fleet under the command of Prince Charles. When the Prince summoned Warwick to take down his standard the Earl replied: "I am appointed by both Houses of the Parliament of England to be Lord High Admiral of England, by which right I bear the Standard[231]." The fleets never came to blows or the two standards might have got a little mixed. Warwick had, however, provided against this eventuality just before leaving England by supplying his fleet with pendants of his personal colours[232].

Shortly after this, the command of the royalist ships was handed over to Prince Rupert, and in order that the Parliamentary Naval forces might not have the monopoly of the standard he was given permission to fly one when he thought fit.

Sir Edward Hyde to Prince Rupert.

Hague 27 Jan. 1649.

Your order for wearing the Standard.... I promised the Prince to give your Highness advertisement of the debate concerning this wearing the standard; in which I learned many things, which I never heard before. It is agreed by all that the standard is properly and of right to be worn only by the Lord High Admiral of England; & when I enquired of the order granted for the Lord Willoughby or Sir William Batten's wearing it, it is said, that it was thought then necessary, since the Earl of Warwick wore a standard, that whosoever commanded the fleet that was to fight against him, should wear one, lest the seamen should be discouraged, and look upon the Earl as the greater person; so that it is the opinion of all, that, when you are like to engage with the Rebel's fleet, your men may expect you should wear that ensign. It is therefore wholly referred to your Highness to wear it upon any occasions you think fit[233].

At the request of the Council of State, the office of Lord High Admiral was abolished in 1649 and its powers transferred to the Council, but as the high authority exercised by the new "Generals at Sea" was in many respects like that formerly exercised by the Lord High Admiral they were empowered to wear at the main masthead the special "standard" referred to above (p. 64) which now took the place of the standard with the royal arms. In this "standard," which was really only a modification of the "union" flag, the English lions were replaced by the St George's cross, the Scottish and French arms disappeared, and only those of Ireland remained. This upstart flag soon acquired an honour in battle that had been sadly lacking to the old one since 1588, for it waved over the heroic fights of the First Dutch War and the action at Santa Cruz. In May, 1658, it was superseded at sea by the standard that had been assigned to the Protector in 1653 (see p. 65), but this flag saw no great deeds and disappeared early in 1659, to be replaced by the Commonwealth standard. When Mountagu went over in May, 1660, to fetch back Charles to the throne no royal standard was forthcoming, so he improvised one as already related (see p. 66).

With the restoration of the Stuarts in 1660 the royal standard resumed its place as the Lord Admiral's flag, but with the anchor flag as a substitute when the presence of the king rendered the use of the standard by the Lord Admiral undesirable.

When William of Orange came over in 1688 to take possession of the throne of Great Britain for himself and his wife he flew a red standard containing in an escutcheon his arms impaled with the Stuart royal arms, with the legend "For the Protestant Religion and the Liberties of England" above the escutcheon and his motto "je maintiendray" below[234]; but when the joint sovereigns had been formally proclaimed king and queen they adopted the Stuart standard with an inescutcheon of Nassau already described.

The restriction in the use of the standard which had been rapidly growing[235] since the beginning of the seventeenth century, reached its culmination in 1702, when the anchor flag definitely superseded it as the Lord Admiral's flag, although, curiously enough, the standard remained in use as a signal flag (for calling a council of flag officers) for nearly another century.

The reason of the abandonment of the royal standard in 1702 does not appear. In February the Earl of Pembroke, recently appointed Lord High Admiral by William III, had given instructions for his flagship, the 'Britannia,' then fitting out at Chatham in preparation for the French War, to be supplied with a standard, but on the 20th March, just after the accession of Queen Anne, he wrote to the Navy Board:

Notwithstanding any former Orders from me for your preparing any of the Royal Standards of England, I do hereby desire and direct you to forbear doing thereof, but you are to cause to be prepar'd for me as soon as conveniently may be, so many of these flags[236] which particularly have been worn by the Lord high Admll of England &c., by vertue of his Office, as may be necessary for my Shipp and Boat[237],

and with this the long-continued existence of the royal standard as a naval flag of command came to an end.

A number of interesting examples of the use of the standard at sea by the king and by the Lord High Admiral (the Duke of York) in 1672 are given in the Journal of Sir John Narborough, then lieutenant in the Lord High Admiral's flagship, among them the following:

Tuesday being 23rd.... This day the King came on board.... At his coming this day we put abroad a silk Ensigne and a silk Jack and all silk Pendants at every yard arm and Top mast head, and at the Main topmasthead the silk Standard of England, and at the Fore topmasthead a silk Flagg Red with a yellow anchor and cable in the Fly: and at the mizen topmasthead a Union Flagg. These we wore all flying while the King was aboard: But when the King went out of the Ship and left the Duke aboard the Red flagg was taken in at the Foremasthead, which had the Anchor and Cable in it, and hoisted up at the Maintopmasthead. The Standard being struck there, and the Union Flagg at the Mizen topmasthead was struck....

Wednesday being 5th. (June 1672).... This day the King and several of the noblemen came on board the Prince[238]. His Royal Highness caused the Standard to be struck when the King's Standard was in sight, and when the King was on board the Standard was hoisted at the Maintopmasthead, and the Red Standard with the anchor in it at the Foretopmasthead and the Union Flag at the Mizentopmasthead.

Tuesday being 18.... The King had a Standard flying all night at ye head of the Yacht's mast, the Queen had a Standard flying at the head of the Prince's Main topmasthead Flaggstaff, and his R.H. the anchor Flagg at the head of his Yacht's mast and Prince Rupert had the Union Flagg at the head of his Yacht's mast....

Monday being 9th. (Sept. 1672).... This afternoon at 4 of the Clock the King came on board, and Prince Rupert and several of the nobility were with His Majesty. When His Majesty came within two miles of the Prince his R.H. commanded the Standard to be struck until such time as his Majesty came on board. At the striking of his R.H.'s Standard all the Flaggs in the Fleet were struck immediately and kept down until the Standard on board the Prince was hoisted, then they hoisted theirs.

(ii) THE ADMIRALTY FLAG

The Admiralty Flag appears to have originated as a purely ornamental flag displaying the official badge of the Lord High Admiral for the decoration of his ship on ceremonial occasions. Its use for such a purpose would be analogous with the display, in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, of the royal badges, such as the dragon, swan, antelope, portcullis, ostrich feather or rose.

The office of "Great" or "High" Admiral of England may be dated from the appointment of John de Beauchamp as Admiral of all the fleets, in 1360, but although the Anchor badge is found upon the seals of the Lord Admirals of Scotland as early as 1515, no such early instance has yet been brought to light in England[239]. It may, however, be presumed that it was in use south of the Tweed from an earlier date, for the anchor was certainly in use in the sixteenth century as a mark placed upon ships or goods arrested by the Admiralty Court. The earliest known instance of the anchor in conjunction with the English Lord High Admiral's arms occurs at the end of Queen Mary's reign in a volume of Acts of the High Court of Admiralty dated 11th February, 1558. Here the arms of Lord Clinton and Saye are surrounded by four anchors without cable[240].

For the earliest instance of the anchor in a flag we must turn to the well-known engraving supposed to represent the 'Ark Royal,' Howard's flagship in 1588, which shows an anchor in the head of a streamer flown from the foretop[241].

The foul anchor[242] is first found in the seal of Howard after he had become Earl of Nottingham, and may be seen in a specimen attached to a document dated April, 1601, now in the British Museum. The badge appears on the reverse of this seal on the trappings of the horse which the earl bestrides. In 1623 Buckingham, who had succeeded Nottingham as Lord High Admiral, was provided with "an Ensigne with ye Ld Admiralls Badge & Motto." This badge was evidently the anchor and cable, for the badge of the foul anchor appears prominently four times on the York Water Gate (Thames Embankment) built for Buckingham in 1626, and in 1627 Buckingham was using as his official seal the anchor and cable surrounded by the garter and surmounted by a coronet. In the badges on the gate the end of the cable hangs down over one of the arms, but in the seal the end is neatly flemished down in three coils upon the shank.

In 1633, when Buckingham was dead and the Admiralty in commission, the flags surveyed at Deptford included among them a silk "red ensigne with ye Lo. Admiralls badge." At this date the badge could not have been a personal one, and there seems no doubt that it was the official anchor and cable, possibly of the same design as in Buckingham's seal, for the Commissioners had adopted this form for use in their own seal, replacing the coronet and garter by the legend "Sig. Com. Reg. Ma. Pro. Adm. Ang[243]." It will be observed that the field of this flag is red, as at the present day. The anchor with coiled cable appears again during the Commonwealth on the seals of the Generals at Sea, but the design had begun to deteriorate even in Buckingham's time. In his seals in 1628 some of the turns of the coil pass below the shank, and in the later seals the coil lays round the shank instead of upon it.

When the Commission was dissolved in 1638 and the office granted to the Earl of Northumberland (as substitute for the young Duke of York), Northumberland adopted for his seal a design in which the cable was draped in graceful turns as a border round the anchor, ending at the ring on the side opposite to that at which it was made fast. This design was used by the Committee of the Admiralty and Navy under the Commonwealth and was adopted by James Duke of York in 1660[244], but in the eighteenth century it in turn deteriorated, until it reached the form used in the present flag[245], in which the cable is not made fast to the anchor at all, but simply passes loosely through the ring and hangs down stiffly on either side.

The anchor flag was not used during the Commonwealth, but it was restored in 1661, when the contractor was paid ￡2. 10s. "ffor shading the Standard and Ensigne and Jack with a ancor," ￡5. 10s. "ffor sowing silke and cloth for the sockett and markeing the Ensigne with the ancor and cable," and ￡4. 10s. "ffor sowing silke and cloth for socketing & markeing the flag with a ancor and cable[246]."

The subordinate "badge" flag was now promoted to the dignity of a "standard" and flown at the masthead as a substitute for the royal standard when the Lord Admiral was unable to fly the latter, because of the presence of the king in the fleet.

In 1673 the Test Act deprived the Duke of York of his office, which for the next eleven years was placed in commission. Charles II, just before his death, revoked the commission, and the office fell in to the crown. When the Duke of York succeeded to the throne in 1685 as James II, he retained the office in his own hands, and in token of this placed "a crown over the anchor as being himself his own Admiral[247]."

In addition to the anchor flag (which when used by the sovereign is flown at the fore, as the main is already occupied by the royal standard) a flag of similar design, but with the St George's cross in the upper canton, was also flown as an ensign at the stern[248]

At this period, according to Lieut. Graydon's flag-book, the Scots Lord Admiral flew a white flag containing a blue anchor and cable. The Admiral of Scotland, who according to Pepys[249] was "no officer of State" and had "no precedence at all given him from his office," was abolished after the Union of 1707, when the three small ships representing the navy of that country were absorbed in the English, henceforth the British, fleet.

After the Revolution of 1688 the Office of Lord High Admiral was placed in commission, but it was revived by William III in June, 1702, when the Earl of Pembroke was appointed. Pembroke had intended to proceed to sea in command of the fleet then being fitted out in anticipation of the outbreak of the war with France and Spain, known as the War of the Spanish Succession, and he would have flown the royal standard in his flagship. William, however, died on 8th March, and Queen Anne, immediately after her accession, deprived the Lord High Admiral of the right to fly the standard, among other perquisites and droits. Pembroke then gave instructions for the anchor flag to be supplied instead. But as he was not a seaman his proposal to take command of the fleet had naturally aroused much opposition, and in the end it was dropped. In May he was replaced as Lord High Admiral by Prince George of Denmark, the Queen's consort, and although Pembroke again held the office for a short time after the Prince's death in 1708, no opportunity arose for the anchor flag to be flown at sea in military command during his or the Prince's tenure.

PLATE VIII - Admirals' Flags

In 1709 the office of Lord High Admiral was again placed in commission and it remained in commission for over a hundred years. During this period the anchor flag was on one occasion flown at sea in executive command. At the end of March, 1719, Admiral the Earl of Berkeley, then First Lord of the Admiralty, was appointed to the command of a fleet then fitting out to repel a naval raid threatened from Cadiz in support of the claims of the Pretender. Having been given the extraordinary rank of "Admiral and Commander in Chief of his Majesty's Navy and Fleets," he was authorised by the king (George I) to fly the anchor flag at the main whilst so serving, and the flag was in fact flown for a few weeks at the end of March and beginning of April. The next occasion on which this flag was flown in executive command at sea occurred in July, 1828, when the Duke of Clarence (afterwards William IV), who had been appointed Lord High Admiral in 1827, with the express understanding that he should exercise no military command, suddenly put to sea from Plymouth, flying the anchor flag, in command of a squadron of manoeuvre that it had been intended to place under Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Blackwood. This extraordinary escapade and the friction which had been caused by the duke's method of conducting affairs, led to his removal, and to the office being once more placed in commission. It is very improbable that it will ever again be conferred upon an individual. In May, and again in August, 1869, Mr Childers, the First Lord, accompanied by Vice-Admiral Sir Sydney Dacres, the First Sea Lord, embarked in H.M.S. 'Agincourt' and took command, first of the reserve fleet, and then of an experimental squadron, under the Admiralty flag. This proceeding gave rise to much comment, but since the Letters Patent appointing a Board of Admiralty give power to "any two or more" of the Commissioners to exercise all the functions of the Lord High Admiral, the action of Mr Childers does not seem to have been ultra vires, though it is not one that is likely to be repeated.

Since 1850 the anchor flag has been flown over the Admiralty Office in London. At sea it is flown in the royal yacht when the sovereign is present, in recognition of the fact that, under the Constitution, he is the source from which the Lord High Admiral's powers are derived; the anchor flag being flown at the fore, the royal standard at the main, and the Union flag at the mizen. In the Admiralty yacht the anchor flag is flown at the main when members of the Board are embarked in her. It is the custom (a custom that was in existence in the early years of the eighteenth century) to fly the anchor flag on men-of-war during the ceremony of launching. A similar flag, with the lower half of the field blue, has been recently adopted as the flag of the Australian Naval Board.

(iii) ADMIRALS' FLAGS

And so the Admiral of a Fleet or Squadron hath his flag in the Main-top; the Vice-Admiral in the Fore-top and the Rere Admiral in the Missen-top, with the Crosses or Colours of their Nation and Countrymen, And thus far it is usual and common even with Fleets of Merchant men, agreeing amongst themselves for the Admiral[250] ships in this kind.

In these words Boteler, writing in 1634, sums up the method of distinguishing the flags of the principal officers of a fleet which had been made possible by the appearance of the three-masted ship of war in the fifteenth century, was adopted by the English in the sixteenth, and remained in vogue until the disappearance of the sailing ship of war in the nineteenth century.

But, it may well be asked, what was done to distinguish the admirals before ships had three masts? It is not easy to answer this question, for the records throw no light on it and the information vouchsafed by contemporary chroniclers is very scanty. Perhaps the answer nearest the truth would be: "nothing, for there were then no grades to distinguish." Before the sixteenth century there was rarely more than one admiral in a fleet, and on those rare occasions on which two or more admirals appear they were usually given the command "jointly and severally," that is, as co-equals[251]. In such cases it may be presumed that both, if indeed they were not embarked in the same ship, bore the St George's flag or royal standard at the masthead and were distinguished by banners of their personal arms.

In the fleet that attempted invasion under Eustace the Monk in 1217, only one ship (that of the Commander-in-Chief) appears to have flown a flag at the masthead, for we are told by a contemporary chronicler[252] that one of Hubert de Burgh's men agreed, when they engaged Eustace's ship, "to climb up the mast and cut down the banner, that the other vessels may be dispersed from want of a leader."

In 1346 there seems to have been still only one flag of command in a fleet. Edward III had in that year fitted out a fleet in order to make an incursion into Gascony, but after a false start which had been frustrated by contrary winds, the king, on the advice of Godefroy de Harcourt, suddenly changed his mind and set out for Normandy, taking the flag of command from his Admiral and leading the fleet himself.

Et il meismes prist l'ensengne[253] de l'amiral le conte de Warvich, et volt estre amiraus pour ce voiage, et se mist tout devant, comme patrons et gouvrenères de toute le Navie[254].

We have no further evidence as to the method of bearing admirals' flags in the English fleet until we come to the "Book of Orders for the War by Sea and Land[255]," drawn up by Thos. Audley c. 1530 at the request of Henry VIII. Here provision is made for only one admiral, who is to bear two flags; one at the main and the other at the fore, while all the other ships are to bear one at the mizen. The orders drawn up by Lisle fifteen years later provide for a fleet divided into three squadrons, and in this case also each admiral had two flags, but here the two flags were necessary to distinguish the flagships, as the private ships had each one flag, at the fore, main, or mizen respectively, to denote the squadrons to which they belonged.