Flags/ Banners and Standards

Standard-bearer of the W^eavers’ Guild of Basle. Stained glass dating from ij6o. The red griffin with the golden ell-measure also appears as the guild’s ensign on its earliest seal, which goes back to ippS. The cartoon for the stained glass was designedby LudwigRingler{ij}}-r6of). Historical Museum, Basle. This booklet is one of a series of reprints of out of print material produced by the North American Vexil- lological Association for free distribution to its members. This reprint originally appeared in the Decem ber 1949 issue of Ciba Review published by Ciba-Geigy Ltd. of Basle3 Suitserland. It is reproduced by permission. It is presented by the North American Veorillological Association to participants at the 7th International Congress^ of Yexillology (10-14 June 1977, Washington^ D.C.) with its compliments. By H. Wescher NORTH AMERICAN VEXILLOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION 3 EDGEHIL.L ROAD WINCHESTER. MASS. 01890 FlagS/ Banners and Standards Like other timeless symbols, flags have mark and protect the extraterritorial status of accompanied mankind for thousands of years, their embassies and consulates abroad. gaining ever wider meaning, yet losing none For modern man the flag is still the potent of their inherent and original force. In the last symbol of an idea which is none the less real century, the flag came to be the emblem of for being' transcendental. From remotest ' national unity, rallying under its colours times, magical and religious notions have been millions of citizens in war and in peace. War- inextricably bound up with the idea of ensigns flags and royal standards had steadily gained and banners, rallying war-like communities of authority as the uniting emblems, but ex one mind and purpose. The warriors of the clusive national flags did not exist until the earliest ages wished their tribal gods to be French revolutionaries made the tricolour present in battle, and carried their images with the symbol of the French nation. Napoleon them at the lance-heads. The Egyptians from as the heir of the Revolution recognized how pre-Dynastic times went into battle with their greatly national colours would enhance the spear-heads adorned with animal shapes, in idea of national unity. Wherever the tricolour dicative, perhaps, of their several tribes or was hoisted, France was present. France her clans. The use of standards by the peoples of self in the guise of the flag led the soldiers the Mesopotamian plain is probably not much into battle when they fought for their Em later in date. On a stele of the Semitic king peror and country. In the subsequent age of of Babylonia, Naramsin (about 3000 B.C.), nationalism all peoples came to see in their two men are to be seen in the king’s suite national ensigns the inviolable symbol of their carrying poles decorated with emblems. In the sovereignty, serving among other things to ninth century b.c., the Assyrians had ensigns Warriors on horseback led a standard-bearer with a dragon ensign. Early medieval miniature from the “Codex Aureus ” written in the second half of the ninth century. Stiftsbibliothek, St. Gall. L. Arab army on the march. Black cloth streamers with gold lettering are fastened to the lances. Miniature from a sixteenth- century MS. in Arabic of the Maqdmas of Hariri (I0!4-I122). National Library, Paris. representing the Sun or the archer god Assur, current in remote times. The mosaic, in the sometimes with the addition of two ad- National Museum in Naples, of Alexander the dorsed bulls within a circle. Indians and Great’s defeat of the Persians in 333 b.c., Persians, Parthians and Scythians, all fought which is copied from a contemporary picture .under the ensign of the dragon, which was of the battle, shows the standard of the Persian taken over by other nations later on. The king. A golden cock was probably depicted ancient Babylonians and Persians at an early on the purple cloth fastened to the top of the date adopted the eagle with outspread wings lance. When the Romans became involved in for their emblem. The eagle was the symbol war with the Parthians, they were struck by of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, the supreme the brilliant gold devices on the Parthians’ tutelary deity of the Roman army. Set on the silk flags. In the period of Sassanid rule lance-head it became the signum of the Roman (a.d. 226-641), and perhaps earlier, this legions in the first century B.C., superseding Iranian people had an imperial banner. Accord all other symbols such as the wolf, horse, boar ing to the Shahnama, or Book of Kings, a and minotaur. The importance of the signa for complete history of Persia in verse by Firdausi the military art of the Romans is shown by (939-1020), the national banner was ori the fact that in technical phraseology tactical ginally the leather apron of Kawe the smith. movements were almost always expressed in It was borne at the head of the army by a peer terms of signa. who in virtue of his office of Standard-bearer It is not known when and where warriors was entitled to wear gold shoes and to be first fastened a piece of cloth to their ensigns, accompanied into battle by kettle-drums. no doubt in order to render them more conspi The Arabs, too, had a sacred ensign, the cuous. In the East, battle flags were apparently banner of the Prophet. Numerous legends arose in connexion with this banner supposed ficial instructions of the Royal Navy. Until to have been made from the turban or cloak 1799 “Bloody Colours” were one of the of Mohammed. Once, during a battle, it is signals hoisted by the admiral for the attack. said to have been miraculously lifted into the Pirates likewise used a red war flag. air as if “upborne by the wings of victory”. During action the flying of the flag stood It was dark green, its name okdh (eagle) refer for the unbroken wfll to fight. In order to ring either to an embroidered eagle device, or keep the standard-bearer as far away as pos to the resemblance .of the dark fluttering ma sible from the thick of the fight he was placed terial to an eagle’s wings. The separate units in the centre of the force doing battle, and of the' Mohammedan army however served surrounded by picked warriors. It became the unter their own tribal flags, which were in the custom, therefore, to carry two flags in every form of pieces of cloth fastened to the heads battle, the first a banner of attack, which ac of lances. companied the king or commander wherever In Rome it was mostly the cavalry which he went, and the second a fixed standard, carried a flag (vexillum). The vexillum was a which was not moved from place to place. square of cloth hanging from a cross-bar The old Teutonic standard, the Konigsrute fastened underneath the spear-top of the lance. (“king’s rod”) of magic powers, was a strong Its field was usually red and had the name of pole bearing a flag and rammed into the ground the legion, certain emblems, or the portrait of so firmly that it could only be removed by an emperor painted or embroidered on it. force. If the standard was pulled down by the The clearest evidence' of the connexion enemy the battle was lost, as at Hastings between flag and war is provided by the tra (1066) where the Normans first struck down ditions of the Teutonic peoples. The northern King Harold with his fighting banner and tribes declared war by hurling a wooden spear then felled the Royal Standard. The king’s charred at the tip into the enemy’s territory, standard, on which victory turned, was de and their warriors were rallied by a similar fended by a strong guard, and no knight was staff. The spear, which was the emblem of allowed to leave the battlefield as long as the Wodan (Odin), the war-god, was to put the standard was flying. The oath of allegiance to enemy under a spell and^to deliver him into the flag, swoin by the fighting men in the age the hands of the deity. The shaft was dipped of chivalry, was much the same as the oath in blood as the most powerful magic and taken by the men-at-arms of the Swiss Con symbol of bloody battle. Later a piece of red federation and, in imitation of the latter, by cloth was attached to a lance when the fight the German iMndsknechte. ing started; and the king, as supreme com Through all vicissitudes the flag has re mander, bore it into battle at the head of his mained the symbol of transcendental forces army. The Frankish kings, for example, carried leading the warrior to victory. Christian faith a flag, a red forked banderole hanging from gave new meaning to the symbol; and when, below the spear-head of their lance. From this with the beginning of the Renaissance period, red cloth, which was tied to the lance on the the spiritual unity of the Middle Ages broke field of battle only, there developed the ori up, and the innumerable feudal territories ginal Blutfahne (“blood banner”) of the were grouped into the powerful national states German Empire and the “oriflamme of the of the Age of Absolutism, the ensigns of French kings, both of them plain red with kings, princes, towns and corporations re out any device. This red flag, thirsting for the mained in use for such protection as they enemy’s blood, waved from the masts of war afforded, until the old order of society was ships, a custom universally sanctioned in finally superseded by the egalitarian national maritime law and adopted in 1647 in the of State of modern times.

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