Smyrna times., 1907-02-20
The FLAG IN HISTORY
ORIGIN OF NATIONAL EMBLEMS OF
THE OLD WORLD.


France-The TricoIOr of Holland.
St. Augustine, the Missionary, In
troduced Flags Into England.
The first western sovereign to adopt
flag was Clovis, king of the Franks.
After his conversion to Christianity in
the fifth century he took the "chape de
st. Martin" as his standard. This,
according to some writer's, was actu-
ally part of the cloak which the sanity
bishop of Tours cut in two in order to
share it with a beggar at Amiens. More
credible authorities. however, assert
that it was the blue flag of st. Mar
tins abbey.
After Clovis, the Merovingian kings
seem to have returned to the ancient
emblems. They were content to fight
under eagles, flowers, crosses or the
images of saints until the time of Char.
lemagne, who, If an old mosaic in the
Church of st. John Lateran at Rome
is to be believed, reintroduced the blue
flag embellished with six red roses.
The color of the French flag was
changed in 1924, when Louis the Fat
in his struggles against the German
emperor Henry V. This continued to
be the official French flag down to the
battle of Agincourt in 1415. In the
meantime the blue flag had again made
its appearance, now decorated with the
feur-de-lis instead of the roses of
Charlemagne. In this form it was car
ri of
until in the fifteenth century it be-
came the banner of France.
The first white flag in French histo-
ry was the hHnner OF the Virgin Mary
borne by Joan of Arc in her heroic
campaigns for the defense of the dau-
phin. A pure white flag was occasion
ally nsed by Francis |. in his struggles
against the Emperor Charles v. but
it did not become the permanent royal
banner until Henry ". the first Bour-
bon, ascendcd the throne in 1899.
The trico!or of the French revolution
was compromise. The cockades of
the revOiutionists were composed OF
two colorS. the red of the Paris com.
mune and the blue of the ancient mon.
ceding the deposition and execution of
Louis XVI. Lafayette. to signify the
desire of the people for a reconcilia.
tion with their king, added the Bour.
bon white to the cockade The tricolof
as national emblem was adopted by
the convention in 1894
Long before this. however. the tri
color had been the national flag of
Holland. The Dutch were in fact the
first to use it, When the United Prov.
inces gained their independence from
Spain in the sixteenth century, accord
ing to a favorite old story which can
not be authenticated, they invited Hen.
ry of Navarro to choose their colors,
and he suggested orange, blue and
white. Whether he selected this com
bination or not. such were the colors
of Holland until some time in the sev.
| enteenth century, when the orange was
replaced by red. When William of
Orange became king of England in
1893 he crossed the channel under the
red, white and blue.
! The early inhabitants of England,
like those of other countries, used EN-:
blematic devices of one kind or an.
other, that of the Saxons being a white
horse. The introduction of flags into
England is ascribed to the missionary
st. Augustine and his followers, who
after the conversion of King Ethelbert,
according to the Venerable Bede, en-
tered Canterbury in procession. chant
ing and bearing small banners.
Since the fourteenth century the cross
of st. George has been the emblem OF
was worn on the armor by the cru
saders. among whom it came to be
known as the Jack" During the
bloody civil wars of the fifteenth cen
tury it was practically superseded by
the roses, white and red and in 160t
by proclamation of James l. it was
finally replaced by red flag with tn,
jack in the upper inside corner Th,
red standard of Great Britain did no
attain its present form, however. unit
after the union with Ireland in 1901
BY parliamentary enactment in 1S0
the present union jack was brough
into being by the addition of the eros
of st. Patrick.
|, Waving flags are said to have beer
first brought TO Spain by the Saracens
The present Spanish colors, red ant
yellow. came from the old shields O
CASTLE and Aragon.
! The Austrian black and yellow wer
the colors of the Holy Roman Empire
They were adopted, so the story goes
l by Frederick Barbarossa. whose fame
: was captured at ceremony in Main
by the black and gold flooring of til
hail.
The crescent was originally the spe
n cial mark of Constantinople where 70
/. centuries it was used as a Christia
a symbol. There it was that the Turk
e first found it when they captured til
; city in 1853. Even today 1t may b
e found side by side with the cross G
o the churches in Moscow and othe