page_title: Historical colours, standards and guidons
section_title: Middle Ages
hierarchical_section_title: Historical colours, standards and guidons / France / Middle Ages
context_page_description: The following is a list of historical military colours, standards and guidons in different countries that do not exist today.
context_section_description: During the Middle Ages, the units had not really colours. They got often the heraldry of their lord. The armies got the fleurdelisé, a kind of French national flag : blue with lys flowers, because lys flowers were the symbol of France and of the King of France, until the 19th century.
  The King of France had also an official battle standard, the Oriflamme : a special flag, red with gold, and the motto "Montjoie Saint-Denis". When the king went to war, he had to take the oriflamme in Saint-Denis, near Paris.
  The knights, as lords, got their own colours (the member of the capetian dynasty were recognizable because of the lys flower on their  family heraldry).
  The French field units got a white cross, called "Croix de France" (Cross of France). The English got a red cross.
caption: Stitching the Standard - oil on canvas (1911)
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