flag of France | Britannica.com Flag of France Alternative Titles: French Tricolor, French Tricolour, le drapeau tricolore vertically striped blue-white-red national flag . Its width-to-length ratio is 2 to 3. Related Topics Major Rulers of France Under the ancien régime , France had a great number of flags, and many of its military and naval flags were elaborate and subject to artistic variations. The royal coat of arms , a blue shield with three golden fleurs-de-lis , was the basis for the state flag. After the Bourbons came to power, that shield was generally displayed against a background of the Bourbon dynastic colour, white. Historical fleurs-de-lis flag of France. In the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1789 the emphasis was refocused to simple flag designs that expressed the radical changes being introduced into France’s social, political, and economic life. Blue and red, the traditional colours of Paris , were popular among revolutionaries in that city, and the Bourbon royal white was often added. The revolutionaries were also influenced by the horizontally striped red-white-blue flag of the Netherlands , which had appeared in the mid-17th century.

In 1790 three equal vertical stripes, arranged red-white-blue within a frame of the same colours, were added to the white flag of the navy. Four years later the Tricolor, with stripes now ordered blue-white-red, was made the official national flag for use by the common people, the army, and the navy. This flag was seen to embody all the principles of the Revolution—liberty, equality, fraternity, democracy , secularism , and modernization. Many other countries—especially in Europe but also among the former French colonial possessions in western Africa —adopted tricoloured flags in imitation of the French, replacing its colours with their own. In that way the French Tricolor became one of the most-influential national flags in history, standing in symbolic opposition to the autocratic and clericalist royal standards of the past as well as to the totalitarian banners of modern communism and fascism. Similar Topics flag of Nepal After the military victories of Napoleon I under the Tricolor, the Bourbon Restoration in 1814/15 led to the replacement of all symbols. The white flag was again supreme, but the revolution of 1830, which put Louis-Philippe on the throne, restored the Tricolor.

In 1848 many sought to impose a communist red banner on France, and for two weeks the Tricolor itself was altered, its stripes reordered to blue-red-white. Since March 5, 1848, however, the Tricolor has been the sole national flag of France and of all territories under its control. Like many early national flags, the Tricolor has no specific symbolism attached to the individual colours and shapes in its design. French Flag Facts for Kids Home Â» Earth Science Â» Flag of French Sponsored Links : Flag of French After the terrorist attacks in Paris last year many landmarks around the world were lit up in the colors of the French flag. Several social media users have changed their profile photo to show the colors of the French flag to show their solidarity to the people of France. Sponsored Links : About the Flag of France Known as the “Le drapeau tricolore” (French Tricolor), the present flag of France has three equal vertical bands of blue, white, and red. These three colours are intricately linked to the history of France . While the colour white represents the Bourbon monarchy, and the red and blue are the colours of the city of Paris.

The French flag has its origin in the liberal ideas of the French Revolution of 1789. The colours and design of the flag owes to Marie Joseph Yves Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, to a great extent. Lafayette was the commander of the National Guard Lafayette had saved George Washington , the first President of the USA, during the American Revolution. Designed by the famous revolutionary painter Jacques-Louis David, the flag of France was adopted on February 15, 1794 by the French National Convention. The French flag looks similar to those of Belgium , Cote d’Ivoire, Chad , Ireland , Luxembourg , Italy and Netherlands . Today, the French national flag is hoisted on public buildings. History of French Flag France is a very ancient nation. Needless to say, the flag of France has taken different forms over the centuries, depending on who ruled the country. Steeped in history, the French flag goes down in history as one of the worldâs most unique flags.

The French flag as we know today is being uninterruptedly used as the countryâs national flag since 1794 except for a brief period (1814-1830) when the Bourbon monarchy returned to power after the defeat of Napoleon in Battle of Waterloo in 1815. During the period the white flag once began to be used. The tricolor was restored by Louis-Philippe, who ascended the throne in 1830 after the overthrow of the Bourbon monarchy in yet another revolution. The left or hoist side of the flag of France has a stripe in blue, the center stripe is white, and the right side stripe is red. The present colors of the French flag were in the opposite order when they were first adopted in 1790, Blue used to be on the right and red used to be on the left. It was in 1794 that the colors were reversed to the order we find in the modern French flag by the then French revolutionary government. Significance of the colours of French Flag White White is the traditional color of the Bourbon family, which ruled France from the late 16th Century AD until the French Revolution.

Though white is also the colour of the Virgin Mary, it is also the color of Joan of Arc, who drove the English from the kingdom of France in the 15th century. Red and Blue The red and blue in the French flag are the colours of the city of Paris. It was under a blue and red banner that the revolutionaries famously stormed the Bastille in 1789, which resulted in the overthrow of the Bourbon dynasty. It is still an enigma why the royal white, representing the Bourbon monarchy, was incorporated into the French Flag. French National Symbols: The Tricolore, Tricolor or Tricolour Living in the Languedoc: Central Government: French National Symbols: The Tricolore (Tricolor or Tricolour) The French National Flag. Only one visual symbol has the official sanction of the Constitution: the tricolore flag (tricolore drapeau). It is sometimes referred to as a tricolour (UK) or tricolor (US) or tricoleur. The colours are those of Paris (blue and red) combined with the Royal white (the dispossession and execution of the King still lay in the future when the tricolore was first used).

Origin of the Cockade and Tricolore. The Marquis de Lafayette was probably responsible for inventing the red, white and blue cockade which soon became compulsory for revolutionaries in 1789. Two examples are shown one on the left, one on the right on a Liberty cap . History of the Tricolore. The flag was created soon after, in 1790, but with the colours the reverse of what they are today, i.e. with red at the hoist and the blue to the fly. The order was reversed in 1794 to the familiar modern form. Associated with Revolutionary and later Imperial France. The three colours in vertical stripes were first used as a canton on Naval flags in 1790, and extended to the whole field in 1794. One of the flags in the naval signalling alphabet is still a red-white-blue vertically striped flag - ie like the modern French flag, but with the colours reversed. The French National Convention adopted the modern blue-white-red flag as the national flag on 15 February 1794 (or 27 pluvi�se an II in the revolutionary calendar).

The relevant part of the decree says, in translation: II. The national flag shall be formed of the three national colours, set in three equal bands, vertically arranged so that the blue is nearest to the staff, the white in the middle, and the red flying. The Tricolore went out of use with Napol�on's defeat at Waterloo. It was replaced by a white flag (c/f the old royal flag) from 1814 to 1830. During the July revolution of that year the Tricolore was re-established by the Marquis de Lafayette under the relatively liberal regime of Louis-Philippe. It has remained in use ever since. The present Constitution of the French Republic (1958) declares: L'embl�me national est le drapeau tricolore, bleu, blanc, rouge (The national emblem is the tricolor, blue, white, red, flag). When hoisted vertically, the French national flag is often forked. The three vertical coloured bands were not always of equal width, and on the French naval jack they are still not of equal width. The idea is that unequal bands can look more equal that genuinely equal ones when the flag is flying.

Whether or not it works in real life, is difficult to tell - it certainly does not work well for flat rectangles on the page (see the flag on the left). The flag features on an official French logo shown on the left, along with Marianne and French national motto . It is sometimes represented as a coat of arms as on the right, most people not knowing and not recognising the (semi-official) coat of arms of France . The French tricolore has provided a model for the flags of other Republics - for example Italy and Ireland among many others. But it is not restricted to republics. Belgium for example, a monarchy, uses a tricolore. The French national flag is one of the sybols of sovereignty mentioned in article 2 of the French Constitution of 1958 : "L'emblème national est le drapeau tricolore, bleu, blanc, rouge." Variations on the basic tricolore have been used. The French Tricolore featured a Liberty cap for a brief period in 1842. During the Second World War, Vichy France used a plain Tricolore.

The flag shown on the right was the personal flag of Marshal Pétain, head of the German-occupied État français. The Free French used a tricolore defaced (to use a technical term) with the Cross of Lorraine , as shown on the left. This is the flag of Louisiana, adopted in 1861. It is one of the many early flags of Louisiana and never had official status. This is the flag of Acadia (Acadie), one of the oldest Francophone communities of Canada. Acadians were deported to various locations in 1755 after their homeland passed to the British Crown in 1713 (it is now the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick). This Tricolore was introduced in the 1840's as the flag the Motherland of the Acadians. Shortly afterwards, it was adopted as a flag for French Canadian Nationalists. The yellow star is the Stella Maris (symbol of the Virgin Mary, patron saint of mariners). This was the flag of the Lebanon when it was under French control. The French organised Syria into five states under a League of Nations Mandate.

One of these states was the French Mandate of Greater Lebanon 1920-1932. Its flag was the French flag with a cedar on the central white stripe. These illustrations courtesy of Pierre Gay Military flags use the same colours but a different design with a white lozenge in the middle. On the left is the flag of one of Napolean's regiments. On the right is the flag of the Free French Navy with the cross of Lorraine (Croix de Lorraine) in a white lozenge. This jack is still hoisted today on warships of the French Navy named after Free French Naval units. French Yacht Club Flags You will notice that almost no private individual in the Languedoc flies the French Tricolore flag, though many fly the flag of the old Counts of Toulouse , with the famous Cross of Toulouse . Many mairies will fly this flag along with the tricolore and the flag of the European Community. A minor footnote: The annual `rent' paid by The Duke of Marlborough to the English Crown for the royal manor of Woodstock and Blenheim Palace is a Royal French flag, "Argent three fleurs-de-lys Or" as shown on the right.

It dates from the victory of John Churchill at Blenheim in 1704, well before the French Revolution, when this was the French national flag. The Duke of Wellington pays a similar rent for his property, also granted in recognition of military victory. His victory, at Waterloo, occurred just over a century later, in 1805, after the French Revolution. Each year he presents as rent a tricolore, the national French flag in 1805. French ensign (1794-1814, after 1830) - National Maritime Museum French ensign (1794-1814, after 1830) AAA0462 AAA0462 Description French national flag from 1794-1814, and after 1830. The flag is silk, with a cotton hoist and is hand sewn with a rope and toggle attached. It is divided into three vertical stripes, blue, white and red (the red faded to a pink colour). The proportions indicate that it was probably used at sea, very likely as a boat flag (the red stripe is made slightly broader).

The official modern proportions of the French national flag are 2:3 and this example is slightly longer. It belonged to the Duckworth King family and probably relates to the collection of flags associated with Admiral Sir George St. Vincent Duckworth-King (1809-1891). It belonged to the Duckworth-King family and relates to the collection of flags associated with Admiral Sir George St. Vincent Duckworth-King (1809-1891).George King was promoted to flag rank in 1862 and from Companion of the Bath (C.B.) to Knight Commander (K.C.B) in 1873. Admiral Sir George St. Vincent Duckworth-King was born, 15 July 1809 at Stonehouse in Devon, entered the Royal Navy on 8 February 1822; being commissioned as Lieutenant on 15 January 1830; promoted to the rank of Commander, 8 August 1834 and Captain, 28 August 1841. He was second in command of the Naval Brigade at the siege of Sebastopol.

He became a Rear-Admiral on 4 April 1862. Between 1863 and 1867 he was Commander in Chief in China. He was promoted to Vice-Admiral, 20 March 1867 and Admiral 20 April 1875 and was made a K.C.B. in 1873. He succeeded his brother as 4th Baronet in 1887 and died at Wear House, Exeter on 18 August 1891. As 4th Baronet he added Duckworth to the family name. Date made The Tricolour Flag | Gouvernement.fr French Statistics The Tricolour Flag Article 2 of the Fifth Republic’s Constitution states the national emblem is the blue, red and white flag. This three-coloured flag, visible on public buildings, during commemorations and sports events, results from a long evolution. A legacy from the Revolution and the Republic, it symbolizes the French Nation. The three colours before the flag French monarchs have worn the three colours distinctly. The blue banner floated for Charlemagne’s coronation, commemorates Saint Martin’s cloak he gave to a poor man.

From Clovis to Charles X, the royal coat was sky blue, with a golden fleur-de-lis, symbol of loyalty and fidelity. During Hugues Capet’s and his descent’s reigns, the red banner of Saint Denis, protector of the kingdom, becomes the King’s standard. From 1638 to 1790 white was the colour of the royal and marine flags. From 1814 to 1830, white was also the colour of the royal army’s ensign. A Tricolour flag for the French Revolution The three-coloured flag was instituted by the French Revolution. During the Federation celebration, on July 14th 1790, the Champ de Mars was decorated with the tricolor flag. The tricolor flag and rosette became the symbols of the living Nation. A decree in Pluviôse 27th, Year 2 (1794) states: "The banner and national flag will be composed of the three national colours, in three equal bands, the blue one being attached to the flag hilt, the white being in the middle and the red floating".

The 1815 Restoration hoped to re-establish the white flag, symbol of continuation with monarchy, while the 1848 upheaval tried to establish the red flag as the Republic’s standard. From then onwards, the tricolor was no longer questioned: little by little, all families and opinions within the French Nation recognized themselves in it. France: First Empire (May 1804-April 1814 & March-June 1815) This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website France: First Empire (May 1804-April 1814 & March-June 1815) Premier Empire France: Regiment flags under the First Empire National flag On 2 December 1804, the First Consul (Premier Consul) Napoléon Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor of the French (Empereur des Français) as Napoléon I. In 1814, France was invaded by a coalition led by Prussia and Napoléon I abdicated on 4-6 April. The dethroned Emperor was exiled on Elba Island (Italy).

In March 1815, Napoléon escaped from Elba and reestablished the Empire in France. The Empire lasted during the so-called period of Cent-Jours (Hundred-Days), which ended with the defeat of Waterloo (18 June). The Emperor abdicated for the second time on 22 June, and was exiled to St. Helena island, where he died on 5 May 1821. The national flag used during the First Empire was the blue-white-red Tricolore flag. Ivan Sache, 16 December 2001 The return of Napoléon from Elba The return of Napoléon to France from Elba Island on 1 March 1815 was the first step of the reestablishment of the First Empire for a short period, which ended with the battle of Waterloo. This period is known as the Cent-Jours (Hundred Days). Most historians agree that Napoléon's return was a disastrous expedition, but the early days of the expedition are part of the Napoleonic golden legend.

Napoléon flotilla escaped from Elba on 26 February in the evening and reached the coasts of France on 1 March in a gulf located between Cannes and Antibes then called Golfe-Jouan, today Golfe-Juan . Napoléon ordered to lower the Elba ensign and to hoist the French ensign, of course the Tricolore, which was prohibited in France since the restoration of the monarchy. The day before, Napoléon dictated his famous proclamation, antedated from 1 March. The proclamation was made of two parts, the first for the French people (Français !), the second for the French soldiers (Soldats !). After the monarchic restoration, most of the imperial marshals had rallied the monarchy and the soldiers of the Grande Armée had been incorporated into the royal regiments. Napoléon's expedition could be successful only if he changed the minds of his former soldiers for him.

In the proclamation to the soldiers, he used a reference to the national colours which has remained famous: [...] ; l'aigle avec les couleurs nationales volera de clocher en clocher jusqu'aux tours de Notre-Dame ; [...] ([...] ; the eagle with the national colours will fly from bell-tower to bell-tower as far as the towers of Notre-Dame ; [...]) After landing, Napoléon widely avoided Provence , which was Royalist, and walked through the Southern Alps, trying on his way to rally to his small troop as many soldiers as possible. His route from Golfe-Juan to Grenoble is known today as the Route Napoléon. The main episode of the expedition took place in Laffrey, a village located 30 km south of Grenoble, on 7 March. King Louis XVIII ordered General Marchand, Military Governor of Grenoble, to arrest "Bonaparte's rascals". Facing the regiment sent to arrest him, Napoléon ordered to raise the Tricolore flag and to play the national anthem, La Marseillaise, also prohibited by the monarchy.

Captain Randon ordered the Royal troops to shoot, to no avail, and Napoléon uttered two famous sentences: Soldats du 5e, je suis votre empereur. Reconnaissez-moi. (Soldiers of the 5th, I am your Emperor. Recognize me.) And after having half-opened his coat: S'il est parmi vous un soldat qui veuille tuer son empereur, me voilà. (If there is among you a soldier who wants to kill his Emperor, here I am.) Napoléon was answered by a general shout Vive l'Empereur ! and all soldiers rallied him. After his entry in Grenoble, Napoléon said "As far as Grenoble, I was an adventurer: in Grenoble, I was a prince". Source: André Castelot. L'aigle prend son vol. Historia #220 (1965). Newspaper headlines confirm that the perception in Paris of Napoléon's expedition gradually changed from complete aversion to idolatry.

The Moniteur Universel wrote: - 10 March: The Corsican ogre has just landed in Golfe-Juan - 11 March: The tiger has arrived to Gap - 12 March: The monster has slept in Grenoble - 13 March: The tyran has crossed Lyon - 18 March: The usurpator has been seen sixty leagues from Paris - 19 March: Bonaparte strides along but he will never enter Paris - 20 March: Napoléon will be tomorrow below our city walls - 21 March: The Emperor has reached Fontainebleau - 22 March: His Imperial and Royal Majesty entered yesterday His castle of Tuileries among his lawful subjects.

Ivan Sache & Santiago Dotor, 4 September 2005 Alleged Imperial standard Alleged Napoléon's personal standard - Image by Ivan Sache & Theo van der Zwalm, 11 February 2006 According to a Bulgaria cigarette card, drawn by Neubecker [neu32] , Napoléon's standard (labelled there Kaiserstandarte Napoleons I.) shows the Roman Jupiter's eagle, standing on the thunderbolt which that god threw against the giants when he surpressed their rebellion against his rule. The border of the flag shows the French colours. Theo van der Zalm & Santiago Dotor, 4 February 2005 Napoléon didn't use a personal standard before he was at Elba Island. The standard (in fact the fanion) which is sometimes (and wrongly) considered as the personal standard of Napoléon was the colour of the Régiment de Chasseurs à Cheval de la Garde (this regiment was in permanent charge of the personal protection of the Emperor). This colour is not the one represented above, but was green, with a semy of golden bees and a golden horn overall.

I don't know what is the colour/standard shown above, but it looks like one of the many non official colours (and so very poorly known and studied) used by the differents regiments of the Imperial Guard . Arnaud Bunel, 6 February 2005 The bees as the Imperial symbol The explanation on the origin of the imperial bees in French symbolic are quite complicated. First an archaeologocal misinterpretation, then political deviations, or how to forge science and rewrite history for political purposes. Bees and cicada were included in the Merovingian funeral furniture; in the steppic civilization, cicada symbolized resurrection and immortality because of its metamorphoses. In 1653, the tomb of king Childéric I (who died in 481) was discovered in Tournai (today in Belgium). Several golden jewels, ornated with granats, were found and called "bees". The Prince-Elector of Mainz gave all what has been found to Louis XIV, as the successor of Clovis and Clovis' father, Childéric.

The remains of these jewels (several of them were stolen and smelted) are still preserved in the Medal Closet of the National Library in Paris. The erudite Jean-Jacques Chifflet thought that Childéric's bee was the origin of the fleur-de-lis, which would have been its graphic derivate. Louis XII used a hive as the main part of his arms, but the National Convention rejected this emblem for the Republic, "because bees do have a queen." Napoléon I wanted to highlight Carolingian and even Merovingian heritage, a good manner to skip the Capetians kings' heritage, and looked for new emblems in 1804. The State Council followed Cambacérès and Lacuée, who proposed the bees, as "a republic with a chief", with a sting but producing honey, which was the emblem of work for Ségur. The team, directed by Vivant Denon, that designed the imperial arms, proposed a semy of bees in "Merovingian style" on the imperial purple coat. The original design was deemed "too archaic".

Later, a bee with well-detached wings was selected, and appeared on the Emperor and Emperess' clothes, as weel as on the hanging in the Notre-Dame cathedral during the coronation. The bee was part of the French symbolic from 1804 to 1814 (First Empire), during the Cent-Jours (20/03-22/06/1815), and finally under Napoleon III's Second Empire (1852-1870).

Source: Encyclopaedia Universalis "The flags of the Belgians through history" plate This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website "The flags of the Belgians through history" plate Belgium Presentation of the plate The colour plate entitled Les drapeaux des Belges à travers l'histoire (The flags of the Belgians through history) is shown as an illustration to the article Le drapeau belge (The Belgian flag), written by Louise Starck-Claessens, President of the ADIPB (Académie pour la Défense et l'Illustration du Parler Bruxellois - Academy for the Defense and Illustration of the Brussels Language), founded in October 1989. The article was originally published in the trimonthly review issue by the ADIPB; no other details are available, while the article has been copied, sometimes without the plate, on several websites. The plate has also been reproduced on different websites without mention of the source.

Ivan Sache & Jan Mertens, 16 June 2008 The original plate was published in the book Deux mille ans d'histoire belge (Two thousand years of Belgian history) by Léon van der Essen, Professor of History at the University of Leuven , Éditions Universitaires, 1946. In Appendix VIII of this book there is an accompanying article which was extracted from the study by Joseph Cuvelier Le Drapeau de la Belgique (The flag of Belgium) originally published in Bulletin de l'Académie Royale de Belgique, 5e série, Vol. XII, 1927. Both articles are in French. Ronald Milo, 30 May 2009 Description and discussion of the flags The plate depicts ten flags, displayed and captioned as follows: 9th-12th centuries ("Lotharingia") Alleged flag of Lotharingia - Image by Ivan Sache, 16 June 2008 A flag horizontally divided red-white-red is captioned "9th-12th centuries".

The text by Louise Starck-Claessens says "We have found traces of a flag that we should consider as the first emblem to have been used on our territory, the flag of Lotharingia. It shows, according to the laws of heraldry, three horizontal stripes, red-white- red; it appeared at the end of the 9th century and disappeared at the end of the 12th century." The "traces" of the flag are not explicited. While this flag indeed is a banner of the arms of Lower Lorraine / Lotharingia / Lothier, also used as the arms of the town of Leuven , there is no evidence that these arms were used before the early 12th century (as the arms of Godefrey, Count of Leuven and Duke of Lothier), and nothing has remained from flags or banners from that period.

Banner of "Lotricke", as shown in the Gelre Armorial - Image by Ivan Sache, 8 November 2009 The Gelre Armorial (folio 72v, #806) shows a narrow vertical banner "Gules, a fess argent" as the banner of "Lotricke" in the Brabant/Limburg section, which seems to be the oldest representation (late 14th century) of the alleged flag of Lotharingia. Ivan Sache & Jan Mertens, 26 December 2009 13th century Alleged flag of Brabant - Image by Ivan Sache, 16 June 2008 A flag horizontally divided red-white is captioned "13th century". Not specifically addressed in Louise Starck-Claessens' text, the flag might be covered by her next paragraph: "During the birth of the arms and the parcelling due to the feudal system, some principalities, like Brabant , kept it for a very restricted period." Here again the statement is very vague and not substantiated by any historical evidence.

Moreover, the Lothier banner shown above would have predated the birth of heraldry, while it is clearly a banner of arms. Ivan Sache, 16 June 2008 15th-18th centuries Alleged flag of the Burgundian Lower Countries - Image by Ivan Sache, 16 June 2008 A white flag with a red saltire is captioned "15th-18th centuries". This is evidently a simplified depiction of the well-known Cross of Burgundy, said in Louise Starck-Claessens' text to have been "adopted by most of the provinces of the Lower Countries in the 15th century". The author claims that the Dukes of Burgundy adopted the red and white colours as a reference to Lotharingia. Most sources say that the cross was adopted by Duke John Fearless (1371-1419) and his partisans (the Burgundian party, not necessarily the Burgundian people!), with the first confirmed use in 1411 as a livery element, to avoid confusion with the white cross used by the Armagnac party.

Ivan Sache, 16 June 2008 16th-18th centuries Alleged flags of the Spanish Netherlands - Images by Ivan Sache, 16 June 2008 (left) and Klaus-Michael Schneider, 28 June 2009 (right) A flag horizontally divided yellow-white-red is captioned "16th-18th centuries". The flag is said by Louise Starck-Claessens to have resulted from the amalgamation of the Burgundian / Austrian colours (red and white) with the Spanish colours (red and yellow) after the marriage of Duke Philip the Handsome with Joan of Castilie. This flag would be the flag of the Spanish Netherlands. The same flag, charged with the Cross of Burgundy in the white stripe, is also captioned "16th-18th centuries". Louise Starck-Claessens claims that the flag with the Cross of Burgundy remained in use during the Spanish rule, mostly at sea, and that "sometimes the two flags were combined by adding a small red cross on the yellow-white- red flag".

Ivan Sache, 16 June 2008 Alleged flag of the Spanish Netherlands - Image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 28 June 2009 On a cigarette card album released in 1932 [neu32] , Neubecker shows (p. 32, image #109) the flag of the Spanish Netherlands as horizontally divided red-white-yellow with a red Cross of Burgundy shifted to the hoist. Klaus-Michael Schneider, 28 June 2009 1787 A flag horizontally divided red-white-red with the Austrian arms at hoist is captioned "1787". Louise Starck-Claessens says that the yellow-white-red colours were used until the end of the reign of Emperor Josef II, who refused in 1781 to add the double-headed eagle to the flags, "since the ensign had been recognized for long by the foreign powers. On 26 March 1786, Josef II decreed that only the Austrian flag, red-white-red, should be used, inadvertently restoring our early national colours".

However, the ensign of the Austrian Netherlands (1781-1786) was indeed reported as charged with the Austrian double-headed eagle. The flag shown on the plate looks rather like the Austrian merchant ensign , 1786-1869. Ivan Sache, 16 June 2008 1787-1790 A yellow flag with a black escutcheon charged with a yellow lion and crowned and a border made of red and black triangles is captioned "1787-1790". Louise Starck-Claessens' text does not address specifically this flag, but mention the colours used by volunteers during the Brabantine revolution , "of great diversity", but with prominence of the Brabantine colours. Ivan Sache, 16 June 2008 1814-1830 Flag of the Kingdom of the Netherlands - Image by António Martins, 22 April 1999 A flag horizontally divided red-white-blue is captioned "1814-1830", that is the flag of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, then ruling Belgium.

Ivan Sache, 16 June 2008 1830 First national flag of Belgium - Image by Ivan Sache, 22 February 2004 A flag horizontally divided black-yellow-red is labelled "1830". This is the first Belgian national flag, hoisted at the beginning of the uprising gainst the Dutch rule. As for the aforementioned "flag of Lotharingia", Louise Starck-Claessens invokes "the laws of heraldry" prescribing horizontal stripes. Ivan Sache, 16 June 2008 1831 National flag of Belgium - Image by Vincent Morley, 16 January 1998 A flag vertically divided black-yellow-red is captioned "1831". The flag is, of course, the Belgian national flag.

Ivan Sache, 16 June 2008 Conclusion My conclusion is that the flag chart was probably designed with some nationalistic ulterior motive and to show the seniority of the Belgian colours on those of the neighbours, spreading unverified and spurious information on the "flag of Lotharingia", and conveniently ommitting the "rival" flag of France for the 1794-1814 period. The author of the text seems to have followed the same goal, as shown by her concluding statement: "And to conclude, without chauvinism, we shall state that our national colours are older than the French colours that appeared in 1789 and older than the Italian colours that appeared in 1794." Ivan Sache, 16 June 2008 French Revolution (1789-1799) This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website French Revolution (1789-1799) 1789: Meeting of the States General (États Généraux) and proclamation of the Constituent Assembly (Assemblée constituante).

1791: Election of the Legislative Assembly (Assemblée législative) 1792: Proclamation of the Republic and election of the National Convention (Convention nationale) 1795: The Directory (Directoire) 1799: Bonaparte's coup and proclamation of the Consulate (Consulat) Naval ensign and jack (1790-1794) Official prescription Naval ensign (left) and jack (right) - Images by Ivan Sache, 29 April 2010 The naval jack - the first Ticolore - and its attendant flags were established (with the assent of the King) by a Decree of the National Assembly dated 24 October 1790, and exact specifications were prepared by the Royal Printers and issued by Département de la Marine. These show that the jack had an outer border, blue and the hoist and red at the fly, with a width of 3/60 the flag.

This surrounded a narrow white border of 1/60 the flag which in turn surrounded the tricolour proper with a width of 52/60 and stripes in the proportions of red 27, white 28 and blue 27. The ensign was white with the jack as specified above forming a canton of one-quarter the flag, whilst it also appeared at the head of the both a broad and commissioning pendants (whose tails were, of course, white). Whether actual flags were prepared according to these specifications in such a time of upheaval is, of course, a matter of debate, however, it is good to know what they should have looked like. Christopher Southworth, 22 January 2003 Barraclough & Crampton [c2b81] erroneously claim that the naval ensign, correctly described, was "also used as the jack". Santiago Dotor, 5 January 2000 The castle of Emperi in Salon-de-Provence houses an important army museum.

Among the historical flags shown in the museum, one, dated 26 September 1791, is quite similar to the naval ensign and jack described above, but: - The flag clearly shows a white cross over white, limited by lines and a vegetal circle upon the center of the cross; - There is a full tricolor total border, blue at the upper left and lower right, red at the upper right and lower left, white in the middle; - In the canton, there is a flag horizontally divided blue-white-red Philippe Lacroix, 3 November 2003 Erroneous rendition Smith's erroneous rendition of the naval ensign (left) and of the jack (right) - Images by Ivan Sache, 29 April 2010 According to the illustrations of the ensign and jack in Smith (p. 135) [smi75c] , the outer border was solid red on the flyward half and a blue-outlined white border on the hoist half (blue-outlined only on inner and outer edges, not outlined where it adjoined the red).

Ned Smith, 7 January 2000 This is one of a few documented errors in Smith's opus. The white-outlined-blue shown in this flag is correctly solid blue. The Flag Bulletin [tfb] printed a full listing of the errors in the book. Dave Martucci, 8 January 2000 National flag (1794) Flag of France - Image by Željko Heimer, 22 September 2001 The National Convention adopted the Tricolore as the national flag on 27 Pluviose of the Year II (15 February 1794). The Decree says: II. The national flag shall be formed of the three national colours, set in three equal stripes, vertically disposed so that the blue is attached to the staff of the flag, the white in the middle, and the red flying in the air. III. The jack and the daily ensign shall be formed in the same way, observing the size proportions established by custom. IV. The commissioning pennant shall also be formed of the three colours, with one-fifth blue, one-fifth white, and three-fifths red.

Armand Noël du Payrat, 4 February 1998 The definitive standardization of the Tricolore was achieved in 1812 only; several geometrical blue-white-red designs were in use before. Some iconographical sources show a red liberty cap in the white stripe, but there is no evidence that such flags ever existed in the cloth. Ivan Sache, 17 October 2000 The red flag on the Champ-de-Mars, 1791 In July 1791, King Louis XVI and the Royal family attempted to flee France, dressed as ordinary people. They were arrested in Varennes, on their way to Germany. It is often said that the son of the post house's owner recognized the king after a coin. Other said that the royal princesses were recognized because they were not able to walk correctly without a servant to assist them. Betrayal might be a more rational explanation. The king was brought back to Paris. A "Republican petition" requiring the overthrowing the king was deposed on Champ-de-Mars, where the Fête de la Fédération had been celebrated on 14 July 1790.

A lot of people gathered to sign the petition. On 17 July, when the meeting turned into a riot, the Mayor of Paris, Bailly, ordered to hoist the red flag, which meant at that time that the mob should disperse. The National Guards shot without warning. More than 50 rioters were killed and immediatly considered as the first martyres of the Revolution. The red flag, "shed with the martyrs' blood" became the symbol of the Revolution by a weird inversion of its initial symbolism. Source: M. Pastoureau Les emblèmes de la France [pst98] Ivan Sache, 21 August 2002 The oldest flag from the Revolution period? A flag believed to be "the oldest flag from the French Revolution" was found on 25 June 2011 in Quintigny, a small municipality (223 inhabitants) located in the department of Jura , Region Franche-Comté ( Le Progrès , 3 July 2011).

The flag was found by Yves Moine, the Mayor of Quintigny, in the attic of the Town Hall, among other flags, drums and old weapons, all embedded in a huge layer of dust ( Le Progrès , 10 July 2011; La Croix , 11 July 2011; Le Parisien , 11 July 2011). The interest for this specific flag was elicited by an article published on 11 February 2010 by André Besson in the local newspaper La Voix du Jura. Besson reported that the local erudite Xavier Clavier (1892-1983) had explained him in the 1950s that the oldest French revolutionary flag originates from Quintigny. The flag would have been designed in the beginning of 1790 for the cantonal militia raised to protect the villages from the bands of rascals that scoured the region, taking advantage of the political unrest.

Clavier described the flag as a "modest flag" of the size of a regimental colour, red on the one side and golden yellow on the other, attached to a black staff and inscribed with the writing "VALEUR ET BONNE FOI, DIEU ET LA PATRIE" (Value and Good Faith, God and Fatherland). Still according to Clavier, the flag was used for the first time in Paris on 14 July 1790, carried by the militia of Quintigny and Ruffey- sur-Seille during the Fête de la Fédération. Doomed to destruction during the Reign of Terror period because it was not Tricolore, the flag was hidden by a local Republican. It showed up again only in 1813, when the "Marie-Louise" soldiers enrolled for Napoléon's last campaign paraded with the flag in the neighbouring town of Bletterans. Two years later, the flag was used in Lons-le-Saunier during the funeral of General Lecourbe (1759-1815), who commanded the Ruffey-sur- Seille volunteers in 1789.

Hidden once again during the Bourbon Restoration , the flag was hoisted on the top of the Tree of Liberty erected on 3 March 1848 to celebrate the proclamation of the Second Republic . The whereabouts of the flag had been lost since then, until the finding by the Mayor. The flag found by the Mayor matches quite well the description made by Clavier. The flag is, on one side, red with the writing "VALEUR ET BONNE FOI" and, on the other side, white with the writing "DIEU ET LA PATRIE". The Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (DRAC) and the General Council of Jura commissioned Jean-François Ryon, Curator of Antiques and Artworks for the department of Jura, for a first expertise of the flag. The shape of the hand-made nails, the style of embroidery and the writing were deemed compatible with a flag made in 1790. Specifically, the mottos reflect the ideals of the time, inspired by both the Enlightenment and the Bible; the religious references were prohibited only during after the establishment of the Reign of Terror. The issue of the registration of the flag as an historical monument was soon raised.

The ad hoc Commission of the Department of Jura decided on 13 July 2011 to postpone the registration, requiring a more comprehensive expertise of the flag. Some members of the Commission argued that the mottos could refer to the Bourbon Restoration, as well. The cost of the expertise being quite high (8,000 €), the involved bodies had not agree yet on the sharing of the cost of the operation one year after the finding. The flag was briefly (30') shown to the public in Quintigny on 14 July 2012 ( Le Progrès , 13 July 2012; Le Journal de Saône-et-Loire , 14 July 2012). It was eventually announced in autumn 2012 that the flag would be expertized and restored in Vesoul ( Le Progrès , 11 November 2012). The experts from the Royal Institute of Artistic Heritage of Brussels (Belgium) have confirmed that the flag dates back to the Revolution period. The experts have analyzed silk threads sampled from the flag and have authenticated the flag based on the biological origin of the dyes.

The authentication of the flag allowed its registration (at the regional level) as an historical heritage. Classification (at the national level) as an historical heritage will be sought. The restored flag was brought back to Quintigny and presented to the public. The flag was then placed in an opaque sarcophagus for the sake of conservation ( France 3 Franche-Comté , 21 July 2013). Ivan Sache, 1 August 2013 An unidentified French flag Unidentified French flag - Image by Ivan Sache, 13 December 2003 A flag labelled le pavillon national (the national flag, or ensign) is shown on the Jeu de la Révolution, a variant of the well-known Jeu de l'Oie, the French version of snakes and ladders. The players shall move along a linear path made of squares, the numbers of squares moved ahead being given by a dice thrown alternatively by each player. The first player to reach the end of the path is the winner. The squares are numbered and illustrated; for instance, if you reach the "jail" square, you must wait until another player reaches the same case and frees you, being himself jailed.

In the Jeu de la Révolution, the end of the path is the National Assembly, with the following legend: Le Bonheur de la France est signé le 14 7bre 1791 par Louis XVI premier Roi constitutionnel des Français, that is "Good fortune of France was signed on 14 September 1791 by Louis XVI, the first Constitutional King of the French". Case #38 shows the three fleur-de-lis as the national arms. Therefore, the Jeu de la Révolution game was most probably a propaganda item for the Constitutional monarchy, which lasted until the overthrowning of Louis XVI in 1793. Case#51 shows the enigmatic "national flag" as a square reddish flag with a canton quartered blue and red by a white cross. The red shade of the main field seems to be lighter than the red shade of the two red quarters of the canton, but this might be a printing effect.

Ivan Sache & Thierry Gilabert, 13 December 2003 Bonaparte au Pont d'Arcole, a deliberate flag error Historical representations of the Tricolore flag released after the real events had occurred are often forged. For instance, the famous propaganda/glorification picture by baron Antoine Gros Bonaparte au Pont d'Arcole shows Bonaparte bearing the Tricolore flag when assaulting alone the bridge of Arcole (near Verona, during the eponymous battle hold on 15-17 November 1796 and won over the Austrians). The picture was painted some ten years after the battle, and Bonaparte had became Emperor Napoléon I . It has been pointed out that Bonaparte in Arcole did not bear the Tricolore flag, which hardly existed on land at that time, but the flag of the 5th infantry demi-brigade. Anyway, since this episode is one of the most characteristic of Napoléon's myth, it was necessary to associate it with the Tricolore flag later accepted by the Emperor.

The picture is reproduced on a French post stamp released in 1972 (YT1730, M 72-33), which therefore propagates a deliberate historical forgery. Bonaparte's uniform was also said to be erroneous in several details. The whole story can be found in the review Armes et Uniformes de l'Histoire (March 1973), and is summarized in the book Le Patrimoine du Timbre-Poste français (Flohic, 1998). Ivan Sache, 17 October 2000 The Vienna flag riot (1798) On Bonaparte's proposal, the Directoire appointed in 1798 General Bernadotte Ambassador of France in Vienna ( Austria ). On 8 February 1798, Bernadotte settled in the embassy, located in Palace Caprara Geymuller in Wallner Street. On 13 April, around 7 PM, Bernadotte ordered to hoist the French Tricolor flag on the balcony of his residence. A mob rapidly gathered in the street and asked the flag to be removed.

Heated exchanges occurred between the mob and the embassy staff gathered on the balcony. The mob was tediously contained by the guards. Bernadotte himself, wearing his uniform and the Tricolore cockade, went down into the street, with sword drawn. The Austrian police arrived and discussion took place in Bernadotte's office. Bernadotte definitively refused to take down the flag. In the street, picket lines of cavalry and infantry attempted to prevent the demonstrators to attack the embassy. Stones were thrown to the windows. The municipal authorities mobilized the garrison and the gate of the embassy were locked. Bernadotte took refuge in the nunciatura, located Am Hof, in the neighborhood. He sent a protest letter to the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and required the surroundings of the embassy to be cleared. Bernadotte eventually came back to the embassy, where he was rejoined by Baron von Degelmann, recently appointed Ambassador of Austria in Paris. In the meantime, the situation deteriorated: the French flag was torn down and partially burned. The mob broke down the embassy gate, broke the windows, dragged out coaches in the street and trashed them until the police took them away.

The ransacking was stopped by the Austrian army, who settled in the stairs in order to guard Bernadotte's room. A few shots were exchanged but nobody was harmed. The calm was restored around 2 PM. Bernadotte, however, did not calm down. The next morning, he asked his passports at the Hofburg and refused the mediation of the Court. Instead of leaving Vienna nightly, as advized by the authorities, he decided to leave on 15 April around noon with five state coaches. He left with all the honours due to his diplomatic rank and a military escort ensured his safety on the Austrian territory. Close to the embassy, the street named Fahnengasse (Flag Street) still commemorates the incident. The riot is shown on a plate by Johann Balzer (1738-1799) entitled "Description of the riot caused by the French embassador Bernadotte when he hosted the French Tricolor flag in Vienna, 13 April 1798", kept at the Vienna Historical Museum. Interestingly, the plate shows a Tricolore flag horizontally divided. This horizontally divided flag might be an erroneous representation by Balzer.

The French Tricolorz was relatively new in 1798 and Balzer might not have been an ocular witness of the riot and might have reconstructed the flag from a vague oral description. However, it is known that the French Tricolore did not have a fixed design in the first years after his adoption. It is therefore highly possible that Balzer showed the flag actually used by Bernadotte, either seen by himself or correctly reported by a rioter. From the black and white plate, it is not possible to ascertain which colour was used for the upper and lower stripes, respectively. The story is told in great detail and Balzer's plate is shown on Robert Ouvrard's website . Ivan Sache, 7 July 2002 THE FRENCH TRICOLOR Notes The national colors of France—blue, white and red—originated in the form of a cockade combining royalist white with blue and red, the heraldic colors of the city of Paris. Blue/red cockades were ordered to be worn on the hats of the Paris Militia (later the National Guard) in 13 July 1789.

Four days later the Marquis de Lafayette presented a white/red/blue cockade to King Louis XVI, and on 4 October 1789 this device was made an official symbol of France. Soon thereafter, the colors of this cockade began to be adopted for the flags of France, eventually producing one of the world's most famous and influential flags: le drapeau tricolore franï¿½ais, the French Tricolor. The 1790 Naval Jack The 1794 National Flag The Revolution of 1789, which transformed France into a constitutional monarchy, did not immediately lead to a change of flags. The old white royal flag, of which several versions existed, continued in use. The colors blue, white and red were first used for the flags of the National Guard, a military force raised by Lafayette to defend the revolutionary regime. The colors of many National Guard battalions combined blue and red, the heraldic colors of Paris, with royalist white. Soon there appeared a number of unofficial three-color flags, mostly striped horizontally, and on 24 October 1790 the National Assembly passed a law establishing the first official Tricolor.

This was actually a naval flag , vertically striped red, white and blue, and bordered blue/red. In 1791, the reorganization of the French Army led to the adoption of new military colors. The first battalion of each regiment received a flag with a canton horizontally striped blue, white and red, and a blue/red border. Finally, on 15 February 1794 ( 29 Pluviose of the Year II) the National Assembly adopted the blue/white/red Tricolor as the national flag and war ensign of the French Republic. In 1812, the vertically striped Tricolor also became the standard pattern for military colors on land. THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1830, 1848 AND 1871 The Count of Chambord's Tricolor The fall of Napoleon and the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy (1814-15) led to the abolition of the Tricolor and the restoration of the white flag. The Revolution of 1830, however, which deposed the Bourbon King Charles X in favor of the Orlï¿½anist Louis-Philippe, brought the Tricolor back.

During the Revolution of 1848, which deposed in his turn King Louis-Philippe, there were demands for the Tricolor's replacement by a plain red flag . The National Assembly briefly adopted a variant striped blue/red/white, but only days later this flag was abolished and the 1794 Tricolor was officially confirmed. Demands for a plain red flag surfaced once more during the 1871 revolution, but the suppression of the Paris Commune ended this threat to the Tricolor. The conservative regime that assumed power after the fall of Napoleon III favored a restoration of the monarchy but this plan fell through when the Bourbon pretender, the Count of Chambord, grandson of King Charles X, refused to accept the by-now traditional and popular Tricolor as the national flag of France. "Henry V cannot abandon the white flag of Henry IV," he insisted, thus making it inevitable that France would remain a republic. Ironically, many years before the Count had sketched a design for a royal Tricolor with the crowned arms of France on the white stripe—a flag that might have enabled him to ascend the throne of France.

DEFEAT & REDEMPTION • 1940-45 Autonomous State of Togo • 1956-60 The Tricolor has served as a basis for military and naval flags, distinguishing flags of government officials, and colonial flags. Both the President and the Prime Minister have a square Tricolor; that of the former may, at the President's option, bear a monogram or badge on the white stripe. Government flags for use afloat have stripes proportioned 30:33:37 (like the naval ensign), which is supposed to make the stripes appear equal in width when viewed from a distance. The square blue flag, formerly used by colonial governors-general, is now the flag of government ministers with responsibility for French overseas departments and territories. Versions for use as car flags are proportioned 7:8 rather than square. Most colonial flags featured a Tricolor canton, though unlike British colonial ensigns the size of the canton varied. THE INFLUENCE OF THE TRICOLOR tricolour french flag | Flag Blog The Tricolor French Flag May 5, 2009 Over the centuries, since long before Charlemagne, France has flown many flags.

Typically, when conjuring up an image of the French Flag, we think of the Fleurs-dis-Lis- three gold lilies on a blue shield. However, the ‘drapeau tricolore’ or ‘drapeau bleu-blanc-rouge’ is now the official French flag. Fleur De Lys With its vertical blue, white, and red bands, the Tricolor French Flag was adopted in 1790, after the French Revolution of 1789, and then made the official flag by the French National Convention on February 15, 1794. But it has not represented the country without disruption. Under the Tricolor French Flag, Napoleon I led France through war and battle after battle until the nation dominated parts of North Africa and most of the western world. Then in 1814, the Bourbon’s re-seized power and all symbols of the revolution were replaced with those of the Bourbons. After intrigues and betrayal, the July Revolution of 1830, put King Louis-Philippe on the throne, who resurrected the ‘drapeau tricolore’. The order of the colors has sometimes changed, and explanations for the colors vary.

Blue and red are the traditional colors of the arms of Paris, and, ironically, white is color of the Bourbon dynasty. The blue is sometimes referred to as strong blue, or, again ironically, as King’s blue. Its simple design, with the blue band at the hoist, followed by two more equal-sized bands, one of white, then a red “fly” (the outer band), is said to represent the common people, a reaction to the monarchy and the elaborate royal coats of arms found on pre-revolutionary flags. The revolutionary motto, liberté, égalité, fraternité , or liberty, equality and brotherhood, is closely associated with the Tricolor French Flag . According to Whitney Smith, flag scholar and founder of the Flag Research Center in Winchester Massachusetts, the Tricolor French Flag “has no specific symbolism attached to the individual colors and shapes in its design” and that all symbolism was attached to it in retrospect. Yet, speculation abounds. Sometimes the colors are thought to be influenced by those of the American Revolution, and also by Holland, but there are other explanations.

With France being traditionally Catholic, blue is said to be the color of Saint Martin, a Gallo-Roman officer who ripped his blue cloak with his sword to give one half of it to a poor cold beggar. Red is the color of Saint Denis, the patron saint of Paris, and white, in this manner of thinking, represents the Virgin Mary. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin (2002-2005) consistently and poetically referred to the colors as “the blue of our history, the white of our hopes, and the red of the blood of our ancestors”. As influenced as it may be by ideas and idealism, the Tricolor is equally influential, with post-colonial and post-revolutionary countries all over world either using either the blue, white, and red, or the Tricolor French Flag ‘s banded style to represent freedom from tyranny. –Carol Frome

Question: From 1814 to 1830, the French flag was what single colour
Answer: White