TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. Bold text is denoted by =equal signs=. Superscripts are denoted by ^ and have not been expanded; for example 'I am informed y^t the Ma^{rs} of'. Obvious typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources. More detail can be found at the end of the book. CAMBRIDGE NAVAL AND MILITARY SERIES GENERAL EDITORS SIR JULIAN S. CORBETT, LL.M., F.S.A. H. J. EDWARDS, C.B., C.B.E., M.A. BRITISH FLAGS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS C. F. CLAY, MANAGER LONDON: FETTER LANE, E.C. 4 NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO. BOMBAY } CALCUTTA } MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. MADRAS } TORONTO: THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TOKYO: MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA ALL RIGHTS RESERVED [Illustration: _A Ship of Henry VIII, circa 1545_] BRITISH FLAGS THEIR EARLY HISTORY, AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT AT SEA; WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF THE FLAG AS A NATIONAL DEVICE BY W. G. PERRIN ADMIRALTY LIBRARIAN SECRETARY OF THE NAVY RECORDS SOCIETY FELLOW OF THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY ILLUSTRATED IN COLOUR BY HERBERT S. VAUGHAN CHEVALIER OF THE LEGION OF HONOUR CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1922 PREFACE It might have been expected that the attempt to trace to their origin in the past the institutions and customs in common use upon the sea would from an early date occupy the attention of a seafaring people, but for some obscure reason the British nation has always been indifferent to the history of its activities upon that element on which its greatness was founded, and to which it has become more and more dependent for its daily bread and its very existence. To those who are alive to this fact it will hardly come as a surprise, therefore, to learn that the first sustained attempt at a detailed investigation into the history of the flag at sea was made under the patronage of the German Admiralty by a German Admiral. Vice-Admiral Siegel's _Die Flagge_, published in 1912, was the first book to deal with the development of the flag at sea in a scientific spirit, and although the earlier chapters contain some mistakes due to his employment of translations of early works instead of original texts, and the accounts of the British flags in the later chapters suffer because he had no access to original records, it is a worthy piece of work.