British Flags: Their Early History, and Their Development at Sea: With an Account of the Origin of the Flag as a National DevicePerrin, William Gordon
History
British Flags: Their Early History, and Their Development at Sea: With an Account of the Origin of the Flag as a National Device
Perrin, William Gordon
Flags -- Great Britain
When William of Orange came over in 1688 to take possession of the
throne of Great Britain for himself and his wife he flew a red standard
containing in an escutcheon his arms impaled with the Stuart royal
arms, with the legend "For the Protestant Religion and the Liberties
of England" above the escutcheon and his motto "je maintiendray"
below[234]; but when the joint sovereigns had been formally proclaimed
king and queen they adopted the Stuart standard with an inescutcheon of
Nassau already described.
The restriction in the use of the standard which had been rapidly
growing[235] since the beginning of the seventeenth century, reached
its culmination in 1702, when the anchor flag definitely superseded it
as the Lord Admiral's flag, although, curiously enough, the standard
remained in use as a signal flag (for calling a council of flag
officers) for nearly another century.
The reason of the abandonment of the royal standard in 1702 does not
appear. In February the Earl of Pembroke, recently appointed Lord High
Admiral by William III, had given instructions for his flagship, the
'Britannia,' then fitting out at Chatham in preparation for the French
War, to be supplied with a standard, but on the 20th March, just after
the accession of Queen Anne, he wrote to the Navy Board:
Notwithstanding any former Orders from me for your preparing any
of the Royal Standards of England, I do hereby desire and direct
you to forbear doing thereof, but you are to cause to be prepar'd
for me as soon as conveniently may be, so many of these flags[236]
which particularly have been worn by the Lord high Adm^{ll} of
England &c., by vertue of his Office, as may be necessary for my
Shipp and Boat[237],
and with this the long-continued existence of the royal standard as a
naval flag of command came to an end.
A number of interesting examples of the use of the standard at sea by
the king and by the Lord High Admiral (the Duke of York) in 1672 are
given in the Journal of Sir John Narborough, then lieutenant in the
Lord High Admiral's flagship, among them the following:
Tuesday being 23rd.... This day the King came on board.... At his
coming this day we put abroad a silk Ensigne and a silk Jack and
all silk Pendants at every yard arm and Top mast head, and at the
Main topmasthead the silk Standard of England, and at the Fore
topmasthead a silk Flagg Red with a yellow anchor and cable in the
Fly: and at the mizen topmasthead a Union Flagg. These we wore all
flying while the King was aboard: But when the King went out of the
Ship and left the Duke aboard the Red flagg was taken in at the
Foremasthead, which had the Anchor and Cable in it, and hoisted up
at the Maintopmasthead. The Standard being struck there, and the
Union Flagg at the Mizen topmasthead was struck....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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