The Irish red cross on a white ground had been the ancient banner of the Irish family of the Fitzgeralds before the time of the conquest of Ireland under Henry II., and it still appears in the arms of their descendants (35). It appears to have been used as a flag at Cromwell's funeral, but notwithstanding its still earlier associations the red cross of St. Patrick does not seem to have been formally recognized as the general national emblem for Ireland until about the close of the seventeenth century. Its entrance into the Union Jack had long been delayed for reasons which will be pointed out. [Illustration: 35. ARMS OF THE FITZGERALDS.] Though the kings of England had, since Henry II., in 1172, been "lords paramount," and since Henry VIII. been "kings of Ireland," the national Jack of Ireland had not been joined with the other Jacks. When the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew were combined in the "additional" Jack of James, in 1606, it was not included, nor was it afterwards, in the first Union Jack of Queen Anne, in 1707; so that for all these centuries the red cross of St. Patrick had continued alone. At length, the time was coming when another change was to be made in the Union Jack, and it was in 1801, under George III., that the red saltire cross of Ireland first joined the two sister crosses. For the immediately previous two hundred years the Irishman had gallantly contributed his prowess to the glories won under the two-crossed Jack, in which his nation had not been represented; but from this time onward his own Irish cross entered into its proper place in the national Union Jack, and received its acknowledged position as the emblem of the Irish kingdom. CHAPTER XV. _THE JACKS IN THE THIRTEEN COLONIES OF NORTH AMERICA._