History of the Union Jack and Flags of the EmpireCumberland, Barlow
History
History of the Union Jack and Flags of the Empire
Cumberland, Barlow
Emblems -- Great Britain; Flags -- Great Britain
The same deliberate procedure for making an alteration in the Union
flag was followed as under Queen Anne: First, an Act of Parliament
creating a further union, the call of the Sovereign as the supreme head
of the nations, the appointment of a Committee of the Privy Council
to consider the drafts of the changes to be made, then an Order in
Council, and, finally, the issue of a proclamation by the King.
The record[125] states: "On the 5th November, 1800, the King in Council
was pleased to approve the report of a Committee of the Privy Council,
that the Union Flag should be altered according to the draft marked
'C,' in which the cross of St. George is conjoined with the crosses of
St. Andrew and St. Patrick."
[125] Memorandum of the Admiralty.
[Illustration: 48. DRAFT "C" OF UNION JACK, 1800.]
This draft "C" (48) was duly transmitted to the College of Arms,
London, and an exact tracing of it as recorded in the books of the
college has been made.[126]
[126] "Genealogical Magazine," 1899.
The designers of this new Union Jack of 1801 had this time to join
three flags together, instead of, as in 1707, only joining two; the
problem set before them being the union of the three national Jacks of
the sister nations into one grand Union Jack (Pl. v., fig. 3).
The three flags now to be formed into one Union flag were the incoming
Irish Jack, having a red diagonal saltire cross and white ground, to be
joined with the "white crosse, commonly called St. Andrew's crosse,"[127]
of Scotland, with its blue ground, and the "Jack white with a red
cross, commonly called St. George's cross"[128] of England, with its
white ground.
[127] Proclamation, Charles I., 1634, p. 83.
[128] Proclamation, Charles II., 1663, p. 90.
The latter two had already been joined in the Union Jack of 1707. The
draft "C" (48) gives the method in which the designers proposed the
three flags should be combined, and the proportions to be given to
each in the new flag, which then received the approval of the King in
Council.
Thereafter, on January 1st, 1801, King George III. issued his Royal
proclamation from St. James' Palace, declaring His Majesty's pleasure
concerning the Royal style and titles appertaining to the Imperial
crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and its
dependencies, and also the ensigns armorial, flags and banners thereof.
The clause respecting the Royal coat-of-arms states:
"And that the arms or ensigns armorial of the said United Kingdoms
shall be quarterly; first and fourth England, second Scotland, third
Ireland; and it is our will and pleasure that there shall be borne
therewith on an escutcheon of pretence the arms of our Dominions in
Germany."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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