British Flags. William Gordon Perrin
The chroniclers adopt no technical terms for the flags, but use vexillum or signum indiscriminately, the former word being no longer restricted to hanging flags, and being occasionally used for a standard or even for a cross.
[43] Thus Albert of Aix; Tudebode substitutes Theodore for Mercurius, and Robert the Monk, Maurice.
[44] Ogier l'Ardenois, v. 1744: A trois claus d'or son gonfanon lacié. Ibid. v. 9910: A cinq claus d'or.
[45] Itin. Regis Ricardi: regium cum leone vexillum.
[46] Plate I, fig. 4. Vexillum balzanum, so named from "balzan," a piebald horse; the word was subsequently corrupted to "beauseant."
[47] Known as the Maltese Cross—Malta having been handed over to the Knights after their ejection from Rhodes by the Turks in 1522.
[48] Baluzius, Epistolarum Innocentii III Pontificis lib. undecim. 1682: Praetendit autem non sine mysterio crucem et claves; quia beatus Petrus Apostolus et crucem in Christo sustinuit et claves a Christo suscepit. Repraesentat itaque signum crucis, etc.
[49] Laurentius Veronensis, De Bello majoricano.
[50] The plural form vexilla seems to have been necessitated by the scansion of the verse.
[51] Michael de Vico in his Breviarium Pisanae Historiae, written in 1371, says this was red (vexillum vermileum) and that thereafter the Pisans always flew a red flag.
[52] Reproduced in colour in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores, vol. 18. The ms. itself has also been reproduced in photographic facsimile.
[53] The tarid at this date was shorter and broader than the galley, and therefore able to carry a heavier burden, but it was on this account less mobile, and therefore defensive rather than offensive in action. These tarids were fitted out with fighting castles (hediffitia (aedificia) mirabilia ad proelium) to increase their defensive qualities.
[54] Depictae colore albo cum crucibus per totum, dimisso tunc glauco colore quo depingi solebant.
[55] Chief Magistrate or "President" of the Republic.
[56] The term "Protentinus" was adopted from the Normans then ruling in Sicily, who had acquired it from the Byzantines. As in Sicily, the Protentinus appears to have been primarily the chief magistrate of one of the districts (compagnae) into which the state territory was divided for administrative purposes, the "comitus" being one of his subordinate officers. Thus the fleet was organised on a territorial basis. The term "comitus" was afterwards applied to the officer occupying the position of boatswain in a galley, but it has not that meaning at this date.
[57] A medal of Doge Pietro Candiano, 887 a.d., has on the reverse a war vessel with a flag at the mast, too small to show any distinctive marks.
[58] lxvi: furent drecies les banieres et li gonfanon es chastiaus des nés, et les houces ostées des escuz et portendu li bort des nés.
[59] Sismondi, History of the Italian Republics in the Middle Ages, ed. by Wm. Boulting, p. 252.
[60] Bella Duffy, The Tuscan Republics, pp. 78–80.
[61] Collection de Lois Maritimes, ii, 337.
[62] In the seventeenth century this red flag was charged with a white castle.
[63] Pardessus, ii, 411.
Chapter II
Early English, Scottish, and Irish Flags
(i) ENGLAND
So far as may be judged from the scanty records that remain, the ancient inhabitants of these islands do not seem to have known the use of flags until the Romans made them acquainted with their military signa. Adopted by the Saxons either directly from the Romans before they left their homes on the continent or from the Britons whom they subdued, flags formed, from the seventh century onwards, an important part of the regalia. Speaking of Eadwin King of Northumbria, under date 628 a.d., the Venerable Bede says:
his dignity was so great throughout his dominions that banners (vexilla) were not only borne before him in battle, but even in time of peace when he rode about his cities and towns or provinces the standard bearer was wont to go before him. And when he walked about the streets that sort of standard which the Romans call Tufa, and the English Tuuf, was borne before him[64].
A few years later, on the translation of the bones of King Oswald, the royal vexillum of purple and gold (auro et purpura compositum) was placed above the tomb, a practice that was followed through many centuries.
The Saxons of Wessex adopted as their principal war standard the dragon, which in various forms was destined to appear at many crucial moments in English history. At the battle of Burford in 752, according to Henry of Huntingdon, the Wessex standard was a golden dragon, while the Mercians used the vexillum[65].
The Danish vikings, who commenced their descents upon the southern coasts of England in the middle of the ninth century, had as their ensign a raven embroidered in a flag, which appears to have been used for divination. In the year 878 Hubba
the brother of Hingwar and Halfdene, with 23 ships … sailed to Devon, where with 1200 others he met with a miserable death, being slain before the castle of Cynuit[66]. There (the Christians[67]) gained a very large booty, and amongst other things the flag called Raven [68], for they say that the three sisters of Hingwar and Hubba, daughters of Lodobroch, wove that flag and got it ready