The standard has the royal achievement of arms charged upon the white, with the motto, "Je maintiendray." The three colors were given to the Dutch by Henry IV., of France, on their requesting him to confer on them the national colors of his country. They have ever since continued the colors of the Dutch Republic, and its successor, the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The admiral's and lieutenant-admiral's flags are the same as the national ensign, but bear in the upper or red stripe four white balls. The flag of the vice-admiral has only three balls, and a rear-admiral but two. - Holland, as an independent State, had no existence till the latter part of the sixteenth century. Before that time, it had followed the fortunes of the Duchy of Burgundy, and had become incorporated in the dominions of the King of Spain, with them it had the Burgundian flag; and as the different ports were in the habit of using flags of their own, these were rendered illegal by a decree of 1540, and as early as 1475 all ships were ordered "to carry the arms and standards of the Duke," and again, in 1487, "to carry the banners and pennons of the admiral, in addition to any other local or special flags." It is certain, therefore, that from these dates to the outbreak of the War of Independence the Dutch ships carried the Burgundian flag, - the red raguled saltire on a white field; but from the very first discontent the Gueux adopted the colors of the House of Orange, orange, white, and blue, which was at first to be worn promiscuously or haphazard, though very shortly, to the cry of Oranje boven !' — ‘Up with the orange!' They were arranged in horizontal bars, with the orange uppermost; but the number and order of the bars continued a matter of fancy until 1599, when the flag was definitely fixed as orange, white, and blue, in three horizontal stripes, although even then, and for a hundred years afterwards, this was not unfrequently doubled, and contained six stripes, but in the same order; and in the jacks on the bowsprit, or rather at the head of the spritsail-topmast (jack staff), the three colors in no certain order radiated from the centre. When standing into Gibraltar Bay to annihilate the Spaniards, on the 25th of April, 1607, Heemskirk wore an orange scarf, and in his hat a large orange plume. Fournier, writing in 1643, speaks of the Dutch flag as red, white, and blue; so that possibly the change was natural, from the similarity of colors, and had then well begun. But De Jonge, speaking from much official information, and from old records and contemporary pictures, considers that the change did not 1 J. C. de Jonge: "Over den Oorsprong der Nederlandsche Vlag." In Rey, vol. ii. p. 512. begin till 1653, and then very gradually effected between that date and 1665; and that the battles of the first war with England were fought under the orange, and that in the second war the colors were as now, red, white, and blue; as, indeed, they have continued ever since. During a few years consequent on the French Revolution, the flags of ships of war were distinguished by a white canton charged with a figure of Liberty, armed with pike in hand and lion at feet. This flag was worn by the Dutch ships at Camperdown. In 1806, after a dangerous mutiny, it was considered expedient to restore the old flag; but by some omission the ships of the Texel and Zuyder Zee wore the old flag, whilst the ships of the Zealand squadron wore the new, with Liberty in the canton, a curious irregularity, which continued until July 17, 1810, when Holland and her flag were suppressed and absorbed into the French Empire. On the 18th of February, 1653, Van Tromp wore the lion flag at the stern, the orange, white, and blue at the main; De Ruyter, the lion at the stern, the tricolor at the fore, and a white flag at the main; Evertzen, a blue flag at the main, the national colors at the mizzen, and the States arms at the stern.1 STANDARD AND FLAG OF PORTUGAL. On the 25th of July, 1139, Affonso Henriques, Count of Portugal, with thirteen thousand soldiers, including a band of English and French knights, on their way to the second crusade defeated a Moorish army, commanded by five kings, and consisting, according to the lowest estimate, of two hundred thousand men. The night before the battle, as the Count was meditating in his tent on the vast superiority of the enemy's numbers, a hermit entered, and commanded him in God's name to go forth in the morning when he heard the bells toll for mass, Old East India Flag of Portugal and to turn towards the east. He did as told, and within a halo of clouds beheld the image of our crucified Lord, who promised him not only victory but a crown, and a succession of sixteen generations to inherit his sceptre.2 Another version of this legend is that Affonso was much encouraged by opening his Bible at the defeat of the Midianites by Gideon, and that a hermit visited him and promised him a sign of victory. 1 J. K. Laughton's Heraldry of the Sea, 1879, pp. 20, 22. 2 Camoen's Poems. Accordingly at daybreak, as the matin bell sounded, there was a luminous cross seen in the sky, such as had been seen by Constantine; and an assurance given him that he should be a king, and that his children to the sixteenth generation should reign in Portugal. His army did in fact salute him king before the battle; and he rode forward on a white horse, followed by enthusiastic troops, who won a most brilliant victory, and Portugal became a kingdom.1 In commemoration of this victory, Affonso Henriques changed his arms, which he had received from his father, viz. argent, a cross azure, and substituted for them the present arms of Portugal; viz., five shields disposed crosswise on a white shield, in memory of the Lord's five wounds, each shield charged with five bezants, in commemoration of the five Moorish kings who were slain in the Camp d'Ourique. This tradition was never questioned until Herculano, giving an account of the battle, endeavored to show the legend was unheard of in the twelfth century, and that the battle was of inferior importance. On the other side, Pereira de Figuerado, in an earlier treatise, disposes, by anticipation, of most of the later historian's arguments.2 This formed the flag of the early discoverers, the flag that slowly pushed its route down the coast of Africa, and led the way around the Cape of Good Hope to the East Indies. With it, Vasco de Gama also carried the armillary sphere given him specially by King Dom Manoel; and this flag, with the sphere, in gold or red, was long known as the flag of Portugal in the Indies. The present flag, adopted in 1815, is a modification of the old and glorious flag of Prince Henry the Navigator. The present royal standard of Portugal is a red banner, charged with the royal arms and crown in its centre. The arms are argent, five escutcheons, each charged with as many plates in saltire, arranged in a cross azure; the whole in a border gu, upon which are seven castles or; the outer shield having an or border. The man-of-war and merchant ensigns are half in pale, blue and white, vertical, the blue next the staff, with the same emblazoned shield as the royal standard, surmounted by a crown, the shield half in the blue and half in the white stripe. A clear and handsome flag. SWEDEN AND NORWAY. — The national flag of Sweden is blue with a yellow cross, and that of Norway is red with a blue cross, having 1 Charlotte M. Yonge's Christians and Moors of Spain. |