Chapter IX: The Evolution of the Red Ensign

The history of the Jacks as single flags having been traced through these periods, we may revert to the changes brought about by their being made part of a larger flag, and note how the exalted position at the stern of the ships was transferred to a new flag, a National Ensign, in the upper corner of which the English Jack was placed alone, when this flag was first created.

Under James I. and Charles I., as also under the previous sovereigns of England, the flag flown at the stern of the men-of-war had been the Royal Standard of the Sovereign, of which an example is given in the drawing of the _Sovereign of the Seas_ (17).

The Royal Standard bearing upon it then, as it does now, the armorial bearings or "arms" of the Sovereign, was the banner of the King, and, as then placed at the stern of the ships, signified his direct management and control of the royal fleet.

Before the close of the reign of Charles I. the money control of the Royal Navy had been jealously assumed by Parliament, and the ships had been enrolled as "the Parliament ships." With the advent of the Commonwealth the ships of the navy were no longer the ships of the King, but became the ships of the State.

1

COMMONWEALTH ENSIGN 1649

2

CROMWELL'S "GREAT UNION" 1658

3

ENSIGN RED--CHARLES II.--1660]

It was to take the place of the King's Standard at the stern that the Commonwealth Parliament created a flag, called the Commonwealth Ensign (Pl. IV., fig. 1), to be carried on their men-of-war. This was a red flag, having in the fly a yellow Irish harp, and in the upper corner next the staff the St. George cross upon a white ground. Ireland had early been overrun by the Commonwealth armies, so her emblem was included in the flag, but Scotland had warmly espoused the cause of the Stuarts, and was, therefore, not recognized.

Cromwell, after he had been raised to the position of Protector, and had dragooned Scotland into submission, put out, in 1658, another flag as the "Great Union," or banner of the Commonwealth (Pl. IV., fig. 2), in which the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew were shown for England and Scotland, and the harp, on a blue ground, for Ireland; but they were each placed in separate quarters of the flag, instead of being joined together in one union, and on a black shield in the centre he caused to be displayed a lion rampant, as representing his own coat-of-arms and himself.

This "Great Union" of Cromwell does not appear to have entered into much use, although it certainly was displayed at his funeral.

The fleets of the navy were then flying ensigns of three different colours--red, blue and white--according to the rank of the admirals who were in command, red being the colour of the admirals of highest rank and the typical colour of England.[46]

[46] Langton: "Heraldry of the Sea."

Contemporary paintings also show that red, blue and white ensigns were in use under the Commonwealth, with a single harp in the fly, and a Dutch medal, struck to commemorate the death of Admiral Tromp, also shows the same design of flag.

The "Commonwealth Ensign," now having the Irish harp inserted in the flag, was the official flag flown at the stern of the ships of the States Navy during the period of the Commonwealth.

The rule of the Commonwealth party having, shortly after the death of Cromwell, come to its sudden termination, the Royalist supporters of the absent King did not take time or wait for any formal proclamation authorizing a change in flags which had come into existence under the order of the Commonwealth Council.

Pepys tells in his "Diary" of how this change was begun. Being "Clerk of the Acts of the Navy," he had been deputed to read the proclamation of Parliament declaring the restoration of the King to the crews on board those ships of the Navy which had been appointed to cross over to The Hague and bring Charles II. to England.

Under the Commonwealth successful generals and officers on land had been appointed to commands as admirals and officers in the navy, and the military titles were still retained, the official title of the officers in highest command in the navy of the Commonwealth being "Admirals and Generals at Sea."

While lying at anchor in the Downs, waiting for the high officials who were to accompany the fleet, Pepys records how the "General of the fleet" went from ship to ship in a small boat, telling them to "alter their Arms and flagges."

(From a painting by Vandervelt.)]

On 13th May, 1660, being on board the _London_, one of the ships of this squadron, he makes the following entries of his day's doings, and tells of the making of these changes: "To their quarterdeck, at which the taylers and painters were at work, cutting out some pieces of yellow cloth in the fashion of a crown and 'C.R.' to be put up instead of the State's arms." He also records that meetings of the officers were held, and that he had attended "in the afternoon a council of war only to acquaint them that the harp must be taken out of all their flags, it being very offensive to the King."

When, therefore, the harp had been removed from their flags, there remained the simple "Ensign Red," having the St. George cross in the upper white canton.

The _Naseby_ (20)--afterwards re-named the _Royal Charles_--was one of the ships of the squadron which crossed to The Hague, and the actual ship on which Charles II. came over to England. The drawing shows the Ensign Red flying at the stern. There had not been sufficient opportunity for the obtaining of new flags, and, therefore, those which they had in use were altered on board the ships, as Pepys has told, and this flag is a Commonwealth "Ensign Red," with the Irish harp cut out (Pl. IV., fig. 3).

A very great deal of dependence cannot, as a rule, be placed on the form of the flags introduced into their pictures by artists even of the highest rank. When painting flags more attention is frequently given by them to the colour effect desired to be produced than to the accurate drawing of the details.

Some instances of unworthy errors in the drawing of national flags may be mentioned. In a painting by Leutze, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, a representation is shown of "Washington crossing the Delaware, on December 25th, 1776." In this a flag with the stars and stripes is prominently shown, although no such flag had any existence until a year and a half afterwards,[47] an error which has been perpetuated by a copy of this painting on a series of the national bank-notes issued by the United States Government. In the Capitol of the United States at Washington there is a picture of the "Battle of Lake Erie," fought in 1814, in which the flag on Commodore Perry's boat has only thirteen stars and thirteen stripes, although the United States ensign had been changed twenty years before, in 1794, to have fifteen stars and fifteen stripes. On the walls of the Commons Corridor in the British Houses of Parliament at Westminster is a fresco representing the landing of Charles II., in 1660, in which the Union Jack is depicted as having three crosses, the red cross of St. Patrick being included, although it was not entered in the flag until 1801, or 140 years afterwards.

[47] The United States national ensign has at the different dates been composed as follows:

1776--The Union Jack of Queen Anne and thirteen stripes.

1777--Thirteen stars and thirteen stripes.

1794--Fifteen stars and fifteen stripes.

1818--Fifteen stars and thirteen stripes.

Thereafter an additional star was added as each new State was created out of the western territories, the stripes for the original thirteen colonies remaining the same.

1896--Forty-five stars and thirteen stripes.

1909--Forty-six stars and thirteen stripes.

In each of these instances the artist was painting from his imagination, but Vandervelt, who painted the picture from which our illustration of the _Naseby_ is taken, was himself present on the occasion he recorded, and, seeing that he was the most celebrated marine artist of his day, the details of the flags can be taken to be correct.

The subsequent proclamation of Charles II., in 1663 (page 89), shows that this flag not only continued to be used on the royal ships, but that also all the merchant ships had adopted it and were flying the "Ensign Red" at the stern in the same way as on the _Naseby_, and thus it was that this flag, having become established by usage as the national ensign, was then confirmed in its position by the proclamation of the King.

Further confirmation of its use is given by the medals issued in 1665 by Charles II., which he granted to his followers in recognition of service. One of these is given in fig. 21. On the reverse is a ship in full sail. On the flag at the mainmast head are the letters "C.R.," being the abbreviation of CAROLUS REX, and intended to indicate that the flag was the Royal Standard; at the bow the two-crossed Jack, and at the stern the Red Ensign with the St. George Jack in the upper corner.

The place of distinction at the stern had been occupied, as under Charles I., by the Royal Standard of the reigning kings. To this position the Commonwealth ensign had been installed as being the ensign of the State, and then by the unpremeditated transition at the "Restoration" the Red Ensign succeeded to the post of honour as the ensign of the nation.

The story of this flag again exemplifies its harmony with the peculiar genius of the British constitution, for it attained to its position, not by a single verbal enactment, but by force of unwritten usage, and its gradual acceptance by the will of the people, after which it was confirmed by the Act of the sovereign.

It will also be noted in the drawing of the _Naseby_, and on the medal, that the Royal Standard of Charles II. is shown flying at the main. This was the position at which it had, under previous sovereigns, been displayed by the Lord High Admiral of the Navy to indicate his rank. The Earl of Warwick, who was Lord High Admiral under Charles I., continued to fly it at the main even after the death of the King; but when Warwick was dismissed from his post by the Commonwealth, the Royal Standard was no longer used as the distinction flag of the Royal High Admiral. When the Commonwealth ended and a new King returned, it was again raised to the place where it had been displayed by the last Royalist admiral.

At the present day the Royal Standard, being the personal flag of the Sovereign, is only shown to indicate the royal presence or that of some member of the Royal Family, or raised in recognition of some special royal day. On shipboard it is raised on the mainmast immediately the royal personages come alongside, and is lowered the moment that they leave, the national ensign being still displayed at the stern.

It was the St. George cross which had been placed in the upper corner of the Commonwealth ensign; from here it had passed into the Ensign Red of Charles II., thereafter borne at the stern on both merchantmen and men-of-war. In the paramount ensign of the nation the single-cross English Jack was thus carried from 1648 to 1707, when its place in the national ensign was taken for the first time by a two-crossed Jack, and then only by the first _real_ Union Jack, the Jack of Queen Anne.

In all the series of changes mentioned in this and the previous chapter direct evidence is given that the "commonly called Union Jack" of James was only an "additional" flag; that having been considered the "King's Jack," it had not officially displaced the local national Jacks, and that, although it had superseded them as a single flag on the Royal Navy, it had never been introduced into the paramount and national ensign of the nation.

Such, then, was the origin and evolution of the Ensign Red, the national ensign of the British people, and which formed, with the changes made in the Jack in the subsequent reigns of Queen Anne and George III., the basis of the present "Red Ensign" of the British Empire.

Our national ensign tells us how from its very origin it signified the progress of constitutional rule. The Royal Standard of Charles I. at the stern was the expression of absolute rule by the King without the control of Parliament; the Commonwealth Ensign told of the absolute rule of Parliament without the King; the Ensign Red at the stern recorded the coming of constitutional government by both King and Parliament; and so our Red Ensign still tells the story of British constitutional rule by sovereign and people, represented in their united power by this Union Ensign flying at the stern of all British ships and over all the British lands which bear it united allegiance.