Chapter XXI: The Proportions of the Crosses

The division of proportions allotted to the crosses and to the white border of St. George in the Union Jack has hitherto been treated solely by inference and also by comparison of the "drafts" selected and regulations which were issued for the construction of the flag. It may be well now to revert to some actual examples showing the details of flags early in use, which will further substantiate the reasons which led to the proportionate division of the spaces when the Union Jack of 1707 was altered in 1801, and our present Union Jack was designed to record the addition of Ireland to the Union.

It has sometimes been stated that the red cross and white border of St. George indicate the presence of two crosses, the impression, formed by those who, as they admit, were "better acquainted with heraldic definitions than historic expression," being that they give the appearance of a red English cross placed over a white French cross.

As reason for this, they point out that King James I. and all his successors until King George III. had been styled "Kings of Great Britain, France and Ireland." The successive Union Jacks had been created during the existence of this royal title, and, therefore, it is suggested that two crosses had been placed upon this part of the flag, one being the white cross of France, upon the face of which the red cross of St. George had been laid to thus present the ancient and long-past union of the kingdoms of France and England under the one sovereignty.

The white cross of France, however, was not a straight-sided cross, such as that of St. George, but one of Maltese shape, being wider at the ends than at the centre.

An instance of this flag is given in the copy (55) of the flag shown on the mainmast of a French caravel of the sixteenth century, as drawn in an old manuscript illustration.[140]

[140] Caravelle Francaise tirée des "Ouvres Pilote du Havre," MSS. du XVI. Siecle.

It is quite evident that the rectangular white border to the St. George could not be formed by a cross of this shape, and, therefore, this suggestion for the origin of the white border must be taken as erroneous.

Further, it was not unreasonable, seeing that the Royal Standard is composed of the personal arms of the sovereign, that the successive kings and queens of England should have continued the _fleur-de-lis_ in one of the quarterings of their royal arms, as a sign of family succession, and as evidence of personal claim by descent to the old sovereignty of France; but the British nations brought into union did not themselves claim any such sovereignty, Calais, the last foothold of England in France, won by Edward III. in his claim to the succession of the throne of France, having been lost in 1558 under Queen Mary. There would, therefore, be no corresponding reason for inserting the French cross in the union flag, nor any historical connection which would justify its being so used.

In the illustrations given of the two-crossed Jack of 1606 (Pl. III., fig. 2, and cut 16), the white saltire of St. Andrew is represented as of the full size of a wide saltire cross; so also in the Jack of Queen Anne, 1707 (Pl. V., fig. 1), in which the broad white of St. George was first given its full width.

This is the proportion of size which is given to it in heraldic drawings, and the way in which it is usually drawn in later representations, the white saltire cross of St. Andrew being thus shown broader than the white border to St. George; but the earlier practice in the actual making of flags appears to have been different.

In the allotment of the proportions in the new three-crossed Jack of 1801, when the cross of St. Patrick was added to the flag, it has been pointed out that the white border to St. George was continued in its full width, as in the previous flag of 1707, and was given the same width as each of the two national crosses, which were then first placed side by side, and between which the saltire space was then divided.

It will be interesting to show, by reference to early original documents and flags, that this was the same equality as had previously existed between the cross of St. Andrew and the border of St. George in the old two-crossed Jacks of James I. and of Queen Anne.

In the time of William III. it appears that objections had been raised in England to the using of the King's two-crossed Jack by merchant ships of the American colonies, permission to do this having been granted to the colonial ships by the Governors of the colonies.

The English Lords Justices in Council at Whitehall, on 31st July, 1701, considered these objections to the using of what their report termed "the King's Colours," and thereupon issued an order that the ships of the colonies shall

"wear no other Jack than that hereafter mentioned, namely, that worne by His Majesty's ships, with the Distinction of a _White Escutcheon_ in the middle thereof, and that the said Mark of Distinction may extend itself to one-half of the depth of the Jack, and one-third part of the Fly thereof, according to the _sample hereunto annexed_."

The Lords Commissioners of Trade were accordingly instructed to write to the Governors of His Majesty's plantations,

"that they do oblige the commanders of such merchant ships to which they grant commissions to _wear no other Jack_ than according to what is proposed."

An exact tracing of the "_sample hereunto annexed_," taken from the original manuscript report,[141] which was sent to the then Governor of the colony of Massachusetts, is shown in fig. 56, and in colours in Pl. III., fig. 3.

[141] Archives Rooms, Massachusetts. Vol. 62, Fol. 449-490. Boston.

This flag is the Jack of James I., which is still described in this report of July, 1701, as it had been of old, as the "King's Colours." It will be noted that the white cross of St. Andrew is a narrow cross, and that the white border to St. George is of the same width as the St. Andrew's cross.

In the centre of the Jack is the "white escutcheon" described in the report, to be used on the colonial flags. This is the first instance of the creation of a special flag for the overseas colonies, and reference to it will be made in a subsequent chapter. Similar instructions were sent to the Governor of the colony of New York in 1709, and the flag is repeated with an escutcheon in the same form.

(From an old Dutch sheet of flags.)]

A coloured sheet, "Schouw-Cart Aller Scheeps Vlaggen" (Examples of all ships' flags), was published in 1711 by P. Schenk, at Amsterdam, "correcting errors in previous editions." In an old atlas[142] of maps, which were bound together in "old Amsterdam," in 1763, there is included one of these sheets. Among the flags represented on it is the "Jack of England" (57), showing the white of St. George of the same width as the St. Andrew's cross.

[142] New York Colonial Society Manuscripts, New York.

References to many drawings of Union Jacks, as used on the American side of the Atlantic, show similar proportions, of which some examples may be given.

Fig. 58 is a copy of the Jack on the bowsprit of a three-masted ship shown in a large three-sheet engraving, entitled "A Prospect of Charleston, Carolina," published by R. Roberts, June 9th, 1739.[143]

[143] In Emmet Collection, Lennox Library, New York.

On page 187, a view of the port of New York (44) shows the flag as used in 1770. Both on the ship and on the King's fort is the narrow St. Andrew.

Fig. 59 is a portion of an old engraving of the combat between the French frigate, _La Surveillante_, and the English frigate, _Quebec_, 6th October, 1779.[144] This was one of the most gallantly contested actions of the many engagements between single ships during the progress of the war. The two frigates met in the English Channel, and flying at one another at sight they battled hand to hand. All their masts had been carried away, both ships were on fire, more than half of the crew on either side had been killed or wounded. All the boats except one on the French ship had been destroyed, when the _Quebec_ blew up, and Captain Farmer, her commander, went down in her with nearly all who were left alive of his crew. The French captain, de Coudic, who was himself severely wounded, received the forty-three survivors, with a seaman's gallantry, on board the _Surveillante_, saying that "as their ship had perished with her colours flying, they would be treated, not as prisoners, but as brothers rescued from shipwreck."

[144] In Collection of Chateau de Ramezay, Montreal.

The white flag with the _fleurs-de-lis_ is at the stern of the French ship, and at the stern of the English ship is the red ensign on which the St. Andrew cross and the white border of St. George are still shown of equal width.

In addition to these instances from illustrations, reference to actual flags of these early periods, and which are still in existence, proves that the Union flags carried by regiments of the British army were made on these same proportions.

The drawing (60) is reproduced from a photograph of the King's colour of the 7th Royal Fusiliers, which is stated to have been obtained at the capture of Fort Chambly, in 1775, and is now deposited in the chapel of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, and shows its present appearance.[145]

[145] Avery: "History of the United States," Burrows Bros.: Cleveland, Ohio.

A further example is given in the drawing (61) made from a regimental flag[146] surrendered by the British forces at the capitulation of Yorkton, by Lord Cornwallis, on 20th October, 1781. This is the "King's colour" of one of the British regiments. These flags had most probably been given to the regiments at much earlier dates, and had still continued in use. In both the cross of St. Andrew and the border to St. George are of the same width.

[146] Now in the Museum at Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.A.

These instances could not all be incorrect, and their similarity shows that the form and proportions of the Union Jack of James I., as given in the Massachusetts document, were those which were subsequently used in the actual flags officially displayed at sea and on shore.

In all these Union Jacks the white of St. George is of the same width as the cross of St. Andrew, and from these evidences of the form of the flag, derived from such varied sources, we may fairly conclude that the allotment to the white border to St. George in the Union Jack, of a proportion equal to that then given to a national cross, had not only early authority, but also wide usage.

These were two-crossed Jacks. When the time came, in 1800, for the construction of the three-crossed Union Jack, the designers of the "_draft_" and the committee of selection would have been acquainted with the details of those previous flags. It is, indeed, stated that the various existing flags were submitted for their inspection. When, therefore, they gave the broad white border to St. George the same width as that of each of the crosses of St. Andrew and St. Patrick, namely, as the instructions stated, one-third of the red cross, they were only continuing the width and proportion allotted to it in the Union Jacks which had preceded, and with the actual examples to which they were accustomed.

The broad white of St. George, as we now see it, was not dependent upon any heraldic description, but is an heirloom of national descent, and was evidently continued by the designers of 1801 in its full proportion of the Union flag, not only to represent, as previously, the white ground of the English Jack, but also for the additional reason that it represents the white ground of the Irish Jack, which they were then adding to the Union flag. By this method the proportionate representation of the Jacks of the three kingdoms was intended and justified.

Another objection raised to the proportions of the present flag, by those on the side of the heraldic interpretation of the "blazon," is that the individual crosses are of less width in proportion to the size of the flag than they should be according to heraldic rules, and that, therefore, the dividing of the flag is incorrect.

We need again to be reminded that the flag makers were not simply placing three "crosses" upon a single flag, but were joining three "Jacks" into one Union Jack; yet it may be satisfactory to see that in the doing of this they have really fulfilled the rules of heraldry.

According to the received rules of strict heraldry, in emblazoning a shield or a banner, a cross should be given one-third, and a saltire be given one-fifth of the width. On a shield this measurement of width is taken across the top, and on a banner or a flag it is measured perpendicularly along the flagstaff.

Applying this rule and measurement to our present Union Jack, and taking, as in fact they are, the red cross of St. George and its two borders as _one cross_, and the two saltire crosses of St. Andrew and St. Patrick and their two borders as _one saltire_, we shall find that the heraldic rules have been actually complied with by the official "draft" and by the regulations (Fig. 51), and that the combined cross is _one-third_, and the combined saltire _one-fifth_, of the width of the flag.

SIZES OF THE CROSSES ACCORDING TO THE ADMIRALTY REGULATIONS.

ONE COMBINED CROSS:

Red Cross of St. George, 1/5 of width 3/15
Upper white border, 1/3 of 3/15 1/15
Lower white border, 1/3 of 3/15 1/15
----
5/15 = 1/3 (One-third.)

ONE COMBINED SALTIRE:

Red of St. Patrick, 1/3 of 3/15 1/15
White border of St. Patrick, 1/6 of 3/15 1/30
Broad white of St. Andrew, 1/2 of 3/15 3/30
----
6/30 = 1/5 (One-fifth.)

It may be convenient to state these proportions as they would be in a Union Jack, of which the width on the flagstaff is 5 feet:

Red of St. George, 1/5 of 5 feet 1 ft. 0 in.
Upper white border 4 in.
Lower white border 4 in.
-----------
1 ft. 8 in. or 1/3 of 5 ft.

Red of St. Patrick 4 in.
White of St. Patrick 2 in.
Broad white of St. Andrew 6 in.
-----------
1 ft. 0 in. or 1/5 of 5 ft.

It is possible that this form of compliance with the heraldic rules was fully intended; yet, even were it not so, it is at all events a happy coincidence which might be taken as a conformity to these rules, and thus the flag which has been confirmed in its shape by the usage and glory of centuries should be cheerfully accepted by the heraldically inclined as being completely satisfactory.

It is not to the point for them to say it might look better if it were made some other way, for that would be merely a matter of opinion; or that if the heralds had had the making of it they would have made it differently, but it was not of their making, that having been settled by the Council in the selected draft of which the heralds worded a description, or, as some state, a misdescription; but it cannot fail to be admitted by all, that, as now made, it has been made, in all its parts, in the way ordered by the successive Councils, in whom authority was vested for its designing and issue.

The proportions of the crosses and of the borders of our Union Jack are thus not only technically correct, but, of still higher importance, they also preserve in detailed sequence the historical proportions of the three nations and of the three national Jacks, which were, in 1801, joined together in completed union.

Our noble flag, with its centuries of loyal history, might well, therefore, be held sacred and free from any objections on theoretical proportions.