Part 72 (1/2)
Patrick, in the first quarter_, although throughout it is counterchanged.
The words in italic are important, for when the order is reversed, then that particular flag is flying upside down.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 776.--The Union Flag of 1707.]
The mode of procedure in creating flags has been much the same from one reign to another. Briefly it is this: The Sovereign seeks the advice of, and receives a report from, the Lords of the Privy Council. These councillors are ”_attended by the King of Arms and Heralds, with diverse drafts prepared by them_.” A decision being arrived at, an Order in Council, followed by a Royal Proclamation, makes known the character of the flag. In both Order and Proclamation it is usual to make reference to the verbal blazon, and to ”_the form made by our heralds_.” Thus there are three agents recognised--(1) the Sovereign, the fountain of all honours; (2) the heralds, who authoritatively blazon, outline, and register all achievements; and (3) the naval authority, as that in which are vested the duty and the power of seeing the actual bunting properly made up and properly flown. {615}
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 777.--The Union Flag of 1801.]
In keeping with this, the general mode of procedure, the Proclamations demand our attention. The Proclamation of James (1606). A high official of the College of Arms informs us that neither verbal blazon nor drawing of the first Union Flag is extant. On the other hand, in the Proclamations of 1707 and 1801 we have both blazon and drawing. The blazon has already been given of the 1801 flag (which is the one most needing a verbal blazon), and the drawings of both flags we here produce (Figs. 776 and 777). These drawings--though slightly reduced in these pages--are most careful copies of the _signed_ copies supplied to us by the official already alluded to.
In forwarding them he writes: ”_They are not drawn to scale_;” and he adds, further on, ”_they are exactly the same size as recorded in our books_.” So then we have, in these two drawings, the heralds' interpretation, _at the time_, of their own verbal blazon. Now comes the Admiralty part of the work. In the Admiralty Regulations we have a ”_Memorandum relative to the origin of the Union Flag in its present form_.” In this there is a brief history of the changes made in the flag from time to time, with quotations from the warrants, together with the verbal blazon AND two coloured drawings (Figs. 778 and 779). The Admiralty has also appended to the Memorandum the following interesting and ingeniously worked out _Table of Proportions, adapted for a flag 15 feet by 7 feet_. Presumably this table forms the basis upon which all Union Flags are made up under Admiralty supervision:--
ft. in.
The + of { St. George 1/5 } together 1/3 { 1 6 } 1/3 { Two borders 1/15 each 2/15 } { 1 0 }
{ St. Patrick 1/15 } together 1/10 { 0 6 } The of { Its border 1/30 } { 0 3 } 1/5 { St. Andrew 1/10 0 9 }
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 778.--Admiralty Pattern of 1707 Flag.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 779.--Admiralty Pattern of 1801 Flag.]
The student of heraldry will observe that this table is based on the proportions of the Ordinaries and Sub-Ordinaries figuring on the flag, as those proportions are regulated by English Rules of Armory. These rules give a cross as 1/3, a saltire as 1/5, a fimbriation about 1/20, of {616} the flag's width. By the way, we notice here, yet only to dismiss it as hypercritical, the objection taken to the employment (in the verbal blazon of 1801) of the term ”_fimbriated_.” To our mind this objection seems a storm in a teacup. Further, it is always admissible in armory to lessen the size of charges when these crowd a field, and although we are fully aware that the laws of armory are not always nor all of them applied to flags, yet there is sufficient evidence to show that the heralds and the Admiralty did recognise the cases of s.h.i.+elds and flags to be somewhat a.n.a.logous. But there are two features in _The Admiralty pattern_ which cannot but arrest the attention of all those who have made a study of armory. The one is that the sub-ordinaries, _i.e._ the fimbriations, have different proportions given to them, although they are repet.i.tions of the same sub-ordinary, and also seem guarded against such treatment by the very wording of the blazon, and by the practice usual in such cases. And the other is that, after counterchanging the saltires, the St. Patrick is attenuated by having its fimbriation taken off its own field, instead (as the common custom is) off the field of the flag.
All Warrants dealing with flags provide for their being flown _at sea_ (Queen Anne's Proclamation is apparently the first that adds ”_and land_”), and gradually reserve for the Royal Navy--or fighting s.h.i.+ps--the honour of alone bearing the Union Jack. The accompanying diagram shows at a glance the changes made by the several Proclamations. The latest word on this subject is ”The Merchant s.h.i.+pping (Colours) Act of Queen Victoria, 1894.”
This Acts sets forth among other things that--(1) ”_The red ensign usually worn by merchant s.h.i.+ps, without any defacement or modification whatsoever, is hereby declared to be the proper national colours for all s.h.i.+ps and boats belonging to any British subject, except in the case of Her Majesty's s.h.i.+ps or boats, or in the case of any other s.h.i.+p or boat for the time being allowed to wear any other national colours in {617} pursuance of a warrant from Her Majesty or from the Admiralty._ (2) _If any distinctive national colours except such red ensign, or except the Union Jack with a white border, or if any colours usually worn by Her Majesty's s.h.i.+ps, &c. ... are or is hoisted on board any s.h.i.+p ... without warrant ... for each offence ... a fine not exceeding five hundred pounds._” {618}
CHAPTER XLII
”SEIZE-QUARTIERS”
PROOF OF ANCESTRY
If any heraldic term has been misunderstood in this country, ”Seize-Quartiers” is that term. One hears ”Seize-Quartiers” claimed right and left, whereas in British armory it is only on the very rarest occasions that proof of it can be made. In England there is not, and never has been, for any purpose a real ”test” of blood. By the statutes of various Orders of Knighthood, esquires of knights of those orders are required to show that their grandparents were of gentle birth and ent.i.tled to bear arms, and a popular belief exists that Knights of Justice of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England need to establish some test of birth. The wording of the statute, however, is very loose and vague, and in fact, judging from the names and arms of some of the knights, must be pretty generally ignored. But Peer, K.G., or C.B., alike need pa.s.s no test of birth. The present state of affairs in this country is the natural outcome of the custom of society, which always recognises the wife as of the husband's status, whatever may have been her antecedents, unless the discrepancy is too glaring to be overlooked. In England few indeed care or question whether this person or that person has even a coat of arms; and in the decision of Society upon a given question as to whether this person or the other has ”married beneath himself,” the judgment results solely from the circle in which the wife and her people move. By many this curious result is claimed as an example of, and as a telling instance to demonstrate, the broad-minded superiority of the English race, as evidenced by the equality which this country concedes between t.i.tled and unt.i.tled cla.s.ses, between official and unofficial personages, between the land-owning and the mercantile communities. But such a conclusion is most superficial. We draw no distinction, and rightly so, between t.i.tled and unt.i.tled amongst the few remaining families who have held and owned their lands for many generations; but outside this cla.s.s the confusion is great, and to a close observer it is plainly enough apparent that great distinctions are drawn. But they are often mistaken ones. That the rigid and definite dividing {619} line between patrician and plebeian, which still exists so much more markedly upon the Continent, can only be traced most sketchily in this country is due to two causes--(1) the fact that in early days, when Society was slowly evolving itself, many younger sons of gentle families embarked upon commercial careers, natural family affection, because of such action, preventing a rigid exclusion from the ranks of Society of every one tainted by commerce; (2) the absence in this country of any equivalent of the patent distinguis.h.i.+ng marks ”de,” ”van,” or ”von,”
which exist among our neighbours in Europe.
The result has been that in England there is no possible way (short of specific genealogical investigation) in which it can be ascertained whether any given person is of gentle birth, and the corollary of this last-mentioned fact is that any real test is ignored. There are few families in this country, outside the Roman Catholic aristocracy (whose marriages are not quite so haphazard as are those of other people), who can show that all their sixteen great-great-grandparents were in their own right ent.i.tled to bear arms. That is the true definition of the ”Proof of Seize-Quartiers.”
In other words, to prove Seize-Quartiers you must show this right to have existed for
Self. Parents. Grand- Gt.-grand- Gt.-gt.-grand- parents. parents. parents.
1. Your Father's Father's Father's Father.
2. Your Father's Father's Father's Mother.
3. Your Father's Father's Mother's Father.
4. Your Father's Father's Mother's Mother.
5. Your Father's Mother's Father's Father.
6. Your Father's Mother's Father's Mother.
7. Your Father's Mother's Mother's Father.
8. Your Father's Mother's Mother's Mother.
9. Your Mother's Father's Father's Father.