Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/289

 FLAG 277 figure of a hand in silver, below rouml or oval discs, with figures of Mars or Minerva, or in later times portraits of emperors or eminent generals (fig. 3). Figures of animals, as the wolf, horse, bear, and others, were borne, and it was not until after the time of Marius that the eagle became the special standard of the legion ; the vexillum was a square piece of cloth fastened to a piece of wood fixed crosswise to the end of a spear, somewhat resembling the medueval gonfalon. The labarum of later emperors was similar in shape and fixing, and after Constantino bore the monogram of Christ (fig. 5, A). The Koman standards were guarded with religious veneration in the temples at Rome ; and the reverence of this people for their ensigns was in proportion to their superiority to other nations in all that tends to success in war. It was not unusual for a general to order a standard to be cast into the ranks of the enemy, to add zeal to the onset of his soldiers by exciting them to recover what to them was per haps the most sacred thing the earth possessed. The Roman soldier swore by his ensign. Although in earlier times drapery was occasionally used for standards, and was often appended as ornament to those of other material, it was probably not until the Middle Ages that it became the special material of military and other Fro. 3. Roman Standards. ensigns ; and perhaps not until the practice of heraldry had attained to definite nomenclature and laws does anything appear which is in the modern sense a flag. The Bayeux tapestry, commemorating the Norman con quest of England, contains abundant representations of the flags of the period borne upon the lances of the knights of William s army. They appear small in size, and pointed, frequently indented into three points, and bearing pales, crosses, and roundels. One, a Saxon pennon, is triangular, and roundly indented into four points ; one banner is of segmental shape and rayed, and bears the figure of a bird which has been supposed to represent the raven of the war- flag of the Scandinavian vikings (fig. 4). These flags and their charges are probably not really significant of the people bearing them ; for even admitting that personal devices were used at the time, the figures may have been placed without studied intention, and so give the general figure only of such flags as happened to have come under the observation of the artists. The figures are probably rather ornamental and symbolic than strictly heraldic, that is, personal devices, for the same insignia do not appear on the shields of the several bearers. The dragon standard which he is known to have borne is placed near Harold ; but similar figures appear on the shields of Norman warriors, which fact has induced a writer in the Journal of the Archrcological Association (vol. xiii. p. 113) to suppose FIG 4. Pennons and Standards from the Bayeaux Tapestry. that, on the spears of the Saxons, they represent only trophies torn from the shields of the Normans, and that they are not ensigns at all. Standards in form much resembling these dragons appear on the arch of Titus and the Trajan column as the standards of barbarians. At the battle of the Standard in 1138, the English standard was formed of the mast of a ship, having a silver pyx at the top, and bearing three sacred banners, dedicated severally to St Peter, St John of Beverley, and St Wilfred of Ripon, the whole being fastened to a wheeled vehicle. Representations of three-pointed, cross-bearing pennons are found on seals of as early date as the Norman era, and the warriors in the first crusade bore three-pointed pennons. It is possible that the three points with the three roundels and cross, which so often appear on these banners, have some reference to the faith of the bearers in the Trinity and in the crucifixion, for in contemporary representations of Christ s resurrection and descent into hell he bears a three- pointed banner with cross above. The triple indentation so common on the flags of this period has been supposed to be the origin of one of the honourable ordinaries the pile. The powerful aid of religion seems ever to have been sought to give sanctity to national flags, and the origin of many can be traced to a sacred banner, as is notably the case with the oriflamme of France. The banner of William the Conqueror was sent to him by the pope, and the early English kings fought under the banners of Edward the Con fessor and of St Edmund; while the clumsily blended crosses of St George, St Andrew, and St Patrick still form the national ensign of the three united kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, whose patron saints they severally were. More secular characters were, however, not uncommon. In 1 244 Henry III. gave order for a &quot; dragon to be made in fashion of a standard, of red silk sparkling all over with fine gold, the tongue of which should be made to resemble burning fire and appear to be continually moving, and the eyes of sapphires or other suitable stones.&quot; Sieve of Carlaverock, an Anglo-Norman poem of the 14th century, describes the heraldic bearings on the banners of