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Vexillology and Heraldry Series #2: Flag Types
This is the second in our series on Vexillology, and it will be the first substantive one as the first was seeing if anyone had suggestions for what should be covered. Vexillology being related to heraldry, I would like to start off with a bit of heraldry in the common culture.
Writing about history as I do, I often find myself tuning into channels on YouTube that have historical content or snippets, like Claire Ridgway’s This Day in Tudor History. Today’s entry caught my ear, since she mentioned that Sir Francis Drake’s The Golden Hind had originally had another name, but had been renamed to honor one of the investors in the voyage when the vessel made it into the Pacific. That investor was Sir Christopher Hatton, and Ms. Ridgway’s statement in her video was that his “coat of arms” was a golden hind.
Now, you can see Sir Christopher’s coat of arms on his Wikipedia page. You will see a golden chevron and golden sheaves of wheat, but there is no hind. With a little further checking, I found that the ship was renamed after the animal in his crest, which is a part of the full heraldic achievement that hangs out above the shield or escutcheon, which most people refer to as a coat of arms. One can see the crest and motto depicted on the hind end of a reproduction ship pictured on The Golden Hind’s Wikipedia page.
So, what has this to do with vexillology? Ms. Ridgway’s use of the term “coat of arms” meant something very specific to me. It is obvious that it must have meant something different to her, or that she was deliberately using the term in a looser way, figuring her audience would understand the coat of arms as the full heraldic achievement. Whatever her knowledge or motives, it was not how a herald would be likely to use the term, if a herald used the term at all. Why? Because words mean things, and when we are in a technical field, we have our defined terminology. Vexillology is such a technical field, and today, I will be going over some of those terms.
Types of Flags
The main purposes of flags is for identification and communication purposes. On a field of battle, it is important to know who is who and where the rallying points are. At sea, it is important to be able to tell friend from foe. The very first “flags” were objects of various sorts held up on poles. (The modern technical term is vexilloid.) Subsidiary purposes developed over time, such as to identify governmental buildings, show patriotism, show the multi-national identity of corporations, and so forth. Besides what developed into national and other identifying flags, there are also other sorts of flags that developed, such as signal flags.
The types are either based on shapes or usages. There are two technical terms that will be used within these definitions: Hoist and Fly. The Hoist is the side of the flag that is tied to something like a flagpole. The Fly is the side that is flying free. Picturing the US flag, Old Glory or The Stars and Stripes, the side with the stars is the hoist and the side with only stripes is the fly.
I also freely admit to stealing the basic information from Wikipedia’s page on Vexillology, although I have heavily edited it and provided the pictures. That page does have more types of flags, which you will seldom see or care about, and links to much longer explanations of each.
Banderole or bannerol
A small flag or streamer carried on the lance of a knight, or a long narrow flag flown from the mast-head of a ship.
Banner
Generically, a synonym for a flag of any kind, and in heraldry specifically, a square or rectangular flag whose design is identical to the shield of a coat of arms; also denominated a banner of arms.
In the full heraldic achievement of the old Kingdom of Scotland, we see the royal banner to the left and the national flag (The Scottish Saltire or Cross of Saint Andrew) to the right. The banner mimics the escutcheon below it.
Burgee
A distinguishing flag of a recreational boating organization, which commonly has the shape of a pennant. (The Pennant is defined below.) While not technically a burgee, but rather a swallowtail pennant, the Ohio State Flag has come to be called the Ohio Burgee.
Civil ensign, merchant flag, or merchant ensign
A version of a national flag that is flown on civil ships to denote their nationality.
Civil flag
A version of a national flag that is flown on civil installations or craft.
Colo(u)r
The flag of a military unit.
Courtesy flag or courtesy ensign
A flag that is flown on a visiting ship in foreign waters as a sign of respect for the foreign nation.
Ensign
The flag of any ship or military unit, or, generically, a synonym for any kind of flag. On ships, an ensign is normally flown at the stern. There is a military rank of ensign, which was originally a low-level officer in training who got to hold the colors of a military unit. In other words, the kid would be the chief target on the field of battle, young and expendable. The rank has evolved significantly, and in the US armed forces is now the junior officer’s grade in the US Navy and Coast Guard, equivalent to a second lieutenant in the other services.
Fanion
A small flag that the French military uses. See guidon, color, and standard in this list.
Gonfalon, gonfanon, or gonfalone
A heraldic flag that is suspended and pendent from a crossbar. It often has multiple streamers or tails hanging down from it, and has been a charge in heraldry, such as in the Counts Palatine of Tübingen and related families.
Guidon
A small flag that a military unit flies; in Scottish heraldry, a smaller version of the standard (see below).
Jack
A flag flown from a short jackstaff at the bow of a ship. The history of the US naval jack is interesting.
Pennon or pennant
A flag that is wider at the hoist than at the fly. These have long been used for colleges and universities to be waved at sporting events. They can come to a single point in a triangle, be cut off on the end as a parallelogram, or have a swallowtail design, such as the Ohio State flag mentioned and shown earlier.
Rank flag or distinguishing flag
A flag that a superior naval officer flies on his flagship or headquarters. In the US, at the very least, this also applies to general officers in the other services. There are also special flags for most of the departments and agencies and can be flags for ranking members of the departments, such as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the various chiefs of staffs of the services. (We have more flags than you can shake a stick at.)
Signal flag
A flag or pennant that communicates or signals information that is not heraldic.
Standard
In heraldry, a long tapering flag that bears heraldic badges and the motto of the armiger; it may also refer to a military color that cavalry units fly or a royal standard of a monarch or member of a royal family.
State flag or governmental flag
A version of a national flag that represents and may be restricted in use only to the national government and agencies thereof; the design of many state flags consists of the civil flag (see above) defaced with a coat of arms or other heraldic charge. (Note for denizens of the US, this is different from what we mean when we say state flag.)
Vexilloid
A flag-like object that is used in a similar symbolic manner as a flag, but that differs from a conventional flag in some way. Several of the other items in this list are considered vexilloids, such as the gonfalon and the vexillum. Or, for another instance, the Carthaginian Standard:
Vexillum
A flag-like object that is suspended from a horizontal crossbar; the Ancient Roman army used it as its military standard.
War flag, military flag, or battle flag
A variant of a national flag that a nation’s military forces use on land. One of the most interesting is the war flag of the Philippines, which is the national flag turned upside down.
War flag of the Philippines
National flag of the Philippines
Conclusion for Today
These are the terms for the major types of flags. As mentioned above, there are a few other types, but unless one is a full-on flag fanatic, you’ll never need to know about those sub-categories. Our next installment will cover terms for parts of the flags as we further expand our vexillological vocabulary.
Any questions? Any comments? Any additions or well-loved examples?
Published in History
I apparently forgot Ricochet’s favorite type of flag.
Not in Ohio it hasn’t.
Well, you’re probably on a first-name basis with it.
The first and only place I’ve ever heard burgee was from you in the PIT. In school, it was always called a double pennant.
Yeah, it’s probably called The Ohio Burgee.
Very interesting! This is the flag of the Chicago Yacht Cub, my dad’s club, where I spent a lot of my childhood:
The burgee of the CYC is a triangular blue pennant with a white triangle, charged with a red star, placed along the hoist and extending as a sharp triangle to the burgee’s point. The CYC adopted the burgee of the Lincoln Park Yacht Club, following the merger of the two clubs in 1920.
They of course have an image of the flag over the door:
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And the boats in the harbor (Monroe St. Harbor) display their flags according to club rules.
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This guy is displaying various pennants his boat has won, including 3rd place in the annual Mackinac Island Race (dad was on the Race Committee), and others:
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My little sister won several Yacht Club trophies! Dad gave her her own little sailboat
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From Flags of Yacht Clubs https://www.seaflags.us/yachting/yc.html:
That is interesting.
Mostly square. The English banners were assigned by the sovereign (or whoever was in charge of the royal standard, if the sovereign wasn’t present) on the field of battle by cutting the tail off of the pennon of the knight in charge of a body of knights. This made that knight a knight banneret, a step up in the hierarchy from knight bachelor (who was only in charge of his own retinue). One was then below a baron, but above a knight bachelor. Getting a banner especially made after that was up to the sovereign.
Eh, not really.
Well, how about:
And the knight banneret later sort of led to the baronet. (That and a need for cash by the sovereign.)
Ehh … mebbe. Could have been an early Renaissance speling ishew.
I’m still waiting for someone to get the quarantine joke.
India. Golf Echo Tango. India Tango.
Before I can get the quarantine joke, I have to find the quarantine joke.
You’d be quarantined if you did.
Like Percival. Why do you think he has to wear those shiny britches?
US Army units have guidons down to Company level.
At any change of command, the outgoing Commander takes the unit from the guidon bearer, and passes it to the unit’s senior enlisted soldier, who is on his right, as the Commander’s right arm man. This signifies relinquishing Command and all of command’s inherent responsibilities. Then the senior enlisted (so, for the Army, the First Sergeant or Command Sergeant Major) passes the guidon to the to the incoming Commander, meaning that he accepts the Command and all its inherent responsibilities, and then passes it back to the guidon bearer.
If the outgoing Commander was a good one, and one with whom you’ve walked a hard road, it can be a very emotional event.
Yes, sir. There is a lot of tradition wrapped up in flags of all sorts, but military flags tend to pull a little more weight.
The signal flag Arahant included is the flag representing the letter L. “Lima” in words. It is the single signal flag that a ship flies if it is quarantined.
(At sea, a single Lima indicates that the ship wants you to stop at once.)
I have to be honest. I started skimming when I realized it was alphabetical and I was only on the ‘C’s.
True in port. When underway it is flown from the masthead.
True.
So a navy commissioning pennant should more properly be called a Banderole or bannerol?
Eh, no, but could be. Commissioning pennant is the main term used. It is more that Banderole or bannerol are alternative names, rather than more proper names.
Similar pennants have also been called streamers or pennoncells.
Part 3 is up:
http://ricochet.com/690732/vexillology-and-heraldry-series-3-parts-of-flags-and-related-terms/