of their adversaries; hence the gonfanon was a mark of dignity. From the Bayeux tapestry it would appear that a standard was borne near the person of the commander-in-chief, which is described by the writer of the period as a gonfanon. Wace says:

"The barons had gonfanons,

The knights had pennons."

The Conqueror's gonfanon, depicted on the Bayeux tapestry,1 has three tails, and is white, within a blue border charged with a cross, The same charge also occurs on the mast of his ship, though in a square form. Wace says, Harold's standard was a noble one, а dragon sparkling with gems and precious stones.

or.

One of the banners of the Bayeux tapestry, of which an illustration is given, represents a bird within a semicircle of rays, and has usually been called a Danish war-flag, the bird supposed to be the raven sacred to Odin; and Herr Worsac 2 adopts the opinion that it is the danbrog or war-flag of the Scandinavian vikings. He goes on to state that the banners (or marks) of the ancient Danes were in times of peace light-colored, but in war times of a blood color, with a black raven on a red ground. This is entirely against the supposition that the flag of the tapestry represents the raven of Denmark, since, after the lapse of six hundred years, the bird remains of a pale blue color, upon what appears to have been white, and it is represented with closed wings, a peaceful and dovelike attitude. There is, therefore, reason for a belief that this singular and interesting banner bears a dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit, within a nimbus of rays.3 Speed informs us that the Duke of Normandy, "with three hundred ships fraught full of his Normans, Flemings, Frenchmen, and Britaignes, weighed anchor." In this list there is no mention of Danes or Norwegians, and there is good reason for supposing that no soldiers of Scandinavian nations were present in the army of the Conqueror.

The strength of these nations had invaded England in the north, and been subdued in a sanguinary and decisive battle, only four days before the Duke of Normandy landed at Hastings. The probability, therefore, is that neither Dane nor Danish banner was in the Norman army.3

The STANDARD was a flag somewhat resembling an elongated pennon. It did not, like the banner, indicate a distinctive mark of honor, 1 Retrospective Review - Sir Harris Nicolas. 2 The Danes in England.

3 Gilbert J. French. Banners of the Bayeux Tapestry, 1857.

but might be borne by any noble commander irrespective of his rank, the only restriction being that of its length. A king's standard was eight or nine yards long; a duke's, seven; a marquis's, six and a half; an earl's, six; a viscount's, five and a half; a baron's, five; a banneret's, four and a half; and a knight's, four.

The banner was always charged with the arms of its owner; but on the standard only the crest or badge and motto were exhibited; the field being composed of the livery colors. When the livery of a family consisted of more than one color, as the Tudor sovereigns, for example, who bore argent and vert,-the standard was always parted per fess of such colors. Next the staff was emblazoned the cross of St. George; then followed the badge or badges, repeated an indefinite number of times, surmounted by narrow bands; on which was inscribed the motto, or cri-de-guerre; the whole being usually surrounded by a roll of silk composed of the livery colors.

The charges were so depicted upon the standard as to appear correct when it was developed by the wind in a horizontal position. On account of its size, it was not generally carried in the hand, like a banner, but the staff to which it was attached was fixed in the ground, -hence its name. The Royal standards of the present time are really square banners, blazoned with the royal arms over the entire field.

THE EARLY USE OF ENSIGNS AND COLORS ON
BOARD SHIP.

According to Wilkinson and Bonomi, there are no flags depicted upon Egyptian or Assyrian representations of vessels; but in lieu of

a flag certain devices are embroidered on the sail, such as a phenix, flowers, &c., whence the sail bearing the device was called nes, or ensign.

The utility of vanes and pennons must have been soon suggested as a means of ascertaining the direction of the wind. The

blazoning them with the arms of the owner or the name of the vessel naturally followed. Livy mentions that Scipio, B.C. 202, was met by a ship of the Carthaginians, "garnished with infules, ribbands, and white flags of peace, and beset with branches of olives," &c. A medal of the time of Antiochus VII., king of Syria, B.C. 123, shows a galley without mast or sail, having a swallow-tailed flag, not

The

slung upon a spreader, but hoisted on an ensign-staff abaft. Prophet Ezekiel, whose prophecies date 600 years B.C., metaphorically comparing the maritime city of Tyre to one of the ships by which they carried on their commerce, speaks of her banner as made of fine linen.

Pliny tells us that the sterns and prows of trading vessels and menof-war, without exception, were decorated with colors; and at Athens, Corinth, and Sicyon the profession of ship-painters founded the famous school of painters in those cities.

At first, merely to preserve the wood, the ship-builders covered every part of the vessel exposed to the action of the air and water with a coating of pitch; but this sombre and uniform tint soon wearied the eye. A more brilliant color, prepared with wax, was painted over the pitch; the costlier class of ships glistened in all the splendor of white, ultramarine, and vermilion ; while pirates and occasionally men-of-war were covered with a coat of green paint, which, blending with the color of the sea, prevented them from being seen at a distance. Gildings glistened on the vessels of the rich, and the sculptor's chisel added busts and figures to the decoration of their bows and sterns. Even in this respect the Middle Ages still followed the traditions of antiquity.

The decorations of ships varied according to the caprice of owners and the fashion of the times. The Saracen dromon boarded and taken by Richard Coeur de Lion had one side colored green, and the other yellow. The Genoese at first painted their ships green; but in 1242, when they were at war with the Pisans, they colored them white, spotted with vermilion crosses; that is, "red crosses on a silver ground, which resembled the arms of Monsieur Saint-Georges." Red was the color generally adopted for ships' hulls in the sixteenth century, though a pattern in black and white was sometimes added, and sometimes the ground was painted black, and the pattern only vermilion. In 1525, when Francis I., made prisoner at the battle of Pavia, was taken to Barcelona, the six galleys which carried the captive sovereign and his suite were painted entirely black, from the top of the masts to the water-line. The Knights of St. Stephen, in the fifteenth century, hid the brilliant hues of the principal galley of their squadron, and painted its sails, pennants, awnings, oars, and hull with black, and swore never to alter the sombre hue till their order had recaptured from the Turks a galley lost by the Pisans. The Normans, or men of the North, were as fond of these brilliant standards as the nations of the Mediterranean: when they sailed on a warlike expedition, or when they celebrated a victory over pirates, they covered

their vessels with flags. The poet Benoît de Sante-More tells us that it was in this fashion, covered with seven hundred banners, that Rollo brought his fleet back up the Seine to Meulan. The Middle Ages made use of all kinds of fanciful decorations for their vessels. During

French Man-of-war of the Sixteenth Century.

From the Collection of Drawings in the National Library, Paris.

the Renaissance, this taste was re

newed, and was

cus

an improvement
upon the
toms of antiquity,
whence it drew
its inspirations,
and on those of
the thirteenth
century.

A galley, says the learned M.

Jal," was in those

f days a species of

jewel, and was handed over for embellishment to

the hands of gen

ius, as a piece of metal was given to Benvenuto Cellini."

Sculptors, painters, and poets combined their talents to adorn a ship's stern. A striking example of this artistic refinement in naval ornamentation was the Spanish galley constructed in 1568 by order of Philip II., for his brother, Don John of Austria, to whom he confided the command of the fleet intended to fight the barbarous Moorish States of Africa. The vessel's cut-water was painted white, and emblazoned with the royal arms of Spain and with the personal arms of Don John. The prince being a Knight of the Golden Fleece, the history of Jason and of the good ship Argo was represented in colored sculpture on the stern, above the rudder. This pictured poem was accompanied with four symbolical statues, - Prudence, Temperance, Power, and Justice, above which floated angels carrying the symbols of the theological virtues. On one side of the poop might be seen Mars the avenger, Mercury the eloquent, and Ulysses stopping his ears against the seductions of the Sirens; on the other, Pallas, Alexander the Great, Argus, and Diana. Between these were inserted pictures, which conveyed either a moral lesson for the benefit

of the young admiral, or a delicate eulogium on Charles V., his father, or on Philip II., his brother. All these emblems were chefs-d'œuvre of drawing and sculpture, which the brilliancy of their gold, azure, and vermilion settings tended to enhance.1

The illuminated copies of Froissart's Chronicles,' in the British Museum, present many curious illustrations of the manner of carrying flags at sea. Some of the vessels have a man at arms in the top holding on a staff the banner of the nation to which it belongs. One of the illu

minations of the time of Henry VI. (1430-61) represents a ship with shields slung along her topsides, a very ancient practice, which was continued by painting the arms and devices on the bulwarks, and from whence come the figure-heads and stern carvings of modern ships. Two trumpeters at the stern have standards blazoned with fleurs-de-lis, attached to their trumpets, and a similar standard is displayed from her masthead. In some instances, the banners of ships were consecrated. Baldwin, Earl of Flanders (1204), had one, and William the Conqueror, when he invaded England (1066), hoisted at the masthead of the Mora, the ship that conveyed him to its shores, 1 Le Croix's Military and Religious Life in the Middle Ages.