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French ensigns
A French ensign is the flag flown at sea to identify a vessel as French. Several such ensigns have existed over the years as well as terrestrial flags based on the ensign motif.
The current French ensign is not identical to the flag of France. Though both are blue, white and red, the French civil ensign has those colours in the proportion blue 30, white 33, and red 37. The intention is to create a flag which, when seen moving at some distance, will appear to have columns of equal width; in addition, the slightly wider red column is intended to improve the flag's visibility at sea.
As with the ensigns of other countries, the French ensign in the beginning of the 14th century was a banner of the royal arms, a blue field with golden fleurs-de-lys. Sometimes it bore a white cross.
In 1365, Charles V changed to a blue flag with three golden French lilies. However, reports as late as 1514 still occasionally mention the use of the lilies and cross flag.
Occasionally illustrations from this era also show the white cross, now on a red field, but this is mostly limited to the coats of arms only. After 1450, however, those two designs are often seen flying side by side.
By the time of the House of Bourbon, the royal colours had merged, making blue, red, and white the royal colours; Henry IV of France even had his entire entourage dress in these colours. These colours, for these or other reasons, also became the colours of the French ensigns. A plain white ensign indicated the French sailing fleet, a red flag a galley, while the blue flag was flown by merchant ships. It's somewhat unclear whether all of these were plain flags. E.g., in 1661, the use of white flags on merchant ships was explicitly forbidden, and merchants were instead directed to fly the "old flag of the French nation", which then was supposed to be a white cross on blue, with on it the royal arms.
A decade or so later, the rule for the merchant navy was modified to allow every kind of ensign, provided it wasn't all white. This caused two new types of French ensigns: regional or local flags flown as French ensign, and personal designs intended to show as much white as was possible without it being considered all white.
Until the French Revolution, most merchants flew designs composed of blue and white. In 1790, however, the revolution joined all three colours in one flag, and the new ensign became the white flag with a canton of three equal columns of red, white, and blue. Since the white field was too royal for the taste of the revolution, on 27 pluviôse year II of the French Republican calendar (15 February 1794), the flag and the ensign were changed to the design of the current flag of France: three columns of equal width, of blue, white, and red. The same banner was again decreed to be the flag on 7 March 1848.
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French ensigns AI simulator
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French ensigns
A French ensign is the flag flown at sea to identify a vessel as French. Several such ensigns have existed over the years as well as terrestrial flags based on the ensign motif.
The current French ensign is not identical to the flag of France. Though both are blue, white and red, the French civil ensign has those colours in the proportion blue 30, white 33, and red 37. The intention is to create a flag which, when seen moving at some distance, will appear to have columns of equal width; in addition, the slightly wider red column is intended to improve the flag's visibility at sea.
As with the ensigns of other countries, the French ensign in the beginning of the 14th century was a banner of the royal arms, a blue field with golden fleurs-de-lys. Sometimes it bore a white cross.
In 1365, Charles V changed to a blue flag with three golden French lilies. However, reports as late as 1514 still occasionally mention the use of the lilies and cross flag.
Occasionally illustrations from this era also show the white cross, now on a red field, but this is mostly limited to the coats of arms only. After 1450, however, those two designs are often seen flying side by side.
By the time of the House of Bourbon, the royal colours had merged, making blue, red, and white the royal colours; Henry IV of France even had his entire entourage dress in these colours. These colours, for these or other reasons, also became the colours of the French ensigns. A plain white ensign indicated the French sailing fleet, a red flag a galley, while the blue flag was flown by merchant ships. It's somewhat unclear whether all of these were plain flags. E.g., in 1661, the use of white flags on merchant ships was explicitly forbidden, and merchants were instead directed to fly the "old flag of the French nation", which then was supposed to be a white cross on blue, with on it the royal arms.
A decade or so later, the rule for the merchant navy was modified to allow every kind of ensign, provided it wasn't all white. This caused two new types of French ensigns: regional or local flags flown as French ensign, and personal designs intended to show as much white as was possible without it being considered all white.
Until the French Revolution, most merchants flew designs composed of blue and white. In 1790, however, the revolution joined all three colours in one flag, and the new ensign became the white flag with a canton of three equal columns of red, white, and blue. Since the white field was too royal for the taste of the revolution, on 27 pluviôse year II of the French Republican calendar (15 February 1794), the flag and the ensign were changed to the design of the current flag of France: three columns of equal width, of blue, white, and red. The same banner was again decreed to be the flag on 7 March 1848.