The flag of the Kingdom of France was one of the symbols of France under the Monarchy. Before the French Revolution, there was no single flag that legally and practically served all the roles of the modern tricolour flag – especially that of representing the nation or state itself, rather than the king personally. Public buildings did not fly a national flag; instead, they displayed the coat of arms of the relevant authority (royal, ducal, comital, episcopal, etc.), depending on who controlled the building.
That said, banners were the portable version of coats of arms and used the same colors and designs. As a result, many different flags were used by the army and navy, either to represent the identity of individual regiments or ships or to show which authority was in command. The same colors and symbols also appeared in servants’ liveries and military uniforms.
However, white gradually became the pre-eminent royal and “French” colour, especially from the Hundred Years’ War onwards. By the later centuries of the monarchy, a plain white flag was widely seen – though never formally declared – as the personal emblem of the king and, by extension, of the French state itself.Archives nationales, D¹, no. 2: at Rochefort, 5 September 1669, "Mémoire sur les pavillons, cornette et flammes servans à marquer la dignité ou le commandement de ceux quy ont l'honneur de monter sur les vaisseaux de sa Majesté".. The tricolour flag, adopted during the Revolution and the Empire, was abandoned under the Restoration and replaced by a white flag, usually bearing the royal arms. It was itself abolished in 1830, and the tricolour was permanently restored.
Royal flags before the Revolution
The term "flag" dates from the 16th century and, under the Ancien Régime, was reserved for the colours of French and foreign infantry in the king's service. Before the French Revolution, France was characterised by the existence of several flags and ensigns. The blue flag with golden fleurs-de-lis was traditionally the flag that represented France.
In 1328, the coat of arms of the House of Valois was a blue field strewn with golden fleurs-de-lis and bordered in red. From that point on, French kings were commonly shown in illustrations and manuscripts wearing a red robe under a blue cloak covered with golden fleurs-de-lis. Around 1376, Charles V simplified the design by reducing the countless fleurs-de-lis to just three. In heraldic terms, the older version (with fleurs-de-lis scattered across the whole field) is called France ancien, while the newer, three-fleur-de-lis version is known as France moderne.
As early as 1339, the portolan chart made by the Majorcan Angelino Dulcert showed the Kingdom of France represented by a nearly square blue banner covered with golden fleurs-de-lis. The same symbol appeared on the Catalan Atlas commissioned by Charles V.Monique de La Roncière, Michel Mollat du Jourdin, Les Portulans. Cartes maritimes du XIIIe au XVIIe, Fribourg (Switzerland), 1984, no. 7.
Banners displaying the royal arms of France were carried by the king’s armies and flown on his warships and merchant ships alike. Another important royal standard was the oriflamme of Saint-Denis a revered symbol of French kingship. Over time, however, the colour white began to play a larger role in royal and national symbolism, and this shift also affected the flags that were used.
Emergence of white at the end of the Middle Ages
In the 14th century two paintings show white standards atop the mast of a royal ship and a castle sheltering the royal family.
At the Battle of Mons-en-Pévèle on 18 August 1304, the French, at the request of Philip IV, adopted the white scarf.Guillaume Guiard, La branche des royaux lignages, ed. J.A. Buchon, Paris, 1828, vol. 2, lines 11052–11068.Chronique artésienne, 1295–1304, ed. Funk-Brentano, Paris, 1899, p. 84.
The white cross first appeared as a French symbol during the early years of the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453). It is not known whether the king himself or someone in the royal administration chose it. The earliest clear record of its use comes from 1355, when Count Jean d'Armagnac ordered everyone in his town and lands to wear a white cross when they went to fight against Prince of Wales, son of Edward III.Dom Claude de Vic, dom Joseph Vaissette, Histoire générale de Languedoc, Paris, 1742, vol. 4, p. 283; Toulouse, 1885, vol. 9, part 1, p. 649. The symbol might be even older. A later story about the famous French commander Bertrand du Guesclin says that he once killed an English knight, took the man’s equipment, and replaced the red cross of St George with a white one. If the story is true, the French historian Georges Minois believes it happened in 1347 or 1348Cuvelier, Chronique de Bertrand du Guesclin, ed. E. Charrière, Paris, 1839, vol. 1, lines 784–787..
During the reign of King Charles VI, the royal stables produced three large standards—one blue, one white, one red. The white standard showed a large golden sun in the centre, surrounded by many smaller golden suns. It was carried together with 1,500 white pennons, each decorated on both sides with a golden sun, for the king’s men-at-arms.Philippe Contamine, L'oriflamme de Saint-Denis, p. 215. The official inventory of the royal stables also lists white pennons scattered with shields of France, as well as white velvet banners embroidered with the French coat of arms and decorated with parrots.L. Douët d'Arcq, Choix de pièces inédites relatives au règne de Charles VI, Paris, 1864, vol. 2: inventory of the great stables in 1421 or 1422, p. 406, no. 272.
The white cross, which by this time clearly stood for the French side in contrast to the red cross of the English and the red saltire of the Burgundians, was praised in a poem written for the coronation of Charles VII at Reims in 1429: “Long live the noble, white and proud cross of the beautiful garden of the noble fleurs-de-lis”.Pierre Champion, "La ballade du sacre de Reims", Le Moyen Âge, Paris, vol. 22, 1909, pp. 370–377. Joan of Arc's famous white standard, which was dedicated to Jesus Christ and did not carry the royal arms of France, further helped make the colour white a sacred and national symbol in the Kingdom of France.
By the end of the Hundred Years’ War, the colour white had taken on a strong patriotic meaning for the French. Historian Philippe Contamine notes that on 25 June 1429, people in Talmont-sur-Gironde, saw a rider carrying a large white scarf. The sight terrified the local Bretons, who were fighting on the English side under Henry VI of EnglandPhilippe Contamine, "Prodige et propagande. Vendredi 20 août 1451, de 7 h à 8 h du matin : le ciel de Bayonne", Observer, lire, écrire le ciel au Moyen Âge, proceedings of the 1989 Orléans colloquium, Paris, 1991, p. 65., because they took it as a sign of French victory. Likewise, Jean de Dunois, later recalled that on the morning of 20 August 1451, just before the English garrison of Bayonne surrendered to Charles VII’s army, a white cross was seen in the sky above the city.Colette Beaune, Naissance de la nation France, Paris, 1985, p. 195.
White during the Renaissance
During the Italian Wars, white was once again identified with the king and the Kingdom of France. Charles VIII descended into Italy with white silk standards bearing the shield of France.Italian sources cited by H. François Delaborde, L'Expédition de Charles VIII en Italie, Paris, 1888, p. 420. Upon entering Rome, he ordered the Jews to wear a white crossItalian sources cited by H. François Delaborde, L'Expédition de Charles VIII en Italie, Paris, 1888, p. 509. in order to protect them. When Charles VIII and Louis XII entered Italian cities, the people welcomed them by shouting "France" and wearing white clothes. In France, as in Italy, the reading of the royal entries indicates that the king's equipment was marked with the color white.
A royal cornette was worn during the Battle of Fornovo on 6 July 1495, by Charles du Mesnil-Simon, valet tranchant to Louis XI and Charles VIII.Père Gabriel Daniel, Histoire de la milice française, Paris, 1721, vol. 1, p. 517. However, we know from Philippe de Commynes that this cornette was white.Philippe de Commynes, Mémoires, ed. Joseph Calmette, Ch. G. Durville, Paris, 1925, vol. 3, p. 204. We also know that the cutler carried the pennant of France, made of purple velvet strewn with golden fleurs-de-lis, which suggests that the white cornette had replaced it before 1495. Father Anselme claims that the white cornette appeared during the Battle of Pavia in 1525.Père Anselme, Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France, Paris, 1730, vol. 6, p. 415.
This identification of white with France is evident, for example, in a text addressed to Henry II by an author in the early second half of the 16th century. Placed beneath the equestrian statue believed to be that of Philip VI in Notre-Dame de Paris It was actually a statue of Philip IV the Fair. (actually of Philip IV the Fair), it extolled the immaculate whiteness of the Gallic banners.Le Roux de Lincy, L. M. Tisserand, Paris et ses historiens aux XIVe et XVe s. Documents et écrits originaux, Paris, 1867, pp. 250–251.Bulletin monumental, vol. 126, April–June 1968, pp. 141–154.Isidore of Seville, in his Etymologies IX, 2, 104, asserted that the Gauls derived their name from the whiteness of their complexion. The Jesuit priest Georges Fournier also referred to the whiteness of the Gauls in 1643.
During the French Wars of Religion, Protestants wore the white scarf as a symbol of the purity of their faith, while Catholics wore the red scarf of the Spanish. Henry III resumed the white scarf to thank the troops of the then-Protestant Henry of Navarre for saving him on 8 May 1589.J. Rey, Histoire du drapeau, pp. 475–476.Général Louis Susane, Histoire de l'infanterie française, Paris, vol. 1, p. 167, after Théodore-Agrippa d'Aubigné.
Subsequently, Henry IV imposed white through multiple decisions: an ordinance of July 18, 1590, required the king's loyalists to wear a white sash, and another of June 1, 1594, prohibited anyone from going to the king's camp without a white cross sewn on their clothing or a white scarf. Earlier, during the Battle of Ivry on 14 March 1590, did not the same Henry IV, on horseback, shout to his troops the famous rallying cry: “Rally to my white plume!”? And isn't this referred to when we “bring out” the famous playful riddle: “What color was Henry IV's white horse?”?
French infantry flags
The term "drapeau" appeared in France in the 16th century, in 1578, for the colours of foot soldiers. It came from Italy.
The companies of foot soldiers created by Charles VII and Louis XI were first called "bandes", then regiments in 1569. They were issued flags, most bearing the white cross. However, great diversity of colours characterised them, and after the Battle of Fleurus (1690) on 1 July 1690—when French artillery fired on French regiments—all flags, standards, and guidons were given a white cravat attached to the top of the staff beneath the spearhead.Général V[ançon], "La cravate des drapeaux de France", Carnet de la Sabretache, Paris, 1896, pp. 102–109.
A peculiarity of French infantry was that each regiment carried two flags: the drapeau colonel (white with a white cross) and the drapeau d'ordonnance (variable colours with a white cross) The colonel’s flag was that of the colonel’s guard of the regiment..The white cross remained on infantry flags until 1794, and the white scarves or cravats became tricolour from 1790.
Under Louis XIII, the white cockade appeared, though it coexisted with the black cockade of certain units.
French naval ensigns