Historical Flags

• St. George's Cross
• Fleur-de-lis
• Royal Union Flag (1606 – 1800)
• The Royal Union Flag (1801 - )
• Canadian Red Ensign (Version of 1957 - 1965)

St. George's Cross

The St. George's Cross, which is prominent in many provincial and territorial coats of arms, traces its history back to the legend of St. George, the patron saint of England at the time of the Crusades. The red cross associated with St. George came into wide use as a national emblem of England in 1274, during the reign of Edward I. The earliest recorded use of the St. George's Cross in Canada is found in a water colour painting by John White that depicts English explorers skirmishing with Inuit, almost certainly on Baffin Island during Martin Frobisher's expedition of 1577. The St. George's Cross was later incorporated into the coats of arms of the Hudson's Bay Company and the Canada Company, a land settlement and colonization company operating in Upper Canada in the first half of the 19^th century.

Fleur-de-lis

The fleur-de-lis was a symbol of Royal French sovereignty in Canada from 1534, when Jacques Cartier landed at Gaspé and claimed the newly explored territory in the name of Francis I of France, until the early 1760s, when Canada was ceded to Great Britain. The Royal Arms of France, with its three gold fleurs-de-lis on a blue field, was the royal emblem displayed whenever French explorers claimed new land in North America.

The "bannière de France" or Royal Banner of France, which also displayed three gold fleurs-de-lis on a blue field, was raised by fur trader Pierre Du Gua de Monts at the settlement on Île Sainte-Croix in 1604, and a swallowtailed flag with fleurs-de-lis flew from Champlain's Habitation at Québec in 1608. With the death of King Henry IV in 1610, the "bannière" ceased to be used as a national flag.

During the first half of the 17^th century, the inhabitants of New France viewed the white flag of the "marine royale" as the flag of the French nation. This same flag was widely used after New France became a royal province by an edict of Louis XIV in 1663.

The fleur-de-lis reappeared as a symbol of French heritage in the arms granted to Quebec by Queen Victoria in 1868. In 1948, the Quebec government adopted the "fleurdelisé" as its provincial flag. The fleur-de-lis also appears in the coats of arms of Canada and New Brunswick.

Royal Union Flag (1606 – 1800)

Following the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the official British flag was the two-crossed jack or the Royal Union Flag. First proclaimed as a royal flag in 1606 after James VI of Scotland became James I of England, it combined England's flag of a red St. George's Cross on a white background with Scotland's flag, a white St. Andrew's Cross on a dark blue background. After the legislative union of England and Scotland in 1708, the Union Flag was adopted as the Royal Flag for the two united kingdoms.

The original Royal Union Flag, or Union Jack, was first raised in Canada at the British settlement in Newfoundland after 1610.

In the years between the Treaty of Paris and the American Revolution, the Royal Union Flag was supposed to be used at all British establishments on the North American continent, from Newfoundland to the Gulf of Mexico. In practice, however, it was frequently replaced by the Red Ensign, the flag of the British merchant marine, which featured the Royal Union Flag on a red background.

After the American Revolution, those colonists who remained loyal to the Crown and fought under the Royal Union Flag settled in many parts of what are now Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The Royal Union Flag is often referred to as the flag of Canada's United Empire Loyalists.

The Royal Union Flag (1801 - )

Following the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland in 1801, the diagonal Cross of St. Patrick, red on white, was incorporated into the Royal Union Flag, giving it its present-day configuration. In 1870, it was incorporated into the flags of the Governor General and the Lieutenant Governors of the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

The Royal Union Flag was affirmed as a Canadian symbol in 1904 and was the flag under which Canadian troops fought during the First World War. On December 18, 1964, Parliament approved the continued use of the Royal Union Flag as a symbol of Canada's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and of her allegiance to the Crown. Today, the Royal Union Flag is flown along with the Canadian flag at federal buildings, airports and military bases on special occasions, such as the Sovereign's birthday, the anniversary of the Statute of Westminster (December 11), and during royal visits.

The Royal Union Flag is prominent in the arms of British Columbia and in the flags of Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia.

Canadian Red Ensign (Version of 1957 - 1965)

The Red Ensign, a red flag with the Royal Union Flag in the upper corner, was created in 1707. The Hudson's Bay Company flew it all across Canada long before Confederation. From approximately 1870 to 1904, it was used on land and sea as Canada's flag, with the addition of a shield in the fly bearing the quartered arms of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. This gave rise to the name the Canadian Red Ensign.

As new provinces entered Confederation, or when they received some mark of identification (sometimes taken from their seal), that mark was incorporated into the shield on the Canadian Red Ensign. By the turn of the century, the shield was made up of the coats of arms of the seven provinces then in Confederation. In 1924, this unofficial version of the Canadian Red Ensign was changed by an Order in Council and the composite shield was replaced with the shield from the Royal Arms of Canada, more commonly known as the Canadian Coat of Arms. At the same time, this new version was approved for use on Canadian government buildings abroad. A similar order in 1945 authorized its use on federal buildings within Canada.

Posters of Historical Flags of Canada