![[British royal standard]](../images/g/gb_rs19c.gif)
image
by Martin Grieve, 2 April 2007
Last modified: 2019-05-15 by rob raeside
Keywords: royal standard | house of hanover | victoria | queen victoria | albert |
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by Martin Grieve, 2 April 2007
based on illustrations in F.E. Hulme's 'Flags of the World' c1895 and Benjamin Edgington's Empire Calendar c1898
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Victoria could not ascend to the throne of Hanover, as a woman cannot inherit the throne under Salic law, therefore the arms of Hanover were removed from the Royal Standard. This results in the current Royal standard of quartered England, Scotland and Ireland. [usually seen 1:2, rarely 2:3]
Most sources show 6 fleur-de-lys on the tressure flory-counter-flory,
although I've just seen one such standard flying in footage on a CD-ROM from a
British Tourist Bureau, and it had 8 fleur-de-lys. For details of the
standards used by members of these families, see our page on the Royal
Family, and other members of the Royal Family.
Peter Hans van der Muijzenberg, 23 April 2002
At the end of the 19th century the only member of the Royal Family with a
distinctive Standard was Edward, Prince of Wales. The undifferenced Royal
Standard was used by not only Queen Victoria, but also by other members of the
Royal Family, was hoisted at military parades celebrating the Sovereign's
Birthday, and flown on official buildings throughout the Empire on the
Anniversaries of the Sovereign's Birthday, Coronation and Accession. It was also
flown on government buildings when the Sovereign was passing in State, and by
private individuals and organisations who thought that it was an appropriate way
of displaying their loyalty to the crown.
The propriety of flying the
Royal Standard became an issue when preparations for the celebration of the 60th
anniversary of the Queen's accession were planed in 1897. Those who asked the
Home Office for permission to fly the Royal Standard, were told that only Her
Majesty, members of the Royal Family and certain Public Departments were
entitled to fly the Royal Standard, but no action was taken against those who
flew it without requesting permission.
David Prothero, 11 April 2007
When Queen Victoria died at Osbourne (on the Isle of Wight) in 1901, her
body, accompanied by her eldest son (now King Edward VII), was loaded aboard the
HMY Alberta for carriage to the mainland. The Royal Standard was at half mast,
and when asked why by Edward, was told (my a somewhat shocked Captain) that Her
Majesty was dead – “but” replied Edward “The King is alive, so raise it up”.
Christopher Southworth, 8 May 2017
From The Last Days of Glory: The Death of Queen Victoria - Tony
Rennell has it that the Alberta had the Royal Standard at half-mast, while the
Victoria and Albert had it at full-mast. This would be correct, of course, as it
was only the Victoria and Albert that carried the King, while the Alberta
mourned the death of the queen.
Bertie: A Life of Edward VII -
Jane Ridley has it that indeed the King was accompanying his mother's body. He
did so, however, on his own yacht, HMY Victoria and Albert. According to her, it
was there that this little sketch played out.
The situation might seem a
bit curious, with people who work in the world of ceremony not knowing the
correct protocol. However, it had been more than sixty years since a monarch of
the United Kingdom had died. Before Queen Victoria, the Union had had three
Kings, who died over a span of less than twenty years. By then, everybody
presumably knew the relevant protocol of that era.
At that time, the
Royal Standard had been widely used, not just to represent the Monarch and
others of the Royal family, but also by government and populace to honour them.
During the Victorian age it had effectively become the personal symbol of the
Queen and her family. Edward VII was considered rather strict where protocol was
concerned and probably was even stricter in his grief. It's no wonder that he
now insisted that the flag that had represented the Queen for so long was not
only not a fan flag, but was not even the banner of a monarch. Hence his
correction that it was rather to be treated as the banner of the Crown.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 28 April 2019
![[Prince Albert]](../images/g/gb_rspc.gif)
image by Martin Grieve, 9 April 2007
based on Le Gras (1858)
Royal Standard differenced by a three point label charged with one cross of St George, quartered with the Standard of Saxony. The charge on the Arms of Saxony is a chaplet of rue that was added when Emperor Frederick Barbarossa confirmed the dukedom on Bernhard of Anhalt.Continued as House of Saxe-Coburg/Windsor
