marshy ground, the water is let in through all 

 the considerable streets, and it's all built upon 

 piles, or high fir trees, driven down perpen- 

 dicularly so close together that nothing can 

 be forced betwixt them." 



With the exception of Amsterdam, perhaps 

 no other town in Holland had more right to 

 a flag of its own than Flushing (1138), for it 

 was in this seaport that the standard of liberty 

 was first raised after the "Water Beggars" had 

 taken Briel in 1572, the first overt act of the 

 Dutch in their war against Spanish supremacy. 



Concerning Genoa, whose red flag (1141) 

 was identical with that of the scarlet emblems 

 of Venice and Spain, Beaumont gives this 

 picturesque description at the close of the 

 seventeenth century : 



"The State of Genoa is, like that of Venice, 

 govern'd by a Doge or Duke, with this Ex- 

 ception, that the Office of the Duke of Genoa 

 lasts but for three years, whereas the other is 

 for life. He has for his Ordinary Guard five 

 hundred Germans. Controversies between 

 Citizens are adjudg'd by a Court called the 

 Rota, consisting of Lawyers, not Natives of 

 Genoa. They are under the Protection of the 

 King of Spain (hence the identity of the 

 Spanish and Genoese red flag). Genoa was 

 under the Government of several Princes till 

 the year 1528, when Andrew Doria established 

 there the Form of Government observ'd to this 

 day, which is Aristocratical. There is seen in 

 the Town the statue of Andrew Doria, mounted 

 on a Horse of Cast Copper, with this Inscrip- 

 tion on the pedestal, Liberator Populi." (It 

 was after this liberator that the brig Andrew 

 Doria, the first vessel to obtain a salute for 

 the American flag, was named — see page 295.) 



Tradition says that Russia derived its blue, 

 white, and red flag (1142) in the following 

 manner : Peter the Great, while learning ship- 

 building in Holland, adopted the Dutch ensign 

 (1136), merely reversing the colors. But the 

 Russians were not flattered by this, for it made 

 them appear like "Dutchmen in distress" (the 

 sign of distress being an inverted flag). Sub- 

 sequently the order was changed to white, blue, 

 and red (the present Russian merchant flag — _ 

 800), but in 1701 the Czar of Muscovy (Peter) 

 had only added the blue cross in the white 

 stripe to distinguish his flag from the Dutch 

 distress signal. 



ostend's brave banner 



Ostend, the last stronghold of the Dutch in 

 South Netherlands against the Spaniards, well 

 deserved the distinction of a fight standard 

 (1144) as well as an ensign (1143). This little 

 fishing village, of scarcely three thousand souls 

 at the beginning of the seventeenth century, 

 withstood one of the most remarkable sieges 

 of history, the chroniclers of that time being 

 amply justified in comparing it to the siege of 

 Troy. 



It resisted the Spaniards for three years and 

 seventy-seven days (July 5, 1601, to September 

 20, 1604), and it is computed that one hundred 

 thousand lives and four million dollars were 

 sacrificed in its reduction. All the engineering 

 skill and resources of the age were employed. 

 Targone, a famous Italian engineer, invented 



a great floating battery to close the harbor, and 

 a fortress on wheels with a draw-bridge to 

 span water gaps (forerunner of the twentieth 

 century tank cars). 



The defenders used great bonfires and hoops 

 of flaming pitch to light the battleground dur- 

 ing night attacks. Earthworks were mined and 

 countermined. Red-hot shot were fired into 

 the city. To prevent conflagrations, the garri- 

 son covered all the houses with sod. When 

 there was no more earth suitable for the con- 

 struction of fortifications, the besieged turned 

 to the graveyards, exhuming their heroic dead 

 and using their bodies as ramparts for the 

 living. 



When the town finally hauled down its flag 

 it 'was with the honors of war, granted by 

 Spinola, the chivalrous Genoese commander of 

 the Spanish forces, who gave a splendid ban- 

 quet to the republican officers in his pavilion. 



The Spanish flag (1145) is of special interest 

 at this period of history, for it recalls the War 

 of the Spanish Succession, which followed the 

 death of Charles II, in 1700, the last of the 

 Austrian (Hapsburg) dynasty to sit on the 

 throne of Castile and Leon. Beaumont rec- 

 ords : 



"On the first of November, 1700 N. S. (New 

 Style), died Charles II of Spain, after a long 

 illness, or rather after a diseased life of almost 

 40 years. In his pretended last will, he is 

 said to have left the Duke of Anjou, second 

 son of the Dauphin of France, his heir and 

 successor to all his dominions, who immediately 

 took upon the title of Philip V, King of Spain, 

 etc. 



"But the German Emperor is far from 

 acknowledging him as such." . . . 



The coat-of-arms which Beaumont places on 

 the Spanish banner (1145) is far from com- 

 plete, for the King of Spain at the beginning 

 of the eighteenth century bore the insignia of 

 Castile, of Leon, Aragon, Sicily, Granada, 

 Portugal, Algarve, Austria, Ancient Burgundy 

 and Modern Burgundy, Brabant, Flanders, and 

 of Antwerp, capital city of the Holy Empire. 

 Surrounding the large shield may De seen the 

 collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece. 



The King of Spain, as one of his minor titles, 

 was known as the Lord of Biscay. The Bis 

 cay ensign (1146) was a white cross "raguled* 

 on a red field. The raguled cross in heraldry 

 is described as "trunked" or having many cuts, 

 resembling two ragged staffs in the shape of a 

 cross. The Spanish Bourbons used it as their 

 insignia; hence it appeared on the flag of 

 Ostend (1143), a Spanish possession. 



The New England ensign (1147), with the 

 pine tree in the first quarter of the St. George's 

 cross, was the first distinctively American flag 

 of the American colonies. It should be re- 

 membered that this is an ensign and was used 

 by vessels only (see also 362-364, 379-390). 

 The national flag of the colonies was that of 

 the mother country, the union flag (361). 



The French galley standard (1148) was of 

 red with numerous fleurs de lys in gold. In 

 the center were the arms of France. Beau- 

 mont recites that "the arms of France in the 

 days of Pharamond and his three successors 

 were gules (red) three crowns or (gold). 

 Clovis the Great altered them to azure (blue) 



401 



