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From left Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia and USA flags near theatre house. Maybe there is some event or show ongoing.
New US embassy in London now open. Architects: KieranTimberlake, 2018. Sculpted ETFE skin over blast-proof glazing. Nine Elms, London Borough of Wandsworth.
A mother tries to get a giggle out of her child in the stroller.
Bethesda Terrace, Central Park, New York.
Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM
©2012 Patrick J Bayens
3,497 people died as a result of the attacks against America on September 11, 2001. One flag was placed for each life lost. Spring Hill Cemetery in Huntington WV USA.
©2014 Rick Childers All Rights Reserved
CN 7075 & CN 7256 lead a short transfer out of the Port of Montreal. A port security guard at left flags the crossing, with another out of sight at right doing the same.
they do have a nice flag, those danes; large on black;
I picked up some new photoshop skills from a tutorial (in spanish!) by Gregorio Mallo.
Taken today on The HMS Illustrious. I am proud of our country and our union.
The flag is on the Jackstaff at the front of the ship, hence, "The Union Jack".
Otherwise it is known as the Union flag.
Na Fonte da Telha, num antigo quartel, a bandeira lá estava... ao sabor do vento!
The flag of Portugal consists of a 2:3 rectangle vertically divided into green, at the hoist, and red, at the fly, with a simple version of the national coat of arms (armillary sphere and Portuguese shield) centered over the color junction. It was officially adopted on June 30, 1911, thus replacing the old constitutional monarchy flag
Since the foundation of Portugal, the national flag was always linked to the royal arms and, up until 1640, there was no official distinction between both.[13] It evolved in a way that incorporated stepwise most of the symbols present on the current coat of arms.
[edit] 1095 - 1248
Banner of Henry, count of Portugal (1095).
Banner of King Afonso I (1143).
Banner of King Sancho I (1185).
The first banner that can be associated with what would be the Portuguese nation was a shield used by Henry of Burgundy, during his battles in Iberia against the Moors. For his services, King Alfonso VI of Castile offered him the County of Portugal, in 1095, which he ruled until his death (1112). This square (1:1) shield was heraldicly very simple – a blue cross over a white (or silver) field.
Henry's son Afonso Henriques succeeded him on the county and took on the same blazon. On 1139, he defeated an outnumbering army of Almoravid Moors at the Battle of Ourique and proclaimed himself King of Portugal, as Afonso I in front of his troops. Following the castilian king's recognition in 1143, Afonso quickly changed his banner in order to reflect his new status. Sources state he charged the cross with five groups of eleven silver bezants (most likely large-headed silver nails), on the center and each arm, symbolizing Afonso's newly gained right to issue currency.[14][15]
In these days, it was not usual to repair damages inflicted to the battle shields, so changes like loss of pieces, color shifts or involuntary stains were natural. When Sancho I of Portugal succeeded his father, in 1185, he inherited a very worn off banner – the blue-stained leather that made the cross was lost except where the bezants (nails) held it in place. This unwanted degradation of the shield became the basis for the next step on the evolution of the coat of arms, where a plain cross was transformed into a compound cross of five blue bezant-charged escutcheons – the quinas were thus born.[14][15]
Now, Sancho's personal banner (called "Portugal ancien"[16]) consisted of a white/silver field with a compound cross of five quinas, with the side ones' points facing towards the center; each was still charged with eleven silver bezants. Both Sancho's son Afonso II and grandson Sancho II inherited and used this banner unchanged, as it is usual on direct succession lines (father to first-born son). A new modification of the royal arms was made when the Sancho II's younger brother became king, in 1248.
[edit] 1248 - 1495
Banner of King Afonso III (1248).
Banner of King João I (1385).
Banner of King João II (1485).
Afonso III of Portugal was not a first-born, so heraldic practices stated he should not take his father's banner without any personal variation. Before becoming king, Afonso was married with Matilda II of Boulogne; her inability to provide him with a royal heir led Afonso to divorce her, in 1253. He remarried with Beatrice of Castile, an illegitimate daughter of Alfonso X of Castile. It was most likely this connection with Castile that justified the new addition to the royal banner – a red bordure charged with an undetermined number of yellow castles – instead of the definitive conquest of the Algarve with its Moorish fortresses, considering that the number of castles was only fixed in 1640.[17]
Nevertheless, the majority of the reconstructions display this banner with 16 castles. The inner portion contained the arms of Sancho I, though the number of bezants varied between 7, 11 and 16 (this number was used on Afonso's personal standard while he was still Count of Boulogne).[15] This same banner was used by the Portuguese kings until the end of the first dinasty, in 1383, when a succession crisis put the country in war with Castile and without a ruler for two years.
In 1385, in the wake of the Battle of Aljubarrota, a second dinasty was installed when João, Master of the Order of Aviz, an illegitimate son of King Pedro I, acceeded to the throne as João I. Into his personal banner, which was the first to be used effectively as national flag, João I added his Order's green fleur-de-lys cross, displayed as flowery points on the red bordure; this reduced the number of castles to nine. The number of bezants per escutcheon were reduced from the regular eleven to seven.[15] It lasted a hundred years until João I's great-grandson João II restyled the flag in 1485, introducing important changes – removal of the Aviz cross, downward arrangement and rounding of the five quinas, and definitive fixing of five saltire-disposed bezants per quina. Curiosly, seven castles were fixed on the bordure (as is currently).[18]
João II's shield was the last armorial square banner used as national flag.[15] Following his death in 1495, radical changes were made by his successor.
[edit] 1495 - 1667
Flag of Portugal, since Manuel I (1495).
Flag of Portugal, since Sebastião (1577).
Flag of Portugal, since João IV (1640).
João II was succeeded in 1495 by his cousin Manuel I. The "Fortunate" king was the first to convert the traditional armorial square royal banner into a rectangular field (2:3) with the coat of arms on the center. Specifically, the flag was now a white rectangle charged on its center with an ogival shield-like coat of arms (bearing eleven castles) and surmounted by an open royal crown.[15] This flag was solely the kingdom's banner because Manuel I possessed a personal standard [3], which included the armillary sphere for the first time.
In 1577, during Sebastião's reign and on the eve of the fatal Battle of Alcácer Quibir, the flag was again modified – the castles were definitively fixed as seven, and the royal crown was converted into a closed three-stemmed one, which symbolized a stronger royal authority.[15]
With Sebastião's death and the short-lived reign of his great-uncle Cardinal Henrique, in 1580, a dynastic crisis was solved with the spanish king Filipe II acceeding to the Portuguese throne as Filipe I, and installing a spanish dynasty. This accession was made on the condition that Portugal was ruled as a separate, autonomous state, not a province; this was fulfilled as Portugal and Spain formed a personal union under Filipe I's ruling and his successors. A consequence of this administrative situation was the keeping of the flag created under Sebastião's reign as the national flag, while Spain had its own.[15] As ruling house in Portugal, the Habsburg arms included the national coat of arms [4].
The country regained its independence from Spain, in 1640, in a coup d'état that put on the throne João, Duke of Bragança, as King João IV. Under this ruler, the national flag changed very slightly - the ogival shield became a rounded one (so called "Portuguese type" shield). It was from this monarch on, that the royal arms and the kingdom's arms became distinct banners.[15]
[edit] 1667 - 1830
Flag of Portugal, since Pedro II (1667).
Flag of Portugal, since João V (1707).
Flag of Portugal, since João VI (1816).
When Afonso VI's younger brother Pedro II replaced him on the throne, in 1667, he adapted the flag's crown to the contemporary trends, transforming it into a five-stemmed crown.[19] This new flag did not settle for too long, though; it was refurbished by Pedro's son, João V, when he occupied the royal seat in 1707. Heavily influenced by the luxurious, ostentatious court of the french king Louis XIV and France's political and cultural impact in Europe, João V wanted to transpose such style into the country's coat of arms – a red beret was added under the crown and the rounded shield was converted to a samnitic ("French type") shield.[15] Created by an absolute monarch, this flag endured through almost the entire absolutist period in Portugal – João V (1707-1750), José I (1750-1777) and Maria I (1777-1816).
At the time of queen Maria's death, the royal family was living in Brazil, fleeing from Portugal after it was invaded by Napoleon's imperial army in 1807. The Portuguese colony had been elevated to kingdom in 1815 and, in doing so, the monarch started using the title "King/Queen of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves". Maria I's son João VI thus changed the nation's flag to reflect this new union – the coat of arms, whose shield point became again rounded, now rested upon a blue-filled yellow armillary sphere (arms of Brazil) surmounted by the same beret-bearing five-stemmed closed crown.[15] Apart from the crown and white background, this flag resembles the most with the current one.
[edit] 1830 - 1910
Flag of Portugal, since Maria II (1830).
Portugal ensign, since Maria II (1830).
João VI died in Lisbon, in 1826. His son Pedro, who had declared the independence of Brazil, in 1822, becoming Emperor Pedro I of Brazil, succeeded in the Portuguese throne as Pedro IV. However, because the new brazilian constitution did not allow another personal union of Portugal and Brazil, he abdicated the Portuguese crown in favour of his elder daughter, Maria da Glória, who became Maria II of Portugal. She was only seven years-old, so Pedro stated she would marry his brother Miguel, who would act as regent. In 1828, Miguel deposed Maria II and proclaimed himself King Miguel I, abolishing the 1822 liberal constitution and ruling as absolute monarch. This started the period of the Liberal Wars.
The liberals formed a separate government, exiled on the azorian island of Terceira (Junta Governativa da Ilha Terceira). It was this government that issued two decrees establishing modifications to the national flag. While the supporters of Miguel, still upheld the flag estatuted by João VI, the new liberal-associated standard imposed important changes to it – the background was vertical and equally divided into blue (hoist) and white (fly); the armillary sphere (associated with Brazil) was removed and the coat of arms was centered on the bicolor border; the shield was reverted to the "French type" shape of João V. This flag was decreed for terrestrial use solely, and a variation of it was used as the national ensign. It differed on the way the color fields occupied the background (blue 1/3, white 2/3) and the arms positioning.[15]
With the defeat and exile of Miguel, by the liberal troops, in 1834, queen Maria II was reinstated and the victorious side's standard was hoisted in Lisbon, as the new national flag. It would survive for 80 years, witnessing the last period of the Portuguese monarchy and its abolition in 1910.