Flag of Sark

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Sark
Flag of Sark (bordered).svg
Use Flag of Sark [1] [2]
Proportion3:5
Adopted1938 (as Seigneur's flag)
2020 (as Sark's flag)
DesignArgent, a Cross Gules, in the Canton two Lions passant guardant Or
Sark flags (Herbert Pitt's design), displayed in a shop window Sark July 2010 29.jpg
Sark flags (Herbert Pitt’s design), displayed in a shop window

The flag of Sark is white with a red St. George's cross and a red canton containing the two yellow lions (or in heraldic terms "Leopards") from the flag of Normandy. The flag was formally granted as the Flag of Sark in 2020. [1] [2]

Contents

The previous unofficial design by Herbert Pitt in 1938 and adopted the same year as the personal standard of the Seigneur of Sark before unofficially becoming the island's flag in 1987. [3] The canton is similar to the arms of Normandy, of which the Channel Islands are historically a part. Unlike the classic White Ensigns, the lions of the flag of Sark in the original grant protrude outside the canton and overflow the red cross. [4] [5]

The flag is flown from the Ministry of Justice in London on 6 August to mark the granting of the fief on that day in 1565. The Ministry of Justice is the British government department responsible for relations with the Crown Dependencies. [6] [7]

History

Sark is a Channel Island part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey. It was originally part of the Duchy of Normandy and was owned by the monarchs of England from 1066 when Duke William of Normandy successfully invaded England and assumed the English throne. By the late Middle Ages, Sark had become a hotbed for piracy and other criminal activities. [8] On 6 August 1565, Queen Elizabeth I appointed Hellier de Carteret as the Seigneur of Sark (known as the Dame of Sark when the holder is female) to prevent it becoming a pirate island. [8] The office would be hereditary and the holder had to pay the English (and later British) monarch £1.79 annually for the right to rule the island as a feudal fief. [9] As of 9 December 2008, the day before democracy was introduced to Sark, the island was the last feudal state in the Western world. [10]

The Seigneur's flag Flag of Sark.svg
The Seigneur's flag

The flag of Sark was designed in 1938 when the Dame of Sark, Dame Sibyl Hathaway, approached Herbert Pitt to design a personal standard for herself. [11] [12] The flag was also referred to as the Seigneur's flag. [13] The story that Dame Sibyl had told the Flag Institute, that the flag had been in use for "at least two hundred years", is doubted. [14]

The flag remained as the Seigneur's flag following the Second World War and the German occupation of the Channel Islands. In the 1960s, Dame Sibyl sold the tenement of the island of Brecqhou to Leonard Matchan. Upon taking up the tenancy, he adopted his own flag for Brecqhou using the Seigneur's flag as the basis and sewed his own personal coat of arms onto it. [15] In 1993, when the tenement was purchased by David and Frederick Barclay, they also adopted their own flag by using the Seigneur's flag with their coat of arms defacing it. [16]

In 1987, when Sark was invited to participate in the inaugural Island Games, [17] it was noted the island had no individual flag to represent it. Accordingly, the Seigneur John Michael Beaumont granted permission for the Seigneur's flag to be used as the flag of Sark. [11] The flag was formally granted to Sark on 4 June 2020 by Elizabeth II; this was the final direct heraldic grant made by her before her death. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Channel Islands</span> Archipelago in the English Channel

The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They are divided into two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, which is the largest of the islands; and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, consisting of Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, Herm and some smaller islands. Historically, they are the remnants of the Duchy of Normandy. Although they are not part of the United Kingdom, the UK is responsible for the defence and international relations of the islands as it is for the other Crown Dependency, the Isle of Man, and the British Overseas Territories. The Crown Dependencies are neither members of the Commonwealth of Nations, nor part of the European Union. They have a total population of about 171,916, and the bailiwicks' capitals, Saint Helier and Saint Peter Port, have populations of 33,500 and 18,207 respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sark</span> Jurisdiction of the Bailiwick of Guernsey

Sark is a part of the Channel Islands in the southwestern English Channel, off the coast of Normandy, France. It is a royal fief, which forms part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, with its own set of laws based on Norman law and its own parliament. It has a population of about 500. Sark has an area of 2.10 square miles (5.44 km2). Little Sark is a peninsula joined by a natural but high and very narrow isthmus to the rest of Sark Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seigneur of Sark</span> Hereditary office, Sark, Channel Islands

The Seigneur of Sark is the head of Sark in the Channel Islands. "Seigneur" is the French word for "lord", and a female head of Sark is called Dame of Sark, of which there have been three. The husband of a female ruler of Sark is not a consort but is jure uxoris a seigneur himself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Beaumont, 22nd Seigneur of Sark</span> 22nd seigneur of Sark

Seigneur John Michael Beaumont was the twenty-second Seigneur of Sark in the Channel Islands. He worked as a civil engineer before succeeding his paternal grandmother, Sibyl Hathaway, the 21st Dame of Sark, in 1974. During his rule, Beaumont saw the loss of many feudal rights enjoyed by the seigneurs, and he was consequently often described as the "last feudal baron".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sibyl Hathaway</span> 20th-century Dame of Sark

Dame Sibyl Mary Hathaway was Dame of Sark from 1927 until her death in 1974. Her 47-year rule over Sark, in the Channel Islands, spanned the reigns of four monarchs: George V, Edward VIII, George VI and Elizabeth II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Thomas Collings</span>

William Thomas Collings was a clergyman of the Church of England who served as Seigneur of Sark from 1853 to 1882.

Marie Collings, sometimes referred to as Mary Collings, was a wealthy Guernsey heiress who ruled as Dame of Sark (island) from 1852 to 1853, being the island's second female ruler and the first holder of the fief from the presently ruling seigneurial family. She inherited the fortune of her father, the privateer John Allaire, who had obtained the mortgage on the fief shortly before his death. The island's then-ruling seigneur, Pierre Carey le Pelley, soon had no option but to sell the fief to Collings, but she never actively governed it.

Susanne le Pelley, Dame of Sark was the 10th Seigneur of Sark from 1730 to 1733. She was the first woman to have the position and rule the fief of Sark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brecqhou</span> Islet off the west coast of Sark in the Channel Islands

Brecqhou is one of the Channel Islands, located off the west coast of Sark where they are now geographically detached from each other. Brecqhou is politically part of both Sark and the Bailiwick of Guernsey. It has been established in the courts that Brecqhou is a tenement of Sark. The Ministry of Justice, the department of the United Kingdom government with responsibility for the Channel Islands, considers Brecqhou part of Sark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crown Dependencies</span> Self-governing possessions of the British Crown

The Crown Dependencies are three offshore island territories in the British Islands that are self-governing possessions of the British Crown: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey, both located in the English Channel and together known as the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bailiwick of Guernsey</span> British Crown Dependency consisting of several islands

The Bailiwick of Guernsey is a self-governing British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France, comprising several of the Channel Islands. It has a total land area of 78 square kilometres (30 sq mi) and an estimated total population of 67,334.

A bailiwick is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and once also applied to territories in which a privately appointed bailiff exercised the sheriff's functions under a royal or imperial writ.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of Guernsey</span> Overview of and topical guide to Guernsey

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Guernsey:

Francis William Lionel Collings Beaumont, also known as F. W. L. C. Beaumont or “Buster" Beaumont, was the heir to the Seigneur of Sark, a Royal Air Force officer, film producer and the husband of actress Mary Lawson. He and Lawson were killed in 1941 during the Liverpool Blitz.

<i>Seigneur</i> French title of nobility

Seigneur or lord is an originally feudal title in France before the Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. The seigneur owned a seigneurie, seigneury, or lordship—a form of title or land tenure—as a fief, with its associated obligations and rights over person and property. In this sense, a seigneur could be an individual—male or female, high or low-born—or a collective entity, typically a religious community such as a monastery, seminary, college, or parish. In the wake of the French Revolution, seigneurialism was repealed in France on 4 August 1789 and in the Province of Canada on 18 December 1854. Since then, the feudal title has only been applicable in the Channel Islands and for sovereign princes by their families.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sark during the German occupation of the Channel Islands</span> Aspect of World War II history

The island of Sark forms part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey which with the Bailiwick of Jersey form the Channel Islands. Offered the opportunity to evacuate the island in June 1940, most locally born islanders decided to stay. The 470 civilians who remained on the island would be subject to German rule for the next five years, until Sark was liberated on 10 May 1945. The main contact between the Sark residents and the German authorities in 1940 was 56-year old Sibyl Hathaway, who was Dame of Sark from 1927 until her death in 1974.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sark Henge</span> Modern henge monument on Sark, Channel Islands

Sark Henge is a modern henge monument on the island of Sark, in the Channel Islands. It was constructed in 2015.

From the Middle Ages, the Channel Islands were administered according to a feudal system. Alongside the parishes of Jersey and Guernsey, the fief provided a basic framework for rural life; the system began with the Norman system and largely remained similar to it. Feudalism has retained a more prominent role in the Channel Islands than in the UK. The Channel Islands are remnants of the Duchy of Normandy and are held directly by the crown on a feudal basis as they are self-governing possessions of the British Crown. This peculiarity underscores the deep-seated influence of feudalism in the Channel Islands; their allegiance isn't so much to England but rather directly to the monarch.

References

  1. 1 2 "Recent Grants of Arms". College of Arms. Official registers of coats of arms and pedigrees. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 "January 2023 Newsletter (no. 70)". College of Arms. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  3. ↑ "Bailiwick of Guernsey, Channel Islands" . Retrieved 15 April 2008.
  4. ↑ "The Flag of Sark". BBC News Guernsey. 3 April 2008. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  5. ↑ "Flag of Sark". Flag Institute. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  6. ↑ "Ministry of Justice raises Sark flag for Fief dayMinistry of Justice raises Sark flag for Fief day". Guernsey Press. 6 August 2022. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  7. ↑ "Sark flag flown on Ministry of Justice building in London for Liberation Day". Guernsey Press. ITV. 10 May 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  8. 1 2 "Sark". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  9. ↑ Reilly, Lucas (6 November 2018). "How the World's Only Feudal Lord Outclassed the Nazis to Save Her People". Mental Floss. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  10. ↑ "Lost world: the last days of feudal Sark". The Independent. 22 September 2011. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  11. 1 2 "The Flag of Sark". BBC. 22 July 2004. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  12. ↑ Bollini, Cristina (2019). "Sark". Le bandiere - tutti i colori del mondo (in Italian). Youcanprint. ISBN   9788831602709.
  13. ↑ Clark, Leonard (1956). Sark Discovered. Dent. p. 8. ISBN   9780234773369.
  14. ↑ "Sark, Channel Islands". Crwflags.com. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  15. ↑ Johnson, Henry. "Sark and Brecqhou" (PDF). Shima Journal. p. 22. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  16. ↑ "On Island of Sark, Twin British Brothers Joust with Feudalism". Wall Street Journal. 11 October 2005. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  17. ↑ "Second Island Games Guernsey 1987". Island Games Association. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
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