Flag of Surrey

Last updated

Flag of the County of Surrey, registered 2014 Surrey.svg
Flag of the County of Surrey, registered 2014
Banner of arms of Surrey County Council
Flag of Surrey flying over Guildford Guildhall, 2022 Flag of Surrey in Guildford.jpg
Flag of Surrey flying over Guildford Guildhall, 2022

The flag of Surrey is the blue and gold chequered flag of the traditional county of Surrey and is derived from the coat of arms of William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey who adopted arms similar of the Capetian Count of Vermandois on his marriage to Elizabeth, Countess of Leicester (died 1138), who was first married to Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester. She was a younger daughter of Hugh I, Count of Vermandois (1057–1102). Similar arms were also adopted by his brother in law, Ralph I de Beaugency, who married Hugh I's oldest daughter, Matilda. (heraldic blazon: Chequy Or and Azur).

Coat of arms of the capetian counts of Vermandois Armoiries Vermandois.svg
Coat of arms of the capetian counts of Vermandois
Similar arms were used by the de Beaugency family, lords of Beaugency Ralph I de Beaugency coat-of-arms.png
Similar arms were used by the de Beaugency family, lords of Beaugency

The Surrey flag was officially registered as a "traditional design" by the Flag Institute on 11 September 2014 following research by Philip Tibbetts on behalf of the Association of British Counties, which showed that the county was linked to an emblem of antiquity. Prior to this date, the county had no official flag but the banner of the coat of arms of Surrey County Council was frequently used instead.

The Surrey flag is a representation of the arms originally used as a personal heraldic device by William de Warenne, secound Earl of Surrey, and has since enjoyed a long association with the county itself, as attested to in a 17th-century poem about the Battle of Agincourt.

The heraldic badge of Surrey Herald of Arms Extraordinary Badge of the Surrey Herald Extraordinary.svg
The heraldic badge of Surrey Herald of Arms Extraordinary

An early reference of the arms is found in the 13th-century Glover's Roll of Arms, where an account of the siege of Caerlaverock Castle (from 1300) describes the actions of John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey and includes a reference to his banner of blue and gold cheques: "his banner with gold and azure, was nobly chequered”. The de Warenne family became extinct in the male line in 1347 but, importantly, there is evidence the design continued to be used by the men of the county, as found in a poem about the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 by Michael Drayton (written in 1627) which records the men of Surrey carrying a banner of gold and blue checks into battle in honour of their late earl,

"The men of Surrey, Checky Blew and gold, (Which for brave Warren their first Earle they wore". [1]

The 'De Warenne Cheques' are also remembered in a map by John Speed of the county of Surrey dating from 1610 [2] and they were then adopted in various civic heraldic devices during the 19th and 20th centuries, including an heraldic badge in 1981 for the Surrey Herald Extraordinary. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh, Count of Vermandois</span> French noble (1057–1101)

Hugh, called the Great was the first count of Vermandois from the House of Capet. He is known primarily for being one of the leaders of the First Crusade. His nickname Magnus is probably a bad translation into medieval Latin of an Old French nickname, le Maisné, meaning "the younger", referring to Hugh as younger brother of King Philip I of France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Piran's Flag</span> Flag of Cornwall

Saint Piran's Flag is the flag of Cornwall. The earliest known description of the flag, referred to as the Standard of Cornwall, was written in 1838. It is used by all Cornish people as a symbol of their identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flag of Maryland</span> Flag of the U.S. state of Maryland

The flag of the State of Maryland is the official flag of the U.S. state of Maryland and the 17th-century heraldic banner of arms of Cecil, 2nd Baron Baltimore. It consists of the arms of his father George, 1st Baron Baltimore (1579–1632), quartered with those of his grandmother, heiress of the Crossland family. The flag was officially adopted by the Maryland General Assembly in 1904.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earl of Surrey</span> Title in the Peerage of England

Earl of Surrey is a title in the Peerage of England that has been created five times. It was first created for William de Warenne, a close companion of William the Conqueror. It is currently held as a subsidiary title by the Dukes of Norfolk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey</span> Anglo-Norman nobleman

William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey was the son of William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey and his first wife Gundred. He was more often referred to as Earl Warenne or Earl of Warenne than as Earl of Surrey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coat of arms of Ireland</span>

The coat of arms of Ireland is blazoned as Azure a harp Or, stringed Argent. These arms have long been Ireland's heraldic emblem. References to them as being the arms of the king of Ireland can be found as early as the 13th century. These arms were adopted by Henry VIII of England when he ended the period of Lordship of Ireland and declared Ireland to be a kingdom again in 1541. When the crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland were united in 1603, they were integrated into the unified royal coat of arms of kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland. The harp was adopted as the emblem of the Irish Free State when it separated from the United Kingdom in 1922. They were registered as the arms of Ireland with the Chief Herald of Ireland on 9 November 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beaugency</span> Commune in Centre-Val de Loire, France

Beaugency is a commune in the Loiret department, Centre-Val de Loire, north-central France. It is located on the Loire river, upriver (northeast) from Blois and downriver from Orléans.

Elizabeth of Vermandois, was a French noblewoman, who by her two marriages was the mother of the 1st Earl of Worcester, the 2nd Earl of Leicester, the 3rd Earl of Surrey, and of Gundred de Warenne, mother of the 4th Earl of Warwick.

The Count of Vermandois was the ruler of the county of Vermandois.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heraldic flag</span> Flag containing coat of arms or heraldic badge

In heraldry and vexillology, a heraldic flag is a flag containing coats of arms, heraldic badges, or other devices used for personal identification.

A heraldic shield has been associated with the historic county of Sussex since the seventeenth century. The device, displaying six martlets or heraldic swallows on a shield, later formed the basis of the flag of Sussex and the armorial bearings granted to the county councils of East and West Sussex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Percy, 1st Baron Percy</span> English magnate

Henry de Percy, 1st Baron Percy of Alnwick was a medieval English magnate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flag of Berkshire</span> Flag of English county

The Flag of Berkshire is the flag of the historic county of Berkshire in England. The flag was registered with the Flag Institute as the flag of the county in March 2017. The flag was adopted after the design was submitted by a number of county-based bodies as well as the Lord Lieutenant of the county. Prior to adoption, a banner of the arms of the former Berkshire County Council had been occasionally used to represent the county.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attributed arms</span> Coats of arms given to a person retrospectively

Attributed arms are Western European coats of arms given retrospectively to persons real or fictitious who died before the start of the age of heraldry in the latter half of the 12th century. Once coats of arms were the established fashion of the ruling class, society expected a king to be armigerous. Arms were assigned to the knights of the Round Table, and then to biblical figures, to Roman and Greek heroes, and to kings and popes who had not historically borne arms. Individual authors often attributed different arms for the same person, although the arms for major figures eventually became fixed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal standards of England</span> English heraldic flags used in battles and pageantry

The royal standards of England were narrow, tapering swallow-tailed heraldic flags, of considerable length, used mainly for mustering troops in battle, in pageants and at funerals, by the monarchs of England. In high favour during the Tudor period, the Royal English Standard was a flag that was of a separate design and purpose to the Royal Banner. It featured St George's Cross at its head, followed by a number of heraldic devices, a supporter, badges or crests, with a motto—but it did not bear a coat of arms. The Royal Standard changed its composition frequently from reign to reign, but retained the motto Dieu et mon droit, meaning God and my right; which was divided into two bands: Dieu et mon and Droyt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adelaide, Countess of Vermandois</span> French countess

Adelaide of Vermandois was suo jure Countess of Vermandois and Valois from 1080 to 1102. She was the last landed ruler of the Carolingian dynasty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flag of Caernarfonshire</span> Historic flag

The Caernarfonshire flag is the flag of the historic Welsh county of Caernarfon. The origins of the emblem of the three eagles arranged in fess on a green field revolve around the ancient King of Gwynedd, Owain Gwynedd, to whom the symbol was attributed as his coat of arms. It was registered with the Flag Institute in March 2012.

An equestrian seal is a type of seal used in the European Middle Ages, characterized by the depiction of the owner as a mounted warrior in full armour. Originating in the high medieval period, the type was frequently used throughout the 13th to 14th centuries. Continued use into the 15th and 16th centuries was mostly limited to high nobility, especially royalty, while lower nobility switched to the use of simple heraldic seals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heraldry of León</span> Coats of arms of the pre-modern Spanish kingdom

The first instance of a figure of the lion as symbol of the Kingdom of León is found in minted coins of Alfonso VII, called the Emperor (1126–1157). Until then, the cross had a preponderant position on documents and coins of Leonese monarchs since that reign the cross was gradually displaced by the lion. The Spanish historian and heraldist Martín de Riquer explained that the lion was already used as heraldic emblem in 1148. At the end of the reign of Alfonso VII, the figure of this animal began to appear on royal documents as personal device of the monarch and became pervasive during reigns of Ferdinand II (1157-1188) and Alfonso IX (1188-1230).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Origin of the coat of arms</span>

The origin of coats of arms is the invention, in the medieval West, of the emblematic system based on the blazon, which is described and studied by heraldry.

References