The national flag of Great Britain is called "Union Jack", it is a red straight, red and white oblique crosses on a blue background. Its history begins in 1603 with the alliance between England and Scotland, when the Scottish king inherited the English throne.
Meaning of the flag of Great Britain
The name of the flag "Union Jack" translates as "union of flags". It consists of several parts, each of which has its own meaning. The main part - a wide red cross with white edging - bears the name "St. George's Cross". This is a symbol of England - a country whose patron Saint George is considered to be.
The oblique white cross on a blue background is the cross of St. Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland. And a red oblique cross, which is superimposed on a white one, as a result of which it looks as if it has a white frame, is a symbol of Ireland, which was patronized by Saint Patrick.
Thus, the flag of Great Britain consists of several flags characterizing different parts of the state, and its history is inextricably linked with the history of the kingdom: when the country was annexed, the flag changed.
History of the flag of Great Britain
The English flag of St. George is one of the first known symbols of England, which was actively used during the Crusades in medieval times. The exact time of its origin is unknown, but it has been established that already in 1275 the cross existed in the form of a national emblem, which was in use during the Welsh War, although the flag as such did not yet exist.
The Scottish St. Andrew's cross, according to legend, is oblique, since the martyr Andrew the First-Called was crucified on a cross of this shape. The first images of the crucifix itself, which later became the symbol of Scotland, appeared during the reign of William I, in the late twelfth or early thirteenth centuries. And at the end of the thirteenth century, the oblique cross began to be depicted on various seals, later without the body of St. Andrew, in symbolic form. They began to call him "saltir", which is translated from Latin as "X-shaped cross".
This cross was supposedly used as a flag at the end of the thirteenth century, the first mention of this dates back to 1503.
In 1603, the Scottish king inherited the English throne as a result of a personal union between the two countries, which remained independent but united in an alliance. In 1606, a new flag of this union was created on the basis of the St. George and Andrew crosses. At first, it was used only at sea, and later the flag began to spread among the ground troops. In 1707, a united kingdom of Great Britain was created, and the flag became the symbol of the new state.
Ireland joined Great Britain in 1801, and the flag was replenished with the cross of St. Patrick. This is how the Union Jack got its modern look. The symbol of Wales, another country in the kingdom, never appeared on the flag, but many Welsh are calling for a red dragon to be placed on it.
