{"id":95,"date":"2018-05-01T04:00:49","date_gmt":"2018-05-01T04:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/?p=95"},"modified":"2020-02-13T21:01:53","modified_gmt":"2020-02-13T21:01:53","slug":"the-flag-of-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/the-flag-of-france\/","title":{"rendered":"The Flag of France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s flag, that of France,<\/p>\n

\"\"
French Flag in Flight at Smoke Tree Manor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

continues the theme of the countries mentioned in the opening of one of our favorite Broadway plays, The Book of Mormon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Book of Mormon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have covered some of the basics of this production in previous posts about both Uganda<\/a> and Norway<\/a>, so I won\u2019t repeat it here.<\/p>\n

Suffice it say that, at least for the Mormon missionary boys, their ideas about France are that it is \u201cthe land of pastries and turtlenecks!\u201d\u00a0 That is as may be, and having been to France several times, I can concur that the pastries, especially the pain au chocolate<\/a>,<\/p>\n

\"\"
Pain au Chocolat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

are truly divine, I can\u2019t say that I saw a great many, or even any, turtlenecks.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t those go out in the 1970s anyway?\u00a0 If so, France is MUCH too fashion forward to be repeating mistakes of a previous era.\u00a0 And, if the boys were by chance referring to the slang use of \u201cturtleneck\u201d to refer to an uncircumcised penis,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Uncircumcised Penis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

well, that would be true of all of Europe, and actually most of the non-Jewish and non-United States world, so I\u2019m going with the fashion interpretation.\u00a0 The boys also declare that \u201cSatan has a hold of France; we will knock him off his perch!\u201d\u00a0 So, you can\u2019t believe everything they say or think with their absolute conviction.<\/p>\n

While we know that the area now known as France was settled by pre-literate people for thousands of years prior to a written history because of the famous cave paintings<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
Lascaux Cave Painting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

left behind, the written history referencing any part of what is today France first appears in the Iron Age<\/a>, around 500-300BCE and results from both the Greeks<\/a> and Phoenicians<\/a> settling the area near today\u2019s Marseilles<\/a>.\u00a0 In Roman times<\/a>, the bulk of what is today France was called Gaul<\/a> and it represented something of a western frontier land.\u00a0 France, or the area we now call France came under the rule of Charlemagne<\/a> following the dissolution of the Roman Empire.\u00a0 It was in this time that the first use of any place name remotely resembling today\u2019s France appeared as the area was known as West Francia<\/a> while under the rule of Charlemagne’s Carolingian Empire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Carolingian Empire<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By 987 a French royal house had been founded by Hugh Capet<\/a> and the earliest beginnings of the Kingdom of France were laid.<\/p>\n

As is true of much of Europe during medieval times, war and disease were commonplace facts of life.\u00a0 War would dominate much of French history right up to the end of World War II<\/a>.\u00a0 Perhaps the two most famous conflicts in French history are the revolution of 1789 and the multiple reigns of the Emperor Napoleon<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
Emperor Napoleon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

until his ultimate defeat and exile to the British island of Saint Helena<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
Location of St Helena<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

securely positioned in the midst of the vast Atlantic ocean from any potential help such as he received to make his famous escape<\/a> from the Italian island of Elba<\/a>.<\/p>\n

French history is lengthy and complex.\u00a0 One could spend years and go through hundreds of volumes in an attempt to better comprehend it all, but for our purposes a broad outline will suffice.\u00a0 For those who are interested in a more detailed, and yet still accessible summary of French history, look here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What really truly concerns us is how the modern tricolor flag of today\u2019s France came to be.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Modern French Flag<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blue and white, at least, have been signature colors of the French flag from the earliest times.\u00a0 The flags of the Kingdom of France varied over time but usually included blue fields with gold \u00a0fleurs-de-lis<\/p>\n

\"\"
Royal Flag of France<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

although white background fields were also used at times.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Fleur de Lys Flag<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Red appeared originally in the earliest of the recorded flags of France and made occasionally appearances over the years.\u00a0 Images of the various early flags of France can be viewed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The first tricolor flag that closely resembles that flag of today was used from 1790 to 1794 during the First Republic period.\u00a0 The major difference was that the red field was on the hoist side while today\u2019s flag has the positions of red and blue reversed, with blue on the hoist side.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Original Tricolor of France<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The tricolor has its origins in the flag of the city of Paris which was blue and red, with blue on the hoist side.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Historical Flag of City of Paris<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Interestingly, at least to me, this exact flag configuration has also been attributed to the Phoenicians, whom you will recall settled in the south of France near modern day Marseilles.\u00a0 Perhaps there is a connection? This arrangement is also echoed in the modern flag of Haiti, which we will get to eventually.\u00a0 During the revolution, partisans would wear red and blue \u201ccockades<\/a>,\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Tricolor Cockade<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

which are circular rosette-like emblems attached to a hat.\u00a0 These colors were most famously worn during the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789.<\/p>\n

The white was added at the suggestion of Lafayette<\/a>, properly known as Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette.\u00a0 Lafayette felt that the addition of the white stripe would serve to make the flag more representative of the French nation as a whole instead of emphasizing Paris over the rest of the nation.\u00a0 This Lafayette is the same man familiar to students of United States history as he fought on the side of the American rebels in the American War of Independence<\/a> and was a personal friend of George Washington<\/a>, Thomas Jefferson<\/a>, and Benjamin Franklin<\/a>.\u00a0 Lafayette carried his revolutionary ideals back home with him, and despite being a member of the hated aristocracy, his service to the revolution protected him from Madame L\u2019Guillontine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the exception of the period from 1815 to 1830, during the restoration of the Bourbon Dynasty<\/a> following the final defeat<\/a> of Napoleon<\/a>, when the official flag of the restored French kingdom was a simple white field, the blue, white, and red tricolor flag has remained the flag of France since 1789 forward.<\/p>\n

Join us as we move forward on a theme of France with the flags of the numerous former colonies of France<\/a> that have decided on political, social, and economic union with France as “part of overseas France”<\/a> instead of pursuing, at least thus far, independence.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The tricolor has its origins in the flag of the city of Paris which was blue and red, with blue on the hoist side.\u00a0 Interestingly, at least to me, this exact flag configuration has also been attributed to the Phoenicians, whom you will recall settled in the south of France near modern day Marseilles.\u00a0 Perhaps there is a connection? This arrangement is also echoed in the modern flag of Haiti, which we will get to eventually.\u00a0 During the revolution, partisans would wear red and blue \u201ccockades,\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,5,27,6,7],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}