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England: The Anthony Roll

Part 2 of 3

Last modified: 2013-05-07 by rob raeside
Keywords: anthony roll | henry viii | tudor flags |
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The Anthony Roll - Part 2
An illustrated survey of Henry VIII's Navy

This page display flags shown on the Anthony Roll as documented by Knighton & Loades (2000).  See the first page in the series for an introduction to this document.

Square blue flags with yellow emblems

There are five different flags which feature the fleur-de-lis but, apart from the Royal Standard, no flags with lions.

[Flags on the Anthony Roll] Image by Martin Grieve

One large fleur-de-lis occurs nine times, usually in association with a blue flag bearing the initials HR, on ships 12 to 19.

[Flags on the Anthony Roll] Image by Martin Grieve

Three gold fleur-de-lis, similar to the first and fourth quarters of royal standard, appears sixteen times on ships 4 to 11. These are the only ships, bar three, which have a square Royal Standard in a position, other than at the stern.

[Flags on the Anthony Roll] reverse Image by Martin Grieve

With reverse Initials HR.
David Prothero, 20 July 2004

Oblong Flags

While some oblong flags are similar to Tudor flags that are known from other sources, others seem rather fanciful. They may be depictions of real flags or they may be no more than flag-like decorations on a painting? However the rolls were to be presented to the King, and one assumes that the flags were not frivolous. Oblong flags appear on only the first three ships and the one galley. They are deck and masthead flags on the ships, and deck flags on the galley, which had no masthead flag.

[Flags on the Anthony Roll] reverse Image by Martin Grieve

Reverse St George impaled Green. Occurs seven times.

[Flags on the Anthony Roll] reverse Image by Martin Grieve

Reverse St George impaled Green with yellow circle in the centre. Occurs once.

[Flags on the Anthony Roll] reverse Image by Martin Grieve

Reverse St George impaled White. Occurs five times.

[Flags on the Anthony Roll] reverse Image by Martin Grieve

Reverse St George impaled three green and two white horizontal stripes. Occurs once.

[Flags on the Anthony Roll] reverse Image by Martin Grieve

Reverse St George impaled St George or:

[Flags on the Anthony Roll] reverse Image by Martin Grieve

Reverse St George with vertical arm off-set - these flags occur twice.

These last two are alternative interpretations of the same flag, which is flown as a fore masthead flag on the first and third ships. A fold hides a significant part of the flag, which is white with a red horizontal arm that runs from hoist to fly, except where hidden by the fold, and a vertical red arm at about a quarter of the flag's length from the hoist. A similar flag, with a similar fold, is held by a man standing at the top of a tower in the c.1545 painting 'The Embarkation of Henry VIII at Dover'. In this painting many ships have long white pennants with a St George's cross, in which the horizontal arm runs the length of the pennant, but the vertical arm is near the hoist, suggesting that the off-set arm is the more likely interpretation. On the other hand, although the two examples in the Anthony Roll are also masthead flags, all other masthead flags are impaled, and in two cases the impalement is plain white; i.e. the horizontal arm has been extended to the fly in some cases, but not in others. A streamer on one of the four-masted galleasses does have a 'double St George' in the hoist.
David Prothero, 21 July 2004

Royal Standard Impaled

[Flags on the Anthony Roll] reverse Image by Martin Grieve

Reverse Royal Standard impaled St George.

[Flags on the Anthony Roll] reverse Image by Martin Grieve

Reverse Royal Standard impaled White.

[Flags on the Anthony Roll] reverse Image by Martin Grieve

Reverse Royal Standard impaled Green. Occurs three times. Wilson interpreted this flag as having "the royal arms at the hoist green over blue at the fly.", but in my opinion the whole fly is green and the blue is just shading.

[Flags on the Anthony Roll] reverse Image by Martin Grieve

Reverse Royal Standard impaled red over two fleur-de-lis. Only on the galley, once. No sign of any faded marks on the red panel that might have been one or more lions.
David Prothero, 22 July 2004

Anthony Roll series (after Knighton & Loades, 2000) continued on this page

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