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English Royal Standards, House of Lancaster 1399-1461

Last modified: 2012-01-20 by rob raeside
Keywords: royal standard | house of lancaster | henry iv | lancaster |
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Henry IV (1399-1413)

[English royal standard of 1399] by Sam Lockton

Fleur-de-lys reduced to three

As in 1365 Charles V had reduced the number of fleur-de-lys in the French Arms to 3, Henry IV changed his arms likewise, to indicate the claim was still current - Evans (1970), www.fleurdelis.com/royal.htm
Peter Hans van der Muijzenberg, 23 April 2002

The English Royal Standard of Henry IV was used at least to the reign of Richard III.
Sam Lockton, 9 September 2002

Personal Standard

Neubecker (1932) pictured an English royal banner around 1450 with around the free sides a red and green border. (ratio 1:1?). He also has a picture of the standard of the Duke of Lancaster, later King Henry IV, similar to that of Henry VII:

[standard of Henry VII] by Dave Martucci

Its design is similar to this image, if with somewhat longer "slips", and it has a cross of St. George at the hoist. The fly is white over blue, with close to the St. George cross a large red rose on the dividing line, and flyward of that a white swan with outstretched wing (and a crown around its neck), the white holds a row of smaller red roses (except that after the first in the row, some space is taken up by the upper part of the swan, the blue holds a row of alternating I-don't-know-what-s and tree-stumps. The free side(s) have a blue and white border. The text explains the red rose and the blue-white as being for Lancaster, and the St. George cross and the Swan for Henry's wife, of the house of the counts/earls Bohun. (ratio 1:3?)

The similarity is no coincidence since "early standards were usually divided along their length into two tinctures and were charged with various devices and mottoes." (Symposium Conservation of Flags)
Peter Hans van der Muijzenberg, 23 April 2002


Henry V (1413-1422), Henry VI (1422-1461)

The use of the English Royal Standard of 1399 continued through these reigns.
Sam Lockton, 9 September 2002


Continued as House of York