The Danish Man-of-War Ensign is shown in Fig. 224. The Royal Standard, like the Ensign, is swallow-tailed, but in the centre of the cross is placed a white square, indicated in our illustration, Fig. 224, by dots. This central, square space contains the Royal Arms, surrounded by the Collars of the Orders of the Elephant and of the Dannebrog. The merchant flag, Fig. 225, is rectangular.
In the year 1397, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark all formed one kingdom under the rule of the latter, but in 1414 the Swedes waged with more or less success an arduous struggle for liberty, and their independence was definitely acknowledged in the year 1523. The flag of Sweden is the yellow cross on the blue ground shown in Fig. 231. The blue and yellow are the colours of the Swedish arms,[77] and they were then doubtless chosen for the flag as the colours of freedom and independence.
Norway had no separate political existence until the year 1814, but in that year the Norwegians seceded from Denmark, and declared their independence. Their first flag was still a red flag with a white cross on it, and the arms of Norway in the upper corner next the flagstaff, but this being found to too closely resemble the Danish flag, they substituted for it the device seen in Fig. 230, which it will be noted is still the Danish flag, plus the blue cross on the white one. The administration of Norway is entirely distinct from Sweden, and it retains its own laws, but in 1814 the two Kingdoms were united under one Sovereign. As a sign of the union there is carried in the upper square, next to the flagstaff in the flags of both countries, a union device, a combination of the Swedish { 116} and Norwegian National colours. After considerable dispute, the Union Jack shown in Fig. 229 was accepted as the symbol of the political relationship of the two nations. It is a very neat arrangement, for if we look at the upper and lower portions we see the flag (Fig. 230) of Norway, if we study the two lateral portions we find they are the flag (Fig. 231) of Sweden. Both the Swedish and Norwegian war flags are swallow-tailed, and have the outer limb of the cross projecting; we may see this very clearly in Fig. 228, where the main body of the flag is Norwegian. The merchant flag is with each nationality rectangular; in Fig. 227 we have the flag of a Swedish merchant vessel. Both in the Norwegian and Swedish flags, as we may note in Figs. 227 and 228, it will be noticed that the Union device is conspicuously present. The Norwegian man-of-war flag, Fig. 228, would be that of a Norwegian merchant if we cut off the points in the fly; the Swedish merchant flag, Fig. 227, would be that of a Swedish man-of-war if instead of the straight end we made it swallow-tailed. As Sovereign of Sweden, the King places his arms in the centre of the large yellow cross; as Sovereign of Norway, in the centre of the large blue cross; hence we get the Swedish and Norwegian Royal Standards, the one for use in the one country, and the other for service in the other, the Union device being present in the upper corner in each case, and the outer portion of the flags swallow-tailed. The Standard is, in fact, the war flag plus the royal arms. The Post Service has in the centre of the flag a white square, with a golden horn and crown in it; the Customs flag has a similar white square at the junction of the arms of the cross, and in its centre is placed a crowned "T."