[Illustration: 18. COMMONWEALTH TWENTY-SHILLING PIECE.]
The form of these escutcheons is well shown in the twenty-shilling piece (18) issued during the Commonwealth, and also on a Parliamentary flag (19) then in use which had on the fly the same two emblems. One of these flags is still preserved in the house of the Admiralty Superintendent at Chatham, the colour of the ground of the flag being red.[45]
[45] W. Laird Clowes: "History of the English Navy."
Thus the two-crossed Union Jack of James ceased to be used and disappeared from the navy, as it already had from the merchantmen, and the single red cross Jack of England was restored to its position as the only Jack carried on the men-of-war of the State, or on any English ship sailing the seas.
The merchant vessels of the two nationalities continued to use their English and Scottish national Jacks as before, but the Scottish ships were especially warned that they must not carry either the King's arms or the red cross of St. George, and in case any of these Scottish ships should be met so doing, the State's colonel-admirals were ordered to "_admonish them not to do it in future_."
[Illustration: 19. COMMONWEALTH BOAT FLAG.]
A.D. 1648. _The State Ships_ The St. George crosse. _English Merchantmen_ The St. George crosse. _Scottish Merchantmen_ The St. Andrew crosse.
This position the English St. George Jack continued to hold on the ships of the State navy until 1660, when another change took place, and, at the "Restoration" of Charles II., the two-crossed "Union Flagge" returned, without any proclamation, to the places where it had been displayed before the change made by the Commonwealth Parliament.
On the _Naseby_ (20) it will be noticed that the two-crossed Jack is flying at the bow and on the mizzen, instead of the single red cross flag ordered by Parliament. How this came about is told in the next chapter.
Here, then, ended the period during which the English Jack, having been restored as a single flag, had continued to be, from 1648 to 1660, the only Jack authorized to be used on the men-of-war.
After the return of the King his subjects evidently began, in their enthusiasm, to make such indiscriminate use of this "King's Jack" instead of the single St. George Jack that they needed, a few years afterwards, to be reminded of the special instructions respecting the flag which had been given in the previous reign. In consequence of this, in 1663, another proclamation was issued, under Charles II., from which the following extract is made: