18th, 19th and early 20th Century Flags (Spain)

Last modified: 2000-01-21 by santiago dotor
Keywords: spain | historical | navy | coat of arms | ensign: war | war flag | ensign: civil | canada | rank flag | military | spanish republic: first | ensign: yacht | ensign: customs | ensign: naval courier | crown: royal | anchor (blue) | r |
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• War Ensign 1785-1931 (and State and War Flag 1843-1931)
  • The 1785 War Ensign Contest
• Civil Ensign 1785-1927 (Merchant Flag)
• War Pennant 1785
• Corsair Ensign 1820
• Naval Couriers Ensign, 19th century (Correos Marítimos)
• Naval Couriers Ensign, early 20th century
• Customs (Treasury) Ensigns (Hacienda)
• Yachts' Ensign 1875-1931
• Royal Yachts' Ensign 1875-1931
• First Spanish Republic 1873-1874
• Military Colours
• Generalissimo of the Navy 1809
• Pilot Flag (1886)
• Spanish Flag in Canada 1789-1795
• Spanish 1771 UFE

See also:

• Spain

Other sites:

• Spanish-American War Centennial Website:
  • Spanish Naval and Maritime Flags
  • Flag of the Havana Light Volunteer Infantry Battalion
  • Flag of the Havana Volunteer Cavalry
  • Flag of the First Provisional Light Battalion of Puerto Rico

State and War Flag (1843-1931)

by Jaume Ollé and Santiago Dotor

A contemporary print in Jose Cadero's Atlas para el riaje de las goletas "Sutil" y "Mexicana" ... en 1792 (in the British Columbia Provincial Archives), shows the flag flying over the Spanish Fort at Friendly Cove (Canada) as the national flag adopted by Spain in 1785. The length of the flag is about three times the width. The flag has three horizontal stripes: the yellow centre stripe is twice the width of each of the red stripes along the top and bottom of the flag (similar to the modern Spanish flag). A circle with the arms of Leon (a red lion) and Castile (a yellow castle) is set in the yellow stripe towards the hoist.

Peter Cawley, 13 September 1995

The national flag from 1793 (also reported as the war flag of 1897) was red-yellow-red with arms in the first third of the yellow stripe. The arms are crowned, and vertically divided, left red with a tower, right white with a lion.

Zeljko Heimer and Nick Artimovich, 10 April 1996

The 1998 motion picture Zorro shows the Spanish 1785 red-yellow-red flag with vertical stripes and the arms centered on the middle stripe. This flag has never existed.

Juan Morales, 23 January 1999

Such a flag did not exist in that period (around 1841, according to the movie). The first Spanish vertical red-yellow-red flag was the square one established in 1878 for Ministers. It carried the arms of Castile and Leon in an oval escutcheon, royally crowned. Source: Calvo and Grávalos 1983.

Santiago Dotor, 26 January 1999

Merchant Flag

by Zeljko Heimer

The Spanish Merchant flag from the 1870's to the Civil War was a yellow field with narrow red stripes near the top and bottom. It was essentially five stripes of yellow, red, yellow, red, yellow in approximate proportions 1:1:2:1:1.

Nick Artimovich, 10 April 1996

by Santiago Dotor

The 1785 Royal Decree also established a new war pennant, a tapering R-Y-R 1:2:1 pennant with a yellow square at the hoist bearing the oval small Arms, tilted 90º. Sources: Calvo and Grávalos 1983; Banderas de la Marina de Guerra Española - Bicentenario de la Bandera de la Marina de Guerra Española (1785-1985), Instituto de Cultura e Historia Naval, Museo Naval, 1985.

Santiago Dotor, 8 July 1999

The Spanish corsair ensign of 1820 was the civil ensign (YRYRY 1:1:2:1:1) with the coat-of-arms (oval escutcheon with per pale Castile and Leon, royally crowned), offset to the hoist. Source: Calvo and Grávalos 1983.

Santiago Dotor, 5 July 1999

by Jaume Ollé

Correos Marítimos

by Jaume Ollé

by Jaume Ollé

Adopted 1854, in use until 13th March 1867

by Jaume Ollé

The letters HN (Hacienda Nacional, National Treasury) were changed to HR (Hacienda Real, Royal Treasury) probably with a change in the name of that Office.

Jaume Ollé, 13 March 1999

Adopted by Royal Decree 13th March 1867, in use until 14th April 1931

by Jaume Ollé

Used until the Second Spanish Republic. See also the current Customs Police Ensign.

Santiago Dotor, 5 July 1999

Another Customs Ensign

by Jaume Ollé

Ensign for Recreational Vessels

by Santiago Dotor

According to Calvo and Grávalos 1983, a 1875 Decree established a new ensign for recreational vessels (mostly yachts in practice), a national flag with the coat-of-arms replaced by a large royal crown proper. It was surely not used 1931-1939 (Second Spanish Republic) and was probably recovered in 1936 or 1938 until the 1943 Decree was issued.

Santiago Dotor, 25 June 1999

by Jaume Ollé

The First Spanish Republic existed during 1873-1874. Unlike the Second Republic, its flag was the same as the 1785 one only without the crown. Actually the law said a piece of material be stitched over the crown, so the coat-of-arms left was not centered vertically but slightly offset to the bottom of the middle stripe).

Santiago Dotor, 1 July 1999

José Manuel Erbez wrote me:

Suárez Rosales 1981 says that at the end of the 19th century the Federal Party (of national, not only Canary, scope) proposed a flag for the [possible] Spanish Federal Republic consisting of the red-yellow-purple triband with a blue triangle at the hoist charged with white stars (in no specific number) representing the different federated states. I have never heard of such a flag, perhaps you do or you feel appropriate to forward this to FOTWml.

Santiago Dotor, 7 October 1999

The overwhelming majority of Spanish 19th century military flags, followed this pattern: a Burgundy Cross -usually but not always on a white field- and a coat-of-arms upon the end of every branch of the cross. These arms would identify the particular unit; Irish units, for example, would bear coats-of-arms with the Celtic harp.

Juan Morales, 23 January 1999

by Jaume Ollé

According to an order of 1809 the flag of the generalissimo ("grand general") of the Navy in Spain was red with a white quarter and a simplified shield and crown.

Jaume Ollé, 16 December 1996

by António Martins

The American-Spanish War website reported by Dov Gutterman contains a 19th century Spanish pilot flag, which looks wrong to me. It looks like a red-and-yellow chequered flag.

Ole Andersen, 7 January 1999

I think the American-Spanish War website has made a mistake regarding this flag. It was not a pilot flag as such, but a pilot jack (a jack signalling "I request a pilot"). Moreover, it was not chequered red and yellow, but chequered red and white; this jack was originally the banner of Burgundy according to Gordon 1915, page 228.

Miles Li, 16 July 1999

The 1785 flag of Spain flew on the west coast of Canada between 1789 and 1795. Spain claimed the west coast of North America by virtue of the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494). Spanish explorations and landings on the west coast of Canada in 1592 and 1774, however, were not consolidated by any settlement. In 1789, fearful of Russian intentions to move down the coast from Alaska, and concerned by British trading activity that followed Cook's visit in 1778, Spain asserted its sovereignty in the region by establishing a fort at Friendly Cove at the entrance to Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Spain withdrew from Nootka in 1795.

Peter Cawley, 13 September 1995

by Randy Young

First of three Spanish flags listed in the Encyclopaedia Britannica 1771. [ES-1771a.gif]. Horizontal tricolour: top 1/4 in red, bottom 1/4 in blue, and the middle in yellow. Similar to the flag used by the Spanish Republic, isn't it? Could it be that the Spanish republicans inadvertantly (or deliberately) picked one of the historical flags of the kingdom?

Randy Young, 31 July 1998

Strange flag. Absolutely unknown to me. In 1771 the red-yellow-red flag didn't exist yet. After the conquest of Catalonia in 1714 the French rulers of Spain used the Bourbon white flag.

Jaume Ollé, 3 August 1998

The flag of Encyclopaedia Britannica is not very strange. It might have been a variant of Spanish colours used in the Americas. There have been used flags of red-yellow and blue stripes even before 1785. The blue for America (or overseas). We are still searching [at the Archiv für Flaggenkunde] for a solution about this flag.

Ralf Stelter, 13 June 1999