The Kingdom of the Netherlands

The Dutch National Flag

Introduced in 1572, it is one of the oldest tricolours in the world, and the oldest in continuous use today. It was finally declared the official flag of the Kingdom in 1937. However, it was not the first flag to be used.

When the Netherlands was divided into 17 provinces, it finally united under the Lord of Burgundy, and for united expeditions, they used his banner as the unified flag. A white flag with 2 bundles of of laurel branches in red. Forming an X. 

However, the Prince of Orange put himself at the head of a rebellion for the independence of the Netherlands. Privateers, acting under orders from the Prince of Orange to harass the Spanish took to using a horizontal tricolour flag, using the colours from the Prince's coat of arms, and began to use a tricolour of orange white and red. This flag quickly took the name of "the Prince's Flag."

This banner soon came to be closely associated with the Dutch cause in the Eighty Years War for independence. However, orange, as a colour was somewhat faint, and difficult to distinguish at sea, so in the 1600's, the orange was gradually replaced by red. 

After the 4th Anglo Dutch war which went disastrously for the Dutch, the Patriot Party began an uprising against the King. With support from Prussia, the revolt was ended, and many members of the Patriot party went into exile in France. When the Revolution in France took place, the Dutch members of the Patriot Party supported it enthusiastically. Looking to export the revolution, the Revolutionary Armies of France marched on the Netherlands, led by the Dutch. 

Many in the Netherlands saw the French as liberators, and they where soon able to depose the king, and establish the Batavian Republic. However, under the Treaty of Utrecht, the new republic became a client state of France, having to follow dictates issued from Paris. The Dutch flag was left alone, considering it used colours that the French where disposed to! However, in the top red stripe, on the left, a small figure of a Netherlands maiden with a lion at her feet was placed.

However, once Bonaparte became French Emperor, he placed Lois Bonaparte, his brother, on the throne in the Netherlands. Wanting to keep the Dutch on side, he wanted to pursue a Dutch policy as far as he could. He stripped the Maiden from the flag, returning it to the traditional tricolour. 

However, due to his pro-Dutch policies, he ended up in conflict with his brother, Napoleon. Napoleon quickly forced him from the throne, and absorbed the Netherlands as part of France. All Dutch symbols where scrapped, and replaced by imperial symbols. 

Finally, in 1813, the Dutch gained their independence from France, and the Prince of Orange returned. He brought back his orange white and blue flag, but to show his attachment to the people, he also used the red white and blue tricolour at the same time. 

However, it became clear that the red white and blue tricolour was more popular, and gained precedence as the national flag when the Prince of Orange used it to make his Royal Standard.

On Queens Day, an orange pennant is added to the flag, to show loyalty to the Queen, and it was Queen Wilhelmina who, in 1937, issued a Royal decree declaring the red white and blue tricolour to be the national flag.