Tricolore is symbol of unity
The French flag has a long and rich history – here we look back as people are invited to fly it from their homes
AS FLAGS fly across France today we look at the history of the French flag – the world’s most famous ‘tricolour’.
People across France are invited today to pavoiser – that is, to hang out the national flag in honour of this morning’s ceremony at Les Invalides. This comes as social media have been a mass of French flags in recent days in solidarity with the victims of the November 13 attacks – but where does the blue, white and red come from originally?
A symbol of a united people, it dates back to the early days of Revolutionary France in 1794. It combines red and blue from the coat of arms of Paris – also sported as cocardes (rosettes) by the French revolutionaries - with white, associated with the kings of France.
It was not the first time a tricolour flag (with three stripes of colour) had been associated with a republican movement – William of Orange’s Prince’s Flag with horizontal orange, white and blue was used for the Dutch Republic in the 16th century – but the French Tricolore captured the imagination and led to dozens around the world such as Belgium, Ireland and Italy as well as countries further afield like India, Venezuala and Mexico.
The idea first started to spread when tricolours were adopted by ‘sister republics’ assisted or established by France during the Revolutionary Wars, including those of Rome and Alba and the Cisalpine Republic in northern Italy.
However the flag was abolished from 1814 to 1830 with the restoration of the monarchy. It was then flown on the barricades in 1830 before being brought back by King Louis Philippe I in the ‘July Monarchy’, the constitutional monarchy that ran until 1848.
It was briefly under threat again in 1848 when some militant republicans wanted it to be completely red. Poet Alphonse de Lamartine came to its defense, saying: “The tricolour flag has gone round the world, with the name, the glory and the freedom of the fatherland – France and the tricolour flag, it’s one and the same thought, the same prestige – if need be, the same terror to our enemies.”
In 1958 it was officially instigated as “the national emblem” of the Fifth Republic.
Now once again, these last few days, it has been a symbol of a united people in France.
