Flag of Wales
|
The Welsh Dragon on the tailfin of an Air Wales (now defunct) ATR 42 aircraft. |
The
national flag of
Wales is
The Red Dragon (). It consists of a
red dragon,
passant, on a
green and
white field. As with any heraldic charge, the exact representation of the dragon is not standardised and many different interpretations exist.
The flag was granted official status in
1959, but the red dragon itself has been associated with Wales for centuries; indeed, the flag is sometimes claimed to be the oldest
national flag still in use, though the origin of the adoption of the dragon symbol is now lost in
history and
myth. A plausible theory is that the
Romans brought the emblem to what is now Wales during their
occupation of
Britain, but it could be even older. The green and white stripes of the flag were additions by the
House of Tudor, the Welsh dynasty that held the
English throne from
1485 to
1603. Green and white are also the colours of the
leek, another
national emblem of Wales.
The oldest recorded use of the dragon to symbolise Wales is from the
Historia Brittonum, written around
830, but it is popularly supposed to have been the battle standard of
Arthur and other ancient
Celtic leaders. It is particularly associated in Welsh poetry with
Cadwaladr king of
Gwynedd from c.
655 to
682.
Many legends are associated with the Welsh dragon. The most famous is the
prophecy of
Myrddin (or Merlin) of a long fight between a red dragon and a white dragon. According to the prophecy, the white dragon would at first dominate but eventually the red dragon would win, this eventual victory and recapturing of
Lloegr would be, according to Welsh legend, brought about by Y Mab Darogan. This is believed to represent the conflict in the 5th and 6th centuries between the
British Celts (who later became the
Welsh) and the invading
Saxons.
The Welsh Flag is the only flag of the
constituent countries of the UK not to be used in the
Union Jack. Wales had no explicit recognition in the flag because Wales had been annexed by Edward I of England in 1282, and since the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 was considered to be a part of the Kingdom of England. There have since been proposals to include the Dragon or the
flag of Saint David (itself a cross) on the Union Jack but these have never met with much support.
Wales and
Bhutan are presently the only countries to have a dragon on their flag, though the
Chinese flag also featured a dragon during the
Qing Dynasty.
*
List of British flags*
List of Welsh flags*
HiJack, an article addressing the question of why Wales has no explicit symbolic representation on the
Union Flag.
