Union badge of Norway and Sweden - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Union badge was inserted into the canton

Canton (heraldry)

Canton is a square charge placed in the upper dexter corner. It is classed by some heraldic writers as one of the honorable ordinaries; but, strictly speaking, it is a diminutive of the Quarter, being two-thirds the area of that ordinary. However, in the roll of Henry III the quarter appears in...

of Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

and Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

flags in 1844 to denote their partnership in the personal Union

Union between Sweden and Norway

The Union between Sweden and Norway , officially the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, consisted of present-day Sweden and Norway between 1814 and 1905, when they were united under one monarch in a personal union....

, which they entered in 1814. It combined the flag colours of both kingdoms, equally distributed, to reflect their equal status within the Union. The Union badge remained in all flags of the two countries until the dissolution of the Union in 1905, except for the merchant and state flags of Norway. Due to increasing Norwegian dissatisfaction with the Union, it was removed from these flags in 1899.

Background

The Union came about as a result of the Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

, when the king of Denmark-Norway, on the losing side, was forced to cede Norway

Norway

to the king of Sweden

Sweden

by the Treaty of Kiel

Treaty of Kiel

The Treaty of Kiel or Peace of Kiel was concluded between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Kingdom of Sweden on one side and the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway on the other side on 14 January 1814 in Kiel...

in 1814. Norwegian resistance led to the declaration of national independence and the adoption of a constitution

Constitution of Norway

The Constitution of Norway was first adopted on May 16, 1814 by the Norwegian Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll , then signed and dated May 17...

on 17 May 1814. A brief war with Sweden resulted in the Convention of Moss

Convention of Moss

The Convention of Moss was a cease fire agreement, signed August 14, 1814, between the Swedish King and the Norwegian Storting. It followed the Swedish-Norwegian War due to Norway's claim to sovereignty...

on August 14, 1814 and the Norwegian constitutional revision of November 4, 1814 to open the way for a personal union. On the same day, the Norwegian parliament chose to elect Charles XIII of Sweden

Charles XIII of Sweden

Charles XIII & II also Carl, , was King of Sweden from 1809 and King of Norway from 1814 until his death...

as King of Norway.

According to the constitution of November 1814

Constitution of Norway

The Constitution of Norway was first adopted on May 16, 1814 by the Norwegian Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll , then signed and dated May 17...

, Norway was to have its own merchant flag, but the war flag was to reflect the union. The present flag of Norway

Flag of Norway

The flag of Norway is red with an indigo blue Scandinavian cross outlined in white that extends to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in the style of the Dannebrog, the flag of Denmark.- History :...

was introduced in 1821, but its use was restricted. The union war flag of 1815 was a Swedish flag

Flag of Sweden

The flag of Sweden is a Scandinavian cross that extends to the edges of the flag. This Scandinavian cross represents Christianity. The design and colours of the Swedish flag are believed to have been inspired by the present Coat of arms of Sweden of 1442, which is blue divided quarterly by a cross...

defaced with a canton

Canton (heraldry)

showing a white saltire

Saltire

A saltire, or Saint Andrew's Cross, is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross or letter ex . Saint Andrew is said to have been martyred on such a cross....

on red, meant to represent Norway. Public opinion in Norway saw this situation as unsatifactory, and demanded a reform of flags and arms to reflect the equal status of the two states within the union.

New flags of 1844

In 1844, the proposals of a joint committee were enacted for both countries by King Oscar I

Oscar I of Sweden

Oscar I was King of Sweden and Norway from 1844 to his death. When, in August 1810, his father Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was elected Crown Prince of Sweden, Oscar and his mother moved from Paris to Stockholm . Oscar's father was the first ruler of the current House of Bernadotte...

. A Union badge was created, combining the flag colours of both countries, equally distributed. It was placed in the canton of each flag, including the merchant flags, which had until then been without any symbols of the Union. The two countries received separate, but parallel flag systems, clearly manifesting their equality.

The union badge on its own was used as the naval jack in both countries, and as the flag of the common diplomatic representations of both countries abroad. The diplomatic flag had the proportions 4:5 of the union badge as it appeared in Swedish flags, unlike the square shape of the Norwegian version.

The blue in the union badge would be the same as in the rest of the flag, usually the dark blue of the Norwegian flag. Swedish flags before 1905 also had a darker shade of blue than present flags.

The union badge was at first popular in Norway as a sign of Norway's equal status in the union. In Sweden, it was always seen by some people as a desecration of their flag, and one of its adversaries called it the "herring salad" (No.

Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...

: Sildesalaten, Sw.

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

: Sillsallaten) because of its resemblance to a popular dish on the Scandinavian

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

Smörgåsbord

Smörgåsbord is a type of Scandinavian meal served buffet-style with multiple dishes of various foods on a table, originating in Sweden. In Norway it is called koldtbord, in Denmark it is called det kolde bord, in Finland seisova pöytä and in Estonia rootsi laud...

. It came to be popularly known under this name in both countries.

Abolition of the Union badge

During the 1870s, the union became increasingly unpopular in Norway, and as a consequence the union badge was seen as a sign not of equality, but of a union forced upon the country against its will. Radicals made it their political goal to reintroduce the "pure" Norwegian flag as the first step toward the dissolution of the union. The parliamentary majority voted for the removal of the badge three times, but was defeated by royal veto twice. Finally, in 1898, the third royal veto was overruled and the union badge was removed from the national (merchant) and the state flag. It remained in the war flag (naval ensign), as this was under the jurisdiction of the king. However, parliament introduced a new state flag for government buildings, similar to the war flag, but without the union badge. The "pure" Norwegian flag was hoisted again in 1899. After Norway's unilateral withdrawal from the union on 7 June 1905, the union badge disappeared from the naval ensign as well on 9 June. It remained in all Swedish flags until Sweden formally recognized the dissolution of the union. By a royal decree of 27 October, the union badge in the merchant flag and the naval ensign was to be replaced with a blue field on 1 November 1905.

Literature

Heimer, Zeljko; Engene, Jan Oskar (2005). "Unionstidens norske flagg - Norwegian Flags of the Union Period". In: Nordisk Flaggkontakt No. 40, pp. 33-49. ISSN: 0109-7539

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