Vert
Encyclopedia
Green
Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...
is commonly found in modern flag
Flag
A flag is a piece of fabric with a distinctive design that is usually rectangular and used as a symbol, as a signaling device, or decoration. The term flag is also used to refer to the graphic design employed by a flag, or to its depiction in another medium.The first flags were used to assist...
s and coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
, and to a lesser extent also in the classical heraldry of the Late Middle Ages
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th to the 16th century . The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern era ....
and the Early Modern period
Early modern period
In history, the early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages. Although the chronological limits of the period are open to debate, the timeframe spans the period after the late portion of the Middle Ages through the beginning of the Age of Revolutions...
.
Green flags were historically carried by the Fatimid Caliphate in the 10th to 12th centuries, and by Ottokar II of Bohemia
Ottokar II of Bohemia
Ottokar II , called The Iron and Golden King, was the King of Bohemia from 1253 until 1278. He was the Duke of Austria , Styria , Carinthia and Carniola also....
in the 13th century. In the modern period, a Green Ensign
Green Ensign
The Green Ensign is an historical flag flown by some Irish merchant vessels from the 17th century to the early 20th century. The flag consists of a green field with a golden harp and a canton containing either the English Flag or a version of the Union Flag or "Union Jack".This flag has appeared...
was flown by Irish vessels, becoming a symbol of Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...
in the 19th and 20th century. The Empire of Brazil used a yellow rhombus on a green field from 1822, now seen in the flag of Brazil
Flag of Brazil
The national flag of Brazil is a blue disc depicting a starry sky spanned by a curved band inscribed with the national motto, within a yellow rhombus, on a green field. Brazil officially adopted this design for its national flag on November 19, 1889, replacing the flag of the second Empire of Brazil...
. In the 20th century, a green field was chosen for a number of national flag
National flag
A national flag is a flag that symbolizes a country. The flag is flown by the government, but usually can also be flown by citizens of the country.Both public and private buildings such as schools and courthouses may fly the national flag...
designs, especially in the Arab
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
and Muslim world
Muslim world
The term Muslim world has several meanings. In a religious sense, it refers to those who adhere to the teachings of Islam, referred to as Muslims. In a cultural sense, it refers to Islamic civilization, inclusive of non-Muslims living in that civilization...
because of the symbolism of green in Islam
Green in Islam
Green is considered the traditional color of Islam.-Significance and symbolism:The Arabic word for "greenness" is mentioned several times in the Quran, describing the state of the inhabitants of paradise...
, including the solid green flag of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (1977).
In classical heraldry
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
, vert is the name of the tincture
Tincture (heraldry)
In heraldry, tinctures are the colours used to emblazon a coat of arms. These can be divided into several categories including light tinctures called metals, dark tinctures called colours, nonstandard colours called stains, furs, and "proper". A charge tinctured proper is coloured as it would be...
roughly equivalent to the colour "green". It is one of the five dark tinctures (colours). The word vert is simply the French for "green". It is used in English in the sense of a heraldic tincture since the early 16th century.
In Modern French, vert is not used as a heraldic term. Instead, the French heraldic term for green tincture is sinople. This has been the case since ca. the 16th century. In medieval French heraldry, vert also meant "green" while sinople was a shade of red.
Vert is portrayed by the conventions of heraldic "hatching" (in black and white engraving
Engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
s) by lines at a 45-degree angle from upper left to lower right, or indicated by the abbreviation vt. when a coat of arms is "tricked".
Middle Ages
Both the English vert and the French sinople have not been used to refer to "green" heraldic tinctures prior to the 15th century.The reason for this is that green was not used as a heraldic colour during the formative phase of heraldry in the High Middle Ages
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....
, because green is the "colour of Islam
Green in Islam
Green is considered the traditional color of Islam.-Significance and symbolism:The Arabic word for "greenness" is mentioned several times in the Quran, describing the state of the inhabitants of paradise...
" (historically, of the Fatimid Caliphate), and was not used in coats of arms by Christian crusaders
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
.
The French term sinople was in use prior to the 15th century, but it did not refer to green, but rather to red, being identical in origin to Cinnabar
Cinnabar
Cinnabar or cinnabarite , is the common ore of mercury.-Word origin:The name comes from κινναβαρι , a Greek word most likely applied by Theophrastus to several distinct substances...
, originally the name of a red pigment also known as sinopia
Sinopia
Sinopia is a reddish-brown ochre-like earth color pigment used in traditional oil painting. It is used for the cartoon or underpainting for a fresco; indeed, the term is also synecdochically used to refer to underpainting done in sinopia...
.
Descriptions of knightly shields
Heater shield
The heater shield or heater-shaped shield is a form of European medieval shield, developing from the early medieval kite shield in ca. the mid 13th century....
as painted at least partly green in Arthurian romance are found earlier, even in the late 12th century. Here, the Chevalier au Vert Escu ("knight with the green shield") often marks a kind of supernatural character outside of normal chivalric society (as is still the case with the English "Green Knight
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance outlining an adventure of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. In the poem, Sir Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious warrior who is completely green, from his clothes and hair to his...
" of ca. 1390), perhaps in connection with the Wild Man
Wild man
The wild man is a mythical figure that appears in the artwork and literature of medieval Europe, comparable to the satyr or faun type in classical mythology and to Silvanus, the Roman god of the woodlands.The defining characteristic of the figure is its "wildness"; from the 12th century...
or Green Man
Green Man
A Green Man is a sculpture, drawing, or other representation of a face surrounded by or made from leaves. Branches or vines may sprout from the nose, mouth, nostrils or other parts of the face and these shoots may bear flowers or fruit...
of medieval figurative art.
The Anglo-Norman
Anglo-Norman
The Anglo-Normans were mainly the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the Norman conquest by William the Conqueror in 1066. A small number of Normans were already settled in England prior to the conquest...
prose Brut (ca. 1200) has Brutus of Troy
Brutus of Troy
Brutus or Brute of Troy is a legendary descendant of the Trojan hero Æneas, known in mediæval British legend as the eponymous founder and first king of Britain...
bear a green shield, Brutus Vert-Escu, Brutus Viride Scutum.
Green is occasionally found in historical coats of arms (as opposed to the fictional "green knights" of Arthurian romance) from as early as the 13th century, but it remained rare, and indeed actively avoided, well into the 15th century, but becomes more common in the classical heraldry of the 16th and 17th centuries.
An early example of a green escutcheon was that of the coat of arms of Styria
Duchy of Styria
The history of Styria concerns the region roughly corresponding to the modern Austrian state of Styria and the Slovene region of Styria from its settlement by Germans and Slavs in the Dark Ages until the present...
, based on the banner of Ottokar II of Bohemia
Ottokar II of Bohemia
Ottokar II , called The Iron and Golden King, was the King of Bohemia from 1253 until 1278. He was the Duke of Austria , Styria , Carinthia and Carniola also....
(r. 1253-1278), described by chronist Ottokar aus der Gaal (ca. 1315) as:
- ein banier grüene als ein gras / darin ein pantel swebte / blanc, als ob ez lebte
- "a banner green as grass, therein suspended a panther in white, [depicted] as if alive."
Classical heraldry
During the 16th century, green was still rare as a tincture for the field of a coat of arms, but it was used increasingly for the heraldic designs shown in the field, especially when depicting trees or other vegetation. Thus, the coat of arms of HungaryCoat of arms of Hungary
The current coat of arms of Hungary was adopted on July 3, 1990, after the end of communist rule. The arms have been used before, both with and without the Holy Crown of Hungary, sometimes as part of a larger, more complex coat of arms, and its elements date back to the Middle Ages.The shield is...
shows a "double cross on a hill" as a symbol of the Árpád
Árpád dynasty
The Árpáds or Arpads was the ruling dynasty of the federation of the Hungarian tribes and of the Kingdom of Hungary . The dynasty was named after Grand Prince Árpád who was the head of the tribal federation when the Magyars occupied the Carpathian Basin, circa 895...
kings, where the cross was shown in silver (argent) and the hill in green, from the late 14th century.
The only green shown in the arms of the states of the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
in the Quaternion Eagle
Armorial of the Holy Roman Empire
Over its long history, the Holy Roman Empire used many different heraldic forms, representing its numerous internal divisions.- Holy Roman Emperors:...
by Hans Burgkmair
Hans Burgkmair
Hans Burgkmair the elder was a German painter and printmaker in woodcut.Burgkmair was born in Augsburg, the son of painter Thomas Burgkmair and his son, Hans the Younger, became one too. From 1488 he was a pupil of Martin Schongauer in Colmar, who died during his two years there, before Burgkmair...
(ca. 1510) are the crancelin
Coat of arms of Saxony
-See also:*Royal Arms of England*Coat of arms of Portugal*Coat of arms of Belgium*Coat of arms of Bulgaria...
of Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
and the Zirbelnuss of Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
.
The three lions rampant, verts of the Marquessate of Franchimont
Marquessate of Franchimont
The Marquessate of Franchimont was a lordship forming the western frontier of the Principality of Liège. Its base was the château de Franchimont. It was made up of the bans of Theux, Spa, Sart, Jalhay and later Verviers...
are attested in the 16th century.
Siebmachers Wappenbuch
Siebmachers Wappenbuch
Siebmachers Wappenbuch refers to two heraldic multivolume book series of armorial bearings or coats of arms of the nobility within the Holy Roman Empire .The Old Siebmacher...
of 1605 shows a number of green heraldic devices in the coat of arms of cities. For example, the coat of arms of the town of Waldkappel
Waldkappel
Waldkappel is a small town in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis in northern Hesse, Germany.-Location:Waldkappel lies between Hessisch Lichtenau in the west and Eschwege in the east, where the town is found in the North Hesse Upland between the Meißner-Kaufunger Wald Nature Park neighbouring it to the north...
("forest chapel") as depicting a chapel in a forest on a red field, with the ground on which the chapel is standing, and four trees behind the chapel, drawn in green.
There are a number of other examples where Siebmacher as a geen "mount" (the heraldic "hill" at the bottom of the shield on which the heraldic charge is "standing").
For the town of Grünberg, Siebmacher shows a yellow field on which a knight is riding, his horse running on a green "hill" and the knight flying a green banner.
Modern flags
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Green Ensign
The Green Ensign is an historical flag flown by some Irish merchant vessels from the 17th century to the early 20th century. The flag consists of a green field with a golden harp and a canton containing either the English Flag or a version of the Union Flag or "Union Jack".This flag has appeared...
was flown by Irish merchant vessels from the late 17th century.
Green flags flown by revolutionary uprisings include that used in the Vaud
Vaud
Vaud is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and is located in Romandy, the French-speaking southwestern part of the country. The capital is Lausanne. The name of the Canton in Switzerland's other languages are Vaud in Italian , Waadt in German , and Vad in Romansh.-History:Along the lakes,...
ois insurrection against Bernese rule in the 1790s (which became the basis of the modern coat of arms of Vaud), the flag of the Irish Saint Patrick's Battalion
Saint Patrick's Battalion
The Saint Patrick's Battalion , formed and led by Jon Riley, was a unit of 175 to several hundred immigrants and expatriates of European descent who fought as part of the Mexican Army against the United States in the Mexican-American War of 1846 to 1848. Most of the battalion's members had...
(1846-1848) and Easter Rising
First Day of the Easter Rising
The first day of the Easter Rising, Monday, April 24, 1916, saw some 1,200 insurgents of the Irish Volunteers take over positions in the centre of Dublin, launching the week-long rebellion known as the Easter Rising.-Vounteer Positions:...
(1916).
In the 20th century, a number of national flag
National flag
A national flag is a flag that symbolizes a country. The flag is flown by the government, but usually can also be flown by citizens of the country.Both public and private buildings such as schools and courthouses may fly the national flag...
s were designed involving green, especially in the Muslim world
Muslim world
The term Muslim world has several meanings. In a religious sense, it refers to those who adhere to the teachings of Islam, referred to as Muslims. In a cultural sense, it refers to Islamic civilization, inclusive of non-Muslims living in that civilization...
, based on the traditional symbolism of green in Islam
Green in Islam
Green is considered the traditional color of Islam.-Significance and symbolism:The Arabic word for "greenness" is mentioned several times in the Quran, describing the state of the inhabitants of paradise...
, and as one of the Pan-Arab colours
Pan-Arab colors
The Pan-Arab colors are black, white, green, and red. They were first combined in the flag of the Arab Revolt in 1916. They are used currently in the flags of Jordan, Kuwait, Palestinian Authority, Sahrawi Republic, Sudan, Libya and the United Arab Emirates. A sub-set of the Pan-Arab colors are...
.
Green is also common among the national flags of African countries; green is one of the Pan-African colours
Pan-African colours
Two different sets of three colours are referred to as the Pan-African colours: the red, green and gold first used in the flag of Ethiopia and Eritrea before the countries broke apart; and the red, green and black adopted by the American-based Universal Negro Improvement Association and African...
.
Other countries have used the colour green in their flags to represent the "greenness" of their lands and abundance of their nation.
The following contemporary national flags feature a solid green field:
- the Flag of BrazilFlag of BrazilThe national flag of Brazil is a blue disc depicting a starry sky spanned by a curved band inscribed with the national motto, within a yellow rhombus, on a green field. Brazil officially adopted this design for its national flag on November 19, 1889, replacing the flag of the second Empire of Brazil...
(1889, Empire of Brazil from 1822): a yellow rhombus on a green field, in the rhombus a blue disc depicting a starry sky spanned by a curved band inscribed with the national motto, - the flag of PakistanFlag of PakistanThe national flag of Pakistan was adopted in its present form during a meeting of the Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947, just three days before the country's independence, when it became the official flag of the Dominion of Pakistan. It was afterwards retained by the current-day Islamic...
(1947): a white star and crescent on a dark green field, with a vertical white stripe at the hoist, - the flag of MauritaniaFlag of MauritaniaThe flag of Mauritania is the common name for the national flag of Mauritania in north-west Africa. The flag was adopted on April 1, 1959. It was introduced under the instructions of Moktar Ould Daddah, and the subsequent constitution of 22 March 1959....
(1959): green, with a golden upward-pointed crescent and star, - the flag of ZambiaFlag of ZambiaThe flag of Zambia, adopted on October 24, 1964, is green with orange colored eagle in flight over a rectangular block of three vertical stripes, colored, from left to right: red, black and orange. The placement of the eagle and block of stripes at the flag's fly is unique as most emblems and...
(1964): green, at the fly end stripes in red, black and orange and a depiction of an eagle, - the flag of BangladeshFlag of BangladeshThe national flag of Bangladesh was adopted officially on 17 January 1972. It is based on a similar flag used during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. The map was later deleted from the flag by the order of General Abul Manzur, most likely to simplify the design...
(1972): a red disc on a green field - the flag of Saudi ArabiaFlag of Saudi ArabiaThe flag of Saudi Arabia is the flag used by the government of Saudi Arabia since March 15, 1973. It is a green flag featuring in white an Arabic inscription and a sword. The script on the flag is written in the Thuluth script...
(1973): green, with the shahada inscription and a sword in white. - the flag of DominicaFlag of DominicaThe flag of Dominica was adopted on November 3, 1978, with some small changes having been made in 1981, 1988, and 1990.The flag, adopted in 1978, features the national bird emblem, the sisserou parrot, which also appears on the coat of arms granted July 21, 1961. This parrot is unique to Dominica...
(1978): green, a cross in yellow, black and white, and a red disc with a depiction of the sisserou parrot, - the Flag of TurkmenistanFlag of TurkmenistanThe flag of Turkmenistan was adopted on January 24, 2001.It features a green field with a vertical red stripe near the hoist side, containing five carpet guls stacked above two crossed olive branches similar to those on the flag of the United Nations; a white waxing crescent moon, typical of...
(2001): green, with a vertical red stripe near the hoist side, a white waxing crescent moon and five white five-pointed stars appear in the upper corner of the field just to the fly side of the red stripe.
Former national flags with green fields further include the solid green flag of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (1977-2011).