A handful of flags still in use today were designed before the countries that fly them existed in anything like their modern form. Working out which is genuinely the oldest is harder than it sounds, since it depends on whether you count continuous use, official adoption, or the date a design first appeared. What follows are the strongest candidates, along with a few historical banners that never belonged to a nation at all.
Where flags came from
Flags began as military insignia and signalling devices. The earliest examples were not flags at all but metal or wooden poles carved and decorated so they could be recognized from a distance. Fabric versions appeared around the first millennium AD, once the point became visibility in the field rather than durability on a pole.
The Dannebrog
The Dannebrog of Denmark is generally accepted as the oldest continuously used national flag, and it comes with a legend nearly as old as itself. Danish lore has it descending from the sky during the Battle of Lyndanisse in 1219, a sign from God that he was backing King Valdemar II.
The design is a white Scandinavian cross on red. The cross is Christian and the red field is read as courage and strength. Every other Scandinavian flag follows the same layout, which is the clearest case in vexillology of one design shaping a whole region.
The Lion Rampant
The Lion Rampant, Scotland's royal flag, goes back to the 12th century and King William I of Scotland, nicknamed "The Lion." A red lion rears on a yellow field, poised to strike. It has stayed tied to Scottish royal heritage ever since, which is why it remains a royal banner rather than a national one.
The Banner of the Holy Roman Empire
Used from the late Middle Ages until the empire dissolved in 1806, this banner carried a black eagle on a golden field. The double head made a specific claim: authority over both Western and Eastern Europe, which was a considerable thing to assert on a piece of cloth.
The flag of Austria
Austria's three horizontal stripes, red, white and red, are based on the oldest national flag design in the world. The legend attaches to Duke Leopold V, who came out of a battle during the Crusades soaked in blood; when he took off his belt, the cloth underneath was still white. Officially adopted in 1230, the triband has stayed put ever since.
The war flag of the Philippines
The Philippine flag stands out for its design as much as its age, with a sun and three stars, one for each of the country's main geographical regions. It was officially adopted in 1898 during the revolution against Spanish rule, making the original version one of the oldest flags in Asia and one designed explicitly as a symbol of resistance.
Old flags that belonged to no nation
The Jolly Roger, or rather the Jolly Rogers, since there was never only one, were flown by pirates from the early 1700s. Skulls, crossbones and similar grim motifs were meant to frighten a target into surrendering without a fight. Captains customized their own, so a knowledgeable sailor could sometimes tell whose ship was approaching from the flag alone.
The Knights Templar carried the Beauseant, split horizontally with a black upper half for the sins of the world and a white lower half for the purity of the order. It went into battle as a rallying point, and the Templars intended it to unsettle whoever was on the other side.
These flags have outlasted the states, orders and crews that raised them, and several are still recognizable to people who could not name a single battle they were carried into.
