^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Belgium: Royal standard

King Albert II's standard - Image by Mario Fabretto, 25 February 2001

Royal standard of the King of the Belgians
Standards of the other members of the Royal House
The national flag on royal palaces
Leopold III's standard (1934-1951)
Albert I's standard (1909-1934)
The Royal standard in ancient sources

See also:

Belgium

Royal Standard of the King of the Belgians

Above is shown the standard of His Majesty Albert II, King of the Belgians, son of the late Leopold III and younger brother of the late Baudouin I.
The colour of the standard field should be "rouge ponceau". Anyway, Michel Lupant [lup98] says: "but in fact the colour used is close to the colour of the Order of Leopold's ribbon".

Album des Pavillons [pay00], as well as Michel Lupant, shows the cypher A as solid, whereas the former edition of Album des Pavillons [pie95] showed the cypher A as open (as shown above).
The cypher should have number "II" between the downstrokes of letter "A". However, Michek Lupant explains that the Royal flag for ship has the number, while the car flag lacks it. I guess that the number is omitted due to the size (it would be too small and difficult to be drawn).

Željko Heimer, 25 February 2001

Standards of the other members of the Royal House

According to Michel Lupant [lup98], HM the Queen Paola and HM the Queen Dowager Fabiola have a similar standard but with cypher "P" and "F" (open letter), respectively, instead of cypher "A".

Željko Heimer, 25 February 2001

The national flag on Royal palaces

National flag on Royal palaces - Image by Ivan Sache, 18 July 2001

An unusual Belgian flag in proportions 4:3 is described by L. Nyssen in Vexillacta [vxl] #3, March 1999.
L. Nyssen and other careful flagspotters have noticed that the Belgian flags hoisted over the Royal palaces in Brussels and Laeken are higher than wider in proportion, and particularly large in size.
After more than three years of investigations (!), L. Nyssen finally received on 23 December 1998 a letter from the Commander of the Royal Palaces. The letter states that the flag hoisted over the palace of Brussels is 4 x 3 m, whereas the flag hoisted over the palace of Laeken is 3.2 x 2.4 m. Excluding those giant flags, the largest official Belgian flag has a 2.6 x 3 m size. These flags are manufactured by the Logistic Service of the Army in the basis of Peutie, located near Vilvoorde.
The exaggeration of the dimensions of the flags is based on aesthetical considerations. Due to the size of the buildings on which they are hoisted, they are viewed from far below. The statues of the Gothic cathedrals and several huge monuments follow the same "artistic" rules. Therefore, the above image seems rather strange, but the picture of the palace of Brussels shown in Vexillacta seems very normal.

A note by Pascal Parent published in Vexillacta [vxl] #12 (June 2001) explains the rules for hoisting these flags.
The national Belgian flag shall be hoisted over the palaces of Brussels and Laeken when the King is present on the Belgian territory (but not necessarily present in one of the palaces).
The flag shall be removed only when the King has to go abroad for an official visit or summer vacation. In such instances, the flag shall be removed as soon as the King leaves the national territory and hoisted again as soon as he enters the national territory.
Last year, following a heavy heart surgery, the King started his convalescence in the South of France. Since it was considered that he was still able to exercize all his powers, even if he was physically not present on the Belgian territory, the flags were not removed from the palaces.

Ivan Sache, 18 July 2001

Leopold III's standard (1934-1951)

According to Flaggenbuch [neu92], Leopold's III standard is similar in design to Albert II's standard shown above, but with cypher "L" instead of cypher "A". The height of the cypher is one fifth of the flag height.
Queen Mother Elisabeth used the same standard with cypher "E".
The Duke of Brabant, Baudouin (later crowned King of the Belgians as Baudouin I) used the same standard with cypher "B".
The Count of Flanders, Carl, used the same standard with cypher "C".
The cyphers were much more elaborate than Albert II's very simple cypher "A".

Ivan Sache, 3 March 2001

Albert I's standard (1909-1934)

Flags of the United States and Other Countries [usn38] shows a purple royal standard with shield on openwork gold frame and crowned royal cypher in each corner - apparently an "A" for Albert. This is similar to the current Royal standards, but with a more elaborate framework and more elaborate initials in the corners.

Joe McMillan, 25 February 2001

The Royal standard in ancient sources

Royal standard, 1862 - Image by Željko Heimer, 25 February 2000

The Royal standard as shown in 1862 Colton's chart Delineation of Flags of All Nations [clt62] (reprinted in Znamierowski [zna99], p. 6) is the tricolor national flag with a complicated rendition of the coat of arms, containing shield, crown, supporters and a ribbon with the motto.
The same flag is shown in the National Geographic Magazine, October 1917 [gmc17], page 354 (fig. 734). It is there captioned "Belgium Ensign", but from the accompanying text it is clear that it is in fact the Royal standard.

Royal standard, 1896 - Image by Željko Heimer, 25 February 2000

The Royal standard as shown in an American chart published by F.E. Wright in 1896, and reprinted in Znamierowski [zna99], p. 6 is the tricolor national flag defaced with a crowned lion shield.
The image above is a reconstruction with the details that are used in modern representation of the arms, but the shield on the chart is rather blotty and has hardly any visible detail.

Željko Heimer, 25 February 2000

Royal standard, 1858 - Image by António Martins, 8 October 2008

A similar flag is showncaptioned "Belgium" in "A chart of national flags" [hbl58] published in 1858 in New York. The chart further says "Navy and merchants flags without arms", but does not illustrate this.

António Martins, 8 October 2008

Citing Le Gras (1858) [leg58] as a possible source (many would follow him), Roger Harmignies and Michel Lupant (Royal pennants and flags of Belgium, Flag Bulletin 26 (1-3): 73-88) declare this [royal] flag to be imaginary.

Jan Mertens, 8 October 2008