Last modified: 2001-12-08 by pascal gross
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![[Flag of Chablais Region]](../images/c/ch-chabl.gif)
Argent Billety of Sable, a Lion rampant of the same langued and armed
Gules.Zeljko Heimer, 26 June 2000
I am really puzzled by the status and origin of this flag. Pascal presents it
as a Swiss flag, but the independentists of the Ligue Savoisienne present it as
the future (and traditional) flag of the province of Chablais.
It is evidently a banner of arms, but of arms of
what? Whatever the leaguists may invent, there never existed a unified feudal
entity named "Chablais" (as said in the site found by Pascal, Chablais
is a geographical rather than historical entity). There were in the area several
feudal families which competed with each other and were in permanent state of
low-intensity war. Moreover, the area was under strong religious influence, with
the three powerful abbeys of Abondance, Saint-Jean d'Aulps and Saint-Maurice
d'Agaune. The region was in the front line of the Counter-Reformation against
the calvinist Republic of Geneva. There is no historical evidence of
"provinces" in the former duchy of Savoy. The geographical entities,
such as Chablais, Faucigny and Genevois, might have matched some feudal
possessions, but there was no such formal administrative organization in the
duchy.
Last, but not least, this flag is absolutely unknown
in the French Chablais! So its attribution as ch-chabl.gif reflects the reality.
Ivan Sache, 2 July 2000
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