Normandy (Traditional province, France)

Normandie

Last modified: 2002-12-14 by ivan sache
Keywords: normandy | normandie | lions: 2 (yellow) | leopards: 2 (yellow) | cross: voided (yellow) | mouvement normand |
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by Palac Cyberflag

• Flag of the Duchy of Normandy
• Mouvement Normand
• Another flag seen in Normandy

See also:

• France
• Traditional provinces
• Regions
  • Lower Normandy (Basse-Normandie)
  • Upper Normandy (Haute-Normandie)
• Departments
  • Calvados
  • Manche
  • Orne
  • Eure
  • Seine-Maritime
    
    
• Formers possessions of Normandy
  • Bailiwick of Jersey
  • Bailiwick of Guernsey (Guernesey)
  • Seignory of Alderney (Aurigny)
  • Seignory of Sark (Sercq)

Flag of the Duchy of Normandy

The flag of Normandy is a red flag with two yellow lions (leopards) like the ones of England. This flag I believe, recalls the arms of William the Conqueror who left Normandy to conquer England. I don't know when the number went from two to three for England. Interestingly, the arms of Guyenne show an identical single lion (the King of England was also Duke of Guyenne for a while in the 1200-1300s).

Luc Baronian, 4 February 1997

The legend is that Duke William of Normandy had two lions for Normandy and Maine, and added a third for England when he conquered it in 1066. However as heraldry did not exist in the 11th century, this must be apocryphal. Presumably there was a deliberate resemblence between England's and Normandy's arms to recognise the dynastic connection between the two, though.

Roy Stilling, 5 February 1997

The arms of Normandy appeared for the first time on the shield of Geoffroy Plantagenet (1135/1144-1150).

Pascal Vagnat,, 28 August 1997

Mouvement Normand

by Luc Baronian

Mouvement Normand promotes the Normand culture and asks for the 'reunification' of Normandy, currently divided in the two Regions of Lower- and Upper-Normandy.

Pascal Vagnat, 11 January 2001

The flag shown above appears in the Flags of Aspirant Peoples chart [eba94], #67, with the following caption:

NORMANDY (Normande)
North-West France."

The caption is incorrect and should be "Normandie" for the area or "Normands" for the people.

Ivan Sache, 14 September 1999

Another flag seen in Normandy

by André Coutanche

While driving through Normandy on Tuesday 2 January, I noticed flags on the roundabouts on the ring road around Falaise which combine the two types of Normandy flag shown above.
The Scandinavian Cross (red on gold on red) had in the canton the two lions/leopards from the banner of arms. It made for an attractive flag which I hadn't seen before.

André Coutanche, 6 January 2001

This flag seems to have been in use since the 80s and flies regularly on the castle of Falaise (the birth place of William the Conqueror).

Pascal Vagnat, 11 January 2001

In the July issue of Contact Bulletin, issued by The European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages (an institution promoting minority languages), a front page photo shows flags used at a demonstration in Paris One of the flag is a Scandinavian cross flag with three lions in the canton.

Jan Oskar Engene, 1 September 2000