Jersey Flag - Bailiwick of (British Crown Dependency)

The flag of the Bailiwick of Jersey was proclaimed by HRM Queen Elizabeth II on December 10, 1980 and officially hoisted on April 1, 1981.

The flag is a St. Patrick’s Cross saltire surmounted by a yellow Plantagenet crown, known as the badge of Jersey. The badge is a crowned red shield holding the three leopards of Normandy in yellow. It rests in the V of the cross. The Badge was added in 1981 to deistinguish the flag from the Irish saltire.

Legends state that a mistranslation from Dutch of the word Erse or Irish in a Dutch navigational chart resulted in the island known as Ierse or Jersey being give the cross of St. Patrick by mistake. This contradicts records of the French Admiralty, which show that Jersey was using the red saltire long before it appeared as the symbol of the Order of St. Patrick or was incorporated into the modern Union Flag. Other tales believe that the Irish Fitzgerald clan also derived the saltire from the Normans, which would explain why it appears in both in Jersey and Ireland.

A more traditional lengend states that the Channel Islands, were granted neutrality by Papal Bull during the Anglo French wars. Inorder to trade freely with both sides there had to be a way to distinguish Jersey’s ships English ships. To do so, they rotated the St George’s Cross to form a saltire.