![]() It was during this campaign that Constantine, first Christian emperor of Rome and founder of Constantinople, was said to have seen a vision of the cross of Christ superimposed upon the sun, accompanied by the words: ‘In hoc signo vinces’ (In this Sign Conquer) establishing the white cross as a dominant motif in crusader flags. In a song dating from 1500, the red-and-white banner is associated with the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great’s dream of the cross at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge outside Rome in 312 AD. A flag in the Maria Church in Lubeck, probably from the wars against the Danes in 1427 and the oldest surviving Dannebrog, was destroyed in the air raids of World War Two. ![]() The legend goes that the earliest Dannebrog was captured by the Ditmarshers in northern Germany in 1500, to be retrieved by King Frederik II and deposited in Schleswig Cathedral (then Danish territory), where the last remains of the flag, eaten away by damp and age, disappeared a century later. ![]() Tallinn, the Estonian capital, founded originally by Valdemar, means ‘Danish City’ and a white cross on a red ground figures in its city arms. One theory is that the Danish flag with the white cross on a red bunting was a gift to the Danish king from the Pope for his crusade against the eastern pagans. The Holy Roman Empire is the name applied to the complex of European territories under the rule of Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Roman Emperor (crowned in 754) and his successors of the German Empire which went on until 1806 – a sort of continuation of the original Roman Empire.Īccording to legend, the Dannebrog is said to have dropped from heaven at the Battle of Lyndanisse in Estonia in 1219 during Valdemar’s crusade to the Baltic states, but the flag’s association with Denmark can only be testified to about 150 years later. Valdemar grew up at the imperial court in Aachen (Aix-La-Chapelle) in today’s Germany, and it was there that he doubtless came across the red banner of the Holy Roman Empire with its white cross. The flag is first encountered in the late 14th century in a reproduction of the coat of arms of King Valdemar IV the Victorious (Valdemar Atterdag), who was probably the first Danish king to use the red banner with white cross. The name ‘Dannebrog’ probably derives from the Frisian word ‘ dan’ (red) and ‘ broge,’ meaning white cloth. Much of the flag’s history comes from sources other than Danish. Some of you might have seen the flags on the buses today and thought “Not another birthday!”Īnd you’d be right, but this time it isn’t the birthday of a royal, rather Valdemar’s Day, the anniversary of the Dannebrog, the country’s national flag. In C A Lorentzen’s 1809 painting, the Dannebrog falls from heaven during the Volmerslaget battle of 1219 (photo: C A Lorentzen)
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