A FLAG FOR WARWICKSHIRE

A Flag For Warwickshire

The bear and ragged staff have long been associated with Warwickshire. Their
origins are lost in the distant past, but they have been associated with the Earls of
Warwick since at least the 14th century. The seventeenth century scholar William
Dugdale wrote of the legendary Arthgallus, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table
and apparent early Earl of Warwick believing that his name derived from the
Welsh "artos" or bear. Dugdale also suggested that the ragged staff appeared
because one Morvidus, another Earl of Warwick, killed a giant with the broken
branch of a tree. Such legendary origins cannot be confirmed but unequivocally the
bear and the ragged staff were used by the Beauchamp family, who became Earls of
Warwick in 1268, as badges or marks of identity in addition to their own coat of
arms.
The bear alone appears on the tomb of the 11th Earl, Thomas Beauchamp I (died
1369),

in the chancel of St Marys Church in Warwick. The bed of his son Thomas
Beauchamp II, 12th Earl of Warwick from 1369 to 1402, is said to have been covered
by black material embroidered with a golden bear and silver staff, dating from 1387,
this is the earliest known occurrence of the two badges depicted together. His great
seal of 1397

depicts the Beauchamp coat of arms between two bears, while a privy (private) seal
of the same date is said to have shown a bear on all fours with a ragged staff behind.
His son Richard Beauchamp the 13th Earl of Warwick from 1402 to 1439 used a crest
supported by two bears each holding a ragged staff and his tomb (in the centre of the
Beauchamp Chapel on the south side of St Marys Church. includes an inscription in
which the words are separated alternatively by bears and ragged staffs! Richard is
known to have used banners embroidered with bears or ragged staffs, although
these were apparently not combined.
Although he also employed separate bear and ragged staff badges, Richard Neville,
16th Earl of Warwick ( "Warwick the Kingmaker" ) (22 November 1428 14 April
1471) who married Richard Beauchamps daughter and heir Anne, made use of a
seal bearing a combined bear and ragged staff, to authenticate deeds and letters. His
retainers are recorded in 1458 as wearing red coats with separate silver staffs,
embroidered front and rear and this colour scheme was similarly used on his battle
standard which featured a combined bear and staff emblem

in what may perhaps, be the first instance of the emblem obtaining a coloured
realisation. This has been depicted in paintings of Neville's famous battles;

left, The First Battle of St Albans by Graham Turner and right The Battle of
Barnet by Geoffrey Wheeler .
The white bear and ragged staff on red is also seen carried by these miniature
figures of Neville's soldiers

In his Henry VI, Part Two, Act 5, scene 1, where there is much talk of bear baiting,
William Shakespeare has Warwick say Now, by my fathers badge, old Nevils crest
the rampant bear chaind to the ragged staff, this day Ill aloft my burgonet. The
burgonet being his helmet.
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, and great-greatgreat-great-grandson of Richard Beauchamp, is known to have used the combined
device of the bear and ragged staff frequently. It can be seen in many places on the
walls of the Leicester Hospital in Warwick

, which he founded in 1571 and on a chimney piece in his castle of Kenilworth.

Inventories of the furnishings of the castle mention cushions, bedcovers, and
bookbindings decorated with the design, and his suit of armour (now in the Royal
Armoury) is heavily decorated with ragged staffs.
In 1759 Francis Greville, Earl Brooke of Warwick Castle, was created Earl of
Warwick. The Greville family were distantly related to the Beauchamps, and had
acquired Warwick Castle in 1604. The following year Francis obtained a grant for
himself and his heirs of "the crest anciently used by the Earls of Warwick that is "a
bear erect argent, muzzled gules, supporting a ragged staff of the first"i.e. a white
bear.
Subsequent Earls of Warwick have continued to use the Bear and Ragged Staff
emblem and they form the crest of the arms of the present earl.
Over the centuries use of the emblem by the Earls of Warwick has led to its
association generally with the county of Warwickshire. The 1st Warwickshire Militia
regiment (originally raised in 1759, but reorganised under the Earl of Warwick as
Lord Lieutenant in 1803) bore the bear and ragged staff as its collar badge

until attached to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1881. The Warwickshire

Constabulary (founded in 1857) also adopted the bear and ragged staff as its badge

, using a red background with a silver bear and staff.

Created in 1889, Warwickshire County Council obtained permission to use the bear
and ragged staff as a seal in 1907 before receiving a formal award of arms on July 7th
1931 which included a full depiction of the bear and ragged staff in the white on red
colours found on Richard Nevilles battle standard

Many other organisations have since followed this lead such as;

Warwickshire Scouts , former

and

current

Warwickshire County Bowling Association

Warwickshire Federation of Womens' Institutes

Warwickshire Fire & Rescue Service

Warwickshire Golf Captains

Warwickshire Gaelic Athletic Association

North Warwickshire Borough Council

In light of the extensive deployment across the county by many and various groups,
across the ages, the white bear and ragged staff on a red field

is the obvious county emblem for deployment as the county flag of Warwickshire.
WHAT ABOUT THE COUNCILS BANNER?
This design

is the county councils arms rendered in flag form; a banner of the arms. It actually
only represents the county council not the wider county as an entity in its own right
and there is no general right to fly it. The three crosses at the top of the arms were
included in the award to the council by the College of Arms, in 1931, for specific use
by the council.
WHAT ABOUT THE CHAIN AND MUZZLE?
As described, the emblem of a white bear and ragged staff on a red field has been
long associated with the county of Warwickshire and is the obvious traditional
pattern for deployment as the county flag of Warwickshire; however in the modern
world a depiction of an animal muzzled and chained reflects the worst of mediaeval
practice

and implicitly condones the horrors that continue to be committed worldwide

against the poor creature.

Would the people of modern day Warwickshire be universally happy to see their
county flag depicting such misery in the 21st century? Is it not time to set the bear
free?! This concern seems to have prevailed in several modern realisations of the
bear and ragged staff emblem such as;
The University of Warwick

Warwickshire County Councils logo

Warwickshire Police in various guises

Warwickshire Scouts

Warwickshire Law Society

and a local pub!

All of these bodies have recognised the local association of the bear and ragged
staff as the quintessential emblem of the county but have seen no need to retain the
vicious aspect of the original emblem - they have basically all toned it down for the
modern enlightened era. And there is a precedent for such a toned down modern
realisation on a flag. The traditional flag of Sardinia depicted the heads of four
Moorish enemies blindfolded

This being seen as culturally insensitive in the modern era, the current depiction of
the flag has changed the blindfolds to headbands

Moreover, why should Warwickshire want to depict its bear cowed, beaten, and
submissive! Compare such a depiction with the rampant stallion of Kent

, the dragon of Somerset

or various lion flags used in Wales

and its a strikingly counter-productive image what does it convey, that we are a
beaten and enslaved people? Unlike the horse and lions it is hardly an inspiring or
enthusing symbol.
Such an image on the county flag will be an intrinsically negative one imagine the
opportunities that will arise for comments about the people of Warwickshire being
trussed up and shackled?! It simply lends itself to endless ridicule. Compare the bear
flag of the Russian city of Yaroslavl for instance

, no one would want to tackle him! Its a defiant, proud and fierce image the same
can hardly be said about the muzzled bear above.
So whilst the bear and ragged staff in white, on a red background, is clearly the
obvious flag for Warwickshire, lets lose the shackles on the county flag, as plenty of
county bodies have done, and proudly wave the traditional flag, for a modern
world!
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