Sovereign Military Order of Malta - Military Flags

Last modified: 2015-07-28 by rob raeside
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On this page:

• 18th century Military flags of the order of St. John
  • Battalion of the galleys (papal colours)
  • Battalion of the galleys (orders colours)
  • Men-of-War battalion (orders colours)
  • Men-of-War battalion (grandmasters colours)

See also:

• Sovereign Military Order of Malta
• Sovereign Military Order of Malta - The Maltese Cross

18th century Military flags of the order of St. John

The images below are from a photo of A.VELLA, depicted on chart no.1 in Capt. Joseph M. WISMAYER: �The fleet of the order of St.John 1530-1798� (see source details below).

Battalion of the galleys (papal colours)

  image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 24 October 2008

Description of flag:
It is a white square flag with the coat of arms of Pope Clemens XIII (1758-1769) in its centre.
Description of coat of arms:
It is a quarterly divided shield. The 1st quarter is showing the arms of the Order of St. John, a white Greek cross in a red field. The 2nd and third quarter are showing a silver (= white) tower in a blue field. The 4th quarter is showing a silver (= white) field with 3 red sinister bendy lines. The inescutcheon is showing a black double headed eagle in a golden (= yellow) field. The shield is superimposed on two crossed golden (= yellow) keys and is topped by a golden (= yellow) tiara.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 24 October 2008

 Battalion of the galleys (orders colours)

  image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 24 October 2008

Description of flag:
It is a white square flag with the coat of arms of the Order of St. John in its centre. The shield is topped by a crown, lined black and is superimposing two crossed bundles of three palm leaves each in natural colour.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 24 October 2008

Men-of-War battalion (orders colours)

  image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 24 October 2008

It is a pink square flag with the coat of arms of the Order of St. John in its centre. The shield is topped by a crown, lined black and is superimposing two crossed black anchors.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 24 October 2008

Men-of-War battalion (grandmasters colours)

  image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 24 October 2008

It is a white square flag with the coat of arms of the order�s Grandmaster Manuel Pinto de Fonseca (1741-1773) in its centre. The shield is topped by a crown, lined black.
Description of coat of arms:
It is a quarterly divided shield. 1st and 4th quarter are showing the order�s arms. 2nd and 3rd quarter are showing a silver (= white) field with five red lying crescents, ordered two above one above two.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 24 October 2008

Source:
All images are based on a photo of A.VELLA, depicted on chart no.1 in Capt. Joseph M. WISMAYER: �The fleet of the order of St. John 1530-1798�, Midsea Books, Valetta(?) 1997; ISBN 99909-75-30-2. The primary source given there is the archives of Dominicans. Though you couldn�t recognize all details of the papal arms, I was able to recognize the arms as those of Clemens XIII (Wikipedia.org). All images probably have been made about 1760, the time of Clemens XIII, or a little bit later. The standards were held by naval ensigns. Their uniforms are also of mid 18th century style. As all flags are held by ensigns, they might be �squarish� instead of squares. (Ensign here is not a flag but a person having a military rank like German �F�hnrich�, i.e. the flag bearer).
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 24 October 2008