The flags of Sweden and Norway mixed in equal parts: the mark of the union the two kingdoms carried in the corner of their flags from 1844 to 1905.
Every fact about the flag, each with what it means.
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It is a rectangular field with a 4:5 ratio divided by two diagonals into four triangles, with a cross over it. It mixes the flags of Sweden and Norway in equal parts.
Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.
Every date in its story, at a glance.
Between 1814 and 1905 Sweden and Norway had the same king
They did not share a flag, but from 1844 both carried this symbol in the corner of their own:…
Sweden removed it on 1 November 1905
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
Between 1814 and 1905 Sweden and Norway had the same king. They did not share a flag, but from 1844 both carried this symbol in the corner of their own: the ‘union mark’, which mixes the colours of Sweden and Norway in equal parts.
In 1814, after the Napoleonic wars, the king of Denmark had to cede Norway to the king of Sweden. The Norwegians resisted: they approved their own constitution, lost a short war and signed the peace in the town of Moss. Norway stayed joined to Sweden under one king, but with its own laws.
The first war ensign of the union was the Swedish one with a small Norwegian canton in the corner, and the Norwegians felt it put them in second place. In 1844 King Oscar I approved the proposal of a commission from the two countries: a symbol with the colours of both, shared equally, to put in the corner of all the flags.
The mark did not change in design, but the flags carrying it did.
1815-1844
The war flag of the union: the Swedish one, with a red canton and a white saltire representing Norway.
1844-1899
The Norwegian flag with the union mark in the corner, also on merchant ships.
1844-1905
The Swedish flag with the same mark, which Sweden kept until the end of the union.
1844-1905
The mark on its own was used as the bow flag of warships and at the joint embassies. Sweden removed it on 1 November 1905.
Before reaching the mark of 1844, other ways of joining the two countries were drawn.
Propuesta · 1836
A design by Jonas Anton Hielm for a common mark. It was not used: eight years later the one with four equal parts was chosen.
Red with white and blue cross
Norway.
Blue with yellow cross
Sweden.
Equal parts
the two kingdoms had the same rank within the union.
Because of its mixture of colours it was jokingly called ‘herring salad’: sildesalaten in Norwegian and sillsalladen in Swedish, like a typical Scandinavian buffet dish.
The Norwegian parliament voted three times to remove the mark from its merchant flag. The king vetoed the first two, and the third, of 1898, went through: from 1899 Norway went back to the ‘pure’ flag.
The mark was square on the Norwegian flags and slightly wider, a 4:5 ratio, on the Swedish ones. That of the embassies followed the Swedish model.
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Text based on the article “Union mark of Sweden and Norway (Wikipedia en inglés)” from the Spanish Wikipedia, published under the licence CC BY-SA 4.0.
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