{"id":60666,"date":"2025-09-01T20:57:28","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T18:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=60666"},"modified":"2025-09-08T20:27:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T18:27:00","slug":"the-meaning-of-the-black-flag-used-at-a-british-royal-guard-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/09\/01\/the-meaning-of-the-black-flag-used-at-a-british-royal-guard-event\/","title":{"rendered":"The meaning of the black flag used at a British Royal Guard event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There has been some controversy in the United Kingdom recently over the use of its historic flags, even in the British Army.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/04\/26\/why-arent-the-armies-of-the-uk-canada-australia-and-new-zealand-called-royal\/\">Why aren't the armies of the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand called 'Royal'?<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/10\/09\/the-meaning-of-the-colors-of-the-guidons-and-flags-of-the-spanish-army\/\">The meaning of the colors of the guidons and flags of the Spanish Army<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>Most of these controversies are related to <strong>the criticisms that some, in the name of political correctness, make against the English flag<\/strong> (the St. George's Cross, a red cross on a white background) and even against the Union Jack, the flag of the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>That controversy has sparked another one online these days. On August 28, the popular British channel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@KingsGuardTours\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">King's Guard Tours<\/a> <strong>published a video of a rehearsal for the Changing of the Guard by the Household Division<\/strong> (the name given to the unit responsible for ensuring the security of the British Royal Family). <strong>The title of the video drew attention to the black flag used in this act:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"SPOTTED: BLACK FLAG IN REHEARSAL\u2026 WHAT\u2019S GOING ON?\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MOy3n6kdJvc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>This flag makes its appearance in the video at 8:00.<\/strong> An officer brings it from inside the building and hands it to another officer without any ceremony. <strong>As this is training, the royal guards do not wear their traditional uniforms of red coats<\/strong> and black trousers, although they do wear their characteristic \"bearskins\" hats and carry SA-80 rifles. <strong>The soldiers wear the British Army No. 13 uniform<\/strong>, known as \"Barrack Dress\", with round-neck sweaters.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54759185794_0840ab2eeb_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54759185794_32627d4633_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Although the video doesn't indicate it, <strong>the Household Division regiment that did this training is the Coldstream Guards,<\/strong> founded in 1650. It is recognizable by the red feather it wears on the right side of its black caps. <strong>In the video, we see the troops paying homage to this black flag.<\/strong> An officer salutes it, and the soldiers present their weapons in salute.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54759183433_377e42f434_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54759183433_6f1fb8681a_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Here we see the black flag incorporated into the formation.<\/strong> It occupies a prominent place, similar to the Union Jack or the flag of the Coldstream Guards.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54758100827_c63aa37ed9_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54758100827_a3bc5a5a59_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Finally we see the Coldstream Guards marching with the black ensign at the head of the formation.<\/strong> This ensign does not display any symbols or text.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54759185779_08d8a77925_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54759185779_d0b0110153_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>These images have sparked a huge debate.<\/strong> The video has already been viewed more than 100,000 times, far exceeding the usual number on the YouTube channel, and <strong>has accumulated more than 900 comments<\/strong>. Many of them link the black flag to criticism of British symbols by some groups and blame Keir Starmer's Labour government.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54759239223_0e040abf8f_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54759239223_410f2fbf18_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>It should be noted that the appearance of this black flag at this event has no political significance.<\/strong> Moreover, this black flag is not the symbol of the regiment that carried out this training, but the actual flag explains the appearance of this black ensign. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.royal.uk\/news-and-activity\/2025-06-13\/king-presents-new-colours-to-the-coldstream-guards\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">In June, the British Royal Household published the photo above showing the flag of the 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards<\/a>. This flag includes references to the Coldstream Guards' participation in 24 military campaigns, from 1680 to the Second World War.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54759398515_36af4e9e54_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54759398515_6339608841_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Here we can see the regimental flag<\/strong>, in <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Soldier_from_No7_Company_Coldstream_Guards_With_Regimental_Colours_MOD_45152569.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a photo<\/a> published by the British Ministry of Defence. The Royal Household <a href=\"https:\/\/www.royal.uk\/news-and-activity\/2025-06-13\/king-presents-new-colours-to-the-coldstream-guards\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">explains<\/a> that <strong>these flags are made from silk damask, with gold thread embroidery and fringes<\/strong>. Each of the Coldstream Guards' flags are very expensive pieces and must be looked after. <strong>That explains the black flag<\/strong> we saw during that training session, as well as the rainy weather we see in the video. A video commentator explains it this way: <em>\"<strong>Training Colour. Can be dropped, can get wet, can be abused (though practice should mean it wont be) Saves the actual colours for the actual event.<\/strong> This is a Guard change rehearsal.\"<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There has been some controversy in the United Kingdom recently over the use of its historic flags, even in the British Army.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11544,24813],"tags":[9997,6504,25205,6506,10678,12974],"class_list":["post-60666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-army","category-vexillology","tag-british-army","tag-coldstream-guards","tag-household-division","tag-sa-80","tag-united-kingdom","tag-vexillology"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-12 07:07:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60666\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}