Last modified: 2020-11-21 by rob raeside
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On a recent trip to Oxford, I noticed that most of the colleges of the
universities had armorial banners flying. The Christ Church College flag is a
banner of arms showing two crows with a red rose between them in the chief, and
black field with a white cross, bearing a red lion passant in the centre and a
blue lion face in each arm.
Dave Fowler, 4 July 2016
The flag is a banner of arms (ratio 1:1).
is a banner of arms (ratio
1:1).
Coat of Arms:
Shield Sable, on a cross engrailed Argent a lion
passant Gules, between four leopards' heads caboshed Azure, chief or, charged
with a rose Gules barbed Vert and seeded Or between two Cornish choughs Sable
armed Gules.
Meaning:
“The House” was the project of Cardinal Wolsey and
called Cardinal’s College but it was completed in 1546 by King Henry VIII and
given its present name. The College arms are those granted to Wolsey. Cross and
leopards’ faces are from the arms of Ufford and de la Pole, some time Earls of
Suffolk, which was Wolsey’s county. The lion refers to Pope Leo X, who created
him a Cardinal. The rose representing England and the choughs (Latin:
Pyrrhocorax graculus) are taken from the hypothetical arms of Wolsey’s
patron St. Thomas of Canterbury.
Source: John P. Brooke-Little: Oxford
University and its Colleges, Oxford 1962(?), available online at
https://www.theheraldrysociety.com/articles/oxford-university-and-its-colleges/
and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_College,_Oxford.
Klaus-Michael
Schneider, 9 February 2019
image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 10 June 2019
Christ Church as a foundation is unique in the world, as both a Cathedral of
the Church of England and a college of the university. Typically, on days of
significance to the university such as a Degree Day, it flies the banner of arms
of Cardinal Wolsey, as depicted above.
The flag is quartered of red and
white, both(?) white quarters are charged with a triplet of red fleurs-de-lis
ordered 2:1. No match with any college flag and no match with any flag of a
twinned city.
However, on
what might be termed ‘Royal’ or national days, it flies the flag described
above, which is a banner of arms of the college’s refounder
Henry VIII. On these days, most of the other Oxford colleges will fly
the Union Flag, as does Oxford City Council, who own and run Oxford Town Hall,
but on a secondary flagpole above the town hall. The City will fly above the
Town Hall entrance either a stylised banner of their arms (or on Mayor Making
Day an actual banner of arms). But they have three flagpoles all visible
concurrently and do also fly EU flag, rainbow flag, UN flag and so on.
Source: Personal observation and photographs, 1972 to date
Colin Dobson,
13 June 2019
Current
image by
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 14 March 2019
Blade is blue.
Source: (for current versions):
https://www.reddit.com
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 14 March 2019