"And to hereby further command all our loving subjects that without such warrant as aforesaid they presume not to wear on board their ships _any other ensign_ than the ensign described on the side or _Margent hereof_, which shall be _worn instead of_ the ensign before this time usually worn on merchant ships.
"Given at our Court at Windsor, the 28th day of July, in the sixth year of our reign.
[Illustration: 25. THE RED ENSIGN IN "THE MARGENT," 1707.]
Here, then, we have the establishment of a new flag in accordance with the intention of the Treaty of Union. In this flag the "crosses" of St. George and St. Andrew were conjoined; the new flag was called "Our Jack" (Pl. v., fig. 1), which in its simple form, as a single Jack, was not to be used afloat on any other ships than Her Majesty's Royal Navy without particular warrant. A notable change was now made in the Ensign. We have seen how, in 1660, the English St. George cross had remained alone in possession of the upper corner of the "ensign red." Although the St. George cross continued, as it still does, in the "command pennant" of all officers of the Royal Navy, its place in the Ensign was now taken by the new "Union Jack," in the form as shown "in the margent" (25).
The "Red Ensign," thus formed, was authorized to be worn thereafter on all ships, both merchantmen and those in Her Majesty's service; and, further, that no other Ensign was to be worn except this "Red Ensign," with the new Union Jack in the upper corner, which was to take the place of the separate national Jacks and of the "Ensign Red" previously used on the merchant ships of the subjects of the Sovereign.
Here, then, ceased the official authority on ships as national flags of the separate crosse-flags of St. George and St. Andrew, and began the reign of the first "Union Jack" of the United Kingdoms. Then, too, was first raised the British Union Ensign, the "meteor flag" of the realm, to be worn by all subjects of Britain's Queen, whether on land or on sea, at home or abroad, on merchant ships or on men-of-war, so that wherever the blood-red flag should fly the world would know the nation to which its bearers belonged. In this _red ensign_ (Pl. V., fig. 2), the paramount flag of the nation, the new "Union Jack" was placed; a position which, although so long enjoyed by the "English Jack," had never been occupied by the "additional" Jack of James I., whose term was now brought to a close.