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![[new Zeeuws Vlaanderen]](../images/n/nl!zv09.gif)
image by Jarig Bakker, 14 Jan 2009
adopted 5 Jan 2009; design: Dingeman de Koning
On 6 January 2009, René Hoonhorst reports in "PZC"
(Provinciale Zeeuwsche Courant) the official presentation of the flag of
Zelandic Flanders, held on 5 January in Terneuzen. The flag was designed
by the expert in heraldry Dingeman de Koning, from Axel (Terneuzen).
Flags used in the past to represent the region (including, I guess,
the flag shown on the FOTW website) did not meet the Higher Council of
Nobility's requirements and were, accordingly, never officially approved.
Aware of the Council's requirements and of local history, de Koning designed
a flag representing Terneuzen, Sluis and Hulst.
The flag is horizontally divided red-white-red-yellow-blue-white-blue.The
apparent prorportions of the stripes are 1:1:1:6:1:1:1 and the border between
the coloured stripes and the yellow stripe is wavy.
The upper red stripes come form the flag of Sluis, while the lower
blue stripes come from the flag of Terneuzen. The stripes represents the
North Sea, the Zwin and Wester Schelde, that is water bordering more than
60% of the region.
The yellow stripe in the middle of the flag is charged with a black
lion, recalling the flags of Flanders and Hulst (but, seemingly, without
the red tongue and nails). The particular design of the lion was not copied
on any existing arms, but was created as a "young, robust and dynamic lion".
The colours of the flag also recalls the links of the region with both
the Netherlands and Belgium. The article contains a colour photo of the
flag.
The "Reformatorisch
Dagblad", 6 January 2009, also reports the flag, showing a different
colour photo (clickable, from the official presentation of the flag in
Sluis) and adding that the municipalities can use the flag to promote Zelandic
Flanders. The 500 flags already manufactured can be purchased from the
regional VVVs (tourism offices).
Ivan Sache, 6 Jan 2009
Earlier attempts to introduce such a flag (surely unsuccessful) may
be documented by our Dutch List members, but [Laa13] shows a possible Zeeland
flag incorporating Flemish colours. This is a book by T. van der Laars:
"Wapens, vlaggen en zegels van Nederland: Geschiedkundige bijdragen omtrent
wapens van Nederland en zijne provinciën, van het Koninklijk Huis,
enz." i.e. Arms, flags, and seals of the Netherlands.
(Note: [Laa89] is a 1989 reprint but I have one which seems to date
from 1930.)
On p. 30 (fig. 115b) Van der Laars shows a flag in the Zeeland
armorial colours: horizontally divided, top down: red, yellow, blue, and
white. Very much resembling the local "parade
flag" of 1938:
The Flemish colours being black and yellow (flag horizontally so divided,
top down, shown as 115f), a flag subtitled "Zeeland colours combined with
the Flemish colours. Zelandic Flanders" is horizontally divided, top down:
red, yellow, black, white, and blue (115g).
This is an essay - as Van der Laars writes, he "gives (...) a few examples
of how a Zeeland provincial flag might be combined from the preceding heraldic
information".
Of course this was in 1913, several decades before the introduction
of the current provincial, and now also regional, flags.
Jan Mertens, 6 Jan 2009
image by Shipmate http://www.flagchart.net
This image is from the Shipmate-pages. Designer and date unknown.
Jarig Bakker, 14 Jan 2009
![[Another Zeeuws-Vlaanderen proposal]](../images/n/nl!zv71.gif)
image by Jarig Bakker, 14 Jan 2009
I have tried to find the original article, on which the unofficial flag
as published on the FOTW-pages was based, but so far didn't manage to find
it.
But I found another one in Anton Jansen's "Vlaggen", no. 71 (1991):
p. 1007-1009.
Description: seven horizontal wavy stripes of blue and white; a yellow
hoisttriangle charged with a Flemish lion (black, armed red).
This flag was designed by ir. A. J. Beenhakker in mid-September 1971.
The blue and white waved symbolize Zeeland.
The yellow triangle represents the "corner of Vlaanderen" in Zeeland.
The flag was designed to be used during a demonstration on 16 October
1971 - but failed to reach its destination on time! However it was published
in the "Provinciale Zeeuwsche Courant" of Friday 26 November 1971. Jansen
doesn't mention interference by the High Council of Nobility - which might
have objected to the use of the Flemish lion - but from his article the
main reason of its failure was the lack of timing.
Zeeuws-Vlaanderen was connected to the Dutch mainland by several ferries
(Vlissingen-Breskens; Kruiningen-Perkpolder), which were free. In the years
1950-1970 the Dutch Parliament and the Provincial Government of Zeeland
discussed several times possibilities to spend less money on those ferries,
or to abolish them alltogether. The Zeeuws-Vlamingen protested several
times; in 1971 they used the (unofficial) Zeeuws-Vlaamse coat of arms.
In 2003 the Westerschelde-cartunnel was finished, and in March the
last car-ferry over the Westerschelde was abolished. This tunnel (between
Ellewoutsdijk and Terneuzen) makes a great connection between Rotterdam
and Gent, but lacks the inner-provincial qualities of the previous ferries
- and is not free: cars: 7 Euro. And it is well known in the Netherlands:
"Ons Seeuwen bent sunig" (We, Zeeuwen, are thrifty). In 2006 a committee
was formed, which tried to have the tunnel-fees for Zeeuws-Vlamingen abolished
or greatly reduced - it seems that that may be the background for the proposed
design mentioned by Ivan.
Jarig Bakker, 14 Jan 2009