France: Laws and regulations on the national flag

Last modified: 2026-10-10 by olivier touzeau
Keywords: france | tricolore | constitution | lafayette |
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• French narrative vs. established historical facts
  • Chronology of the events
  • First appearances of the tricolour cockade
  • From the cockade to the flag

See also:

• France
• France: Kingdom of France until 1792
• French Revolution (1789-1799) and Consulate (1799-1804)
  • Naval ensign and jack (1790-1794)
  • National flag (1794)

French narrative vs. established historical facts

The French narrative surrounding the Tricolour, as a symbol of the nation, has maintained since the 19th century that "the Tricolour flag was born during the French Revolution from the combination of the colours of the King (white) and the City of Paris (blue and red)" (this is even reported on the French presidency website, source: elysee.fr).
A popular but unfounded legend claims that Louis XVI or Lafayette combined the blue, red, and white colors to create the tricolor cockade. In reality, Louis XVI could not have worn a white cockade (a symbol of military command) during his visit to Paris, as it would have sent a bellicose message. And Lafayette’s role is overstated: Evidence shows that Parisians were already wearing tricolor cockades by July 12–13, 1789.
It was probably not as a symbol of the monarchy that white was included in the revolutionary cockade.

Sources :
- Tous les drapeaux de France, vy Olivier Touzeau, 2026 [tzo26]
- Trois fleurs de la nation. Le drapeau, l'hymne et la devise (Three blossoms of the nation: the flag, the anthem, and the motto) by Jacqueline Lalouette, 2026. [lal26]
- Drapeaux et pavillons [dep] #161, 1st Semester 2025

Chronology of the events

• On July 12, during the demonstrations, French Guards who wore white cockades (colour of military command) supported the people.
• On July 13, Paris electors at the Hôtel de Ville formed a militia, adopting a red-and-blue cockade (Paris’s colors). It is entirely possible, though not known nor proven, that this blue and red were sewn onto a white fabric base...
• On July 14, following the massacre of the Bastille’s governor, de Launay, it was rumored that a letter from the Provost of Merchants (i.e. ~mayor) Flesselles had been found in his pockets bearing these words: "I am stalling the Parisians with cockades and promises; hold firm until this evening and you will receive reinforcements." Accused of treason, the Provost of Merchants left the Hôtel de Ville to defend
  himself at the Palais-Royal. He was shot dead on the way and subsequently beheaded.
• On July 15, Jean Sylvain Bailly was appointed Mayor of Paris.
• Two days later, on July 17, it was a tricolour cockade that Bailly presented to Louis XVI, according to his memoirs: "Having arrived first at the Hôtel de Ville, I was asked to present to the King the three-colored cockade that the Parisians had adopted since the Revolution as a means of recognizing one another. [...] I presented it to him, saying: 'Sire, I have the honor of offering Your Majesty the distinctive emblem of the French people.'" It should also be remembered that white and its symbolism of command has had a special place in French royal symbolism since the Wars of Religion, and that blue and red had also been common colors in French royal symbolism for centuries.
  • Some competing accounts (e.g., Mathieu Dumas) claimed the King wore a two-color cockade on July 17.
  • Lafayette’s memoirs (posthumously published) suggest himself proposed the tricolor to merge Paris’s colors (red/blue) with France’s traditional white, linking it to the Duke of Orléans’ livery.
  • 19th-century historians (e.g., Count de Bouillé [Ldb75]) amplified the legend, possibly to influence debates during the Third Republic.
    

First appearances of the tricolour cockade

The tricolor’s exact origin remains unclear, and it is impossible to explain with certainty who combined the three colors, or with what intent.  What is certain is that several contemporary accounts indicate that, as early as July 13, tricolor cockades combining white, pink or red, and blue were already spreading:

• The bookseller Hardy wrote in his journal for Tuesday the 14th: "People were beginning to change the color of their cockades, replacing green [proposed on July 12th by Camille Desmoulins] with pink, blue, and white."
• Mathieu Dumas, then an aide-de-camp to Marshal de Broglie, mentions in his memoirs the "new tricolor national cockade" spotted on the statue of Henry IV at the Pont-Neuf on the 14th; women were selling them at the statue's base.
• In La Quinzaine mémorable, a Parisian’s chronicle covering July 12 to 30, published in early August 1789, the entry for July 14 (before 8 a.m.) reads: "People of all ranks wore the blue, red, and white cockade, by order of the city."
• In his memoirs, the deputy Charles-Élie de Ferrières mentions - as early as the 13th - a cockade "blending blue, white, and red." His bias leads him to claim that "it was the livery of the Duke of Orléans, and it
  was not without design that they chose this rallying symbol for a faction whose timid leader was merely awaiting the opportune moment to reveal himself."

Several explanations thus coexist, including: the co-presence of the cockades worn by the French Guards and the Paris Guard may have fostered an association of their colors with the body of citizens-turned-soldiers, and vice versa (Mirabeau noted in the Assembly session of September 12, 1790, that "the tricolor could have represented unity of citizens as soldiers and soldiers as citizens") ; a pragmatic and spontaneous combination - entailing nothing more than stitching blue and red threads onto white dimity fabric; the popular appropriation of colors that were already royal ; a trend inherited from the colors and conventions of the decorative arts of
the day...

Whatever had happened in the first days of July, It is well known and documented that by late July 1789, militias formalized the tricolor: on July 27 the Military Committee proposed a white cockade with blue/red edging. And on July 31: Lafayette declared, " I bring you a cockade that will go around the world."

From the cockade to the flag

It was subsequently at sea that the three colors would truly come into their own,.
 On October 21, 1790, the Assembly decreed that "the French ensign shall henceforth bear the three national colors, in accordance with the specifications and design that the Assembly charges its Naval Committee to propose." The national ensign did not adopt the vertical blue-white-red format until 1794.
On land, the three colors appeared in decorative flags of varying designs, as France had not yet adopted an official national flag. They became most widespread - in a variety of layouts and geometric patterns - on regimental flags. The vertical three-stripe design was standardized for regimental colours only  in 1812.

From May 10, 1793, an 11-meter-long tricolor pennant - most likely featuring horizontal stripes- flew over the Tuileries, the seat of the Convention. Shortly thereafter, on June 26, a decree mandated that a tricolor pennant be displayed on all public buildings. It was probably only under the Consulate, after 1799, when Napoleon Bonaparte took up residence there, that the tricolor flag with vertical stripes began to flow over the Tuileries Palace.

Olivier Touzeau, 27 September 2026