Editing Flag of France (section)

===The ''Tricolore''===
[[File:The national flag of France & Arch of Triumph.ogv|thumb|The national flag of France at the [[Arc de Triomphe]]]]
[[File:Lar7 cogniet 001z.jpg|thumb|The white flag of the monarchy transformed into the Tricolore as a result of the [[July Revolution]]. ''[[Scenes of July 1830]]'', painting by [[Léon Cogniet]] (1830)]]
[[File:Lar9 philippo 001z.jpg|thumb|''Lamartine, before the {{Lang|fr|[[Hôtel de Ville, Paris]]}}, rejects the Red Flag, 25 February 1848''. By [[Henri Felix Emmanuel Philippoteaux]]]]

The horizontally striped red-white-blue [[flag of the Netherlands]] originally inspired the colour scheme used by the French revolutionaries after the French Revolution in 1789.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> Consequently, the French tricolour flag is derived from the [[cockade of France]] used during the French Revolution. These were circular rosette-like emblems attached to the hat. [[Camille Desmoulins]] asked his followers to wear green cockades on 12 July 1789. The Paris militia, formed on 13 July, adopted a blue and red cockade. Blue and red are the traditional colours of Paris, and they are used on the [[Coat of arms of Paris|city's coat of arms]]. The addition of white has been attributed to Lafayette, Mayor Jean Sylvain Bailly, and even [[Louis XVI]] himself.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pinoteau |first=Hervé |date=1992 |title=Les trois couleurs en 1789 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/bsnaf_0081-1181_1992_num_1990_1_9536 |journal=Bulletin de la Société nationale des Antiquaires de France |volume=1990 |issue=1 |pages=42–44 |doi=10.3406/bsnaf.1992.9536 |access-date=2 March 2024 |archive-date=2 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240302125410/https://www.persee.fr/doc/bsnaf_0081-1181_1992_num_1990_1_9536 |url-status=live }}</ref> This episode is supposed to have taken place on July 17, 1789, on the occasion of the king's visit to the Paris city hall. However, it is proven that the tricolor cockade began to be worn, by order of the city, from the 13th or 14th of July.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cocarde tricolore ; les origines du drapeau français |url=https://www.contreculture.org/AT%20Cocarde%20tricolore.html |access-date=2024-03-02 |website=www.contreculture.org |archive-date=2 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240302092331/https://www.contreculture.org/AT%20Cocarde%20tricolore.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In any case, Louis XVI actually went to the Paris city hall where he received the tricolor cockade. On 27 July, a tricolour cockade was adopted as part of the uniform of the National Guard, the national police force that succeeded the militia.<ref>Clifford, Dale, "Can the Uniform Make the Citizen? Paris, 1789–1791", ''Eighteenth-Century Studies'', 2001, p. 369.</ref>

A ''drapeau tricolore'' with vertical red, white and blue stripes was approved by the [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|Constituent Assembly]] on 24 October 1790. Simplified designs were used to illustrate how the revolution had broken with the past. The order was reversed to blue-white-red, the current design, by a resolution passed on 15 February 1794.

When the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|Bourbon dynasty]] was restored following the defeat of [[Napoleon]] in 1815, the ''tricolore''—with its revolutionary connotations—was replaced by a white flag, the pre-revolutionary naval flag. However, following the [[July Revolution]] of 1830, the "citizen-king", [[Louis-Philippe of France|Louis-Philippe]], restored the ''tricolore'', and it has remained France's national flag since that time.

Following the overthrow of [[Napoleon III]], voters elected a royalist majority to the National Assembly of the new [[Third French Republic|Third Republic]]. This parliament then offered the throne to the [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]] pretender, [[Henri, Comte de Chambord]].  However, he insisted that he would accept the throne only on the condition that the tricolour be replaced by the white flag.<ref>{{cite news |last=Martin |first=Jacques |work=[[L'Osservatore Romano]] |edition=English weekly |location=Baltimore, MD |publisher=The Cathedral Foundation |orig-date=23 March 1978 |date=2022 |title=The Humour of Pope Pius IX |via=EWTN Global Catholic Network |url=https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/humour-of-pope-pius-ix-5720 |access-date=2022-07-16 |archive-date=10 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210610024319/https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/humour-of-pope-pius-ix-5720 |url-status=live }}</ref> As the tricolour had become a cherished national symbol, this demand proved impossible to accommodate. Plans to restore the monarchy were adjourned and ultimately dropped, and France has remained a republic, with the tricolour flag, ever since.

The [[Vichy France|Vichy régime]], which dropped the word "republic" in favour of "the French state", maintained the use of the ''tricolore'', but [[Philippe Pétain]] used as his personal standard a version of the flag with, in the white stripe, an axe made with a star-studded marshal's [[Baton (military)|baton]]. This axe is called the "Francisque" in reference to the ancient [[Francisca|Frankish throwing axe]]. During this same period, the [[Free France|Free French Forces]] used a ''tricolore'' with, in the white stripe, a red [[Cross of Lorraine]].

The constitutions of 1946 and 1958 instituted the "blue, white, and red" flag as the national emblem of the Republic.

The colours of the national flag are occasionally said to represent different flowers; blue represents [[cornflower]]s, white represents [[Leucanthemum vulgare|marguerites]], and red represents [[poppy|poppies]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Côte-d'Or - Histoire. Cuisine de guerre : coquelicot et bleuet|url=https://www.bienpublic.com/cote-d-or/2014/11/30/coquelicot-et-bleuet|website=www.bienpublic.com|date=30 November 2014 |language=FR-fr|access-date=2021-06-12|archive-date=12 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210612061950/https://www.bienpublic.com/cote-d-or/2014/11/30/coquelicot-et-bleuet|url-status=live}}</ref>

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File:Flag of Paris.svg|The [[flag of Paris]], source of the tricolour's blue and red stripes
File:The french tricolor cockade.svg|The [[cockade of France]], designed in July 1789. White was added to "nationalise" an earlier blue and red design.
File:Flag of France (1790–1794).svg|{{FIAV|historical}} The flag of France used from 1790 until 1794
File:Flag of France (1794–1815, 1830–1974, 2020–present).svg|The flag of France used from 1794 (interrupted in 1815–1830 and in 1848)
File:Drapeau france 1848.svg|{{FIAV|historical}} The [[French Second Republic]] adopted a variant of the tricolour for a few days between 24 February and 5 March 1848.<ref name=secrep/>
File:Henri d'Artois' Flag of France (proposed).svg|{{FIAV|proposal}} The French ''tricolore'' with the royal crown and fleur-de-lys was possibly designed by the [[Henri, Count of Chambord]], in his younger years as a compromise, but which was never made official, and which he himself rejected when offered the throne in 1870.<ref>Whitney Smith. ''Flags through the ages and cross the world''. McGraw-Hill Book Company. 1975. p. 75.</ref>
File:Roundel of France.svg|From 1912 onwards, the [[French Air and Space Force|French Air Force]] originated the use of [[roundel]]s on military aircraft shortly before [[World War I]]. Similar national cockades, with different ordering of colours, were later adopted as aircraft roundels by their allies.<ref>[http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/faq/roundel.cfm Royal Air Force Museum] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090602233007/http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/faq/roundel.cfm|date=2 June 2009 }}</ref>
File:VichyFlag.svg|{{FIAV|historical}} Personal standard of [[Philippe Pétain]], as Chief of the [[Vichy France]].
File:Flag of Free France (1940-1944).svg|{{FIAV|historical}} Flag used by the [[Free French Forces]] during [[World War II]]; in the centre is the [[Cross of Lorraine]]; later, the personal standard of President [[Charles de Gaulle]], as Chief of the [[Free France]].
File:Flag of France (1794–1815, 1830–1974, 2020–present).svg|The flag of France, darker red and blue variant.
File:Flag of France (2024–present).svg|The flag of France, lighter red and blue variant.
</gallery>