cockade of France

File:Rouillard - Camille Desmoulins.jpg

File:Bonnet Phrygien.png with a French tricolor cockade, symbols of the Revolution]]

File:Officier de gendarmerie sous la révolution.jpg of the revolutionary era wearing a hat with a tricolor cockade]]

The French tricolor cockade was devised at the beginning of the French Revolution. On 12 July 1789 – two days before the storming of the Bastille – the revolutionary journalist Camille Desmoulins, calling on the Parisian crowd to revolt, asked the protesters what color to adopt as a symbol of the revolution, proposing either green (representing hope) or the blue of the American revolution, symbol of freedom and democracy. The protesters responded "The green! The green! We want green cockades!"{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-ynpQ5lnU2EC&q=Camille+Desmoulins+coccarda+francese+verde+foglie&pg=PA174|title=Giovani del terzo millennio, di Giacomo Bolzano|isbn=9788883587504|language=it|access-date=9 March 2017|last1=Bolzano|first1=Giacomo|year=2005}} Desmoulins then took a green leaf from the ground and pinned it to his hat. However, the green was abandoned after just one day because it was also the color of the king's brother, the reactionary Count of Artois, later King Charles X.{{cite web|url=http://www.italiaoggi.it/giornali/dettaglio_giornali.asp?preview=false&accessMode=FA&id=2139232&codiciTestate=1|title=Il verde no, perché è il colore del re. Così la Francia ha scelto la bandiera blu, bianca e rossa ispirandosi all'America|language=it|access-date=9 March 2017}}

The following day, 13 July, an opportunity arose to create a cockade of different colors when those bourgeois who hoped to limit revolutionary excesses established a citizen militia.{{cite web|url=http://www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/mondo/2015/07/14/parigi-14-luglio-la-bastiglia-e-il-rosso-della-first-lady-messicana-angelica_5ffc5fb9-5c2f-406b-ab8c-99935f5c4428.html|title=Presa della Bastiglia, il 14 luglio e il rosso della first lady messicana Angelica|date=14 July 2015 |language=it|access-date=9 March 2017}} It was decided that the militia should be given a distinctive badge in the form of a two-colored cockade in the ancient colors of Paris, blue and red.

On 17 July, King Louis XVI went to Paris to meet the new French National Guard: its members wore the blue and red cockade of the militia, to which it would appear that the Marquis of Lafayette, commander of the Guard, had added a white band representing loyalty to the Sovereign.{{cite web|language=fr|url=http://www.elysee.fr/la-presidence/le-drapeau-francais/|title=Le drapeau français – Présidence de la République|date=21 October 2015 |access-date=9 March 2017}} Louis XVI put it on his hat and – with some reluctance – approved the appointment of the revolutionary Jean Sylvain Bailly as mayor of Paris, and the formation of the National Guard led by Lafayette.{{cite web|language=fr|url=http://www.1789-1815.com/mystere_cocarde.htm|title=Le Mystère de la Cocarde|access-date=9 March 2017}} Thus was born the French tricolor cockade. On the same day, the Count of Artois left France, along with members of the nobility supportive of absolute monarchy.Antonia Fraser, Marie Antoinette: the Journey, 2002, pp. 113–116.

The tricolor cockade became the official symbol of the revolution in 1792, with the three colors now said to represent the three estates of French society: the clergy (blue), the nobility (white) and the third estate (red). The use of the three colors spread, and a law of 15 February 1794 made them the colors of the French national flag.

From August 1789, Italian demonstrators in sympathy with the French revolution began to use simple cockades of green leaves inspired by the primitive French cockade. From these evolved the red, white and green Italian tricolor cockade.{{cite journal |last1=Ferorelli |first1=Nicola |date=1925 |title=La vera origine del tricolore italiano |url=http://www.risorgimento.it/rassegna/index.php?id=10511&ricerca_inizio=0&ricerca_query=&ricerca_ordine=DESC&ricerca_libera= |journal=Rassegna Storica del Risorgimento |volume=12 |issue=fasc. 3 |language=it |pages=668 |access-date=2019-10-04 |archive-date=2019-03-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331181159/http://www.risorgimento.it/rassegna/index.php?id=10511&ricerca_inizio=0&ricerca_query=&ricerca_ordine=DESC&ricerca_libera= |url-status=dead }}

File:Citroën SM présidentielle - flamme présidentielle.JPG]]

File:Rafale (3861866950).jpg with a French tricolor cockade]]

Decree no. 89-655 of 13 September 1989 forbids the use of the tricolor cockade on all land, sea and air vehicles, with the following exceptions:{{cite web|url=https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006067256&dateTexte=20080710|title=Décret n°89-655 du 13 septembre 1989 relatif aux cérémonies publiques, préséances, honneurs civils et militaires|language=fr|access-date=9 March 2017}}

• by the president of the French Republic;
• by members of the government of France;
• by members of French Parliament;
• by the president of the Constitutional Council;
• by the vice president of the Council of State;
• by the President of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council;
• by prefects in their own departments, and by sub-prefects on official duties in their arrondissements.

The use of the tricolor cockade is not permitted for mayors' vehicles, and offenders risk up to one year's imprisonment and a fine of €15,000.{{cite web|language=fr|url=http://www.senat.fr/questions/base/2007/qSEQ07100074S.html|title=Apposition de la cocarde tricolore sur les véhicules des élus locaux|date=25 October 2007 |access-date=9 March 2017}}

The use of the cockade on French military aircraft was first mandated by the Aéronautique Militaire in 1912, and subsequently became widespread during World War I.{{cite book |last=Kershaw |first=Andrew |title=The First War Planes: Friend Or Foe, National Aircraft Markings |publisher=BCP Publishing |year=1971 |pages=41–44 }}{{cite book|last1=Patoz |first1=Jacques |last2=Saint-Ouen |first2=Jean-Michel |title=L'Armée de l'air |year=1999 |language=fr |publisher= Méréal |isbn=978-2-84480-017-6}} The French practice inspired the adoption of a similar roundel (with colours reversed) by the British Royal Flying Corps, and of comparable insignia by other nations. Cockades were, and still are, painted on the aircraft fuselages as the primary military aircraft insignia of the French Air Force; modified designs are used for other French government aircraft.

Cockades continue to be used on French state aircraft.{{cite web|language=fr|url=http://www.cocardes.com/2015/07/la-cocarde-nous-fait-toute-une-histoire.html|title=La cocarde nous fait toute une histoire: évolution de la cocarde d'aviation française (1912–aujourd'hui) |access-date=11 March 2017}} After World War II a yellow border was added to the cockade, which was removed in 1984.{{cite journal |last1=Ehrengardt |first1=Christian J.|date=1983|title=La chasse française en Afrique du nord 1942–1945|volume=53|language=fr}}

The tricolor cockade is also used on certain elite uniforms, both military and civilian, which include headwear decorated with it.{{cite web |language=fr |url=http://www.gendarmerie.interieur.gouv.fr/eogn/Presentation/Historique/La-TEnue-de-TRAdition-TETRA |title=La TEnue de TRAdition (TETRA)|access-date=10 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160913062451/http://www.gendarmerie.interieur.gouv.fr/eogn/Presentation/Historique/La-TEnue-de-TRAdition-TETRA|archive-date=13 September 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://lifes-schools.com/it/pages/236631|title=Paris Politecnico: Qual è il più breve del mondo un soprannome?|access-date=10 March 2017|language=it|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312044832/http://lifes-schools.com/it/pages/236631|archive-date=12 March 2017}} It is likewise an attribute of Marianne, the national allegorical representation of France, who is conventionally depicted wearing a Phrygian cap, sometimes decorated with a tricolor cockade.{{cite web|language=fr|url=http://www.phil-ouest.com/Series.php?Nom_serie=Les_Marianne|title=1944 – 2008 – Les représentation de la Marianne républicaine sur les timbres|access-date=10 March 2017}} The cockade appears on mayors' badges;{{cite web|language=fr|url=http://www.sedi-equipement.fr/les-produits-protocolaires/echarpe-de-maire-insignes-d-elus-cocardes-de-maire-0103.html|title=L'insigne des maires|access-date=10 March 2017}} and on the sash worn by Miss France, as well as French-made "méduses" (jellyfish in English) plastic beach sandals.{{cite web|language=fr|url=http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/miss-france-ce-soir-je-serai-la-plus-belle_461724.html|title=Miss France: ce soir, je serai la plus belle|date=9 December 2006 |access-date=10 March 2017}}

• Flag of France
• Democratic-Republican Party, whose logo was nearly identical to the Cockade

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|30em}}

{{Commons category|Cockades of France}}

{{Symbols of the French Republic}}

{{French revolution footer}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cockade Of France}}

Category:National symbols of France

France