Banners and standards came into use, as guiding and rallying influences in war, and for inspiration and beauty in the pageantry that was then so much indulged. The American Discovery Period was during the ripened years of knighthood; armor was
\JV
worn, and shields and lances ivere carried, and on the, helmets
y\\. 7j . '■>	SJU.«
were plumes of distinctive color combinations that were^dis-tlnguishing marks in conflict and in pageantry.
Gee illustrations U, h ‘I

The earliest record of flags is an illuminated manuscript by a Franciscan friar, native of the Kingdom of Castile, Spain, born 1305, his manuscript of about 1350. He recorded he had visited all the countries described; scholars think, in some instances, this is open to question. His remarkable work was entitled:
Book of the Knowledge of All the Kingdoms,
Countries, and Lordships that there are in y^	the World and of the Ensigns and Arms of
if	Each	Country and Lordship; also of the Kings
and Lords Who Govern Them.
This manuscript is now in the Biblioteca Xacional at. Madrid.
J	. • Vy.
It 'was rec•?"t.Ly published in English by the Hakluyt Society.
The Geographic Magazine, October 1917, shows ninety-six of these ancient ensignsj ninety-three are shield-shape and three, Damascus, Sweden, and China, are rectangular like modern flags. This shows how universal then was the influence of the shield.
.Four of these are shown here, Castile, -fcaerij Aragon and France, because of i/heir relation to this study. See illustrations 1,	am*h**;