The Eighty Years War

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Project Entry by Umbra

The Lion of the Dutch Republic

June 3, 2021

Tutoring 13

Skill 15

Idea 16

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Around 1600 every regiment of the Dutch army had one flag displaying the Lion of the Dutch republic or “States Lion” (Dutch: Generaliteitsleeuw). Since I started this project I’ve searched everywhere for this flag and I couldn’t find one. There are compagnies who offer Dutch flags of the Eighty Years War for miniature wargaming, but never this iconic flag.

Then Gerry made this tutorial on making your own flags: https://www.beastsofwar.com/featured/gerry-can-how-to-make-wargaming-banners/

So all I need is an image of the right flag and then I can make a miniature version of it for this project. Simple, right?

No.

An image of the Republic’s Lion turned out to be impossible to find as well. In 1619 they reversed the colours of the flag: yellow lion on a red background. I needed the old version: red lion on a yellow background.

Solution: using software to manipulate images I’ve managed to alter the colours of the flag and remove the crown the flag had on the original image. This is the result:

With this image I could make a flag following Gerry’s tutorial:

Interested in using this flag yourself for your Dutch army fighting in the Eighty Years War? You can download the pdf below. It will print the flag in two sizes: with a height of 3 cm and with a height of 3,5 cm. Perfect sizes for use in wargaming.