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Historical flags of Vaud canton (Switzerland)

Last modified: 2026-01-10 by martin karner
Keywords: switzerland | vaud | liberté et patrie | republique helvetique | napoleon |
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• 13th century flag
• 14th century flag
• 1530 flag
• 1790 insurrection flag
• Canton Léman / Republique Lémanique
• 1803-1819 letter color variations
• 1933 Vaudoisean League / Ligue Vaudoise

• Vaud canton
• Switzerland
  
  
• Sceaux et armoiries de la baronnie de Vaud (by Donald L. Galbreath, 1941, French)
• Flags in the Canton of Vaud 1798–1848 (by Emil Dreyer, ICV 19, 2001)
• Les armoiries vaudoises du Moyen Age à nos jours (by Pierre-Yves Favez, 2003, French)

13th century flag

The 13th cent. flag is gold with a black eagle charged with a red 5-pointed lambel.
António Martins, 4 January 1998

14th century flag

The 14th cent. Vaud flag. The narrow bend is barred or and azur (in French: de gules a la croix blanche, brise d'une cotice barree d'or et d'azur).
Mario Fabretto, 6 January 1998

1530 flag

A Vaudois insurrection against Bern in the 1790s, inspired by the French revolution, was largely responsible for inviting the French invasion in 1798 which destroyed the old Swiss Confederation and replaced it with the unitary Helvetic Republic. The flag of the Vaudois revolution was green inscribed in white with the motto "Liberté, Egalité" (freedom, equality).
T.F. Mills, 3 November 1997

Within the Helvetic Republic, the Vaudois territory became independent of Bern as the new canton of Léman.
T.F. Mills, 3 November 1997

This image was rendered from a photograph of a surviving example. (Note the font, the accents, etc.) There may have been variations in proportions and fonts for the lettering. In this example, the pike sleeve is across the top of the image. I believe the intent was for the pike to be carried almost horizontally over the shoulder, so this positioning would make the text the most readily legible.
T.F. Mills, 5 November 1997

1803–1819 letter color variations

The "Ligue Vaudoise" is a political movement founded in 1933 that pushes for the imposition of total federalism in Switzerland. The meaning of the flag is: The white cross is the cross of Savoy, to which Vaud belonged for three centuries (1206–1536). The green is the colour of the actual State of Vaud (since 1803). The sword in the middle is the sword of the Habsburg previously by the 1st Burgundian Empire. The flag was created in order to replace the actual vaudoisean flag: for this group, the actual one does not represent the real vaudoisean history.
ND, 15 April 2004

While Ligue Vaudoise was created in 1933, it was a continuation of the Order and Tradition movement created in 1931. This flag might therefore have been created prior to 1933.
Jaume Ollé, 17 April 2004

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