en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_VII
1 correction found
It was Pius VII who adopted the yellow and white flag of the Holy See as a response to the Napoleonic invasion of 1809.
This is misdated and overstates what changed in 1809. Vatican sources say Pius VII changed papal troop cockade colors in 1808; the oldest yellow-and-white pontifical flag dates from 1824, and the modern flag’s present form dates to 1929.
Full reasoning
The claim compresses several separate developments into one incorrect statement.
According to the official Vatican City State page on the flag, the old papal colors were changed to white and yellow in 1808, when Pius VII ordered his Noble Guard and other loyal corps to adopt a new cockade in those colors. The same page adds that the oldest yellow-and-white pontifical flag dates only from 1824, and that the flag took on its present appearance only after the Lateran Treaty in 1929.
A second reference from The Flag Institute agrees: Pius VII changed the Noble Guard’s cockade from yellow-red to yellow-white in 1808, and the Papal States’ flag developed later, with the Vatican City flag being officially adopted in 1929.
So the article’s sentence is incorrect in two ways:
- it ties the change to the 1809 Napoleonic invasion, when the relevant color change is documented in 1808; and
- it says Pius VII adopted the yellow and white flag of the Holy See, when the official Vatican page distinguishes between the 1808 cockade change, later 19th-century flag forms, and the modern flag adopted in 1929.
2 sources
- Flag – Vatican City State
They were substituted with white and yellow in 1808, when Pius VII ordered his Noble Guard ... to adopt a new cockade ... However, the oldest Pontifical flag in yellow and white hails back to 1824 ... It was only after the Lateran Treaty ... in 1929, that the Pontifical flag took on the appearance it has today.
- Flag of the Vatican City | The Flag Institute
Pius VII ordered those who remained loyal to change their red ribbon for a white one in 1808. Seventeen years later the Papal States' merchant flag ... added a yellow band on the hoist side ... On the same date of the treaty's ratification, 7th June 1929, the city-state's flag was officially adopted.