The national flag of Montenegro has its base in medieval heraldry, but depending on political and historical circumstances, its symbolism and historical background have been interpreted differently.
The coat of arms, as an integral part of the flag, was undoubtedly modeled after the coat of arms of Crnojević. The sources about the colors of the Crnojevic coat of arms are different, so the dilemma still remains whether the coat of arms was gold (yellow) or silver (white). According to certain historians, the copy of the golden bull of the Grand Council of Venice from 1473 (Ex libro privilegorium II, ch. 54) has been preserved in the State Archives of Venice that Ivan Crnojević received a noble coat of arms - a double-headed golden eagle.
The coat of arms of Crnojević, however, is presented differently in different coats of arms. It is shown as gold in the Korenić-Neorić coat of arms (1595), Althanov coat of arms (1614), Belgrade coat of arms (1620), Vienna coat of arms (1636), Famiglie venete con le loro armi (1650). In the coat of arms of Fojnica from 1675, it is also presented as gold, but it is oxidized, so at times it looks as if it is black. However, in the older Venetian coat of arms, the Crnojevic coat of arms is shown as silver (white), namely in the Insignia Venetorum nobilium III (1550) and Tamineli's (1578).
After the fall of Crnojević, the double-headed eagle was restored by Bishop Danilo Petrović, but from him to Prince Danilo, there is no information about what color it was. Although there are drawings, depictions of coats of arms on seals, medals, the colors of the Montenegrin coat of arms were unknown until 1858.
The first description of the Montenegrin flag dates back to 1711, when Venetian colonel Jerolim Buća wrote that bishop Danilo used a red banner with a double-headed eagle. However, Buća does not specify the color of the eagle.
There is no doubt that the Montenegrin coat of arms at the time of Bishop Danilo was a double-headed eagle, a drawing of which (from 1715) is kept in the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. All other Montenegrin bishops used different variations of the double-headed eagle on their seals.
From the time of bishop Sava Petrović, and under the influence of the heraldry of the patriarchs of Pec, the lion, which became an integral part of the Montenegrin coat of arms, began to be applied to the seals, along with the double-headed eagle. The above, no doubt, meant that the standardized symbol of the Montenegrin bishopric was a double-headed eagle, under which a lion in motion was shown.
The final form of the Montenegrin national coat of arms (double-headed eagle, with a lion on the chest) as we know it today was defined by Petar II Petrović Njegoš, on a silver medal for bravery from 1841. However, we do not have a description of the color of the Montenegrin eagle from that time either.
At the time of Peter II, the Montenegrin coat of arms was most often treated as Crnojevic coat of arms, and we have two testimonies of this from 1832, namely the Russian court advisor Alexander von Rojc and the Austrian colonel Teodor Karačaj, as well as an anonymous travel writer from 1851. It is easy to assume that during their visit to Cetinje there was an inevitable meeting with the Montenegrin bishop, so it is not excluded that Petar II himself told them that the Montenegrin coat of arms is based on the Crnojevic tradition. However, it is important to emphasize that after Bishop Danilo, only the crusader flag, i.e. its red and white variations, was used as the general Montenegrin flag.
The red flag with a double-headed eagle was restored by Prince Danilo - in 1858, on the eve of the colors on Grahovac. Rade T. Plamenac testifies in his memoirs: "Once upon a time, Prince Danilo ordered the banners of the Guard to be made with a white double-headed eagle in the middle, on a red field."
From that time, the Montenegrin coat of arms began to be associated with the Nemanjic heraldic tradition, so Prince Danilo in the proposal for a contract for the regulation of relations with the Ottoman Empire from 1856, in point 21, wrote: "The prince will keep his national coat of arms - a two-headed white eagle." (which Montenegrin principality inherited from the Serbian emperors)'.'
At the time of prince Danilo, the red flag was, as Plamenac notes, "the banner of the entire Montenegrin army", while the testimony of Emil Čakra from 1858 says that the "earthly" or (state) flag at that time was red-blue- white tricolor with coat of arms.
Although François Lenormand wrote in 1865 that the "common Montenegrin flag" is a tricolor, there is no doubt that after Danilo's death and the declaration of Prince Nikola as Montenegrin master, the tricolor lost its status as a national flag. Jovan Sundečić thus notes in the Montenegrin "Orlić" (1866) that "the national Montenegrin flag has a two-headed white eagle spread out on a red field (...) a large golden crown stands in the center above the eagle's heads (...) a large yellow lion stands below the eagle, reversed to the right side. This flag is nailed to the tricolor spear. By the way, her name is Alajbarjak''.
In 1873, Valtazar Bogišić described two Montenegrin flags: "The Montenegrin flag (usually a military one) is completely black, with a white cross in the middle. Some have whiter edges. The main banner alaybarjak - it is also completely blackened, so instead of a cross it has the national coat of arms on it".
In 1882, Duke Ilija Plamenac described the Montenegrin national flag to the unknown author of the "Book of Flags": "The national or alajbarjak in the form and scale as the draft shows you, has on a red field a white eagle with an independent ruling crown. In the eagle there is in the upper chest, 'NI' which name shows the rule independent of Nicholas I. Below the eagle stands a lion in the position as you can see. Around the red field there is a white border with gold fringes that limit the flag. Kites stand on a red-blue-white holder tied under a golden spear. This state flag is raised on higher state buildings like St. Court, fortresses, factories, etc.'' This description by Plamenc actually ended up in the publication "Flags of maritime nations: from the most authentic sources (1882)".
Even during the reign of Prince Nikola, references to the Nemanjic heraldic tradition continued, so on several occasions the Montenegrin eagle was also called "Dušan's eagle". This is what King Nikola and Montenegrin Minister Niko Hajduković call him in their memoirs.
In that time, the red flag will establish itself in the public consciousness as the general Montenegrin flag, while the tricolor will lose its importance, as evidenced by the order of Šak Popović from 1891 to decorate Cetinje with "Montenegrin and tricolor flags". At that time, the tricolor (with the crown and the ruler's initials) could only be seen on the Montenegrin coast, more precisely on the shipping lanes. It entered mass use as a national flag (without any applications) only at the end of the 19th century.
Therefore, the red flag with a crowned double-headed white (silver) eagle, the ruler's initials and a golden lion in the passage, was undoubtedly the state flag at the time of Prince Nikola. It is emphasized at the most important state institutions (Government House, ministries), but also at palaces and fortresses (hence it is colloquially called palace and fortress).
At the same time, it was the main military flag, i.e. the banner of the entire Montenegrin army. It had the function of lower military flags (battalion, brigade), which differed from the state, i.e., regimental flags, by the size and quality of the cloth.
However, like none before, it is not defined as a state flag by any official act. That is why we can say that it had the function of the national flag on the internal level. Nevertheless, after the international recognition of Montenegro at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, and after the introduction of the tricolor maritime-merchant flag (1880), the status of the national flag on the external plane began to be given precisely to the maritime-merchant tricolor (red-blue-white, with a crown and initials NI). Various international events (exhibitions), contemporary philately, and heraldic-vexillological catalogs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries support this.
It is interesting to mention the fact that the national coat of arms of the Principality of Montenegro (crowned double-headed white eagle, with a lion on the chest) was never officially applied to the red national flag, but only the coat of arms of the ruler - a crowned double-headed eagle, with the prince's initials on the inserted shield and a lion at the base .
Recent speculation that the publication Siebmacher: Wappenbuch (1876) presented such a flag is unfounded, primarily because it is presented in a heraldic code which suggests that the flag was white, with a silver coat of arms in the middle, and that on an inset red and green the shield, apart from the passing lion, contained symbols associated with Illyricum.
It is not excluded that such a flag really existed, but if we take into account that there is no domestic source that testifies to its presence in Cetinje, we can assume that it was either a really rare and lesser-known flag, or an excessive improvisation of the Nuremberg coat of arms.
After Montenegro was declared a kingdom in 1910, the red flag will lose its status as the banner of the entire Montenegrin army in 1912. The tricolor, with the coat of arms of the ruler, will be determined for the new alai-banjak. Thus, the red flag was reduced to the rank of battalion and brigade flags, and for this reason it was very often present in photographs from the time of the Balkan Wars. It will retain the same status (military flag of a lower order) during the activities of the Montenegrin government and army in exile.
After the disappearance of the Kingdom of Montenegro, and the formation of the Kingdom of SHS/Yugoslavia, but also during the time of socialist Yugoslavia, that flag, as a relic of the Montenegrin principality, will live its life in museums. She will almost disappear from the general public consciousness, and will receive the tricolor. For this reason, in later times, it was unjustifiably labeled as unauthentic and "innovation".
The first mass event at which he will appear, after almost 70 years, will be the funeral of King Nikola, Queen Milena and Princesses Vera and Xenia in Cetinje, in 1989 (when the tomb of the Montenegrin royal couple was opened in San Remo, the Montenegrin national tricolor was found on the coffins , larger format).
However, at the Cetinje funeral, reconstructed versions of the Alai flag covered the coffins containing the last Montenegrin queen and two Montenegrin princesses, while the king's coffin was covered with a crusader flag.
The red flag thus began its new life and became an inseparable part of the political manifestations of the Liberal Union of Montenegro. Liberals usually wore a red alai-banjak with a white double-headed eagle (rarely with a golden one). Thus, the red flag became a symbol of the sovereignist movement in the 90s.
However, that was not enough for it to be the first choice, when at the beginning of the 2000s, discussions began about the new Montenegrin national flag.
The Democratic Party of Socialists was then determined that the flag would be tricolor with the coat of arms of Petrović (appreciating that it represents a universally acceptable symbol for all citizens) and from that party it was explicitly ordered that the Social Democratic Party would not impose its solutions on them and determine new state symbols.
The current national flag of Montenegro, red with a golden double-headed eagle with a lion on the chest and a golden border, was adopted on July 12, 2004, and standardized on September 15 of the same year.
It differs in color from the original alay banner because, instead of silver, it contains a golden eagle and a golden border. Nevertheless, without any dilemma, it legitimately derives its roots from the Crnojevic heraldic tradition, which cherishes both the golden and silver eagle.
It should be said that during the entire existence of the Principality and the Kingdom of Montenegro, the Montenegrin double-headed eagle on the royal or state coat of arms was always white (silver). The coat of arms is rarely made in gold (as an expensive material), for the purpose of decorating certain items.
The only relevant historical source that talks about the golden coat of arms on the flag is the one from October 1912, when a reporter from the Joplin Morning Tribune saw a white flag (standard) with a red border at the castle in Kruševac, where Prince Mirko lived. with a double-headed golden eagle. It is not excluded that it was a personal princely standard, which did not survive time.
The dilemma remains about the meaning of certain elements of the current state flag, primarily its border, which was added in 2004, most likely primarily because of the stylistic difference compared to other flags with a double-headed eagle and a red field. However, the simplest explanation is contained in the information that the red alai-barjaks had borders during the reign of Prince/King Nikola. Whether the border on the Montenegrin princely flag was influenced by Venetian or Ottoman flags is still unclear.
All attempts to delegitimize the existing state flag are therefore unfounded. The fact that it does not represent a completely authentic reconstruction of the alai-banjak from the time of Petrović-Njegoš is irrelevant, because it relies on the historically indisputable tradition of the Crnojević coat of arms.
Bonus video:
