Acockade is a knot of ribbons, or other circular- or oval-shaped symbol of distinctive colours which is usually worn on ahat orcap. The word cockade derives from the Frenchcocarde, from Old Frenchcoquarde, feminine ofcoquard (vain, arrogant), fromcoc (cock), of imitative origin. The earliest documented use was in 1709.[1][2]
The first cockades were introduced in Europe in the 15th century.[3][4] The armies of the European states used them to signal the nationality of their soldiers to distinguish allies from enemies.[3][4] These first cockades were inspired by the distinctive coloured bands and ribbons that were used in theLate Middle Ages byknights, both in war and intournaments, which had the same purpose, namely to distinguish the opponent from the fellow soldier.[5]
The cockade later became a revolutionary symbol par excellence during the insurrectional uprisings of the 18th and 19th centuries. Its main characteristic was that of being able to be clearly visible, thus giving way to unequivocally identify the political ideas of the person who wore it, as well as that of being, in case of need, better hideable than, for example, a flag.[6]
In the 18th and 19th centuries, coloured cockades were used in Europe to show the allegiance of their wearers to some political faction, or to show their rank or to indicate a servant's livery.[7][8] Because individual armies might wear a variety of differing regimentaluniforms, cockades were used as an effective and economical means of national identification.[9]
A cockade was pinned on the side of a man'stricorne orcocked hat, or on his lapel. Women could also wear it on their hat or in their hair.
In pre-revolutionary France, the cockade of theBourbon dynasty was all white.[10][11][12] In theKingdom of Great Britain supporters of aJacobite restoration wore white cockades, while the recently establishedHanoverian monarchy used a black cockade.[13][14][15][16] The Hanoverians also accorded the right to all German nobility to wear the black cockade in the United Kingdom.
During the 1780Gordon Riots in London, the blue cockade became a symbol of anti-government feelings and was worn by most of the rioters.[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]
During theAmerican Revolution, theContinental Army initially wore cockades of various colors as anad hoc form of rank insignia, as GeneralGeorge Washington wrote:
As the Continental Army has unfortunately no uniforms, and consequently many inconveniences must arise from not being able to distinguish the commissioned officers from the privates, it is desired that some badge of distinction be immediately provided; for instance that the field officers may have red or pink colored cockades in their hats, the captains yellow or buff, and thesubalterns green.[25][26]
Before long however, the Continental Army reverted to wearing the black cockade they inherited from the British. Later, whenFrance became an ally of the United States, the Continental Army pinned the white cockade of the FrenchAncien Régime onto their old black cockade; the French reciprocally pinned the black cockade onto their white cockade, as a mark of the French-American alliance. The black-and-white cockade thus became known as the "Union Cockade".[27][28][29][30][31]
In theStorming of the Bastille,Camille Desmoulins initially encouraged the revolutionary crowd to wear green. This colour was later rejected as it was associated with theCount of Artois. Instead, revolutionaries would wear cockades with the traditional colours of thearms of Paris: red and blue. Later, the Bourbon white was added to this cockade, thus producing the originalcockade of France.[30] Later, distinctive colours and styles of cockade would indicate the wearer's faction; although the meanings of the various styles were not entirely consistent, and they varied somewhat by region and period.
Thecockade of Italy is one of thenational symbols of the country and is composed of thethree colours of theItalian flag with the green in the centre, the white immediately outside and the red on the edge.[32] The cockade, a revolutionary symbol, was the protagonist of the uprisings that characterized theItalian unification, being pinned on the jacket or on the hats in its tricolour form by many of the patriots of this period ofItalian history. The Italian tricolour cockade appeared for the first time inGenoa on 21 August 1789,[33] and with it the colours of the three Italian national colours.[33] Seven years later, the first tricolour military banner was adopted by theLombard Legion inMilan on 11 October 1796,[34] and eight years later, the birth of theflag of Italy had its origins on 7 January 1797, when it became for the first time a national flag of an Italian sovereign State, theCispadane Republic.[35]
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From the 15th century, variousEuropean monarchy realms used cockades to denote the nationalities of their militaries.[36][37] Their origin reverts to the distinctive colored band or ribbon worn by late medieval armies or jousting knights on their arms or headgear to distinguish friend from foe in the field of battle. Ribbon-style cockades were worn later upon helmets and brimmed hats ortricornes andbicornes just as the French did, and also oncocked hats andshakoes. Coloured metal cockades were worn at the right side ofhelmets; while small button-type cockades were worn at the front ofkepis and peaked caps.[38][39] In addition to the significance of these symbols in denoting loyalty to a particular monarch, the coloured cockade served to provide a common and economical field sign at a time when the colours of uniform coats might vary widely between regiments in a single army.[40]
During theNapoleonic Wars, the armies ofFrance andRussia, had the imperial French cockade or the larger cockade ofSt. George pinned on the front of theirshakos.[41]
The SecondGerman Empire (1870–1918) used two cockades on each army headgear: one (black-white-red) for the empire; the other for one of the monarchies the empire was composed of, which had used their own colors long before. The only exceptions were the Kingdoms of Bavaria and Württemberg, having preserved the right to keep their own armed forces which were not integrated in the Imperial Army. Their only cockades were either white-blue-white (Bavaria) or black-red-black (Württemberg).[42][7][43]
TheWeimar Republic (1919–1933) removed these, as they might promote separatism which would lead to the dissolution of the German nation-state into regional countries again.[44] When theNazis came to power, they rejected the democratic German colours ofblack-red-gold used by the Weimar Republic. Nazis reintroduced the imperial colours (in German:die kaiserlichen Farben orReichsfarben) of black on the outside, white next, and a red center. The Nazi government usedblack-white-red on all army caps.[45] These colours represented the biggest and the smallest countries of the Reich: large Prussia (black and white) and the tinyHanseatic Leaguecity states of Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck (white and red).
France began the firstAir Service in 1909 and soon picked the traditional French cockade as the first national emblem, now usually termed aroundel, on military aircraft. During World War I, other countries adopted national cockades and used these coloured emblems as roundels on their military aircraft. These designs often bear an additional central device or emblem to further identify national aircraft, those from theFrench navy bearing a black anchor within the French cockade.[46]
Hungarian revolutionaries wore cockades during theHungarian revolution of 1848 and during the1956 revolution. Because of this, Hungarians traditionally wear cockades on 15 March.[47][48]
Echoing their use when Americans rebelled against Britain, cockades – usually made with blue ribbons and worn on clothing or hats – were widespread tokens ofSouthern support forsecession preceding theAmerican Civil War of 1861–1865.[49]
Below is a list of national and subnational cockades (colors listed from center to ring):[50][51]
| Country and date | Description | Image |
|---|---|---|
 Albania | red-black-red |  |
 Antigua and Barbuda | black-gold-blue-white-red |  |
 Argentina | sky blue-white-sky blue |  |
 Armenia | orange-blue-red |  |
 Austrian Empirebefore 1918 | black-gold | .svg) |
 Austriasince 1918 | red-white-red |  |
 Azerbaijan | green-red-light blue |  |
 Bangladesh | gold-red-green |  |
 Belgium | black-yellow-red |  |
.svg) Bolivia(1825–1826) | green-red-green (with a white 5 pointed star in the center) | .svg) |
.svg) Bolivia(1826–1851) | green-red-yellow | .svg) |
 Bolivia | green-yellow-red |  |
 Brazil | blue-yellow-green |  |
 Bulgaria | red-green-white |  |
 Chile | blue-white-red (with a white 5 pointed star in the blue portion) |  |
 Colombia | yellow-blue-red |  |
 Croatia | red-white-blue |  |
 Denmark(early 19th century) | black | |
| Denmark | red-white-red |  |
 Ecuador | red-blue-yellow |  |
 Egypt(1922–1953) | green-white-green | .svg) |
 Egypt | black-white-red |  |
 Estonia | white-black-blue |  |
 Ethiopia(until 1936) | green-yellow-red | .svg) |
 Ethiopia | red-yellow-green |  |
 Finland | white-blue-white |  |
 France(1794–1814, 1815 and current since 1830) | blue-white-red |  |
| France (before 1794, 1814–1815 and 1815–1830) | white | |
 Gabon | green-yellow-light blue |  |
 Georgia(1990–2004) | black-white-wine red | .svg) |
 German Confederation(1848–1871) | gold-red-black | |
 German Empire(1871–1918) Weimar Germany(1918–1933) Nazi Germany(1933–1945) | red-white-black | .svg) |
 East Germany(1956–1959) | black-red-gold |  |
 Germany | black-red-gold | |
 Ghana | green-yellow-red |  |
 Greece(1822) | white-blue-white | .svg) |
 Greece(1833) | blue-white | .svg) |
 Greece | blue-white |  |
 Hungary | green-white-red |  |
 Iceland | blue-white-red-white-blue |  |
 India | green-white-saffron |  |
 Iran | red-white-green |  |
 Ireland(until 1922) | green or sky blue | .svg) |
| Ireland (since 1922) | green-white-orange |  |
 Italy(1861–1948) | savoy blue |  |
| Italy (since 1948) | green-white-red |  |
 Japan | red-white |  |
 Kenya | green-white-red-white-black |  |
 Latvia | carmine-white-carmine |  |
 Lithuania | red-green-yellow |  |
 Mexico | green-white-red |  |
 Monaco | white-red-white |  |
 Moravia | red-white-blue |  |
 Netherlands | orange |  |
 Nigeria | green-white-green |  |
 Norway | red-white-blue-white |  |
 Pakistan | white-green-yellow |  |
 Paraguay | blue-white-red |  |
 Peru | red-white-red |  |
 Philippines(1898–1901) | red-blue-silver | .svg) |
 Poland | red-white |  |
 Portugal(until 1797) | green-white | .svg) |
 Portugal(1797–1820 and 1823–1830) | blue-red | .svg) |
 Portugal(1821–1823 and 1830–1910) | blue-white | .svg) |
 Portugal | green-red |  |
 Romania | blue-yellow-red |  |
 Russia(until 1917) | black-orange-black-orange-white | .svg) |
| Russia | black-orange-black-orange |  |
 San Marino | white-blue |  |
 Serbia | red-blue-white |  |
 Seychelles(1978–1996) | green-white-red |  |
 Sierra Leone | light blue-white-green |  |
 Slovenia | red-blue-white |  |
 Spain(until 1843 and 1844–1871) | red | .svg) |
 Spain(1843–1844 and current since 1871) | red-yellow-red |  |
 Sweden(military) | yellow |  |
| Sweden (civilian) | blue-yellow |  |
 Thailand | red-white-blue-white-red |  |
 Transvaal | green-red-white-blue |  |
 Turkey | red-white-red |  |
 Ukraine | light blue-yellow |  |
 United Kingdom | white(Stuart dynasty), black(Hanoverian dynasty), red-white-blue |  |
 United States(War of Independence) | black-white-black |  |
 United States(19th century) | blue with an eagle in the centre | .png) |
 United States | white-blue-red |  |
 Uruguay(1828–1916) | sky blue | .svg) |
| Uruguay (civilian) | blue-white-blue-white-blue-white-blue-white | .svg) |
| Uruguay (military) | blue-white-blue with a red diagonal line |  |
| Uruguay (police) | red-white-blue |  |
 Venezuela | red-blue-yellow |  |
 Yugoslavia | blue-white-red |  |
TheGerman Empire had, besides the national cockade, also cockades forseveral of its states,[52] seen in the following table:
| State | Description |
|---|---|
| Anhalt | green |
| Baden | yellow-red-yellow |
| Bavaria | white-sky blue-white |
| Brunswick | blue-yellow-blue |
| Hanseatic cities (Bremen,Hamburg,Lübeck) | white with a red cross |
| Hesse | white-red-white-red-white |
| Lippe | yellow-red-yellow |
| Mecklenburg-Schwerin and-Streliz | red-yellow-blue |
| Oldenburg | blue-red-blue |
| Prussia | black-white-black |
| Reuss-Gera and-Greiz | black-red-yellow |
| Saxe-Altenburg,-Coburg and Gotha and-Meiningen | green-white-green |
| Saxe-Weimar | black-yellow-green |
| Saxony | white-green-white |
| Schaumburg-Lippe | blue-red-white |
| Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt | blue-white-blue |
| Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen | white-blue-white |
| Waldeck | black-red-yellow |
| Württemberg | black-red-black |
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