Flag of Switzerland used by Burgundy and Maximilian I. The first flag used as a field sign representing the confederacy rather than the individual cantons may have been used in the Battle of Arbedo in 1422 (notably without the participation of the Canton of Schwyz). This was a triangular red flag with an elongated white cross. The white cross was thus in origin a field mark attached to combatants for identification, and later also to cantonal flags. The Lucerne chronicle of 1513, in battle scenes of the Burgundy wars of the 1470s shows cantonal flags with an added white cross. In this context,
Flag of Switzerland so that the ratio of cross to flag width is 5:12. The shade of red used in the flag was not defined by law prior to 2017. The 2017 flag law specifies the colour of the flag as: In 2004, the Federal Chancellery published a corporate design guide for the federal administration, in force since 1 January 2007. The colour specifications given there are compatible with those later put in the annex to the flag law. The matching of heraldic tincture to modern color specifications for print or screen display is very uncertain, and to some extent left to the