Flag of Switzerland to the "Arma Christi" that were especially venerated in the three forest cantons, and which they were allegedly allowed to display on the formerly uniformly red battle flag from 1289 by king Rudolph I of Habsburg at the occasion of a campaign to Besançon. Use of a white cross as a mark of identification of the combined troops of the Old Swiss Confederacy is first attested in the Battle of Laupen (1339), where it was sewn on combatants' clothing as two stripes of textile, contrasting with the red St. George's cross of Habsburg Austria, and with the St. Andrew's cross
Flag of the Netherlands flag in turn is believed to have influenced many flags of other Slavic countries, resulting in many red-white-blue styled tribands in other parts of Europe. Peter the Great of Russia was building a new Russian Navy mostly on Dutch standards; therefore the Russian merchant flag at sea would be the inverted colours of the Dutch flag. Flag of the Netherlands The flag of the Netherlands () is a horizontal tricolor of red, white, and blue. The tricolor flag is almost identical to that of Luxembourg, except that it is shorter and its red and blue stripes are a darker shade.