Flag Challenge 247 Poll

[The Professor]

The Challenge:
Flag Challenge 247 : Sons of the Frankish Hydra

With the death of the August Emperor Charles the Great the brief 2nd Western Roman Empire fell. Though many among his sons and sons of sons would claim Caesar none would obtain August until centuries later with the rise of St Arnold who not only received recognition from the Eastern Empire but was effectively sole August Emperor during the East's Ducate Wars.


Your Challenge is to create a flag for one of the vassal/constituent kingdoms, of this Arnoldine Empire, that claims direct descent from one of the sons of Charlemagne.
Ideally this kingdom will not have the name of any long lasting OTL kingdom.
NB for clarification the St Arnold mentioned is an ATL figure who is credited with recreating the WRE.

The Entries:

The banner of the Duchy of Neustria is a three tailed pennon.
The hoist displays a blue field upon which rests two crests. All Duchy banners within the Carolingian Kingdom are required to display these two crests upon a blue field at the hoist. The remaining banner represents the individual Duchy.
The upper crest is that of St. Arnold which is white with two Carolingian crosses in honor of his Carolingian Dynasty heredity and to honor the two August Emperors of the Western Roman Empire, himself and his Great, Great Grandfather, Charlemagne. A single Fleur de Lis represents all of the Franks within the Carolingian Kingdom. There is a blue chevron above the Fleur de Lis which signifies the protection of the Franks that Arnold has vowed to uphold.
The second crest is that of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Duchy of Neustria is represented by the vertical wavy lines representing the western coast of The Kingdom. The crowned red lion represents Duke Pepin II, youngest brother of Arnold. The lion is facing the sea which indicates his charge of defending The Kingdom from seaborne invaders.

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Lehoi Gorria - the Red Lion
After the death of Charles the Great, his empire rested in the hands of his sons, split into three kingdoms as Charles had planned. However, years of famine and negligence had sown the seeds of discontent in many areas. Little rebellions and uprisings became more common. Louis the Pious, ruling the West, called for increasingly harsh measures from the dukes appointed to represent the interests of the crown in suppressing these revolts, but the dukes were often sympathetic to the people, having grown up in the areas they ruled. Louis decided to make an example of the Duke of Bordeaux for failing to be sufficiently harsh in his responses to a local uprising. Duke Seguin was deposed, and a new ruler assigned to the region, Duke Centullo.

The local uprising became a full scale rebellion as the deposed Duke joined the fight against Louis and then drew alliances from neighboring lands, eager to see the Western Realm crumble. While Duke Seguin was killed in the rebellion, his able son, then known as William of Septimania, took up the banner and led the rebel forces to several decisive victories at Bordeaux, Agen, and Tolosa. His exploits in battle, as well as his livery, led to the men calling him Vasconiako Lehoi Gorria, the Red Lion of Vasconia. William's victories carved out the small kingdom of Vasconia (later called Gascony) and crucially took control of the Garonne River. The northern border of Gascony was settled at the Dordogne.

William of Septimania was declared King William I, the Red Lion of Gascony. Those who had followed his banner in battle now used it as a flag to unite the kingdom. A blue strip on the fly border of the flag was added to symbolize dominion over the Garonne River, and that flag design remained unchanged for centuries.

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[The Professor]

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