How I made my First Flag Design

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How I made my First Flag Design

So if you've read my previous post about flags, you know about Flagmaker-Print and their Discord competitions that happen every month. The first one I participated in was in April 2023, where the theme was to create a Kingdom of America!

It could be any type of kingdom, it just had to happen on the continent of North America.

I currently live in Maryland, and I wanted to do something for this state since, on the surface, there's not much to Maryland other than Civil War memorials and Washington D.C. So I started researching into Maryland's founding, and realized that Maryland was one of the only colonies to be ruled over by a Baron instead of a governor.

The Barony lasted from 1579 to 1771, almost 200 years of ruling over Maryland, but it seems we gloss over that part of history. The family line continues after that, but they don't have any claims on the colonial lands.

This is the family line. (pulled from Wikipedia and House Histree):

After 1955, the records start getting lost, so we don't exactly know where the family goes from here. You may also be thinking, "if this is a dynasty, then why does the name change after the 6th baron of Baltimore from Calvert to Harford?"

Well, the story goes like this. Frederick Calvert never really had a good relationship with his wife, and didn't have any children with her. He cheated on her with his mistress, Hester Whelan, and had two children. The only son was Henry Harford, who was an illegitimate son, and therefore had no claim to his father's estates when he was born. Later in life, he gained claim to his father's English estates in the Estate Act of 1780. However, the State of Maryland had started the revolution in 1781, and confiscated his Marylander estates for the revolution.

Harford traveled to Maryland with the then governor Sir Robert Eden (first picture) to petition the Maryland Government to retrieve either his confiscated lands, or the rent costs that was made in that time period which he did not claim the last Baron's inheritance. He did not win the case, even though two Founding Fathers, Charles Caroll of Carollton (2nd pic) and Samuel Chase (3rd pic) rallied in his cause.

Honestly this story sounds like a story you could make a play out of. A child growing up as a bastard of a Baron, fighting for his rightful inheritance. Teaming up with two Founding Fathers to fight for his land!

But anyways, I made a map that makes Henry Harford succeed in his endeavors, but also expanding the Marylander Empire through Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ohio. I also added other new states that were just there as other competitors in the New World where the American Experiment ended.

sorry for the small text

The red part is the new Calvert Kingdom of Maryland. Other things happened in this timeline, like the British taking control of Vermont, Hampshire, and Maine, the Dutch people taking control of New York, the state of Georgia having a slave revolt and becoming a republic like Haiti. The federal govt still survives in Virginia-Carolina.

Anyways for the flag design I created six states of the Empire to each have symbols on the flag. So in order:

Pennsylvania - Has a Gordian Knot symbolizing the unity of the first Pennsylvanian Commonwealth (real thing btw)

East Jersey - separated earlier because of a land dispute between two governors. also a real thing in history. They use the old feudal state of Jersey symbols with our state of New Jersey color scheme.

Ohio - They just have their national Bird on their seal. thats it.

West Virginia - National colors are Yellow and Navy Blue, with a black bear as their favorite animal.

Franklin - Mostly made up of mountains in Eastern Tennessee. Also a real thing in history.

West Jersey - Again, split Jersey because of a legal dispute, so I gave the more agricultural West the plows and blue from the New Jersey emblems.

I connected them all with a d20 symbol and the Calvert-Cross Emblem (the Maryland Flag)

problem was i thought there was something missing, so I added some seahorses for the maritime industry that Maryland is famous for.

Sorry for such a long article this time around, next time I'll try to keep them shorter. Make sure to visit Flagmaker-Print to check out the next competition and get prepared. If you would like to comment under this article, please consider becoming a member! It doesn't cost any money, just your will to state opinions!