3 September offers something for the republic and something for the realm.
While Richard the Lionheart had been crowned on 3 September 1189, Oliver Cromwell had major victories at the Battles of Dunbar and Worcester, on, respectively, 3 September 1650 and 3 September 1651.
Sic gloria; on 3 September 1658, Oliver died and son Richard succeeded as Lord Protector.
Richard Cromwell was the longest-lived head of state until Queen Elizabeth II passed him in 2012. Although for the royal purist the Cromwells never existed, and Charles II became king in 1649 immediately upon his father’s execution.
Across the pond, in mid-1777, Congress resolved:
The flag of the United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, with a union of thirteen stars of white on a blue field. . .
To this day, there’s a battle between Brandywine, Fort Stanwix and Cooch’s Bridge as to where the flag first flew in battle. I merely note the curiosity that formal announcement of Congress’s resolution and the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge both occurred on 3 September 1777. The royalists have something of a revenge in that the battle has been re-enacted on film by an organisation called Lionheart Filmworks.
The war between that monarchy and that republic ended on 3 September 1783 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
Oceans away and way down south, Australia’s departure from the United Kingdom has been devolution and not revolution. Like its royal parent and its republican cousin, the colours of its flag are red, white and blue. The flag was first flown on 3 September 1901 and 3 September is the nation’s Flag Day.
