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Emden c.1595-c.1811 (Lower Saxony, Germany)

Introduction
Emden 18th-19th Centuries (reported 1716, 1737, 1750 and 1848)
Bishopric of Munster and Emden
Emden 18th-19th Centuries (reported 1737, 1750, 1848 and 1862)
Emden 19th Century (reported 1805)

See also:

City of Emden (Lower Saxony, Germany)
City of Delfzijl (Netherlands)
Historical Flags (Lower Saxony, Germany)
Germany

Introduction

It appears that "Emden" and "East Frisia" were used indistinctly to refer to the same entity, Emden being the capital of East Frisia — were the Emden flags we have actually the flags of East Frisia?

Santiago Dotor, 1 March 2001

I do not think so. The capital of East Frisia was Aurich from 1561 on. My assumption is that the flags just represent Emden itself. Emden had a very large merchant fleet at times, especially during the war between the Netherlands and Spain when the Dutch harbours were blocked.

Stefan Schwoon, 1 March 2001

Relations between lords and cities were quite varied and changeable with cities attempting to acquire as much autonomy as possible. In many cases the merchant ships sailed under flags that were thought of as belonging to the city rather than the lord. Since virtually all the merchant fleet of Ostfriesland belonged to Emden, this says that during much of the period, Emden flags were more or less rather than obviously flags of Ostfriesland. More or less modern relations between the city and the lord were not established until the prince defeated the town in 1726.

Norman Martin, 1 March 2001

Emden was the capital of East Frisia from 1464 to 1561, after then the capital was Aurich. In 1595 Emden parted from East Frisia ("got lost"). In 1744 the principality became a Prussian province with its capital in Aurich. Norden and Emden belonged to it. Siegel 1912 says, "...in 1683 the seat of the Brandenburg-Westafrica Co. was moved to Emden (...) The Frisians were allowed to sail under the Brandenburg flag, so they were under protection of Brandenburgish warships (...) [in] so far [as] the Frisian ships did not wear the Brandenburgish flag, the cities of Norden and Emden sailed under their own flags (...)". Siegel 1912 does not mention any Frisian or East Frisian flag. So I believe there was no Frisian flag.

In 1739 the Prussian flag was prescribed for all cities, but that was possibly not followed, Siegel 1912 writes. The Prussian authorities had found out that