The flag of the Netherlands is a horizontal tricolour of red, white, and blue. In
troduced in 1572, it is one of the first tricolours and the oldest tricolour still in use today. The flag of France changed from a original horizontal design to vertical bands to avoid confusion with the Dutch flag. Since 1937, the flag is officially the national flag of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of the Netherlands .
The Prince's Flag
Now the introduction of the F-16 to the Royal Netherlands Airforce is very much linked to Prince Bernard. The husband of Queen Juliana was very much involved with getting this jet to Holland. It is told he was able to get a $16,000,000 'bribe' for the World Life Naturr Fund from the manufacturer, which did cost him his rank with the Dutch Airforce unfortunately. We are also flying his colours today.
The history
The provinces of the Low Countries, however, rose in revolt against King Philip II of Spain, and the Prince of Orange placed himself at the head of the rebels. The Watergeuzen (pro-independence privateers), acting on his instructions, harassed the enemy everywhere they could and they did this under a tricolour Orange White Blue ("Orange Blanche Bleu", or in Dutch: "Oranje Wit Blauw"/"Oranje Blanje Bleu"), the colours of the Prince's coat of arms. It was thus a flag easily associated with the leader of the rebellion, and the association was also expressed in the name: "the Prince's Flag." In an atlas of Kittensteyn, the first Red White and Blue flag can be seen on a painting imaging a battle between the Watergeuzen and the Spaniards. This date was early on in the Eighty Years' War, the Dutch war of independence. Hence 1572 is the official year of the introduction of this banner. This was commemorated in the Netherlands by the issue of a post stamp in 1972.
The flag had three, sometimes six or even nine horizontal stripes, but also took the form of rays projecting from a circle. The colours were used without any fixed order and it was only towards the end of the 16th century that any degree of uniformity appeared. After 1630, the orange stripe was gradually replaced by a red one, as paintings of that time indicate. Since there was likely no political reason for introducing a non-orange motive in the flag, the probable reason is that orange and blue are faint colors and more difficult to distinguish than red and dark blue, especially at sea. Another explanation is that the orange was originally made of natural/herbal yellow and red. The yellow colour faded out first, leaving a red strip.
The orange-white-blue flag, however, continued to be flown as well and in later times formed the basis for the former South African flag. It is also the basis for the flag of New York City. In addition to the two main flags, a third official flag, that of the States-General, came into being, although it never assumed the importance of the tricolour. Originally it consisted of the red lion of the province of Holland, taken from its coat of arms, on a gold field, holding a sword and seven arrows, and later, of a gold lion on a red field.(See the page on the Coat of arms of the Netherlands.) It marked no contradistinction to the Prince's flag and, in old paintings of ships and sea battles, both flags may be seen flying harmoniously side by side, thus illustrating the complex form of government with its two centres of authority: the Stadtholder (who was always a member of the House of Orange) and the States General.