In British politics, we are now used to the idea of certain parties (or causes) being associated with particular colours. The Conservative party is blue; Labour red; the Greens are green. In the 18th century such notions were by no means fixed and on occasion groups made a point of appropriating their opponents’ colours as Dr Robin Eagles, editor of our Lords 1715-1790 project, explains.
There are numerous ways in which people have asserted their political loyalties. This might be through language: for a Tory the ledge above their fireplace was a mantlepiece, for a Whig, a chimneypiece. The same might be true of fashion: in the early 18th century ladies of fashion would place patches on their faces, Tories to the left and Whigs to the right. Most obvious, though, has been the use of colour to denote political association. Clear delineation in the use of particular shades has not always been the case, though, and in the 18th century blue was probably the most contested colour with Whigs, Tories and other groupings all vying to adopt it.
In his 1880 volume, Things not generally known And something for everybody, John Timbs noted the long history of colours being associated with causes. He dated the use of ‘blue’ as a sign of fidelity to a line in one of the 16th-century earl of Surrey’s poems. He also highlighted how the city of Coventry achieved renown for its technique of producing a blue that would never fade, and which came to be dubbed ‘True Blue’ or ‘Coventry Blue’. Scots Presbyterians were said to have adopted the colour, citing its appearance in the Book of Numbers, but they were not the only group to favour the idea of ‘True Blue’. By the reign of George I, the phrase ‘a true Blue Whig’ was in common use and blue continued to be used by the Whigs throughout the century, alongside their more familiar orange. In 1784 the Prince of Wales paid tribute to one prominent Whig society hostess with the toast ‘True blue and Mrs Crewe’.
Despite this, by the middle of the century, blue was more commonly associated with the Tories. In William Hogarth’s Humours of an Election, the third painting, showing the polling, makes plain the two banners flying on either side of the hustings, one blue for the Tories and the other orange, for the Whigs. Occasionally this encompassed the Jacobites as well. While Jacobites were more commonly associated with ‘white’ (Charles Edward Stuart’s troops sported white cockades in their bonnets) blue was also on occasion assumed to be a Jacobite colour because of their presumed Tory connexion.
In the 1760s, this was all thrown on its head by the emergence of the radical demagogue, John Wilkes. His followers set about appropriating a variety of Jacobite symbols and taking them to their own. Most famous, probably, was the number 45. Formerly closely associated, of course, with the ’45 Rebellion it was taken on by the Wilkites as a badge of pride after the publication of Number 45 of the North Briton, which had resulted in Wilkes being sent to the Tower. He was subsequently convicted of libel and spent a period in exile.
On Wilkes’s return in 1768, he stood at the general election first for the City of London and then for Middlesex. Along with the number 45, Wilkes’s election for Middlesex brought blue cockades out in force. It was the more confusing as his opponents used the colour too. Wilkes’s supporters later complained that the supporters of Sir William Beauchamp Proctor, goaded them by waving blue banners daubed with teasing slogans drawing attention to Wilkes’s moral failings. This was genuinely blue on blue conflict.
Following Wilkes’s election, it was reported that along with bells ringing in celebration, his supporters all appeared wearing blue cockades in their hats, interwoven with the familiar slogan Wilkes and Liberty. The next day, a blue flag was paraded around the town, this time with a portrait of Wilkes on it, but again with the Wilkes and Liberty slogan underneath [St James’s Chronicle or the British Evening Post, 31 Mar.-2 Apr. 1768]
Wilkes’s supporters were far from the last disruptors to adopt blue as their colour. Later in the century, it became the preferred colour of the Protestant Association and came to be viewed with considerable alarm at the time of the June 1780 Gordon riots. At the height of the rioting efforts were made to discourage people from sporting the blue cockades that had become associated with Lord George Gordon’s followers. On 19 June, the London Courant printed an urgent request for people to:
Abstain from wearing BLUE COCLADES [sic], as these ensigns are now assumed by a set of miscreants…
From being a symbol of loyalty, stability and fidelity, Gordon transformed blue into ‘an ensign of rebellion’ and for a while it was effectively proscribed. Complaint was even made in the House of Commons that some of the aldermen had allowed constables to wear blue cockades in their hats, thereby indicating sympathy with the rioters. Wilkes, by then a London alderman himself, lambasted one of his colleagues in the corporation (and a fellow Member of Parliament) for his promotion of Gordon’s blue colours.
By the end of the 18th century, blue had recovered its former symbolism of bravery and fidelity, though it remained closely tied to those campaigning for the ‘Protestant cause’ well into the next century. Following the gallant conduct of Captain Beresford, Lady Wentworth gave a lavish entertainment in his honour at which all the ladies present wore blue cockades. [True Briton, 24 Oct 1796].
Blue may have been a particularly over-subscribed shade, but it is worth considering, as Kendra Packham has suggested, that the choice of campaigning colours was something candidates took seriously. One candidate, Henry Liddell, for example, settled on crimson when he stood in Northumberland in the 1820s, even sending his agent a sample so that he would know the right colour for use in cockades and banners. Others chose multiple colours, reflecting their various backgrounds and associations. Nevertheless, throughout the 18th century blue remained a particularly important colour as evidenced by its use by all sides. So important was it, that it was celebrated in song:
True Blue’s the colour of the sky,
It beams from Beauty’s heavenly eye,
The loveliest bosoms wear the dye
And beat beneath the Blue Cockade!
RDEE
Further Reading:
Hillary Burlock, ‘Party Politics: Dancing in London’s West End, 1780–9’, London Journal 47:2 (2021)
Elaine Chalus, ‘Fanning the flames: women, fashion and politics’ in Women, Popular Culture and the Eighteenth Century, ed. Tiffany Potter (2012)
Colin Haydon, Anti-Catholicism in Eighteenth-Century England: a political and social study, c.1714-80 (1993)
The History of Parliament 