Cockade of Italy

[10] It is tradition, for the most important offices of the State, excluding the President of the Italian Republic, to have a tricolour cockade pinned to their jacket during the military parade of the Festa della Repubblica, which is celebrated every 2 June.

[16][17] These first cockades were inspired by the distinctive coloured bands and ribbons that were used in the Late Middle Ages by knights, both in war and in tournaments, which had the same purpose, namely to distinguish the opponent from the fellow soldier.

[19] The Italian tricolour cockade, as well as all similar ornaments made in the same period in other countries, main characteristic was that of being able to be clearly visible, thus giving way to unequivocally identify the political ideas of the person who wore it, as well as that of being, in case of need, better hideable than, for example, a flag.

[19] The rioters, in these early uprisings, had makeshift cockades made of green leaves pinned on their clothes in imitation of the similar protests that took place in France at the dawn of the revolution.

[29] It is documented that on 12 November 1789 the Prussian government forbade the Westphalian population to use cockades because they were viewed with suspicion given their meaning closely linked to the protest movements that were flaring up in France, and their use therefore went beyond the French borders and spread gradually across Europe.

[29] This also happened due to gazettes, printed in various European countries, that gave ample prominence to the fact that the cockade had become, in France, one of the most important symbols of the insurrectional uprisings and of the people's struggle against the absolutist regime that ruled at the time.

[31] The rioters demanded the lowering of the price of basic necessities with the threat of unleashing riots comparable to the violent Parisian protests in case of refusal of the authorities to satisfy these requests.

The Italian insurgents therefore used these colours as a simple imitation of the protests that were taking place in France and that were aimed at – in both nations – to the same objectives, namely to achieve better living conditions and to obtain civil and political rights, which have always been denied by absolutist regimes.

[4] In the historical archives of the Republic of Genoa it is reported that eyewitnesses had seen some demonstrators wandering around the city with "the new French white, red and green cockade introduced recently in Paris".

[35] The use of the cockade was viewed with suspicion and aversion by the Genoese state authorities, since it recalled those social impulses that were beginning to spread in Europe; the popular ferments had in fact frequently rebellious and destabilizing connotations.

[4] It is proven by written evidence that the first revolutionary uprisings, in Italy, took place in August in the Papal State, but the sources relating to these events do not mention tricolour cockades, but only ornaments composed with leaves.

[21] Although the green, white and red tricolour, when introduced, simply had an imitative value, it was taken as a symbol of the Italian homeland during the popular uprisings of the early 19th century.

[19] The green, white and red tricolour thus acquired a strong patriotic value, becoming one of the symbols of national awareness, a change that gradually led it to enter the collective imaginary of the Italians.

[40] During this revolt attempt, which took place between 13 and 14 November 1794 (or, according to other sources, 13 December 1794),[40] the demonstrators led by De Rolandis and Zamboni flaunted a red and white cockade (which are also the colours of the municipal coat of arms of Bologna) having a green lining.

[40] After failing to raise the city, the revolutionaries tried to take refuge in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, but the local police first captured them in Covigliaio and then handed them over to the papal authorities.

After the capture of the fugitives, the latter launched an action "Super complocta et seditiosa compositione destributa per civitatem in conventicula armata" (a prosecution for fomenting armed treasonous conspiracy throughout the state) at the Tribunale del Torrone (the Inquisition of Bologna).

[41] Zamboni was found dead in a cell nicknamed "Inferno" ("Hell"), which he shared with two common criminals, probably killed by them on the orders of the police or perhaps suicide after an unsuccessful escape attempt[42] on 18 August 1795.

[42] The bodies of De Rolandis and Zamboni were then solemnly buried in Bologna in the Giardino della Montagnola on the direct order of Napoleon,[45] before being dispersed in 1799 with the arrival of the Austrians.

[63] The social ferments that led to the birth of Italian patriotism originated in the Napoleonic era, during which the ideals of the French Revolution spread, including the concept of self-determination of the people.

As in the Italian case, while the demand for greater civil and political rights on the part of the population did not stop with the reconstitution of the absolutist states, the uprisings that would have characterized the 19th century resurfaced.

[67] The tricolour cockade appeared, for the first time after the Napoleonic era, during the uprisings of 1820–21 in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies pinned on the hats or clothes of Italian patriots; its reappearance was therefore still sporadic and limited to a specific territory.

[75] Tricolour cockades continued to be the protagonists, pinned on the chest or on the hats of patriots, in the popular uprisings that followed such as the case of the Five Days of Milan (18–22 March 1848), during which they had a wide diffusion among the insurgents, many of whom were religious.

ordered that the Italian National Tricolour Flag with the Savoy Cross on it be replaced with the one existing in the Forts and other places where it is usually raised; that this Flag was also distributed to all Corps of the Royal Army, and limited in the future to only one for each Regiment; and that both the officers, and all the troops, had likewise to replace the blue with the cockade for the three Italian national colours; the use of which, according to the declarations of the ministerial dispatch of 13 July following, should undoubtedly be extended to all the R. Employees who wore a uniform.

[76] The tricolour cockade was among the symbols most frowned upon by the authorities, for example, Charles II, Duke of Parma, although he was not among the most reactionary sovereigns (so much so that he granted relative freedom of the press), he forbade its use in his duchy.

[94] During the Second Italian War of Independence the territories that were gradually conquered by Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont-Sardinia and Napoleon III of France acclaimed the two sovereigns as liberators waving green, white and red flags and wearing tricolour cockades.

[108] As a further mark, the tricolour cockade, in the roundel version with the external red, the central white and the internal green, was established on 21 December 1917, being placed on the sides of the fuselage and above the upper wing.

Following complaints from the Allies,[111] aimed at avoiding confusion between cockades used on the planes of the British Royal Flying Corps and with the aircraft of the French Aéronautique Militaire, which operated in the same theater of war.

[114] In the aeronautical field, the tricolour cockade with red outwards and green in the centre returned to use, without being changed, in 1943, during the Second World War,[106] on the occasion of the establishment of the Italian Co-belligerent Air Force.

[8] It is tradition for the most important offices of the Italian State to have pinned on the jacket, during the military parade of the Festa della Repubblica celebrated every 2 June, a tricolour cockade.

[122][123] In football, the cockade is also a symbol, again in the roundel shape,[117] of the victories in the Coppa Italia Serie D, in the Coppa Italia Dilettanti and — with green on the outside and red on the inside[117] — in the Coppa Italia Serie C.[124] A famous song written by Francesco Dall'Ongaro and set to music by Luigi Gordigiani was dedicated to the tricolour cockade:[125] And my love went to Siena,bring me the cockade of three colours:the white is the faith that chains us,red is the joy of our hearts.I will put a verbena leaf in itwhich I myself fed with fresh moods.And I'll tell him the green, the red and the whitethey fit him well with a sword at his side,and I will tell him that the white, the red and the greenit is a trio that is played and not lostand I will tell him that the green, the white and the redyou mean that Italy has shaken its yoke,Finally I will tell him that the tricolouremblem is of faith, of peace and love[126]The Italian azure cockade was one of the representative ornaments of Italy, obtained by circularly pleating an azure ribbon.