The governors of British Overseas Territories and the Australian states also have personal standards that incorporate the Union Jack in their design.

Because the Queen died unmarried and childless, the English crown passed to the next available heir, her cousin James VI, King of Scotland.

[32] The size and power of the Royal Navy internationally at the time could also explain why the flag was named the "Union Jack"; considering the navy was so widely utilised and renowned by the United Kingdom and colonies, it is possible that the term jack occurred because of its regular use on all British ships using the jackstaff (a flag pole attached to the bow of a ship).

For comparison with another anglophone country with a large navy, jack of the United States specifically refers to the flag flown from the jackstaff of a warship, auxiliary or other U.S. governmental entity.

The flag was deliberately designed with the Irish saltire slightly depressed at the hoist end to reflect the earlier union with Scotland, giving as it were seniority to the Saint Andrew's cross.

[53] On 3 February 2009, the BBC reported that the flag had been inadvertently flown upside-down by the UK government at the signing of a trade agreement with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao.

A painted wooden ceiling boss from Linlithgow Palace, dated to about 1617, depicts the Scottish royal unicorn holding a flag where a blue Saltire surmounts the red cross of St. George.

[57]This royal flag was, at first, to be used only at sea on civil and military ships of both England and Scotland, whereas land forces continued to use their respective national banners.

[13][27] After the Acts of Union 1707, the flag gained a regularised status as "the ensign armorial of the Kingdom of Great Britain", the newly created state.

In 2003 a committee of the Scottish Parliament recommended that the flag of Scotland use a lighter "royal" blue (Pantone 300) (the Office of the Lord Lyon does not detail specific shades of colour for use in heraldry).

This is not the equivalent of the ensigns of the other armed services but is used at recruiting and military or sporting events, when the army needs to be identified but the reverence and ceremony due to the regimental flags and the Union Jack would be inappropriate.

In objecting to the design of the Union Flag adopted in 1606, whereby the cross of Saint George surmounted that of Saint Andrew, a group of Scots took up the matter with John Erskine, 19th Earl of Mar, and were encouraged by him to send a letter of complaint to James VI, via the Privy Council of Scotland, which stated that the flag's design "will breid some heit and miscontentment betwix your Majesties subjectis, and it is to be feirit that some inconvenientis sail fall oute betwix thame, for our seyfaring men cannot be inducit to resave that flage as it is set down".

[68] On land, evidence confirming the use of this flag appears in the depiction of Edinburgh Castle by John Slezer, in his series of engravings entitled Theatrum Scotiae, c. 1693.

[72] When the Anglo-Irish Treaty was concluded on 6 December 1921 and the creation of the new Irish Free State was an imminent prospect, the question arose as to whether the cross of Saint Patrick should remain in the Union Jack.

Other possible changes include the abolition of the title of the United Kingdom, and the removal of the harp from the Royal Standard and the Coat of Arms, and the substitution of the Ulster emblem.

In this regard, Sir James Craig, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland remarked in December 1921 that he and his government were "glad to think that our decision [to remain part of United Kingdom] will obviate the necessity of mutilating the Union Jack.

[76] A Dáil question in 1961 mooted raising the removal of the cross of St Patrick with the British government; Frank Aiken, the Irish Minister for External Affairs, declined to "waste time on heraldic disputations".

[78] He said the Union Jack currently only represented the other three UK nations, and Minister for Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism Margaret Hodge conceded that Lucas had raised a valid point for debate.

[79] In the run-up to the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, various non-official suggestions were made for how the flag could be redesigned without the St Andrew's Cross if Scotland left the Union.

The Court of the Lord Lyon, which has legal jurisdiction in heraldic matters in Scotland, confirms that the Union Jack "is the correct flag for all citizens and corporate bodies of the United Kingdom to fly to demonstrate their loyalty and their nationality.

[96][97] Royal Navy Stores Duties Instructions, article 447, dated 26 February 1914, specified that flags condemned from further service use were to be torn up into small pieces and disposed of as rags (ADM 1/8369/56), not to be used for decoration or sold.

The Crown Dependencies, unlike the British Overseas Territories, are legally not part of the United Kingdom, and the Union Jack is not an official flag there.

Outside the UK, the Union Jack is usually part of a special ensign in which it is placed in the upper left hand corner of a blue field, with a signifying crest in the bottom right.

[118] Conversely, several protestors in the pro-democracy camp have also criticized the use of foreign flags, who view their use as reinforcing the claims made by the central government of China.

In August 2016, many local businesses along the Italian riviera hoisted the flags as a protest against the implementation of the Services in the Internal Market Directive 2006.

Nations and colonies that have used the Union Flag at some stage have included Aden, Basutoland (now Lesotho), Barbados, Bechuanaland (now Botswana), Borneo, Burma, Canada, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Cyprus, Dominica, British East Africa (Kenya Colony), Gambia, Gold Coast (Ghana), Grenada, Guiana, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Labuan (Malaysia), Lagos, Malta, Mauritius, Nigeria, Palestine, Penang (Malaysia), Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somaliland, South Africa, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Pre-partitioned India (present-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar), Tanganyika, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, the United States, and Weihaiwei.

The Miskito people sometimes use a similar flag that also incorporates the Union Jack in its canton, due to long periods of contact in the Mosquito Coast.

An unofficial flag for the British Empire was created around 1910 due to a belief that the Union Jack itself no longer sufficiently represented dominions such as Canada, which were beginning to adopt their own unique symbols.

[133][134] A notable increase in popularity was seen in Cuba following the 2012 London Olympics, with clothing, nail decoration, tattoos, and hairstyles in youths being observed featuring the pattern.

[138] British Airways used the coat of arms on their aircraft via the Landor livery between 1984 and 1997 and added back in 2011; they also used it as cap badge for pilots or in advertisements.