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[[File:5065481797 c3649f291c b.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Jolly Roger flag]]

[[File:5065481797 c3649f291c b.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Jolly Roger flag]]

'''"Jolly Roger"''' refers to the flag traditionally flown by [[piracy|pirates]], and especially those pirates who flourished during the [[Golden Age of Piracy]] from the mid-17th to early 18th centuries.  Usually depicted as a white skull-and-crossbones centered on a black banner, the Jolly Roger was a symbol of terror and impending death on the seas, as well as an early attempt at collective branding<ref>https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/why-did-pirates-fly-the-jolly-roger/</ref>.

'''"Jolly Roger"''' refers to the flag traditionally flown by [[piracy|pirates]], and especially those pirates who flourished during the [[Golden Age of Piracy]] from the mid-17th to early 18th centuries.  Usually depicted as a white skull-and-crossbones centered on a black banner, the Jolly Roger was a symbol of terror and impending death on the seas, as well as an early attempt at collective branding.<ref>https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/why-did-pirates-fly-the-jolly-roger/</ref>

==Origins==

==Origins==

:''"A great lady of Maraclea was loved by a Templar, A Lord of Sidon; but she died in her youth, and on the night of her burial, this wicked lover crept to the grave, dug up her body and violated it. Then a voice from the void bade him return in nine months time for he would find a son. He obeyed the injunction and at the appointed time he opened the grave again and found a head on the leg bones of the skeleton (skull and crossbones). The same voice bade him "guard it well, for it would be the giver of all good things", and so he carried it away with him. It became his protecting genius, and he was able to defeat his enemies by merely showing them the magic head. In due course, it passed to the possession of the order."''<ref>http://www.dreadpirate.info/jollyroger.htm</ref><ref>http://www.crystalinks.com/skullsidon.html</ref><ref>http://blog.templarhistory.com/2010/03/the-necromantic-skull-of-sidon/</ref>

:''"A great lady of Maraclea was loved by a Templar, A Lord of Sidon; but she died in her youth, and on the night of her burial, this wicked lover crept to the grave, dug up her body and violated it. Then a voice from the void bade him return in nine months time for he would find a son. He obeyed the injunction and at the appointed time he opened the grave again and found a head on the leg bones of the skeleton (skull and crossbones). The same voice bade him "guard it well, for it would be the giver of all good things", and so he carried it away with him. It became his protecting genius, and he was able to defeat his enemies by merely showing them the magic head. In due course, it passed to the possession of the order."''<ref>http://www.dreadpirate.info/jollyroger.htm</ref><ref>http://www.crystalinks.com/skullsidon.html</ref><ref>http://blog.templarhistory.com/2010/03/the-necromantic-skull-of-sidon/</ref>

The ''memento mori'' was first known to be transferred to a ''green'' flag flown by Muslim pirates when they raided England in 1625<ref>http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/servlet/DCARead?standardNo=0374289352&standardNoType=1&excerpt=true</ref>; by the middle of that century piracy's Golden Age was about to begin, and pirates operating on the high seas employed a national flag as a ruse - perhaps the British Union Jack or the Dutch tricolor - in order to get in close to their intended victim; they would then lower it and replace it with one of two banners: a black one, which advertised immediately that they were pirates and they expected a bloodless surrender; or a red one, which stated that they would take the vessel and kill everyone on board.  Tradition has it - though probably inaccurate - that the red banner is from the French ''jolie rouge'' ("pretty red"), and said to be in use by French corsairs at the time and claimed to be the origin of the name "Jolly Roger".

The ''memento mori'' was first known to be transferred to a ''green'' flag flown by Muslim pirates when they raided England in 1625;<ref>http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/servlet/DCARead?standardNo=0374289352&standardNoType=1&excerpt=true</ref> by the middle of that century piracy's Golden Age was about to begin, and pirates operating on the high seas employed a national flag as a ruse - perhaps the British Union Jack or the Dutch tricolor - in order to get in close to their intended victim; they would then lower it and replace it with one of two banners: a black one, which advertised immediately that they were pirates and they expected a bloodless surrender; or a red one, which stated that they would take the vessel and kill everyone on board.  Tradition has it - though probably inaccurate - that the red banner is from the French ''jolie rouge'' ("pretty red"), and said to be in use by French corsairs at the time and claimed to be the origin of the name "Jolly Roger".

Another, more accurate tradition, is that the Jolly Roger came from another name for the [[Satan|devil]], "Old Roger".  In July of 1723 several pirates were executed after being captured by HMS ''Greyhound'', and a news report described their banner:

Another, more accurate tradition, is that the Jolly Roger came from another name for the [[Satan|devil]], "Old Roger".  In July 1723 several pirates were executed after being captured by HMS ''Greyhound'', and a news report described their banner:

:''"Their black Flag, under which they had committed abundance of Pyracies and Murders, was affix'd to one Corner of the Gallows. It had in it the Portraiture of Death, with an Hour-Glass in one Hand, and a Dart in the other, striking into a Heart, and three Drops of Blood delineated as falling from it. This Flag they called Old Roger, and us'd to say, They would live and die under it."''<ref>Weekly Journal, pg. 2, col. 1</ref>  

:''"Their black Flag, under which they had committed abundance of Pyracies and Murders, was affix'd to one Corner of the Gallows. It had in it the Portraiture of Death, with an Hour-Glass in one Hand, and a Dart in the other, striking into a Heart, and three Drops of Blood delineated as falling from it. This Flag they called Old Roger, and us'd to say, They would live and die under it."''<ref>Weekly Journal, pg. 2, col. 1</ref>