The Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The banner, on which the two lions holding the shield appear to stand reads, "Je maintiendrai" which is the Dutch motto; it is French for "I will uphold."
"Je Maintiendrai," "I will maintain," is the motto of the House of Orange and Nassau, the Royal Family of the Netherlands. The phrase is supposed to have been uttered by William the Silent, Prince of Orange and Nassau, who was elected William I, Stadholder of the Netherlands (actually, of Holland and several other provinces), in 1572. This was in the midst of the great revolt of the Netherlands against Spain. Considering that Spain was the greatest power of the day and had (it seemed) unlimited wealth from the New World, the revolt was a desperate business and not long before this had seemed altogether a lost cause. However, the Dutch were stronger than they might seem now, since they were rapidly becoming the first great modern commercial and banking power, while Philip II of Spain was simply spending his Mexican and Peruvian money on unprofitable imperial and religious projects. Thus, even during the revolt, Dutch ships were carrying much of Europe's trade, and the Spanish money from the New World tended to end up in Dutch hands. After the bankruptcy of Spain and the mutiny of Spanish Army in 1576, and the failure of the Spanish Armada against England in 1588, Dutch independence was effectively secured, though not officially recognized until 1648. William himself was assassinated in 1584.
The national flag of the Netherlands, with its three equal horizontal bands coloured red (top), white and blue, was not the country's first flag. When, at the end of the 15th century, the majority of the Netherlands provinces were united under one lord, one common flag came into use for joint expeditions. This was the banner of the Lord of Burgundy, which consisted of a white field charged with two bundles of red laurel branches in the form of an X, with flames issuing from the intersection: the Cross of Burgundy. Under the later House of Austria, this flag remained in use.
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 pirates), 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"), 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." It is not known when this flag was unfurled for the first time, but it can be seen in illustrations dating from the earliest days of the Eighty Years' War, the Dutch war of independence.
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. An other explanation is that the orange was originally made of natural/herbal yellow and red. The yellow colour faded out first, leaving a red strip.
On February 19, 1937, a Royal Decree issued by Queen Wilhelmina finally laid down the red, white and blue colours as the national flag (heraldic colours of bright vermilion, white and cobalt blue). 
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