Today, the flag of the State of Maryland flies in commemoration of The Old Line State’s ratification of the United States Constitution on April 28, 1788, making it the 7th state to do so.
Maryland’s flag is one of the most recognizable of the state flags. It is the heraldic banner of arms of Cecil, the 2nd Baron Baltimore. It consists of the arms of his father George, 1st Baron Baltimore (1579–1632), quartered with those of his grandmother, heiress of the Crossland family. Maryland Statutes Title 7, § 7-202 reads as follows:
“(a) The State flag is divided into quarters. (b) The first and fourth quarters are a paly of six pieces, or (gold) and sable (black), and a bend dexter (right diagonal band) counterchanged, so that they consist of six alternating gold and black vertical bars with a diagonal band on which the colors are reversed. (c) The second and third quarters are quartered argent (white) and gules (red), a cross bottony counterchanged, so that they consist of a quartered field of white and red, charged with a Greek cross that has arms terminating in trefoils and opposite coloring so that red is on the white quarters and white is on the red quarters, as represented on the escutcheon of the State seal.”
Maryland’s flag ranked fourth best state flag in NAVA’s 2001 State and Provincial Flag Survey.
Cruesbreck Flags 