Bodenehr, Georg-Conrad

The coat of arms and the flag of the Swiss canton of Valais is in red and white, divided vertically with thirteen five-pointed stars in opposite colours (Per pale argent and gules 13 mullets counterchanged). The stars represent the thirteen districts (or dizains, Zehnden "tithings"). It was introduced in 1815, when the Valais was detached from the French Department of Simplon to join the Swiss Confederacy. The coat of arms and the flag directly continue that of the République des Sept-Dizains, the early modern union of seven dizains which declared independence from the prince-bishops of Sion. The red and white colours were used by the bishops of Sion, in the form of a vertically divided red-and-white war flag, from c. 1220 (they are also retained in the municipal coat of arms of Sion). The addition of stars dates to the early 16th century, but the stars did not at first represent individual communes, and varied in number (between six and sixteen). The earliest maps of the Valais, printed in 1545 and in 1548, show coats of arms with ten six-pointed stars. The 1545 map has stars of unequal size, showing the two central stars somewhat larger and as mullets pierced. The use of seven stars...