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Shipmate Flagchart : http://www.shipmate.nl/flags.htm
Adopted 11 Mar 1968
In the 13th century the Estate of Etten belonged to the Lord of Breda. In the 15th-17th century the Van Etten family were appointed vassals of the the Lords of Breda in Etten. The arms of the Van Etten family was silver with three blue castles. The arms of the Estate of Etten were derived from the arms of the family, but the colours were changed to distinguish the arms.
When the local council applied for the arms to be granted the colours were not mentioned. The arms were thus granted in the National colours. In 1968 the original colours were restored.
International Civic Arms : http://www.ngw.nl/ ,1997
Translated by Franc van Diest, 16 Aug 2001
In the "Brabants Nieuwsblad (a Roosendaal newspaper) of 16 Sep 1989 was an article entitled "De Leurse vlag wappert" - the flag of Leur is flying. Mr. Jan van Harssel, a Leur-citizen), gave an explanation:
The white man represents skipper Adriaan van Bergen from Leur, who hid in 1590 in his famous peat-boat below a load of peat soldiers of the Prince or Orange, who were smuggled into the fortified city of Breda, so that Prince Maurits was able to deliver the city from the Spaniards. However in 1625 the Spaniards, led by Spínola, regained Breda; in 1637 it became definitely Dutch. Spínola's effort has been immortalized by a painting by Velázquez, entitled "La rendición de Breda", better known as "Las lanzas".
Yellow is the old Leur color, probably because of the old countryside wiuth its gold-yellow cornfields. Green was chosen for the meadows in the environment. Blue is the color of the harbour at the Leurse Turfvaart. The Leurse harbour ain't what it used to be, but Leur owes its name to the "lörre", peat of inferior quality. Peat like that was transported via the harbour of Leur.
This year it is 400 years ago that Breda was delivered by Adriaan van Bergen's Trofan Horse-trick, which was deeemed a good occasion to found the Adriaan van Bergen-Stichting, and the presentation of the "Leurse vlag". 250 Flags have already been sold.
Source: Vlaggen, Magazine of Anton Jansen, #65 (1990)