Flag of the Orange Free State (Oranje-Vrystaat) / Orange Free State “vierkleur”
The Orange Free State, one of the Republics founded by the Boers at the end of the Great Trek, gained independence from British rule on February 23, 1854.
The flag was designed on 1856 by King Willem III of the Netherlands, on request of the Parliament of the Orange Free State. The tricolour in the canton of the Orange Free State flag recalls the tricolour which was used at Swellendam and Graaff-Reinet where the first Boer Republics were declared in 1795.
The Orange Free State was abolished at the end of the Second War of Liberation, with the Treaty of Vereeniging on 31 May 1902, which ended the Boer republics.