A **horizontal tricolour** is a flag divided into three bands of equal width running parallel to the fly. The horizontal tricolour was popularised in the nineteenth century as a republican and national form, often inspired directly by the Dutch *Prinsenvlag* of the seventeenth century, the earliest known national tricolour. Many modern flags follow the pattern, varying only in colour and in the addition of a charge.
**Example**: The flags of Germany (black-red-gold), the Netherlands (red-white-blue) and the Russian Federation (white-blue-red) are all horizontal tricolours.
**See also**: [vertical-tricolour](/glossary/vertical-tricolour/), [tricolour](/glossary/tricolour/), [bicolour](/glossary/bicolour/), [pan-slavic-colors](/glossary/pan-slavic-colors/)