This is a list of historic and current command flags of the Royal Navy. Command rank flags to denote the commander-in-chief of the English fleet and later Royal Navy were used from as early as 1189. Coloured squadrons of the Royal Navy were established during the Elizabethan era to subdivide the fleet into three squadrons or more. There were three classes of admirals and later a fourth that were differentiated by using coloured flags red, white and blue.