This flag has flown at two hugely significant moments in history – from the back of a Spanish warship, San Ildefonso, as it fought against the British fleet led by Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, and from the roof of St Paul’s Cathedral during Nelson’s funeral service on January 9 1806.
After Nelson’s funeral, it stayed in St Paul’s for a century. Now, it belongs to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. They keep it in storage, because it’s very fragile and they don’t have the space to hang it. The biggest flag in the museum’s collection – it is 33ft long and 48ft high – it is folded up, wrapped in tissue paper and stored in a long cardboard box on the bottom shelf of a cabinet.
The trophy flag is made of wool and feels very coarse. It has the arms of Castile and León in the middle and the name of the ship on the hoist in ink: san ildefonso. It has holes from where it was shot, and it is frayed on the edges from when it flapped in the winds.
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