I was interested to find out the original history of the stars@ stripes .........

On the thirteen red @ white stripes did the red and white not represent the colours of the English flag of St George for the original 13 English colonies and the Union flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain {Scotland @ England united in the 18th C.}.......in the top left corner ,this represented the king and goverment of the UK....

the removal of the union flag justified after 1776 as the act of independence from UK governance and Monachy , but keeping the red / white stripes in respect of the now independent 13 colonies...of English {British i.e Scotish / Irish / Welch} decent.........

As with the Irish Tri-colour the meaning of this original flag is not always clear and a bit mixed in interpretation , As i was taught... it was meant to represent all the peoples of Ireland, Green for the Irish Catholic population the white a demarkation and The colour Orange representing the Protestant {orange} population of Ireland this some how is now mentioned as Gold for some strange reason........and of a Nationalistic nature... not representative of all .. im sure the people of Northern Ireland would use this if this was correctly used .
if any one has any different stories on either let me know...

{As for the French flag ....i havent got a clue............}

[american_flag_uk]

i think the Grand Union Flag (the flag you described with the Union flag canton and 13 red and white stipes) was derived from the British Red Ensign (Union Flag canton and plain red field) of the time which only included England and Scotland Union flag of the time

the Americans used the british red ensign on their ships so i think thought was put into changing the flag and they divided the red field up with white stripes to make a new flag. Red from the Mother country and white to symbolize the seperation from her.