British Flags

art Mahume

sees his g

of Mahomet rema

rst Crusade. During the struggle for the possession of Jerusalem in the summer of 1099, Robert of Normandy, in personal combat, seized from one of the Saracen Emirs an object which is described as a very long pole covered over with silver, having at its top a golden ball or apple (pomum aureum). This was called a standard, a word which was evidently at that time of recent introduction, for the contemporary historians, some of whom had been eye-witnesses of

nearly a hundred years later. In an engagement with the Saracens near Acre at the end of August, 1191, the banner of Richard I was bo

band of soldiers is appointed, so that it may not be broken down by onrush of the enemy or overthrown by any injury, for if by any chance it should be overthrown the army would be dispersed and confounded, because it would not know in what part of the field to rally. Moreover, the hearts of the soldiers would be filled with the fear that their leader had been overcome if they did not see his banner borne aloft. Nor would they in the rear readily come forward to resist the enemy if, from the withdrawal of his banner, they feared that

a pyx and three banners, that the battle near Northall

ag that it bore was a natural consequence. This transference evidently began to take place about the end of the thirteenth century, for in 1282 the State gonfanon of Genoa, hitherto called the "vexillum" of St George, in the Annales Genoenses, becomes the "Stantari

ings and Lyme Regis (thirteenth century) and of Dover (1305) reproduced in Plate III, we may infer that it was the type most convenient for use at the head of the "standard," and therefore the type to which the name gradually became applied. During the fourteenth century the tails were reduced in number to two and the flag made to taper gradually throughout its length. Finally, the heralds established a form in which the tails were short, blunt and rounded off at the end, which they decided should contain t

op or yardarm, often reaching down to the water. The earlier name of the mode

-head by knights; but the word was used at sea in the fou

l. A sma

dant," but pronounced "pennant"). A synonym for "

idon. A small swa

to denote the striped flag then introduced on the poop of ships. In explaining the meaning of this word in the Army, Barret[8] remarks: "We Englishmen

ean the flags commonly flown by a ship. At the end of the seventee

flag flown o

resentation of a boat[9] frequently appears. In these boats, which seem to have been in use only on the Nile, the two cabins amidships are a prominent feature. At the end of the aftermost cabin rises a tall pole with an emblem at the top, which is believed to represent the district or town to which the owner of the boat belonged. There are at least eighteen different forms of this emblem[10], but these standards all agree in having in their

II -

to by the prophet Ezekiel in his lamentation for Tyre[11] as supplying the mariners for that city, placed upon their coinage[12] a representation of a war galley. At the stern of this galley, supported against a curved ornament similar to that to which the Greeks gave the name "Aphlast

olumn which is surmounted by a winged Victory (Nike) holding in her left hand a similar standard, and in her right the aphlaston of a galley. Unfortunately for our purpose, the Athenians did not represent ships upon their coinage, but similar standards are seen in the hand of the nymph Histiaea upon the coins of the Euboean town of that name, dated circa 313-265 b.c., two of which are represented in Plate II, figs. 7 and 8. Many other instances, too numerous to detail, will be found upon later Greek coins. In these the crosses are not all of the same design, and Prof. Babelon has collected examples of thirty-six forms, all more or less different, from the plain cross to a more elaborate form in which the head terminates in a ball and two small winged figures of Victory kneel at the ends of the arms. Some of

nality of the ship. Of Artemisia, queen of Halicarnassus, who accompanied Xerxes in his expedition against Greece and fought on the Persian side at the Battle of Salamis (480 b.c.), Polyaenus, in his Strategemata, relates that she had two semeia, one of "barbarian" form, the other Greek. When she was pursuing a Greek ship she raised aloft the barbarian standard[17], but when fleeing before a Greek ship she raised the Greek standard, so that her pursuer took her ship for Greek and kept off from it. The "barbarian" standard used by Artemisia was probably the globe and crescent a

he Phoenician coins flags were in common use by the Chinese. The Chinese classics on the art of war known as the Sun Tzu and Wu Tzu, written in the fifth century b.c., make frequent reference to them. They played a very i

inikis[21]," used as a signal for combat or as the sign of the Admiral's ship. Possibly the use of this emblem may have been imitated from the Phoenicians. It may, on the other hand, have originated independently, from a necessity of r

es at the ends. Below were a number of discs, which are believed to represent the honours conferred upon the Legion to which the signum belonged[22]. Below these again was a crescent, as a charm against ill-fortune. In the signa of the Praetorian guard the discs were replaced by crowns

being four others as well, the wolf, the minotaur, the horse and the wild boar, each of which preceded a single division. Some few years before his time it ha

nt at the corners, which caused it to hang in heavy folds instead of straight down, would seem to indicate an origin similar to that of the Greek "Phoinikis." This was the standard appropriated to the cavalry and to the special detachments of infantry, and it is said to be the olde

silk, and when the wind blew down the open jaws the body was inflated. The Flammula (little flame) was an elongated flag attached to the staff at the side, split throughout its length so as to form two narrow streamers. The Tufa seems, from the name, to have been some form of tuft[27] or helmet-crest, but the exact form is not known. It is of interest as ha

action off Marseilles in b.c. 49, in which Caesar's fleet under the command of Brutus engaged the Massilian fleet which was fighting on the side of Pompey, th

going into action, and its removal was a sign of disaster or retreat. It would seem that it was also removed if the fleet was about to be engaged by superior forces, presumably in order that the enemy might not concentrate against the leader's ship. T

few years later, after the battle of Actium, honoured with a special dark blue flag[31] as a symbol of his naval superiority. From the account given by Appian of the action off Naulochus it is clear that there was no distinguishing flag in the private ships, as he expressly states that the only difference in the ships

Church to Pope Sylvester and a flag to Constantine, while on the left St Peter was handing a pallium to Leo and a similar flag to Charlemagne. Except for some fragments in the Vatican this mosaic has disappeared, but engravings showing it before and after restoration are to be found in a description of the Lateran published at Rome in 1625[33]. In these the flags are depicted as attached by one side to a staff, whilst the fly is cut into three pointed tails. The field in both flags is charged with six roses, but the

the approval of the Church, the most important, from our point of view, being the presentation made to William the Conqueror before his expedition to England. Beside these there appear to

Ximenes de Rada, Archbishop of Toledo, who died in 1247, mentions this form as one of the s

probable that they had adopted it from the Franks than that they had invented it; certainly the only standards of the Ge

ury, now preserved in South Kensington Museum. Neither of these bears any device upon it, but in another book-cover of the twelfth century in the same collection a small cross saltire appears in the body of the flag, and the tails are proportionately of much greater length. This for

ich greatly exceeds the rest in size and in the length of its tails, which in this case alone are shown of such length as to curl in the wind[36]. It appears in the representation of that crucial moment in the battle at which the Normans, taken with a sudden panic, and believing that their Duke had fallen, were about to quit the fight, when William, lifting his helmet from his face, turned towards them and called out that he was still alive and by God's help would yet conquer. At the same time, a companion figure, which from the mutilated superscription in the tapestry appears to be Eustace of Boulogne, lifts this gonfanon high in the air with his left hand while with the right he points to the Duke's face; a significant action, calling attention in a twofold manner to William's presence. This gonfanon is probably the one consecrated and sent by Pope Alexander; the principal flag of the Norman army on the day of battle[37]. It cannot be supposed that the most elaborate flag in the whole tapestry is merely the personal gonfanon of Eustace, and

apela u

on fist tr

ape li

rait, cil

prist, s

Conche

st-il mon

called

nfanon to be

he Pope

brought it,

ok it, rais

him Raol

d he, my

Rou, v,

but was replaced by the consecrated flag, which would thereby become the rally

onour of bearing the consecrated flag on the ground that he wished to take part in the fighting, a

man army embarked at St Valery in the estuary of the Somme late in the afternoon of the 27th Sept., and before William had got on board the 'Mora' the sun had set. As he did not wish the fleet to make the English coast before daybreak, he gave orders that on reaching the open sea

erne fis

a nef el m

tres nès

li lor cor

re-wir

ivre en s

caused

in his ship a

other ships

heir cours

d weath

it had rai

Rou, v,

entin, the descendants of the Danes of Harold Blaatand, is more ingenious than satisfying, for the Danish raven was never depicted in this tame position. Its attitude resembles that of the hawks seen perched on Guy's hand in the two early scenes in which he leads Harold to William, and indeed in the lower border, which throughout the tapestry contains frequent allusions to the events depicted above it, there appears immediatel

le before this, in the scene which portrays the death of Harold's brothers Gyrth and Leofwine, there lies on the ground a triangular flag, with fringed tails hanging from the lower edge, a form similar to that found on the tenth century Northumbrian coins[41]. This is the only flag which, like the standard, is lying on the ground; its overthrow must therefore have had a great symbolic importance in the mind of t

rt unt à

s Heraut

llor de

non à or

verthrown t

in King

est of hi

taken the

fan

Rou, v,

of some particular leader at sea or on the field of battle, or that some especial religious sanction or blessing had been conferred or expected, but to indicate that the ship, town or other strong place upon which it was placed owned a

6, professed his allegiance to the Eastern Empire and showed anxiety to get his position recognised by the Emperor at Constantinople. The history of the next five hundred years is that of a continuous succession of struggles for power and possession of territory between kings, nobles and ecclesiastics, and although the crowning of Charlemagne by the Pope in 800 was a formal repudiation by Rome of the authority of the Eastern Emperor there is no indication that the idea of

pointed. The kings, nobles, and military orders of the Temple and Hospital had each their own special banner, but the common people had none, and it was not until the year 1188, one hundred years after the first crusaders had entered Syria, that a means was provided for distinguishing the rank and file of different nationalities by a variation in the colour of the crosses upon their shoulders. From the beginning, the cross set upon the clothing of rich and poor alike had been the outward symbol of a common religion and, in theory, of a common aim among all who took part in the conflicts with the followers of Mahomet, but the flags which led the armies into action and crowned the towers of captured castles or the gates of towns were those of the individual leaders. Squabbles over the precedence of such flags were not infrequent. The well-known instance of Richard I and Philip of France at Messina in 1190 was perhaps the most important in its after ef

of Solomon's Temple. Tancred, moved by pity, wished to spare them, and he and Gaston de Bearn gave them their gonfanons as a protection. This served them for a few hours, but the Crusaders had not tasted enough blood, and early next morning, ignoring the protection thus formally granted, they shot them down with arrows or put them to the sword-men and women alike. Raymond and Tancred had

n forces prevented him from getting there by land; he therefore embarked at Arsuf in a buss, together with one Goderic, who is described by Albert of Aix as an English pirate. On approaching Jaffa the flag of Baldwin was fastened to a spear and raised high in the sun,

(aureum). That of Baldwin is referred to several times as being white. On one occasion it was torn from his lance through being driven into the body of an Arab whom he slew. The flags[42] borne on lances in battle were evidently of gonfanon form, as there are several references to the tails flying in the faces or over the heads of the enemy,

ith him. On the 28th June, 1098, the crusaders besieged in Antioch by Corbogha, finding themselves within measurable distance of destruction by famine, determined to risk all upon a pitched battle. In this forlorn hope they were completely successful. Unable to account for this by any earthly cause, they imagined that they had seen a great army on white horses, clothed in white and bearing white banne

before going into action by three or five nails[44], and it must have needed a strong fastening if it was to remain on the spear throughout the battle. Indeed, the poets give a realistic touch to their descriptions of t

ain en sa ver

fors une ens

d'or en sa l

tre brandist l

nz les lengues

s hand into hi

th an ensign

n nails fastened

d brandished the

t the golden to

d'Orange

there is no mention of any charge upon them, though in

en sa main au

or. Conquête de J

y appear to have been of similar colours

rs, n'i a ce

ere was not one

Ardenois

supplied by the Chanson d'Antioche and Le Conquête de Jerusalem. In the latter poem the author (Richard the Pilgrim) has imag

nges i puet

de char ne vit s

already described, contained a single lion, while that of his great rival, Philip Augustus of France, was blue powdered with gold fleurs-de-lis. The Knights of the Temple, who first come into view in 1128, adopted a banner half black and half white (drear and black to their foes but fair and favourable to their friends) to which they gave the name bau?an[46]. Their rivals, the Knights of the Hospital of St

rence in the device on the flag. That difference was probably the introduction of the two Keys of St Peter beside the cross, a point of some interest to us as it might affect the question of the identity of the gonfanon on the Bayeux Tapestry already discussed, and incidentally the date of that work. We have, however, no certain knowledge of the presence of these keys before the year 1203. In March of that year Innocent III sent to Calojohannes, King of the Bulgars and Wends, one of these flags, together with a letter in which he explained its symbolism at some length. Th

tention to the birthplace of so much that was great in art and literature, the Italian city-states, and since we are primarily seeking eviden

eventh century a system of government by Consuls had been firmly established, and the city can be looked upon as an independent state. Shortly after this (in 1114) the Pisans pr

erens Pisanae

os in campum

dus sanctae v

extra saevos in

icae vexillum

plain red flag); Hildebrand the Consul carries a flag[50] of the B. V. Mary; and Atho carries the papal flag[51], which had no doubt been presented by the Pope when sending his benediction to the

dus consul di

erro per pectu

hit madefactum

ting its staff through the breast of an enemy and withdrawing it stained wi

ts communal rights. Some thirty years after this the Cathedral was founded, and as it was dedicated to St

he Archives of Genoa, but it is now in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. Commenced by Caffaro in 1154 on the basis of a diary of events, which he had kept since early youth, and continued from time to time by later writers under the instruc

astle of Porto Venere, then newly built by the Genoese, there flies above the castle a large three-tailed gonfanon bearing a cross that extends to the three sides and to the commencement of the tails. This is a pen-and-ink sketch, so that the colour of the cross is not shown, but there can be little doubt that this was a flag of St George. I say a flag of St George because, although the red cross on white was ultimately adopted as the State ensign, the State flag of St George in the thirteenth century was not a cross at all; it was an actual representation of St George himself on horseback in the familiar attitude of slaying the dragon with a spear. This is shown clearly in a coloured miniature which accompanies the events of 1227. I

according to districts[56]. He then handed to each Protentinus, who became the Squadron Commander of one of the eight squadrons into which the fleet was divided, a splendidly worked flag embodying the device of his district (vexillum unum juxta formam cuiuslibet compagnae mirabiliter designatum) and to each Comitus two flags; one of the State device (vexillum ad signum communis), evidently the red cross of St George, which he was to place on the starboard quarter of his ship, and the other containing the lion of St Mark (vexillum ad signum Venetorum Sancti Marchi), which was to be placed on the port quarter. This is an extraordinary instance of the use of dual national flags in a fleet, and was the consequence of a treaty made between Genoa and Venice in 1238 whereby the two great rival sea powers agreed that their war vessels should bear the flags of both States as a token of amity and alliance between them. The Admiral's flag was then erected in one of the best galleys, and the Protentini (Squadron Commanders) and Comiti (Captains) proceeded to hoist theirs in the galleys and tarids assigned to them, which were then apportioned off to the various squadrons. No officers were appointed to the four great ships (naves m

82 it was expressly ordained by the Sapientes Credentiae (Council of XV) that no leader should have the title of Admiral, but only of Captain, unless h

e at Genoa or Pisa, although the city was of much later origin. In such circumstances one might suppose that the Venetians would choose a national symbol at an early period, and that the famous Lion of St Mark was adopted for this purpose shortly after the translation of the relics of that saint to Venice in 828 a.d.[57] I have, however, not met with any refe

of them, then each man felt himself shamed, and all approached the land, and those in the huissiers (horse transports) l

tly many other flags, for in describing the preparation of the fleet for action a little earlier Villehardouin states

escribed as prevailing in the Genoese fleet. The State flag is confided to the co

ng point for his people in battle a movable standard, which is described by Arnulf as a lofty beam, like the mast of a ship, fixed on a strong wagon and bearing a golden apple at the summit, from which hung two white streamers (pendentibus duobus candissimi veli limbis). Midway on this pole was placed a crucifix, to which the eyes of the citizens might turn for comfort whate

led "Blancardo," an interesting instance of its symbolic importance other than in battle is recorded. In 1303, when Ghiberto of Correggio obtained possession of that city, he got h

presenting him with the flag of the people (vexillum populi) in public assembly, and in 1406 acknowledged its overthrow by Venice by presenting the same symbol to the Doge Steno. In

may take the case of Florence. In October, 1250, in the course of a sanguinar

Podestà, and appointed as guardian of the new government a captain of the people, Messer Uberto da Lucca, with whom wer

foreigner; but the elder

. Outside Florence the army was still to be commanded by the Podestà. The captain's standard showed a red cross on a white field: to this day the ensign of the town of Florence. The nobles and the powerful burghers (popola

respective standards, and when called into the t

y of Florentines that a common banner even was felt as an intolerable evil, and the Guelph party adopted a red lil

e in the underlying meaning. One, the red flag with white lily, the ensign of

r magistrates, they arose from the necessity of having some clearly recognisable rallying point in action that was not personal and therefore subject to frequent change. This was supplied either by a common devotion to a particular saint, as at Genoa and Venice, or by the adoption of one particular colour, as at Pisa, or in the solitary case of Rome, the greatest of all in wealth of

that led the way; and it was the great development during the Crusades of the activity of

tained a provision to the effect that every burgher of that town should fly at sea a red flag[62], under penalty of three silver marks, unless the flag had been lowered in time of danger, and a like penalty was to be inflicted on any stranger who flew this flag, on plaint being made against him. A similar provision appears in the Maritime Law of Riga of the same

a, and we may therefore, with the close of the thirteenth century, quit the wide field of research that we

TNO

orse), Flagg (Swedish), Fla

Plate II

Dol: admiravisi stantarum. Peter Tudebode: Quod stantarum apud nos dicit

er authorities quoted will be found in t

ompaginatum in signum populorum

to 5 cloths wide; standards were 9 ells long and 3 cloths

II, Henry I, Stephen and

nd Practike of mod

be no good grounds for the objections made. The question is discussed by Dr Wallis Budge in his

s Origines de l'Egypte, in Dr Wallis Budge's work just cit

kiel, ch

coins (Phoenicia), edited by Mr G. F. Hill, and

igs. 1, 2

n holds that this cruciform staff is the object which the Greeks called στυλι?, a word whose meaning has never been satisfactorily determined, and that its primary object was to support the "aphlaston." The ot

e, Restauration et description des M

s quoted in the chapt

rished circa 150 a.d. and was therefore writing long after the event he relates,

otus, vii,

egemata, i

iii, 46, 77; Polyaenus, i, 4

e. Φο?νιξ which also denotes a Phoenician is of doubtful etymo

Jones, Companion

History, Bo

m proponendum, quod erat insigne,

e praetoriam navem vexillo insig

eo necesse est signum suum comitantes milites pergant." He is here using the word signum in the sense of signal, and divides these signals in

fa genus vexilli apud Romanos

See p

emes duae navem D. Brut quae ex insigni facile agnosci

αρακλ?σει τ? στρατηγικ? σημε?α,

οειδε? ναυκρατητικ?. Suetoniu

vil War

De Lateranensi

egunt vittis, ... habentes vestis diversis coloribus variegat

sque et signa quaedam detra

Plate I

eeman, Norman Conquest, 2nd edition, iii, 463. It is true that (p. 465) Freeman says "I cannot see the banner in the tapestry," but if he was looking for a "banner" he certainly would not find one at this early date, and Wace (v, 11451) expressly says that

apestry" in Monthl

ntern on the Duke's mast is s

one periclitentur; dat praeconis voce edictum, ut cum in altum sint deductae, paululum noctis conquiescant non longe a sua rates

te II, fig.

m or signum indiscriminately, the former word being no longer restricted to

substitutes Theodore for Mercuri

trois claus d'or son gonfanon laci

Ricardi: regium c

named from "balzan," a piebald horse; the wo

g been handed over to the Knights after the

utem non sine mysterio crucem et claves; quia beatus Petrus Apostolus et crucem in Ch

Veronensis, De B

eems to have been necessitated

, written in 1371, says this was red (vexillum vermileum

ae Historica. Scriptores, vol. 18. The ms. itself

ut it was on this account less mobile, and therefore defensive rather than offensive in action. These tarids were fi

ucibus per totum, dimisso tunc g

rate or "Presiden

ief magistrate of one of the districts (compagnae) into which the state territory was divided for administrative purposes, the "comitus" being one of his subordinate officers. Thus the fle

has on the reverse a war vessel with a flag at t

gonfanon es chastiaus des nés, et les houces

alian Republics in the Middle Ag

, The Tuscan Rep

n de Lois Mari

ntury this red flag was ch

dessus,

pte

, Scottish, a

EN

acquainted with their military signa. Adopted by the Saxons either directly from the Romans before they left their homes on the continent or from the Britons whom they subd

n time of peace when he rode about his cities and towns or provinces the standard bearer was wont to go before him. And when

royal vexillum of purple and gold (auro et purpura compositum) was plac

ined to appear at many crucial moments in English history. At the battle of Burford in 752, according to

land in the middle of the ninth century, had as their ensign a raven embroidered

nd amongst other things the flag called Raven [68], for they say that the three sisters of Hingwar and Hubba, daughters of Lodobroch, wove that flag and got it ready in one day. They say moreover that in every battle wherever

xt at the beginning of the eleventh century, when the Danish hordes again invaded England under Sweyn and Cnut and conquered it. The anonymous author of the Encomium of Que

ough it was woven of quite plain white silk and there was no image of any kind in it, yet in time of war there always appeared in it a raven, as though it were woven thereon, which when its own

f, was heavily fringed. In the field was a small cross, which had-possibly under the influence of a nominal christianity-replaced the raven, although that bird is found on the obverse of some of the later coins[72]. These coins are of especial interest to us as they contain the earliest represen

Maurice, which is said to have been of especial assistance to Charlemagne in his Spanish wars[74]. We do not know what form this banner took, presumably it was a representation of the saint,

Raven was opposed to the Dragon and to another ensign described as a "Standard." This is the first occasion on which an English kin

ndard was apparently the "Dragon" seen in the Bayeux Tapestry in the hands of Harold's standard-bearer[76]. According to William of Malmesbury[77], Harold, who was fighting on foot, placed himself with his brothers near his vexillum, which was in the likeness of a man fighting, and was sumptuously adorned with gold and precious stones. After the battle William presented it to the Pope. Probably this

s time the royal "standard" supported an heraldic banner that displayed the lion which Richard placed upon his first great seal and which on his return to England he multiplied by three; but why did a symbol so obviously pagan as the Dragon survive the Conquest and that greater attention to religion-or at any rate to its outward observance-that the Conquest had brought in its train? William of Normandy had conquered England beneath the aegis of the gonfanon with golden cross that the Pope had blessed for him, yet we hear no more of it. The battle of the Standard in 1138 was fought around a ship's mast

ign, Henry III was about to visit the Abb

gn of red Samit, to be embroidered with gold, and his tongue to appear as though

rch against the King's coming thither.

ence, in company with two banners, one containing the image of St George and the other a Dun Cow, it was carried in state to St Paul's Cathedral. Under all the Tudor sovereigns the Dragon formed one of the

ntion has already been made of the "Standard" from which the battle of 1138 took its name. This standard consisted of the mast of a ship fixed on a four-wheeled frame. At the top was placed a silver pyx containing a consecrated wafer, and beneath this were suspended

thbert of Durham. Both these banners were carried by ecclesiastics, who were paid by the king for their services. In addition to these, which seem to have been carried only in the Northern wars, there were

uthbert has been preserved for us i

er crosse, and a goodly Banner cloth perteyned to yt. And in the mydes of the banner cloth was all of white velvett, halfe a yerd squayre every way, and a faire crose of Read velvett over yt, and within ye said white velvett was y

those of St Edward (Edward the Confessor) were, also on a blue field, a cross flory between five martlets, gold[87]. Some of Edward's coins show on the reverse a cross between four small birds that

ty[88], which was carried at Agincourt. In addition to these we hear of a ba

saints, St George, is of foreign extraction. How did it come to pass that this foreign sai

and on this meagre foundation the wildest, the most incredible legends have been embroidered. Even the date of his death is not certain[89], yet from an early age he was one of the most popular of saints, especially in the East, where he was revered by Mahometan and Christian al

April) had been included by the Venerable Bede in his Martyrologium it does not appear to have been generally observed in England till a later date. One of the payments in the Misae roll of 14 John (1213)[92] is dated as the day before the feast of St George, and this feast was included among the minor festivals by the Council at Oxfo

to our crusading kings, Richard and Edward I, and to their followers that he owes a popularity that exten

f the Christians at the battle of Antioch in 1098. The same subject occurs in a mural painting in the church at Hardham in Sussex[96]. Both painting and sculpture are assigned to the twelfth century. In both instances the saint is on horseback and carries a lance; with the butt end he strikes down the foe.

ragine, the thirteenth century author of the Legenda Aurea, quotes an earlier history of Antioch as his authority for the statement that at the Siege of Jerusal

t may seem that there is some error in this statement. We know that at a later period the English had adopted the red cross on white ground while the French made use of a white one on a blue ground. Cleirac[98], writing in 1661 and knowing of no other authority for the statement than Matthew Paris, attempted to solve this difficulty by "restoring" the text and interchanging "red" and "white," but this simple exp

oloured cloth, buckram, etc., for the manufacture of pennoncels and bracers "of the arms of St George." In the original these entries have all been struck through, probably because they were accounted for elsewhere in some roll now perished. While this account only mentions three streamers of the king's arms, it includes the comparatively large number of 340 pennoncels of St George's arms. It is probable that banners of the king's arms and

f the introduction of St George's cross as an English

ionality, although it was certainly in use in the East and b

the Court officials and used in dating payments,

in the English Church, but its omission in later lists shows that it was

n 1277 in circumstances that leave no doubt that i

d in captivity, he spent only two months in this country and then went to France, where the remainder of his life was spent. The whole of John's reign was spent in quarrels with his subjects. Henry III, throughout his long reign of fifty-six years, took up an attitude which was decidedly un-English. On the other hand, Edward I is generally recognised by historians as the first king of

by the loss of the greater part of the continental possessions of its kings) had at length become a homogeneous nation. From the entries in the roll above referred to and from similar entries in later rolls of Edward I it appears that the cross of St George was almost entirely confined to the pennoncels o

ond he bar a

*

me he bar a

e a swerd and

al lords. Indeed, from the expression "for the King's footsoldiers" (pro peditibus regis), which occurs in more than one of the rolls, it would seem that the St George's cross was used instead of the royal arms for the soldiery ra

yet supreme; it was indeed only one of four, for when

le roy p

e et la S

orge et la

s par dro

ve et la

Seignour

steaus fut

ing caused

St Edmund,

ard to be

ith them, b

of Segrave

f the Lord

castle was

was completed under Henry V after the Battle of Agincourt. A Convocation of the province of Canterbury held at St Paul's towards the end of 1415 raised the festival of St George to the position of a "double major feast" and ordered it to be observed throughout the province (which includes England and Wales south of Cheshire and Yorkshire) with as much solemnity as Christmas Day. The Archbishop[103], in his formal communicati

nce of the Reformation the banners of his former rivals, St Edward and St Edmund, together with all other religious flags in

On the 1st of July in that year orders had been issued for the soldiers of the Scottish army to be marked with a white St Andrew's cross (see p. 47). At that date Richard was at Westminster; he left there about the 4th of July, was at Leicester on the 7th, and at York from the 17th to 22nd. On the 26th he had reached Durham; he remained there till the 28th, and arrived at Morpeth by the 31st. The ordinances which he issued at Durham must therefore be dated at the end of July[106], and as there is

g Richard II at Durham Ao 138

rge large devant et autre aderer, sur peril qe sil soit naufre ou mort en defaute dycel, cely qe le naufra ou tue, ne portera nul jue

ry V at Mawnt (Mantes, prob.

pon the perile, if he be wounded or dede in the fawte thereof, he that hym wounded or sleeth shall bere no peyn for hym: and that n

e and two banners on the aftercastle. The ship in the seal of Faversham (Plate III, fig. 5) displays a pendant at the masthead, the banner of St George on the forecastle, and a banner charged with three chevronels on the aftercastle, while the ship of Hastings (Plate III, fig. 6) displays the banner of the Cinque Ports (Plate I, fig. 13) at the bow and the banner of England on the aftercastle, in addition to a gonfanon at the masthead. From the closing years of this century onwards a number of documents have survived in the Public Records which give indications of the nature of the flags displayed at sea. Thus the accounts[109] of the ship sent from Yarmouth to fetch the "Maid of Norway" in 1290 show that this ship was provided with banners of the Royal Arms and silken streamers, and in the year 1294 sum of 5s. 6d. was expended in the purchase of a streamer, and 20d. for a banner containing the figure of St George, for a galley building at York, while for one building at Southampton in the same year no less than 40s. (relatively a large sum) was expended in purchasing two streamers and twenty-five banners

at the masthead. The accounts of the king's armourer in 1322 contain entries of eighty penoncels for galleys with the royal arms in chief, a large number of banners of the arms of St Edmund (Plate I, fig. 7) and of the arms of St Edward (Plate I, fig. 6), standards

great wardrobe, shows the following flags to have been man

g and 2 cloths wide, red with a whi

s wide, charged with a shield of the

royal arms in chief and striped red and white fly; the other 30 yards long,

the same ship,

ong with figure of St Mary in chief, a

yards long with an "E" in chief

other ships with figures of the saint appropria

e royal arms in chief and fly chequered gree

robe, charged with the royal arms, with a black key in chief, and 6 standards for t

n de Haytfeld, clerk of the armour and artillery of the king's ships, acknowledges the receipt

arms in chief varying in

arms in chief varying in

of the r

s of S

gel having on his head a chaplet of the Order of the Garter (Un gonfanon de conseil de tartaryn rouge batuz od ix a

of the royal arms surrounded by a gart

robe, mentions 18 standards of worsted of the royal arms, and 234 stand

of the tenth year of Henry V[113], containing a long list of art

"Trini

il of the royal a

Trinity, St Mary, St

e ostrich fea

, St George, the ost

r

e "Hol

of the "H

Ghost, antelope, r

Edw

ly Ghost, St George

he "G

r of St K

n of St

e "Nic

er of St

ard, royal arms a

St Edward a

e "Gra

er of St

n of St

, one with a lion 36 yards long, one with a greyhound 18 yards long and two "litell streamers with crosse of saint George" 15 and 12 yards in length respectively, and other ships had banners of St Peter, St Katherine, St Edward, St Anne, the dragon, greyhound, portcullis and red lion, towards the end of his reign the saintly flags had disappeared for ever, except for

nd white (the Tudor colours) with St George's cross in chief; banners of St George and of the Tudor

"bolonia sarcenett of diverse coulors." Staves were provided, one with a gilt and the others with steel heads, with a pair of tassels to each. The flags were provided with canvas sockets. For the banners red and blue say was

and 9 feet br

" 7

" 8

" 6

" 6

s, each being 15 feet long and 13 feet 6 inches deep. "And more twoe banners of damask thone o

ut for their last voyage in

her Majesty's arms

eorge costing 16

en's badges in silver an

amers costing

ens

gs reaching the large amoun

the masthead, and a banner of the arms of Yarmouth[115] (closely resembling the Cinque Ports flag but with herrings' tails substituted for the dimidiated hulks) upon the stern castle. In the seal of Tenterden (Plate III, fig. 7) and of Rye, also of the fifteenth century, the banner of St George is prominent. It seems probable that from the fourteenth century onwards ships not belonging to the king or the nobility flew the flag of St George when they flew any flag at all. I

adges had nearly disappeared from the sea, though they are occasionally to be met with during the next century, and the fl

III

SCO

patron saint at a much earlier date than their neighbours south of the Tweed. There was a similar struggle for supremacy among competing saints, but th

lished his power by the defeat of Nectan himself, and the other competitors for the throne. As the king rapidly brought the territories of the other Pictish families under his sway, and even added Dalriada to his kingdom, he seemed desirous to connect a new ecclesiastical influence with his reign, for in the same year

no direct evidence of this before the fourteenth century. The earliest Scottish records were unfortunately lost at sea in th

sted by a considerable contingent of French. The Ordinances for the allied army drawn up by t

a white St Andrew's Cross, and if his jack is white or his coat white he sha

at a later date seems to have been blue. In the Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland[119] for the year 1512 there is recorded a payment for a roll of blue say for the banner of a ship "with Sanct Androis cors in the myddis." In 1513 the ground colour was also bl