British Flags: Their Early History, and Their Development at Sea: With an Account of the Origin of the Flag as a National DevicePerrin, William Gordon
History
British Flags: Their Early History, and Their Development at Sea: With an Account of the Origin of the Flag as a National Device
Perrin, William Gordon
Flags -- Great Britain
There was also a Baner ... called Sanct Cuthbertes Baner which was
five yards in length. All the pippes of it were of sylver to be
sleaven on a long speire staffe, and on the overmost pype on the
hight of yt was a ffyne lytle silver 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
ye holy Relique, ye Corporax that ye holy man Sancte Cuthbert did
cover the chalyce withall when he sayd mess. And the Resydewe of ye
Banner clothe was all of Read velvett, imbrodered all with grene
sylke and goulde most sumtuousle.
The arms of England were at this period the three leopards (or lions):
those of St George the well-known red cross. St Edmund's arms are
believed to have been three golden crowns on a blue field[86], 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 may be taken to be
martlets, the heraldic swallow without feet or beak. These alone of all
the saintly "arms" appear to have had any direct connection with the
man with whose name they are associated.
Under Henry V there was added to these a banner emblematic of the Holy
Trinity[88], which was carried at Agincourt. In addition to these we
hear of a banner of St William, carried in the Earl of Surrey's army in
the north in 1513.
It will have been noticed that, with the exception of the two apostles,
only one of these saints, St George, is of foreign extraction. How did
it come to pass that this foreign saint completely eclipsed those who,
in the literal sense of the word, were strictly national?
Few saints have been so universally honoured as St George, and yet
there is not a saint in the calendar about whose life so little
that is authentic is known. He was a soldier who attained the crown
of martyrdom during the reign of Diocletian. That is the extent of
our knowledge, 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 alike. And here it is to be noted that he is not the
George of Cappadocia, the Arian Bishop of Alexandria who met with the
death his acts had amply merited at the hands of the populace in the
year 361, although so eminent an authority as Gibbon[90] has declared
them one and the same.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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