In recent weeks, the Flag of St. George (a red cross on a white background) has appeared throughout England, painted (with more or less skill and care) on everything from roundabouts to vehicles and pedestrian crossings. But what is the origin of this symbol, and how did it become England’s national flag?
What we think of as flags originated in the Middle Ages as coats of arms and banners carried into battle, which were associated not with a nation but with personal allegiance to a monarch or leader. The coat of arms of a king or nobleman would be worn as “livery” by his personal servants and officials, just as a literal “coat of arms”—a surcoat or tabard bearing the heraldic symbols—is still worn today by heralds in Britain and Canada. Heraldry—the study and design of coats of arms—began in the twelfth century and took off in the thirteenth. The mania for assigning coats of arms to everyone extended to past national heroes, saints, and even God. This was how St. George came to acquire a coat of arms. In time, it would become a flag.
