Flag of England

Angels wearing the heraldic badge of King Richard II holding the flag of Saint George surmounted by an orb displaying a miniature map of England. Wilton Diptych (c.1395-1399)

Saint George seen in the act of slaying the dragon. He is depicted wearing a jupon displaying the St George's Cross. Paolo Uccello (c. 1460)

Illustration of the St George's Cross, used alongside the Royal Standard by Wat Tyler's rebels. Froissart's Chronicles BL Royal 18 E.I, fol. 165v, c. 1470

The Tudor navy carrack Henry Grace à Dieu (launched 1514) as depicted in the 1546 Anthony Roll, with St George's Cross displayed on the streamers.[4]

In 1188 Henry II of England and Philip II of France agreed to go on a crusade, and that Henry would use a white cross and Philip a red cross. 13th-century authorities are unanimous on the point that the English king adopted the white cross, and the French king the red one (and not vice versa as suggested by later use). It is not clear at what point the English exchanged the white cross for the red-on-white one.

There was a historiographical tradition claiming that Richard the Lionheart himself adopted both the flag and the patron saint from Genoa at some point during his crusade. This idea can be traced to the Victorian era,[5] Perrin (1922) refers to it as a "common belief", and it is still popularly repeated today even though it cannot be substantiated as historical.[6][7]

Red crosses seem to have been used as a distinguishing mark worn by English soldiers from the reign of Edward I (1270s),[8] or perhaps slightly earlier, in the Battle of Evesham of 1265, using a red cross on their uniforms to distinguish themselves from the white crosses used by the rebel barons at the Battle of Lewes a year earlier.[9] Perrin notes a roll of accounts from 1277 where the purchase of cloth for the king's tailor is identified as destined for the manufacture of a large number of pennoncels (pennons attached to lances) and bracers (worn by archers on their left forearms) "of the arms of Saint George" for the use by the king's foot soldiers (pro peditibus regis).[10] Perrin concludes from this that the introduction of the Cross of St George as a "national emblem" is originally due to Edward I. By 1300, there was also a greater "banner of St George", but not yet in a prominent function; the king used it among several banners of saints alongside the royal banner.[11] Saint George had become popular as a "warrior saint" during the crusades, but the saint most closely associated with England was Edward the Confessor until the time of Edward III, who in thanks for Saint George's supposed intervention in his favour at the Battle of Crécy gave him a special position as a patron saint of the Order of the Garter in 1348.[12] From that time, his banner was used with increasing prominence alongside the Royal Banner and became a fixed element in the hoist of the Royal Standard. The flag shown for England in the Book of All Kingdoms of 1367 is solid red (while St George's Cross is shown for Nice and, in a five-cross version, for Tbilisi). The Wilton Diptych from the late 1390s shows a swallow-tailed St George cross flag held by an angel in between King Richard II (accompanied by royal saints Kings Edward the Confessor and Edmund the Martyr) and a scene of the Virgin and Child flanked by angels wearing Richard's own heraldic devices.

St George's Day was considered a "double major feast" from 1415,[13] but George was still eclipsed by his "rivals" Saints Edward and Edmund. He finally rose to the position of the primary patron saint of England during the English Reformation, with the revised prayer book of 1552, when all religious flags, including all saints' banners except for his were abolished.[14]

John Cabot, commissioned by Henry VII to sail "under our banners, flags and ensigns", reportedly took St George's banner to Newfoundland in 1497. The first recorded use of St George's Cross as a maritime flag, in conjunction with royal banners, dates to 1545.[1]

In 1606, after the Union of the Crowns in 1603, it was combined with the Scottish St Andrew's Cross to form the Union Jack, which James VI & I ordered be flown from the main tops of ships from both England and Scotland. The "Red Crosse" continued to be flown from the fore-top by James' subjects in "South Britaine" - i.e., the St George cross was used together with the new union flag on English vessels.

In the 19th century, it became desirable for all nations of Europe (and later worldwide) to identify a national flag. During that time, the terms Britain and England were used largely interchangeably, the Union Flag was used as national flag de facto, even though never officially adopted. The observation that the Cross of St George is the "national flag of England" (as opposed to the Union Flag being the flag of all of the United Kingdom) was made in the context of Irish irredentism, as noted by G. K. Chesterton in 1933,

This is the Union Jack flag, which is not the national flag of England

"As a very sensible Irishman said in a letter to a Dublin paper: 'The Union Jack is not the national flag of England.' The national flag of England is the Cross of St. George; and that, oddly enough, was splashed from one end of Dublin to the other; it was mostly displayed on shield-shaped banners, and may have been regarded by many as merely religious".[15]

Due to the spread of the British Empire, the flag of England is currently, and was formerly used on various flags and coats of arms of different countries, states and provinces throughout the territories of the British Empire. The St George's Cross is also used as the city flag of some northern Italian cities, such as Milan and Bologna and other countries such as Georgia.

• Royal Banner of England
• Royal coat of arms of England
• List of English flags
• List of British flags
• Saint Patrick's Flag
• Tudor Rose
• Flags of Europe
• St George's Day in England

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Flags of England.

• "United Kingdom Flag History". Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
• Flag of England at FOTW