And so time for the annual reminder of why St George is the ideal symbol for Britain’s European legacy.
St George’s Day (again)
April 23, 2009
Nosemonkey's EUtopia
In search of a European identity
April 23, 2009
And so time for the annual reminder of why St George is the ideal symbol for Britain’s European legacy.
April 23, 2009 at 12:44 pm
St George fits in quite well this year methinks – much better than that government smearer Bill anyway ( http://www.di2.nu/200904/23.htm )
April 23, 2009 at 7:54 pm
No praise for St George and damning of Robin this year . I thought that was kind of funny.
April 27, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Careful not to use Britain and England interchangeably when it comes to Saints. Leaving that aside…
George was of course imposed on England by the purchase of the usual highly questionable “bag of bones” relic by a French (Plantangeant) King, Edward III as something to put in his new St. Georges chapel to give it “cred”. I think Edward was in the market for George “bones” because of the crusader connection, George having being used as an emblem by the crusaders because he came from that part of the world.
England had had a perfectly good native and genuine national saint for hundreds of years prior to St. George of course. He was St. Edmund matyr, (as in Bury St. Edmunds) who died in battle fighting continental invaders.
So yes, George is a good metaphor for England’s relations with the continent, but precisely the opposite to the way that you present him?
April 27, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Just to add that England’s historic flag is the white dragon, adopted by the Saxon kings to distinguish from the red dragon flag of native Britons (hence the varous red versus white symbolism in British history and George killing the red dragon)
The red dragon flag was re-instated for Wales in 1911 to replace the cross of St. George. The white dragon flag has also been revived for use by the army and indeed was flown by the 1944 armoured group that made it possible for you to enjoy living Brussels today.
You could say that the dragon flag does come from our Roman connection because it is generally though to be the flag of a Roman cavalry unit, based in what is now Southern Scotland in the early fifth century. Howevever they were Syrians.
So i suppose if you were looking to design a British flag based on historical tradition then it would have to be a red white and blue striped dragon?