Where did the St George's flag come from?

St George's flags have been seen flying in English streets over the summer

This summer thousands of St George's flags have been seen painted on roundabouts and hung from lamp-posts across the country, having started in mid-July in Birmingham and their spread includes most parts of the West Midlands.

Supporters say the flags are an expression of English pride and deny they are stoking division.

But some have expressed discomfort due to tensions running high across England over immigration.

But the flag itself has a complex history.

It has not always been representative of an English nation and its history has a strong connection to Worcestershire in its origin story.

The cross, as a religious symbol, was adopted by European rulers when they embraced Christianity but the English use of a red cross on a white background on flags and military clothing is believed by many historians to begin with the Crusades.

European knights wore it as a sign of their faith and some sources suggest Richard the Lionheart originally chose to identify his forces with a white cross on a red field, and it was his French counterpart who chose the red cross.

Why the cross of St George came to be associated with English Crusaders is unclear.

One story is that Richard the Lionheart paid the Republic of Genoa to fly the flag on English ships, to receive their protection in the Mediterranean.

That account led to, in 2018, the Mayor of Genoa making a tongue-in-cheek request to the Queen, claiming payments on the deal have been missed for 247 years.

That flag, and the identical cross of St Ambrose, still fly over Genoa and other northern Italian cities.

Another story is that Richard the Lionheart chose to fly the cross after receiving a vision from St George himself.

But the historian W. G. Perrin wrote: "Both of these stories lack historical merit."

Away from the Crusades, English and European armies at the time continued to identify themselves with the flags of their royal families.

A white cross on a red background, similar to the one worn by these Knights Hospitallers, is believed to have been worn by some English Crusaders

A century later, the Battle of Evesham in 1265 was perhaps a turning point, when an army representing the English monarchy is believed to have worn the emblem en masse against an army of rebellious barons.

Mick Hurst, a historian involved in re-enactments of the battle said it was "the first time in history that an official English army, fighting on home soil, used this emblem".

The previous year, Simon de Montfort led his rebel army against the forces of King Henry III at Lewes, Sussex.

It would have been no easy task to identify his men among the mud and mayhem, when they would be wearing a variety of coats of arms.

So the rebellious baron chose to identify his men with a white cross on their surcoats or shoulders.

Mr Hurst said "this innovation was not lost on the sharp-minded Prince Edward" - later to become King Edward I - and he asked his men to identify themselves with a red cross.

Both men knew "the power of a crusade" on their troops, he added.

Prince Edward's men, at the Battle of Evesham in 1265, wore red crosses on their shoulders or surcoats

Mr Perrin said the cross of St George was seen as an English emblem of war from the 13th Century onwards.

But, despite the innovation at Evesham, for many centuries it remained a largely religious symbol.

Mick Hurst said the idea of a national identity under a flag would have made little sense to peasants who "would not have ventured more than a few miles from home".

"If a king was king over a vast area his flag would have been seen as the national flag. This was the same across Europe," he explained.

The city of Genoa also lays claim to the cross of St George

Vexillologist Malcolm Farrow, from the Flag Institute, said in medieval times there were "no such thing as national flags" and the English use of the cross of St George had died out by Elizabethan times and, in the 16th Century, St George's Day status as a national holiday was also removed.

He said European nations started making widespread use of national flags in "the days of empire, when nations were going around the globe and planting their flags in other people's countries".

Revolutions in countries like the USA and France also prompted the emergence of national flags, he added.

But in 1606, another flag was chosen to represent Great Britain - the union flag or union jack.

Mr Farrow said it was notable that at the end of World War One, streets were festooned with a variety of flags and "nobody really knew what their flag was".

He said that, while most nations have their flag's appearance set down in law, "this country still doesn't have a statutory national flag".

The closest we have come, he added, were two Commons responses, the latest in 1933, declaring the union jack as the national flag.

It was only really after World War Two, he said, that the cross of St George "crept back into mainstream use," first through its use by right wing groups and more recently through sports fans.