Cry 'God for Simon, England, and St George'? The First Sighting of England's Patron Saint

Saint George Killing the Dragon
by Bernat Martorell (1434/5)

You might have noticed a theme in recent Features and blogs: banners, battle-flags and heraldry. Continuing along these lines, this post looks at a remarkable event in the story of England's arms: the first appearance of St George's banner on an English battlefield - the standard-bearer being no less than the saint himself. 

The Dover Chronicle records how, at the Battle of Lewes in 1264: ‘there were some in the army at Lewes who saw, clearly, an unknown knight, clad in armour and holding before him an unknown banner, and an archbishop clothed in pontifical garb blessing the baronial army; and they vanished, suddenly, when the battle was done. They were reckoned to be St Thomas the Martyr and St George.’ This, it has been noted, is the first known allusion of this sort to St George,[1] later to become the kingdom’s champion in the Hundred Years War and England’s patron saint.

Why, then, did St George makes his first appearance on the Sussex Downs in 1264? This was a turbulent time in England’s history. Six years earlier, a group of barons had seized power from Henry III, setting up a council to govern in the king’s name.  Henry recovered power briefly but in 1263 Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, led a violent campaign to reimpose conciliar rule. Montfort might have had a dark side (to say the least) but his followers believed him the instrument of God, possessed of a Christ-like willingness to speak and to suffer in a noble cause.

Driven by intense personal piety and the need to encourage his men, Montfort turned to a powerful iconography: that of the crusade. In December 1263, trapped at Southwark between the city gates and the king’s oncoming forces, Montfort had his men signed with the cross front and back.[2] At Lewes, five months later, the earl called upon his men to fight for the kingdom, God, the saints, and mother Church and told them to keep faith. His troops prostrated themselves, stretching out their arms to form a cross.[3] The bishop of Worcester promised for all who fought manfully that day remission of their sins, assuring them that it was glorious to endure torment in the defence of truth. The soldiers then donned crosses on their backs and chests.[4] Montfort and his men were crucesignati. They could fight secure in the knowledge that their struggle earned them merit in the eyes of God and that, if they were to die, then as martyrs they would win a place in Heaven besides the saints themselves.

Battle outside Antioch, BL Yates Thompson 12, f. 29 

This ritual transformation of Montfort and his army into holy warriors had a potent effect – hence the sighting of St George on the battlefield. The vision echoed that of the imperilled soldiers of the First Crusade, at Antioch in 1098. The Gesta Francorum tells how, with the beleaguered crusaders in a state of desperation, there ‘appeared from the mountains a countless host of men on white horses, whose banners were all white.’ The crusaders ‘did not understand what was happening or who these men might be, until they realised that this was the succour sent by Christ, and that the leaders were St George, St Mercurius and St Demetrius.’[5]

By the time that Montfort’s army marched, the First Crusade held a central place in chivalric culture. Its leaders were paragons of knightly prowess, elevated to semi-mythic proportions, their deeds sung across the feasting halls of Europe.[6] In the process, the miraculous appearance of St George and his comrades grew in stature. The Chanson d’Antioche, first put to parchment in the early-thirteenth century, told how the crusaders, battered by enemy blows,

John, duke of Bedford, before St George,
from the Bedford Hours (BL, Add MS. 18850, f.256v

‘saw a company riding proudly down ... [of] more than half a million. They were whiter than the snow that falls at the end of February. St George was out in front at its head with the noble St Maurice, renowned as a stout warrior, and St Demetrius and St Mercurius as standard-bearers ... the bishop of Le Puy restored order: “My lords, there is nothing to be afraid of. These forces are coming to help us. They are the angels sent by God which I told you of yesterday”. When the Turks saw [the reinforcements] they were flung into confusion.’[7]

Like the Christian troops at Antioch, Montfort’s army faced fearful odds but, as the defenders of God and Church, were blessed by divine succour, in the form of the great crusading saint.

In one sense, then – before Henry V at Agincourt and John, duke of Bedford, at Verneuil – Montfort was the first English general to ride out under the banner of St George.

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[1] The Song of Lewes, ed. C. L. Kingsford (Oxford, 1963), 85 n.358.

[2] The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury, ed. W. Stubbs (2 vols., Rolls Series, 1880), ii, 230-31.

[3] Chronica Johannis de Oxenedes, ed. H. Ellis (Rolls Series, 1859), 222.

[4] The Chronicle of William de Rishager of the Barons’ War, ed. J. O. Halliwell (Camden Society, 1840), 30-31.

[5] Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum, ed. R. Hill (London, 1962), 69.

[6] See S. A. John, The Creation of a First Crusade Hero: Godfrey of Bouillon in History, Literature and Memory, c.1100-c.1300 (Swansea University PhD thesis, 2012).

[7] The Chanson d’Antioche: An Old French Account of the First Crusade, tr. S. Edgington and C. Sweetenham (Farnham, 2011), 313 (358),

The Lord Edward and the Leopard of Lewes

The royal arms, depicted
by Matthew Paris
(BL Royal 14 C VII f.53)

If you’ve been following our Feature of the Month, you would have seen Nicholas Vincent’s recent article on ‘Leopards, Lions and Dragons: King John’s Banners and Battle Flags’. Here, Nick explained how the ‘three lions’ device – now the ‘three lions on the shirt’ of England – was first used in the heraldry of the Angevin rulers. King John, for instance, was shown on his seal charging into battle carrying a shield decorated with three lions passant gardant.

As Nick has shown elsewhere, though, from as early as the 1230s the Angevin lions were taken for leopards – indeed in 1251 Henry III ordered a set of robes decorated with ‘three small leopards’ front and back.[1] This was, perhaps, a strange development. The lion was the king of beasts and thus a fitting symbol for a ruler. The leopard, on the other hand (as Isidore of Seville explained in his Etymologies) was ‘born of the adultery of a lion and a pard... and from [this] union this degenerate offspring is created, just like a mule.’ The leopard was a mongrel, ignoble creature. Why the Angevins were happy to swap leopards for lions isn't clear (though it's been suggested that this was a reference to their descent from the most famous of leopards, born of adulterous union – William the Bastard).

A pard, shown in 13th century bestiary (BL, Harley MS 4751, f.6)

The leopard image was one that could quickly be turned against the Angevins. In May 1264, Henry III was defeated on the field of battle at Lewes and taken captive, together with his first-born son and heir, the lord Edward. The victor of Lewes was Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, who was to rule England at the head of a council for the next fifteen months. Montfort and his circle were brilliant propagandists and, in an effort to win support for their regime, commissioned a poem celebrating Montfort’s victory. The Song of Lewes was probably written by a friar (the experts in preaching) and makes good use of a well-known technique of medieval sermons: similitude. This was an emotive device. Preachers, wrote Thomas of Chobham in his Summa on the Art of Preaching, ‘should know the natures of animals and also of other things, because there is nothing which moves the hearts of an audience more’.The author of the Song had learned his lessons well, as is clear in his depiction of the lord Edward:

‘Whereunto shall the noble Edward be compared? Perhaps he will be rightly called a leopard.... A lion by pride and fierceness, he is by inconstancy and changeableness a pard, changing his words and promise, cloaking himself by pleasant speech.’

The author might have chosen any number of beasts to describe the heir to the throne. But he picked the very one depicted on the royal flag and shield, with which Edward would have ridden into battle at Lewes. The author played on the ambiguity of the Angevin emblem: Edward shared some characteristics with the lion (courage and pride) but not honour. In order to hammer home his point, the poet invented characteristics for the pard. This mythical beast was known (according to Isidore of Seville) for its swiftness and ability to bring down its prey with a single leap. But here the pard is also faithless – a foil for the poet’s hero, Simon de Montfort, who refuses to abandon his oath to the Provisions of Oxford and would ‘flee neither torment nor death, for the sake of truth’.

An example of Edward I's seal held at Salisbury Cathedral

Ultimately, it was Edward who was to have the last word. At the Battle of Evesham, in 1265, he ordered that Montfort be hunted down and butchered on the battlefield, his corpse dismembered. The great seal of Edward I was to show the three lions/leopards in detail, not only on the king’s shield but also on his horse’s battledress, while elsewhere Edward was depicted before a splendid cloth of state strewn with golden lions/leopards on gules.

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[1] N. C. Vincent, ‘The seals of King Henry II and his court’, in Seals and their Context in the Middle Ages, ed. P. Schofield (Oxford, 2015), 7-33, at 18. 

Langton by Wragby

David Crook (left) and David Carpenter (right) at
Langton by Wragby

David Carpenter was in Lincoln last week for the Lincoln Record Society’s conference on Magna Carta. On the evening of 7 April, delegates attended a special service in the church at Langton by Wragby, the village where Stephen Langton – the archbishop of Canterbury who helped to negotiate the Charter in 1215 – grew up. David gave an address at the service and David Crook presented to the church a facsimile of the charter held at the British Library that proves Langton’s association with the site. In the photo here, Davids Carpenter and Crook are standing beside the moat of the manor house where Langton grew up.

Washington, Baltimore and Lancaster - and the discovery of a de Bohun charter

Nicholas Vincent with David Mao, Deputy Librarian of Congress,
in Washington

The Magna Carta Project’s Principal Investigator, Nicholas Vincent, has been in the USA this week talking about Magna Carta. On 6 April he was in Washington to deliver a public lecture at the Library of Congress, as part of the Library's programme of commemoration following its exhibition of the Lincoln Magna Carta earlier this year. From there Nick went to Baltimore, to visit the archive of Johns Hopkins University. He took the opportunity to look over the papers of Sidney Painter (d.1960), the renowned medievalist whose biography of King John is still widely read. Nick made some interesting discoveries, including an unpublished short story by Painter (not, unfortunately, a long-lost masterpiece), as well as the references written for Norman Cantor, one of the candidates to succeed Painter, by the great medievalists Richard Southern and David Knowles (both the story and the references will appear shortly in a Feature of the Month). 

Nicholas Vincent speaking at Franklin and Marshall College

From Baltimore Nick went to Franklin and Marshall College (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) to speak to students, staff and members of the local community at the College’s ‘Common Hour’. Shortly before his talk, a chance enquiry led Nick to the College’s library, where he made a serendipitous discovery: a charter of Henry de Bohun, one of the twenty-five baronial enforcers of Magna Carta, dating from c.1200. The charter’s seal provides the earliest record of the de Bohun arms: a bend between two lions rampant. Watch out for a forthcoming Feature on the charter. 

The Magna Carta Conference: booking now open

Booking has now opened for The Magna Carta Conference, a landmark event commemorating the 800^th anniversary of the Charter’s issue. Hosted by the The Magna Carta Project, it will be held 17-19 June 2015 at King’s College London and the British Library. Members of The Magna Carta Project will be joined by renowned scholars from across the globe to share major new discoveries and research on Magna Carta and its world, in conjunction with the British Library’s Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy exhibition. To be part of this momentous occasion, be sure to book your tickets via Eventbrite.  

The conference will cover the world of Magna Carta in unparalleled breadth and depth (you can view the whole conference programme on the Magna Carta Project website): from the Charter’s background and later use to its place in medieval law; from propaganda and political ideas in King John’s reign to kingship in medieval literature; from John’s military campaigns to the scribes of his court; and from the Charter’s continental and British context to its impact on society.  

There will also be a conference reception at KCL’s Maughan Library (spaces are limited, so book now to avoid disappointment!), where the J. C. Holt Undergraduate Essay  Prize will be awarded by Melvyn Bragg, and a rare opportunity to enjoy a private viewing of the British Library’s Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy exhibition, introduced by lead curator Claire Breay. Those attending day three of the conference are also being offered free entry to the British Library’s Early European Parallels to Magna Carta evening event (again, spaces are limited so book now to be sure of a place).  

Speakers will include: Nicholas Vincent, Jinty Nelson, Levi Roach, Björn Weiler, Martin Aurell, Janet Burton, Sophie Ambler, Anne Duggan, John Hudson, George Garnett, Hugh Doherty, Tessa Webber, Andrew Payne, Geoffrey French, Stephen Church, Daniel Power, Henry Summerson, David Crook, Paul Brand, Scott Waugh, Jean-Philippe Genet, Louise Wilkinson, Claire Breay, Marc Morris, John Gillingham, William Chester Jordan, John Maddicott, Alice Taylor, Peter Crooks, Nigel Saul and David Carpenter. 

The Magna Carta Project in the USA

Members of the Magna Carta Project travelled to the USA recently to share the Project’s research with academics, students and members of the public across the pond.

Rick Griffin, Director of the Center for Constitutional
Studies at UVU, introduces Nicholas Vincent

Nicholas Vincent, Louise Wilkinson and Sophie Ambler spoke at Utah Valley University, whose Center for Constitutional Studies hosted a symposium on Magna Carta on 17 February 2015. The event was opened by Nicholas Vincent, with: “From (Bad) King John to (Good) Magna Carta: How an 800 year-old Charter Changed the World”. As well as explaining the origins of the Charter in the reign of King John and his predecessors, Nicholas showed how Magna Carta had influenced constitutional documents in the United States, including Utah’s own State Constitution.

Salt Lake City, Utah: view of the Temple precinct of the Church of the Latter Day Saints. It was in nearby Orem, at Utah Valley University, that the symposium was held.

Louise Wilkinson explains what Magna Carta did for
women

Sophie Ambler on the Church and Magna Carta

In a later panel, Louise Wilkinson described how the Angevin kings' treatment of widows and heiresses provoked clauses protecting women’s rights in Magna Carta, and showed the impact of the Charter on thirteenth-century society. Sophie Ambler talked about the role of the Church in making and enforcing Magna Carta in the thirteenth century explaining how, in an age in which politics was imbued with religious ideas, churchmen were central to the Charter’s story. Nicholas Vincent then described the Project’s work, including his role in studying the charters of King John and in examining the four original 1215 Magna Cartas, as well as sharing some of the Project’s major new discoveries, such as the Canterbury Magna Carta.

The visit to Utah was followed by David Carpenter's trip to California, coincidentally his first visit to America. At UCLA, on 23 February, David gave a talk on Magna Carta to the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. This was chaired by Scott Waugh, Professor of Medieval History at UCLA and Provost and Executive Vice-chancellor. 

David introducing the Canterbury Magna Carta, here in
the Pine engraving

David then went on to Stanford University where, on 25 February, he ran a seminar for its Center of Medieval and Renaissance Studies about 'Magna Carta: problems of translation and interpretation'. He followed this with a public lecture about Magna Carta which was attended by over 250 people. Here he shared the bill with Professor Jack Rakove, Pulitzer Prize winner and professor of History at Stanford, who considered the place of Magna Carta in shaping the American constitution. The session was chaired by Eliane Treharne, Professor of English at Stanford.      

David in discussion with Jack Rakove

'Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy' opens at the British Library

Julian Harrison and HRH the Prince of Wales in front 
of the statue of Geoffrey de Mandeville 

Yesterday evening saw the triumphant opening of Magna Carta, Law, Liberty, Legacy at the British Library, by HRH the Prince of Wales. The exhibition is the biggest anywhere devoted to the history of a single document. It brings together an astonishing array of exhibits, in a way that is unlikely to be seen again – from King John’s thumb bone, to Thomas Jefferson’s draft of the American Declaration of Independence, to letters revealing Winston Churchill’s plan to gift Lincoln’s Magna Carta to the USA, as well (of course) as the British Library’s two 1215 Magna Cartas and examples of other thirteenth-century issues. (You can view the collection items here). 

Claire Breay and Julian Harrison show the Savernake hunting horn to HRH the Prince of Wales

Curated by Claire Breay and Julian Harrion, the exhibition was planned with advice from Nicholas Vincent and David Carpenter of the Magna Carta Project, with the support of the AHRC. Already it has received laudatory reviews in the Guardian and the Telegraph. 

Claire Breay introduces a replica of King John's effigy