St George appears in an account by St Adamnan, the seventh-century Abbot of Iona who heard about St George from a French bishop named Arcuif. But his reputation began to grow only when returning crusaders said the saint had made a miraculous appearance and led them into battle at the siege of Antioch in 1098. They also passed on the stories of St George slaying a dragon to the royal court.
When King Edward III founded the Order of the Garter in circa 1348, he placed it under St George's patronage, and at about the same time English soldiers were required to wear "a signe of Saint George" on their uniforms. St George appears in Shakespeare's version of King Henry V's rousing address to his troops before the Battle of Agincourt: "Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George'."
No comments:
Post a Comment