London: The Surprising History of the Dagger & St. George Flag

Описание: At first glance this looks like the flag of Saint George, which is of course the flag of England, not the United Kingdom, not Great Britain, but let's not get bogged down in details, you can tell it's different because it has an upturned sword in the top left hand corner, otherwise known as the canton, but again I'm getting bogged down in details here, back to the flag. You'll find the flag flying on a number of buildings within the square mile, like, for example, here at Guild Hall or at Mansion House.

The City of London is much smaller than what most people think of as London. It only occupies one square mile or 2.59 kilometers squared, although I guess that doesn't quite have the same ring to it. If you've ever wandered around central territory of the square mile you may have spotted the City of London's crest, otherwise called the Arms of the Corporation of City of London, it sounds very formal if you ask me.
You'll know the boundary as it's marked by these single dragons holding the shield. The proper coat of arms, however, features two dragons and can be found on bollards, Tower Bridge, Black Friars Stations, even on a police box.
So that's the coat of arms that the flag is based on but what about the actual design? It's made up of the England flag in the form of Saint George's cross but it also has the symbol of the martyrdom of Saint Paul, who happens to be the patron saint of the City of London, and just for added details let's not get our saints mixed up as Thomas Beckett is a patron saint of the wider London, completely different person.
Back to Saint Paul and more importantly why a sword represents him. There are a couple of reasons, first from the Bible in the book of Ephesians, Saint Paul talks about the armor of God, using the armor worn by Roman soldiers to describe the spiritual armor, mentioning that Christians are to take the sword of the spirit.
Also in Hebrews he talks about the Word of God being sharper than a two-edged sword.

But there was another story behind the sword. It was thought that the sword was actually a dagger which was meant to commemorate the City of London's 1300s Lord Mayor Sir William Walworth was thought to be pivotal in the quashing of the 1381 peasants revolt by stabbing its leader Walt Tyler.
There's a whole verse in the Fishmongers Hall which covers this historic event:

"Brave Walworth's knight, Lord Mayor that slew rebellious Tyler in his alarms the king therefore did give him in lieu the dagger of the city arms"

However, sometime later it was found out that the actual design on the crest predated all of this and therefore made this whole story completely irrelevant, which sort of makes the point of why did I bother telling you? But it made a good story.

If you want to fly the flag as a banner, or long ways, then you'll need to get a specially designed flag because the sword has to always point upwards.

The City of London flag. Where St. George meets St. Paul and they paint the city red.
Actually I'm not sure that that's the right expression here, two saints engaged in riotous spree, flamboyantly enjoying themselves. Now that's an episode I'd like to see, sorry.

I need to just show you the uh the guys that have helped me with my stand here today. Thank you chaps, should leave them to it.

#cityoflondon
#flag
#london