Ponderings

Tag: england

  • Magnificent Seven

    On the 30th June, 1688 an extraordinary invitation was issued to the Dutch prince, William of Orange. The letter was composed by the “immortal seven”, six English noblemen and a bishop. They were aggrieved and alarmed by the prospect of a Catholic Monarch, and the harm that this could pose to the constitution, and the possibility that England would no longer function as a culturally cohesive society.

    The petition was addressed to him and his English wife Mary, imploring him to thwart the danger. Catholic monarchies across the continent demonstrated only autocratic rule, and crushed religious dissenters in the most extreme and murderous ways. The alarm was raised three weeks earlier, when the reigning King James II celebrated the birth of a son and heir, James Francis Stuart. However the child was baptised Catholic, which ultimately made his future claim to the throne redundant.

    The King recalled the events that led up to his father’s trial and execution and he feared for his life and his family. The Queen disguised herself as a laundry woman and fled the country with the infant Prince of Wales. The next day the King tried to escape, but was captured by fishermen. He was imprisoned in Faversham, Kent but his guards rescued him and took him back to London.

    The situation in England was grave but this was not the first, nor the last time that the nation faced such an uncertain fate. England had torn itself apart in a series of bloody civil wars, and such a scenario was not unthinkable for the future. It was always an open secret that the King was a practicing Catholic, and this was an affront to most of his subjects.

    His piety was coupled with arrogance, and a belief that he was a devout follower of the “true” faith, calling it “a rod of steel”. His defiant obduracy would prove to be his downfall. The first six months of King James II’s rule were ominous. Loyalists in his Army were dispatched across the country to find evidence of traitorous behaviour within Baptist and Presbyterian communities.

    However, in spite of this campaign it soon became apparent that there was no substantial evidence to suggest any plot of sedition or insurrection. The real threat to the sovereignty and political independence of this country came from France, and more specifically from the French King. The Dutch could become vital allies, and many commentators admired the enterprising culture which allowed commerce to thrive. Samuel Pepys observed that, “in all things, in wisdom, courage, force, knowledge of our own streams and success, the Dutch have the best of us.” The Dutch also permitted religious tolerance, practiced superior hygiene, developed an ingenious and envious education system and provided relief for the poor.

    William was determined to restore Protestantism to England. He sent his soldiers to London, instructing them to demand that the King rescind his right to the throne. On the 23rd December King James II joined his wife and son in France. Six weeks later, William claimed the throne as his. Upon succession, both William and Mary made a promise under oath that their reign was “according to the statutes in parliament agreed on”. The coronation ceremony was a defining moment in English history.

    The presiding Archbishop declared that, “happy we, who are delivered from both extremes: who neither live under the Terror of Despotick power, nor are cast loose to the wild’ness of ungovern’d multitudes”. As soon as he delivered that speech, the congregation burst into applause. It was an immense relief to the assembled audience that England would no longer tolerate religious bigotry, and this was sealed by the acts of Parliament. We owe an immense debt to the courage of those seven gentlemen who helped to preserve the cultural and religious foundations of our country.

  • The Sailor King

    On the 20th June, 1837 King William IV died. He reigned over Great Britain and Ireland for a mere seven years. He was also one of this country’s oldest Monarchs, as he was 64 years old when he ascended to the throne. His succession was regarded as inauspicious and concerning, as his personal life was in disrepute. His reputation was marred by his womanising, and rumours of illegitimate offspring.

    However William’s succession was a surprise. When his brother King George IV died, there were no surviving heirs. William spent most of his life serving in the Royal Navy. He was dispatched to sea at the age of 13, and was expected to rise through the ranks. However he never applied himself. His only serious dedication was to carousing.

    He was vulgar, arrogant and profligate with money. His strait-laced family were ashamed and horrified by his antics, and tried in vain to rein in the worst of his behaviour. Ironically, his bluntness appealed to Whig sensibilities. The King’s lack of decorum was perceived as a refreshing change to the apparent pretension of his predecessors. The reports of the day stated that he was,

    “A little old, red-nosed, weather-beaten, jolly looking person with an ungraceful air and carriage”. His coarseness contrasted quite markedly in contrast to the civility and poise that characterised the Kings and Queens who reigned before him.

    He was viewed as an asset to the Whig cause. They believed that they could use his image as the common man with the common touch to bolster their support. The tactic must have worked. Five months later, the Tory government collapsed and a new Whig administration was established.

    The new King truly was without pretension, he refused to move out of Clarence House after he was crowned. His reasoning was bluff and pragmatic, it was his home while he was still the heir and there was no real benefit or purpose for him to relocate to Buckingham Palace. He even conjectured that the Palace could be repurposed and converted into Army barracks. He also dreaded the coronation ceremony. He considered it tasteless and unnecessarily expensive.

    The Tory government was disgusted by the crude attitudes of the Monarch, and it was only under extreme duress that he acquiesced to their demands. He agreed to hold the ceremony, but shamefully it was the discounted version. It cost less than a fifth of George IV’s and the occasion was dubbed the “Half Crownation”. All of the sacred, ancient rites were deliberately truncated, and the King visibly mocked the solemnity throughout the service.

    A month later, the newly restored French King was forced into exile after violent demonstrations erupted in Paris. He was sent to Scotland, where he was protected by the novelist and ardent Monarchist Sir Walter Scott. William understood that his own position was never guaranteed, as history proved that his subjects were not always kind or forgiving to those who preceded him.

    On the 22nd November 1830, the Northumbrian aristocrat Earl Grey was installed as the new Prime Minister. He was elected on a mandate for Parliamentary reform. Inequality was entrenched throughout the Kingdom, and the Tories symbolised the worst trappings of inherited wealth and privilege.

    Fearing revolt and insurrection, the Whig government passed three Reform Acts which helped to suppress any nascent revolutionary fervour. Two years after this legislation received Royal Assent, in a bizarre twist of fate, fire broke out in the Houses of Parliament and the physical restoration of this towering symbol of democracy became an urgent necessity.

    The King lived long enough to witness his realm enjoy the fruits of liberty and freedom, but by the spring of 1837 his health began to deteriorate. His niece, the future Queen Victoria was barely eighteen years old when he died. Another chapter of British history closed, and a new era began.

  • The King Is Not Dead

    On the 1st May, 1700 the English poet and playwright John Dryden died. He was the first Poet Laureate, an honourable title that was bestowed upon him by the office of the newly restored Monarchy. His work eventually defined Restoration England, and his appointment heralded a triumphant return of English culture after the sterile and barren years of Cromwell’s Puritan regime.

    Dryden understood the powerful allure of Monarchy, and the spell that Kings, particularly the Stuart King, Charles II had over the populace. This prevailed despite the violent schism that tore the nation in two. The divide between religious dissenters and loyalists sparked the English Civil Wars, yet a sizable part of the population was committed to the King.

    His most devoted followers helped to support him in exile. There was a secret society of Monarchists who would assemble at Ham House in Richmond on Thames. They were called The Sealed Knot, and when the King returned from the Netherlands he rewarded the owner of the property with an annual pension. The belief in the divine powers of the King became so pronounced and ingrained that there were people who believed that even after his demise they could sense his ghostly presence, and some claimed that they could smell the scent of his pipe. The King almost had a cult following. Every Friday, devotees would assemble outside the Banqueting House in Westminster to receive the King’s healing touch. They were convinced that the King’s hands could cure them of the most disfiguring disease.

    The notion of the divinity of Kings had not expired, in spite of all of the political and religious upheavals that afflicted England throughout the centuries. The King had inherited the traditions of the early church, and although he was ostensibly a “Protestant” Monarch he had not abandoned the Catholic past entirely. He merely adapted it. Dryden had a profound insight into the prevailing sensibilities of English Catholicism. He expressed it in perceptive and lyrical terms as the “milkwhite hind, immortal and unchanged”. The root of English spirituality itself remains deeply embedded within the psyche of the English people, even if the practice and form has changed.

    Our ancestors always revered immortal figures, like King Arthur. Arthur was the archetypal eternal King, who had the power to unite a fractious nation. The legend was that he had not actually died, he was merely sleeping and his spirit would revive the fortunes of an island people who suffered repeated invasions and tribal wars. This fanciful legend was incorporated into the literature of the Restoration and indulged by the King, who was fond of theatrical excess. Thankfully, through the patronage of Charles II, we continue to enjoy the artistic legacy of pioneers like John Dryden.

  • The Gem in the Crown

    March the 1st is St David’s Day, the annual celebration of Wales’ patron saint, Wales and Welsh culture. It is an important time of celebration for the people of Wales and the Welsh diaspora.

    Wales remains a vital and integral part of the United Kingdom. However it has struggled to maintain a civil relationship with its much larger and more powerful neighbour, England. This uneasiness has ebbed and flowed throughout our history. Many militant Welsh nationalists have leaped onto this feeling of disquiet and exploited it to promote the cause of independence. Their ultimate aim is the total and complete severance from the United Kingdom.

    Wales has a degree of political and cultural autonomy, but it is still subservient to the parliament based in Westminster. There is a tacit acceptance amongst many Welsh people that financially at least Wales will always be reliant upon England. However this is a point of contention for other people.

    Unfortunately there are always bad actors on the political stage, who thrive on division and propagate propaganda that only benefits them and their grip upon power. Their role is familiar to anyone who has witnessed how political drama has played out in the modern world. They use sophisticated tools of manipulation, and subvert facts to fit their agenda. They are experts in emotive language, and cynically and knowingly employ the most sentimental words to cement support. They are devious, revealing a kind of romantic prejudice that plays well to their chosen audience.

    However, they are completely detached from reality. They only exist in a realm of artifice, a luxurious bubble which insulates them from the rigours of daily life. They do not care about the fate of ordinary people. They only want to display their supposed virtue to bolster their social status. Ordinary people are just pawns in their game. It is tactical rather than genuine. It is a gambit, and the people who use it have no sincerity.

    The United Kingdom has only survived as a consequence of mutual understanding and respect. It is a sovereign state composed of a patchwork of nations, but in ancient times there was only a semblance of unity. Loyalty was strictly maintained on tribal lines. Sporadic battles broke out between competing and rival tribes. This enabled the Roman conquest, and gave them an obvious advantage in consolidating their power. A unified society would have resisted and defeated them.

    The Roman centurions were impressed by the warrior spirit of the Welsh. One of these fierce and indomitable warriors was called Caradog. His indefatigability in battle was so impressive that he was awarded honorary Roman citizenship. This was a rare privilege. Ultimately the harshness of the climate, and the periodic shortage of food, especially grain defeated Roman rule in Wales. Wales remained defiantly independent, and resisted further invasion until the Normans arrived.

    Normans were urbane sophisticates who were adept at civic organisation, castle construction and political diplomacy. It was an entirely new form of imperial rule. There was an element of cultural superiority, but mutual respect and admiration too. The Normans brought literacy to this island, and scribes immortalised Welsh myth and folklore for the first time. If they had not written these treasures, they would have been lost in the sands in time for good.

    Other Welshmen signed up to the Anglo-Norman Army and played a vital role as combatants during the many battles with the French. They were credited with the invention of the longbow, a weapon which was indispensable on the battlefield. However this glorious medieval period drew to a close as a series of civil wars threatened to tear the Kingdom apart once more. Ostensibly these were between warring Royal dynasties, and became known as the “Wars of the Roses”. The House of York was defeated, and the victory was handed to the Tudors. This was a defining moment. The new King, Henry VII was the grandson of Sir Owen Tudor, a prominent figure in the Welsh court. His ascendance ensured that the English and Welsh crowns were finally united.

    In 1487, the King issued a final coup de grace to the vanquished Yorkists, and commissioned the Crown Imperial. He planned to wear it on the Feast of Epiphany. This was a traditional custom that was held every year, when the monarch re-enacted the part of the Three Kings delivering gifts to the Christ child. The new crown was ornate, made of gold and encrusted with precious stones including rubies, diamonds, sapphires and pearls. It was seven pounds in weight. This was symbolic, and heralded a new direction for the Kingdom, in which Wales played a central part.

    The Tudor age shaped and reimagined a “Merrie Land” which inspired others in the centuries since. However in the twenty-first century, there is a tendency to deride history. The Welsh nationalists are either ignorant of the past or do not care about it, but their cynicism must be condemned as divisive. We must remember our long, proud history of unity and harmony.

  • The Hero King

    On the 13th November, 1312 King Edward III was born. At the tender age of fourteen, he was crowned King. His accession was marked with a three day tournament. This celebration was a stark contrast to the decidedly dour attitude of his father and predecessor, Edward II, who actually banned such festivities.

    The young Edward III certainly proved himself to be a master of the joust. However this was just a foretaste of his long, magnificent and extraordinary rule. He was the personification of the age of knights, fantasy castles, honours, arms, pageantry and jousts. England’s national identity became steeped in the semiotics of war, and Edward was the warrior in chief leading his tribe in glory.

    However Edward’s ascendance as King was not seamless. His father, Edward II was deeply unpopular, except for one particular member of his household with whom he lavished flattery and favour, to the exclusion of his trusted advisers and even his long suffering wife. Piers Gaveston was the King’s favourite, provoking understandable suspicion, jealousy and contempt. Faced with growing pressure from the barons, and his wife’s family he sent Gaveston into exile. Edward’s wife, Queen Isabella, came from an illustrious Royal house in France, and his emotional detachment from her was enough to cause consternation and disquiet from the French Monarchy.

    Medieval England had only a semblance of stability. There was always a hint of tension between the Crown and the noble ranks, particularly amongst the barons. This was enough to disturb and endanger the cohesion of the Kingdom. In addition to this, England had an almost intractable dispute with the rival Kingdom of Scotland, and the borderlands of Wales (known as the Marches). Edward II proved himself to be a disaster on both accounts. His attempts to reconcile these factions ended in tragedy.

    The King was evidently lacking in any resolve to improve hostilities, so the bullying barons decided the direction for him. Gaveston was murdered in grisly circumstances and his estranged wife began an affair with the notorious Marcher Lord, Roger Mortimer. Edward was humiliated, and his authority was weakened. He sought sanctuary in Wales, but he was later captured and then murdered at the behest of Mortimer.

    The Kingdom was effectively relinquished to Mortimer, who seized land and power for himself. However, in spite of his age, the new King used cunning to thwart the tyrannical influence of Mortimer. A meeting was due to take place at Nottingham Castle to debate the affairs of state. While Mortimer slept, Edward III and his troops entered the Castle via an underground tunnel. Mortimer received a sudden and rude awakening, as he was accosted, arrested, condemned and eventually executed at Tyburn as a traitor.

    Edward III was determined not to repeat the mistakes of his father. England had been left in a perilous state, and the King’s legacy was characterised by degeneracy and ignominy. He was keen to reverse the negative reputation of the office of King and acquired a deeper insight into the actual workings of the court, and worked hard to earn back the respect of the nobles.

    A unique and distinct aristocratic culture was cultivated by the King, inspired by the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. However in spite of all of these romantic allusions, nothing could ever disguise the fact that this was a society that glorified violence and conquest. Edward pursued both, with successful military campaigns in Scotland and France.

    The new soldier-King instituted St. George as the patron saint of England, supplanting native born saints particularly St Edmund. George was the saint of nobles and soldiers, and it seemed suitably apt and pertinent to adapt his legacy as an honourable example to follow for all true English gentlemen.

    The art of war almost became a personal obsession for him. Edward realised that a new weapon was proving to be a major success on the battlefield, namely the longbow. Consequently he enacted a law banning all sports, except archery. This one act consolidated England as a formidable and fearsome military power, as victory was guaranteed with a highly skilled army.

    The English people responded to the King’s prowess as a military leader with a renewed feeling of confidence, which was observed by the French chronicler Jean Froissart. He noted that, “the English will never love and honour their king unless he be victorious and a lover of arms and war against their neighbours and especially against such as are great and richer than themselves”. The campaign in France, in particular, was a source of pride, after the tribulations of the Norman Conquest.

    Edward’s impressive fifty year reign left an important legacy, chiefly in terms of England and its military capability. He was responsible for raising the standard of the English soldier, marching courageously under the banner of St. George. This is something which we must be thankful for, as he alone represents dignity and honour.

  • Who Killed Cock Robin?

    On the 26th August, 1676 the renowned British statesman Sir Robert Walpole was born. In 1721 he became the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. He was the longest serving Premier in our history. He established the Whig ascendancy in this country, reducing Tory dominance and influence for decades. He left an important legacy, and altered the course of British politics. He ultimately defined the role of Prime Minister, and was a model for those who succeeded him in office.

    His impressive reign was known colloquially as the “Robinocracy”. Walpole himself epitomised the era of excess, materialism and global ambition. His imposing appearance and personality symbolised the culture of this period. He was both literally and metaphorically larger than life. He had a gargantuan appetite for food, drink, sex, work, money and power.

    His prominence in public life began auspiciously. He quickly grasped the dark arts of politics and was an expert with all of the tricks and tools of manipulation. Politics was, and still is a game, and he could play other people to acquire the things that he wanted. He could be charming, but devious as well. Walpole’s rise to power could have only been achieved after the seismic events of the “Glorious Revolution”. This changed the fundamental character, and conduct of the nation.

    The Revolution helped to create modern public finance, and new concepts and innovations like the stock market, speculation, boom and conversely, bust. The most notorious example of this new phenomena was the controversy which became known as the “South Sea Bubble”. The South Sea Company was a joint stock company trading in overseas colonies. It was granted a monopoly to provide African slaves to Spanish America. These were considered assets, but to encourage investment profits were exaggerated.

    Spain and Britain were bitter rivals, and profits accrued in this trade were actually minimal. However the enmity between two major European trading powers did not curb the personal ambitions of the investors, who were convinced that this could be an easy path to riches. When the inevitable crash happened, eminent figures lost entire fortunes. This included the King, who was appointed governor of the company. At the peak of the crisis, one Parliamentarian died of a heart attack, another took his own life and one poor unfortunate was sent to the Tower.

    Walpole successfully navigated the country out of the crisis, he removed the company directors, seized 82% of their wealth and the money was returned to their victims. The stock of the South Sea Company was then divided between the Bank of England and the East India Company. His adept handling of this left a great impression upon the King, who was relieved that a major crisis had been averted. A lesser person could have led the country to ruin.

    Walpole in turn flattered the Court, as he knew that friends in high places could be used for his own gain. In the summer of 1727, King George I died, and his son George II ascended to the throne. Walpole was politically adroit and cultivated a set of distinct strategies in order to win trust, and to avoid critical challenges from his enemies.

    He enacted a spectacular coup within the Commons. He inveigled the MPs to agree to vote in favour of a bigger Civil List, which gave the new KIng more of a personal income than his father. In a cynical move, he also ingratiated himself with Queen Caroline in a bid to influence her husband and to look upon him, and his policies more favourably.

    He commented on this tactic in a typically boorish fashion. He had developed a manner of blunt speaking which reflected the crudity of his character. He said to his supporters, “I have the right sow by the ear”. The Queen agreed to meet with Walpole in secret to discuss government policy. When the King arrived for his official meeting with the Prime Minister, his familiar reticence was sufficiently mellowed. He became much more congenial, and eager to accept government proposals.

    Walpole believed that had a special kind of insight into feminine wiles and boasted that the Queen “can make him propose the very thing as his own opinion which a week before he had rejected as mine”. His powers of cunning and subterfuge were enviable, and the key to his prowess as a politician.

    However many of his fellow Whigs regarded him as a traitor and a man who wilfully sacrificed the democratic and anti-monarchical principles of his party solely to maintain power, and the favour of the King and his court. They believed that he had effectively sold out and become a Tory. Walpole was in fact exploiting the emotional weaknesses of the King, and attempting to appeal to his good nature. He used false flattery as a bribe, and the King in turn was extorted to bestow honours on to Walpole’s ministers. It was obvious that the Whigs owed an immense debt to the King’s generosity, as it consolidated Whig supremacy in Parliament.

    Domestically, Walpole’s position was assured but the French were threatening to wage war again. The Whigs were originally established to counter French dominance and aggression, but Walpole and the King sought peace. The odds were stacked against him. There was a perception that Walpole had put personal ambition before political conviction, and sacrificed the nation, its status and reputation just to maintain his dubious alliance with the King and his court.

    In 1742 the party took a vote of confidence, 253 voted in his favour, 250 against. However this was not a ringing endorsement, and three weeks later he resigned. Three years later, adrift in a political wilderness, he died. His impact upon British politics, culture and the way this country continues to conduct its economic affairs is incalculable. However the methods he utilised to secure his place in our history can also be read as a salutary tale of power, greed and corruption. In the realm of politics this is a tale which is all too familiar, and predictable.

  • The Traitor King

    On the 28th May 1972, the exiled and disgraced Duke of Windsor and former King, Edward VIII died. He ascended to the throne in 1936, but abdicated within the same year. His rapid accession, abdication and banishment was just a misfortune in a series of misfortunes which almost threatened to topple the British Monarchy itself. Within four decades the status of the Crown appeared to be diminishing into insignificance.

    At the turn of the twentieth century, the United Kingdom made a decision to forge alliances with European powers. However the result of this was far from inconsequential. Unwittingly, this decision plunged the Kingdom into the First World War. It fought a bitter, bloody and protracted campaign against Germany. The once close cultural connection between these two countries was severed, and the warmth, affinity and familial affection that the British public felt for the partly German Royal Family waned to an alarming degree.

    In 1917, at the height of war, the Kingdom was in a fragile state, it was far from united. It was in a frayed position, riddled with strikes, mutiny and increasing political radicalisation. King George V was forced to divest the Family of its foreign associations, and he decided to rebrand it for a more modern and progressive age. His first decision was to anglicise the Royal Family. He renamed the Royal Dynasty “The House of Windsor”. His German relations who still resided in the Kingdom were no longer Battenbergs, but became Mountbattens instead.

    Although George had foreign ancestry, he remained culturally English, despite the leftist author H.G Wells’ complaints about “an alien and uninspiring court”. However these words were brushed off by an unruffled King.

    Wells’ strident admonitions seemed harsh and unfair but were met with the King’s firm and witty riposte, “I may be uninspiring but I’ll be damned if I am an alien!”. George’s second decision was to reform the honours system, which was regarded as elitist and undemocratic.

    He established the Order of the British Empire, which acknowledged the achievements of both women and men from across the social classes. In an astounding break from tradition, he arranged his first investiture within the grounds of Ibrox stadium in Glasgow, the home of Rangers football club. The first recipient of the award was the humble khaki clad Lizzie Robertson, who was rewarded by the King “for devotion to duty in a national projectile factory”. He also established the Companions of Honour, which paid tribute to those who worked hard to protect the rights of ordinary British workers.

    It seemed for a time that the Crown was secure. With these new measures, he managed to stave off the dangers of socialist revolution which had cost the lives of his cousins in Russia. King George V was truly the “people’s King”. The silver jubilee celebrations brought a feeling of national unity while the continent was tearing itself apart. However six months later, on the 20th January, 1936, the beloved King died.

    The old continental alliances were fracturing once more. An embattled and humiliated Germany was on a dark path towards totalitarianism. The British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin believed that the political and religious settlement encapsulated by the presence of the constitutional monarchy was an essential bulwark against dictatorship in this country.

    Baldwin paid tribute to the late King, commending his legacy. He said that he was responsible for “bringing in the moral authority, honour and dignity of the throne”. Edward’s accession did nothing to allay the fears of a population that had barely recovered from the last war.

    Unlike his father, Edward revealed a shocking lack of empathy for the poor and the unemployed. While on an official engagement to the poverty stricken villages of South Wales, he uttered with spectacular insensitivity that “something must be done” but offered no words of comfort to those without work. His affair with the American socialite Wallis Simpson was common knowledge, but despite protestations he refused to relinquish it. One year after his abdication they married.

    Edward’s actions looked increasingly selfish, arrogant and disloyal. He alienated himself from his family, who were appalled that he put his own feelings first, rather than serve the interests of his country. He was marooned in self-imposed exile in France. In October 1937, he added insult to injury when he toured Nazi Germany with the Duchess. His visit was promoted and published as vital propaganda by the German media. He was filmed meeting Hitler at his Bavarian retreat, and Edward performed a Nazi salute. Edward made no secret of the fact that he favoured Nazism as a political ideology, which he perceived as preferable to Communism.

    Edward’s blatant admission made him a profound liability to the British state at the height of the Second World War. There were rumours swirling around that he was a spy and leaking secrets to the German military. There were even suggestions that he was about to revive the days of imperial Prussia and was about to be parachuted in as the new Kaiser. In 1940 he was appointed governor of the Bahamas, but he disliked the role and resigned after five years.

    At the end of the war, the Duke and Duchess returned to France. They were feted as a celebrity couple by the French, but the British public never forgave their treachery. The duke died from complications following heart surgery at his home in France. His legacy as the traitor King has never been forgotten.

  • Shame On Evil Thinkers

    St. George has been an integral part of English identity since the fourteenth century. The adoption of George as England’s patron saint has helped to bring new meaning and insight into our native culture and traditions. The legends that surround him remain a source of pride, in spite of the detractors.

    It is lamentable that in our postmodern society many people have chosen to forget this essential part of our foundation story. Every nation is founded on a series of myths and legends. These intricate and elaborate tales of heroes and villains are symbolic manifestations of the nation’s character and sensibility. King Edward III recognised this, and he found inspiration in the mythology of a legendary Knight

    Edward cultivated an idiosyncratic and aristocratic culture at court. The King and the nobles were brought together in a complex system based on chivalric custom, including honours, arms and pageantry. Chivalry originated from a military culture, and described the strict codes of behaviour mandated on the battlefield. War was deeply embedded within the culture of this country. However, warfare was not just about consolidating the power and influence of the Crown. The nation as a whole depended upon military strength to enable it to survive.

    St. George was the patron saint of soldiers and nobles, and the epitome of a chevalier. The tale of his Knightly conduct was appropriated by the King and woven into an earlier legend surrounding King Arthur and his court. The legend states that the King was in attendance at a court ball when a lady accidentally dropped her garter. When everyone except the King erupted into laughter, he admonished the crowd. He retrieved the garter and said, “shame to him who thinks evil of it”. Henceforth Edward established the Order of the Garter and dedicated it to St George.

    It is a strange paradox that the profoundly Christian order of Knights was nonetheless perennially engaged in war. It is difficult to reconcile a sense of righteousness with the eternal compulsion for battle. However it is justified as the moral aspect is entwined with the notion of defending the honour of a nation from evil. Medieval England, and Europe as a whole faced the imminent threat from violent and hostile outsiders who sought to usurp Christianity with a contrary religion and set of values that were in direct opposition. The story of St George slaying the dragon is a metaphorical depiction of this righteous battle, and it has been revived throughout the centuries.

    The warrior spirit of the English has never truly died, even in times of relative peace. This is something which we must always hold on to, despite the evil thinkers who continue to project their shame upon us.