National Emblems of the UK
The Union Flag has no Welsh dragon, the royal arms once did, and the shamrock, thistle and rose sit on one stem. The UK's emblems tell a story of unions and omissions.
Published
Quick Facts
- England
- Tudor rose and the red-on-white cross of St George
- Scotland
- Thistle and the white-on-blue saltire of St Andrew
- Wales
- Red dragon (Y Ddraig Goch), plus the leek and the daffodil
- Northern Ireland
- Shamrock and flax flower, alongside the Union Flag
- Union Flag born
- 1606 (England and Scotland); St Patrick's cross added 1801
- Tudor rose origin
- Henry VII, after Bosworth in 1485, joined red Lancaster and white York
- Royal arms supporters
- Lion for England, unicorn for Scotland
- Why no Wales on the flag
- Wales had been legally merged with England by the 1530s and 1540s
The flag that left out a dragon
The Union Flag is a stack of crosses. In 1606, after James VI of Scotland became James I of England, the red cross of St George was combined with the white saltire of St Andrew on a blue field. In 1801, after the union with Ireland, the red saltire associated with St Patrick was added. Wales has no cross on it, and the reason is legal rather than personal. By the 1530s and 1540s, Acts of Parliament had made Wales part of the Kingdom of England. When the flag was designed, Wales was seen as part of England, so it was covered by St George. The red dragon is far older than any of this. Henry Tudor, who was of Welsh descent, carried a dragon banner on his way to Bosworth in 1485. The dragon only became the official flag of Wales in 1959, on a green and white background. The flag is also not symmetrical. Look closely at the diagonal red stripes and you'll see each one is thicker on one side. The wider white band of St Andrew's cross belongs at the top next to the flagpole. Hang it the other way up and Scotland is being slighted.
A rose that ended a war
England's best-known flower emblem was invented to make peace. After Henry VII won the throne at Bosworth in 1485, he married Elizabeth of York, and the red rose of Lancaster and the white rose of York were joined into the Tudor rose, white petals inside red. The Tudor rose still appears all over England, on coins, on royal buildings and in the badge of the Yeomen Warders at the Tower of London. The cross of St George, a red cross on white, is England's national flag and appears on English football and cricket crowds' flags. It was in use in medieval England and has outlasted nearly every other symbol from that era.
Scotland's prickly national flower
Scotland picked a plant that fights back. The thistle was on Scottish silver coins by the 1470s under James III. A popular legend says it saved Scotland when a Norse raiding party stepped on one in bare feet and cried out, alerting the sleeping Scots. It has stuck. The thistle is the badge of the Order of the Thistle, Scotland's highest order of chivalry, and it appears on everything from rugby shirts to banknotes. The saltire, white on blue, is the flag of St Andrew. According to tradition, Andrew was crucified on an X-shaped cross, and that shape became Scotland's flag.
Leeks, daffodils and a dragon
Wales has more emblems than anyone, and two are plants. The leek is the older one. It is linked with St David's Day on 1 March, and Shakespeare has the Welsh captain Fluellen wearing one in Henry V. The daffodil is a later favourite. It is easier to wear, and it helped that the Welsh word for leek, cennin, is very close to the word for daffodil, cennin Pedr. David Lloyd George promoted it in the early twentieth century. Then there is the dragon. It was once part of the English royal arms as a supporter under the Tudors. When James I took the throne in 1603, the Welsh dragon was replaced by the Scottish unicorn, which is why the royal arms now show a lion and a unicorn.
Northern Ireland and the shamrock
Northern Ireland's emblems are the hardest to pin down, because they sit between traditions. The shamrock is linked to St Patrick, who by tradition used its three leaves to explain the Trinity. Its use as a symbol of Ireland goes back centuries, and it appears in the royal badge as part of the 1801 union. That badge shows the rose, the thistle and the shamrock springing from a single stem, and it is the neatest summary of the UK's emblems. Each nation keeps its own plant and shares the same stem. The flax flower stands for the linen industry that built Belfast's wealth. The Union Flag is the official flag in Northern Ireland, while other flags such as the Ulster Banner and the saltire of St Patrick are used by different communities and carry different meanings.
Notable people
- Henry VII
- Elizabeth of York
- James VI and I
- Henry Tudor
- David Lloyd George
- St George
- St Andrew
- St David
- St Patrick