St George

St George, James of (c.1250-1308). In 1278 Edward I recruited a Savoyard master mason, James of St George, into his service. James is known to have worked at Yverdon and elsewhere for the Count of Savoy, and Edward probably first encountered him as he returned from Crusade in 1273. Edward gave James general responsibility for the castle-building programme during the conquest of Wales; accounts show that he was directly responsible for the design and construction of Flint, Rhuddlan, Conwy, Harlech, and Beaumaris. Such details as the use of spiral scaffolding and the design of latrine chutes, demonstrate the strong Savoyard influence on these castles. Beaumaris, concentric in plan and symmetrical in design, is the finest example of his art. James's service was recognized by his appointment as constable of Harlech, a post he held from 1290 to 1293. He served Edward in Scotland in the final years of the reign; a contract survives for the works he undertook at Linlithgow. Financial stringency meant that he was unable to build in Scotland on a similar scale to his great works in Wales, which stand as perhaps the finest surviving example of medieval military architecture.

Bibliography

• Taylor, A. J., Studies in Castles and Castle-Building (London, 1985)

— Michael Prestwich

St George, patron saint of England and of several other countries, is said to have been martyred at Lydda in Palestine in the 4th cent. and began to attract reverence in the 6th cent. The story of the dragon appears as late as the 12th cent. and is presumably a reminiscence of Perseus and Theseus. His adoption as patron saint of England is post-Conquest though a church in Doncaster was dedicated to him in 1061. Crusaders may have brought back accounts of the respect paid him in the Middle East and the red cross may have come from the same source. The cult probably gathered pace after the foundation of the Order of the Garter in 1348, with the emphasis on chivalry and St George as patron.

This early martyr was probably a soldier. He is credited with enduring astounding tortures and performing equally astounding miracles, but it was the tale of his combat against a dragon to save a princess's life which really ensured his popularity. This first appears in the Legenda Aurea (The Golden Legend) in the 13th century.

His importance in Western Europe increased after a reported vision of him during the siege of Antioch in the First Crusade was taken as a sign of victory. A military and aristocratic cult rapidly developed. His feast day (23 April) was made a holiday in England in 1222; Edward III chose him as patron of the Order of the Garter in 1343; Henry V invoked him at Agincourt; by the close of the Middle Ages he was regarded as the patron saint of England, and a model of chivalry. His feast was celebrated by civic and guild processions, which gave much scope for horse-riding knights and effigy dragons, such as Snap at Norwich. Parades were held at Leicester, Chester, Coventry, Reading, and King's Lynn, as well as many smaller places, but they did not long survive the Reformation; popular customs were then transferred to warmer dates such as May Day and Midsummer, and 23 April is not now marked by any traditional customs.

George's persona was remodelled in a remarkably popular work, The Famous History of the Seven Champions of Christendom (1596-7) by Richard Johnson, which strips away the Christian elements, replacing them with chivalric and magical adventures imitated from medieval romances. Here, George is born in Coventry, son of the Lord Steward of England, but stolen soon after birth by an enchantress whose power he eventually outwits; he saves Sabra, the King of Egypt's daughter, by killing a dragon; after further adventures he dies from the poison of another (English) dragon, and is buried in Windsor Chapel. Johnson's book was often reprinted, and formed the basis for chapbook abridgements, plays, and children's versions; it is thanks to this that George appears in many texts of the mumming play.

There have been repeated attempts to persuade English people to celebrate St George's Day by flying flags or wearing a rose, and frequent newspaper complaints of the lack of a national holiday. Local celebrations were fairly common in the 1930s, but faded out again after the Second World War. Currently (1996-9) appropriate greeting cards are commercially available, and a civic pageant was once again held at Salisbury in 1997. The St George flag (red cross on white ground) has recently been enthusiatically adopted by English football fans as a national symbol.

Bibliography
The full bibliography list is available here.

• Wright and Lones, 1938: ii. 178-83
• Christina Hole, English Folk Heroes (1948), 103-20
• Simons, 1998: 80-94