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{{Spears}} Banners, standards, flags, gonfanon (gonfalon, guntfano) and pennons (pennants) were commonly adopted by the warriors of the 9th – 12th centuries. This article attempts to briefly outline what the authors currently know about the subject.<br>The style of banner stays surprisingly consistent from the 9th to the 12th centuries and across Western Europe. For this reason we’ve decided to look at all the evidence together rather than, as we usually do, break the evidence into English, Carolingian, etc.<br>

<galleryheights=150px mode="Packed" style="text-align:left">File:Banner BL Cotton Caligula A XV f123r Harley 603 1000-1025AD.jpg‎ | 1000-1025AD English <br> BL Harley 603File:Banner BL Harley 603 1025-1050AD.jpg‎ | 1025-1050AD English <br> BL Harley 603File:Banner BL Harley 603 1050-1075AD.jpg‎ | 1050-1075AD English <br> BL Harley 603File:Banner_BL_Cotton_Caligula_A_XV_f123r.jpg‎ | c.1073AD English <br> BL Cotton Caligula A XV f123rFile:Banner BL Harley 603 1125-1150AD.jpg‎ | 1125-1150AD English <br> BL Harley 603

<galleryheights=150px mode="Packed" style="text-align:left">File:Banner Leiden I Maccabees.jpg | 850-950AD Carolingian <br> Leiden I Maccabees f.15v & f.22rFile:Banner Brussels ms 10066-77.jpg| 900-1000AD Carolingian <br> Brussels ms 10066-77File:Banner Aachen Liuthar Gospels.jpg | 990AD Ottonian <br> Aachen Liuthar GospelsFile:Banner BL Egerton 3763.jpg| 998-1018AD Ottonian <br> BL Egerton 3763 f.112v & f.116vFile:Banner BL Add. 24199.jpg| 1000AD English <br> BL Add. 24199

[[File:Bayeux Tapestry Banners.jpg|thumb|180x150px280x250px|left]]

<galleryheights=150px mode="Packed" style="text-align:left">File:William Seal.jpg| 1066-1087 <br> Seal of William I (The conqueror)File:Seal William Rufus.jpg| 1087-1100 <br> Seal of William II (Rufus) File:Banner Dijon MS14 f.13v.jpg| 1109-1111AD French <br> Dijon MS14 f.13vFile:Banner Dijon MS173 f133v.jpg| 1101-1133 French <br> Dijon MS173 f133v 'Moralia in Job'File:Seal Henry I.jpg| 1100-1135AD English <br> Great Seal of Henry IFile:Banner Heildesheim St Albans Psalter 49.JPG| 1120-1145 <br> Heildesheim, St Albans PsalterFile:Seal King Alexander of Scotland.jpg| 1107-1124 <br> Seal of Alexander I of Scotland

*Capitulary For a full list of Charles the Bald<br>{{Quote|50|“Let our envoys (missi nostril) banners mentioned in primary sources see that the troops of every bishop, abbot, and abbess, march forth properly equipped, and with their Gonfalonier (cum Guntfannonario).” |[Hewitt 1885: p.166[Banners from Literature]}}].<br>

*Wace (Line 11,450)<br>{{Quote|50|“L’ApostoileIncluded here are only those quotes that describe the appearance of banners. Un gonfanon li enveia.”|[Hewitt 1885: p.166]}}*Beowulf<br>{{Quote|50|"High o'er his head they hoist I have omitted those quotes that just describe the standard,<br>a gold-wove banner; let billows take him,<br>gave him to oceanas golden."<br>|[Fordham.edu]}}

{{Quote|50|"To Beowulf gave ====Bede – Ecclesiastical History of the bairn English People, 731AD====* Osthryth, queen of Healfdenethe Mercians:<brspan style="font-style: italic; color: green">"...that there might be a gold-wove bannerperpetual memorial of the royal character of this holy man [King Oswald], guerdon they hung up over the monument his banner of gold and purple." [SELLAR 1907]====The Song of triumphRoland,<br>1040-115AD====broidered battle*Verse 39:<span style="font-flagstyle: italic; color: green">"They held Valentian lances, and shield on shoulder wore. <br>|[Fordham:<span style="font-style: italic; color: green">White and blue and vermilion were the gonfalons they bore.edu" [BACON 1914]}}<!-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -->

==Late Roman Draco Standards== {{Quote|50evidence|Art =<gallery heights=150px mode="His glance too fell on a goldPacked" style="text-wove banneralign:left">File:Banner St. Gallen Cod.22 140.jpg | c.883-900AD Carolingian <br>St. Gallen Cod.22 140high o'er the hoard, of handiwork noblest,File:Banner Bayeux Tapestry 71a.jpg | c.1076AD English <br>Bayeux Tapestrybrilliantly broidered</gallery>|Literature =*About Witikind, an adversary of Charlemagne:<span style="font-style: italic; so bright its gleamcolor: green">"Hic arripiens signum quod apud eo habebatur sacrum,leonis atque draconis desuper aquilae volantis insignitum effigie ..."[OAKESHOTT 1960:p178]* Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum c.1129-c.1154.:AD 752 Battle of Burford:<brspan style="font-style: italic; color: green">“Ethelhun who led the West-Saxons, bearing the royal standard, a golden dragon, transfixed the standard-bearer of the enemy.” [BOHN 1853:p.130]|:AD 1016 Battle of Assandun:<span style="font-style: italic; color: green">“King Edmund distinguished himself for his valour. For perceiving that the Danes were fighting with more than ordinary vigour, he quitted his royal station which, as was wont, he had taken between the dragon and the ensign called the Standard,....” [FordhamBOHN 1853:p.edu194]|Archaeology |Discussion =

*Bede – Ecclesiastical History of England<br>==The Viking 'Raven Banner'=={{Quoteevidence|50Art =<gallery heights=150px mode="Packed" style="text-align:left">File:Banner Bayeux Tapestry 53b.jpg |c.1076AD English <br> Bayeux Tapestry</gallery>|Literature =====The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (890-1116AD)====*AD 878 :<span style="His font-style: italic; color: green">“And in the winter of this same year the brother of Ingwar and Healfden landed in Wessex, in Devonshire, with three and twenty ships, and there was he slain, and eight hundred men with him, and forty of his army. There also was taken the war-flag, which they called the RAVEN.” [King EdwinINGRAM 1912] dignity <br>Swanton’s translation [SWANTON 2000:p.77] of Anglo-Saxon Chronicle E <span style="font-style: italic; color: green">“.. and there the banner which they called ‘Raven', was so great throughout his dominionstaken.” </span> It's also mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle's B, that not only were his banners borne before him C and D (B was written in battlethe second half of the C10th, probably in the 970's) but even it is not mentioned in time the oldest surviving copy of peacethe Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,A (written from c.890AD to 1070AD).when he rode about his cities====Asser's The Life of Alfred (1000AD)====:<span style="font-style: italic; color: green">"...and there they gained a very large booty, townshipsand amongst other things the standard called '''Raven'''; for they say that the three sisters of Hingwar and Hubba, or provincesdaughters of Lodobroch, with his thegnswove that flag and got it ready in one day. They say, moreover, that in every battle, wherever that flag went before them, if they were to gain the standard-bearer victory a '''live crow would appear flying on the middle of the flag''' ; but if they were doomed to be defeated it would hang down motionless, and this was always wont often proved to go before himbe so. Also" [GILES 1848:p62]A major doubt exists regarding the authenticity of this chapter in Asser's Life of Alfred. It has been fairly well proved that Bishop Parker added this chapter directly from The Annals of St Neots in his 1574AD published version of Asser's Life of Alfred. [STEVENSON 1904] The original sole surviving Anglo-Saxon manuscript, when he walked anywhere along Cotton MS Otho A xii, was lost in the streetsCotton Library fire of 1731AD. The two remaining transcripts have both been affected to varying degrees by Bishop Parkers interpolations.  ====The Annals of St Neots (1120-1140AD)====:<span style="font-style: italic; color: green">""<br>Although written in the C12th, that sort The Annals of St Neots was based in part on a now missing early version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. [SWANTON 2000] ====Saga of Olaf, Tryggvi's Son. (c.1260AD)====:<span style="font-style: italic; color: green">"...Take thou here this banner which the Romans call TufaI have made with all my skill, and the English, ThuufI ween that it will bring victory to him before whom it is borne, but death to its bearer." The banner was wrought with cunningly executed handiwork and elaborate art. It was made in like manner borne before himthe shape of a raven, and when floating in the wind it resembled the raven flying. " <br>This saga is part of the Flateyjarbók written between 1387AD to 1394AD and contains expanded version of some of the sagas from the Heimskringla. <br>|Archaeology[Project Gutenberg 2011]|Discussion

{{Quote|50|==Harald Hardrade's 'Land-waster' Banner==Also known as Land-ravager. 'Landøyðan' and '' in Icelandic. <br>The Heimskringla was written around c.1230AD by Snorri Sturluson.<br>* '''Saga of Harald Hardrade.''' From the Heimskringla :* Treaty between Harald and Svein broken::<span style="…font-style: italic; color: green">"A little after this it happened that Harald and Svein one evening were sitting at table drinking and talking together, and Svein asked Harald what valuable piece of all his property he esteemed the most.<br>::<span style="font-style: italic; color: green">He answered, it was his '''banner Land-waster'''.<br>::<span style="font-style: italic; color: green">Svein asked what was there remarkable about it, that he valued it so highly.<br>::<span style="font-style: italic; color: green">Harald replied, it was a common saying that he must gain the victory before whom that banner is borne, and it had turned out so ever since he had owned it.<br>::<span style="font-style: italic; color: green">Svein replies, "I will begin to believe there might is such virtue in the banner when thou hast held three battles with thy relation Magnus, and hast gained them all."" [LAING 1907]:* The Battle at the Humber::<span style="font-style: italic; color: green">"He ordered the '''banner''' which was called the '''Land-ravager''' to be a perpetual memorial carried before him, and made so severe an assault that all had to give way before it;" [LAING 1907]:* Skirmish of Orre::<span style="font-style: italic; color: green">"Eystein Orre came up at this moment from the royal character ships with the men who followed him, and all were clad in armour. Then Eystein got '''King Harald's banner Land-ravager'''; and now was, for the third time, one of this holy man the sharpest of conflicts, in which many Englishmen fell, and they were near to taking flight." [King OswaldLAING 1907] <!-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --><br>== Viking Weather Vanes ==7 'weather vanes' have been found and a depiction of them can be found on a carving from Bergen. <!-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --><br>==King Harold’s ‘Fighting Man’ banner==King Harold’s personal banner is described by three sources although only two of them mention the ‘Fighting Man’.  * '''William of Poitiers, they hung up over Gesta Willelmi ducis Normannorum et regis Anglorum''' (The Deeds of William, Duke of Normandy and King of England) c.1071AD<br> * '''William of Malmesbury, Chronicle of the monument Kings of England''' (Gesta Regum Anglorum) c.1125AD:*::<span style="font-style: italic; color: green">"The king himself on foot, stood with his banner brother, near the standard; in order that, while all shared equal danger, none might think of retreating. This standard William sent, after the victory, to the pope; it was sumptuously embroidered, with gold and purpleprecious stones, in the form of a '''man fighting'''."[GILES 1847:p.276]|Osthryth* '''Master Wace, queen The Chronicle of the Mercians Norman Conquest''' (Roman de Rou), c.1174:* Line 11,450::<span style="font-style: italic; color: green">“When Harold had made all ready, and given his orders, he came into the midst of the English, and dismounted by the side of the standard, Leofwin and Gurth, his brothers, were with him; and around him he had barons enough, as he stood by his gonfanon, which was in truth a noble one, sparkling with gold and precious stones. After the victory William sent it to the apostle, to prove and commemorate his great conquest and glory.” [Project Gutenberg 2011TAYLOR 1837]</span><br> <!-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --><br>==The Papal Banner==  <!-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --><br>==Charlemagne's 'Oriflame' == ==== The song of Roland ====*Verse 226:<span style="font-style: italic; color: green">"And onwards Geoffrey of Anjou bore the great '''Oriflame''' — <br>:<span style="font-style: italic; color: green">Because it was Saint Peter's, it bore the Roman name." [BACON 1914] <!-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --><br>== The Caroccium ==    <!-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --><br>==References=={{Ref|Book=Anderson, Hjjaltalin & Goudie 1873}}{{Ref|Book=Bacon 1914}}{{Ref|Book=Bohn 1853}}{{Ref|Book=Chaney 1970}}{{Ref|Book=Giles 1847}}{{Ref|Book=Giles 1848}}{{Ref|Book=Gummere 1910}}{{Ref|Book=Hewitt 1855}}{{Ref|Book=Laing 1907}}{{Ref|Book=Oakeshott 1960}}{{Ref|Book=Sellar 1907}}{{Ref|Book=Stevenson 1904}}{{Ref|Book=Swanton 2000}}{{Ref|Book=Taylor 1837}} <brHarvardReferences />