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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. 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>
===Pennons===
These are triangular flags or streamers.<br>
<galleryheights=150px mode="Packed" style="text-align:left">
File:Banner BL Harley 603 1000-1025AD.jpg | 1000-1025AD English <br> BL Harley 603
File:Banner BL Harley 603 1025-1050AD.jpg | 1025-1050AD English <br> BL Harley 603
These are rectangular flags ending in ‘swallowtails’.<br>
====Before 1066AD====
<galleryheights=150px mode="Packed" style="text-align:left">
File:Banner Leiden I Maccabees.jpg | 850-950AD Carolingian <br> Leiden I Maccabees f.15v & f.22r
File:Banner Brussels ms 10066-77.jpg| 900-1000AD Carolingian <br> Brussels ms 10066-77
File:Banner Aachen Liuthar Gospels.jpg | 990AD Ottonian <br> Aachen Liuthar Gospels
File:Banner BL,Egerton 3763 f116v.jpg| 998-1018AD Ottonian <br> BL Egerton 3763f.112v & f.116v
File:Banner BL Add. 24199.jpg| 1000AD English <br> BL Add. 24199
File:Banner BL Vatican lat.12 f.37v.jpg | 1025-10505AD English <br> BL Vatican lat.12 f.37v
====After 1066AD====
<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 (Hewitt 1885).jpg| 1087-1100 <br> Seal of William II (Rufus)
File:Banner Dijon MS14 f.13v.jpg| 1109-1111AD French <br> Dijon MS14 f.13v
File:Banner Dijon MS173 f133v.jpg| 1101-1133 French <br> Dijon MS173 f133v 'Moralia in Job'
File:Seal Henry I.jpg| 1100-1135AD English <br> Seal of Henry I
File:Banner Heildesheim St Albans Psalter 49.JPG| 1120-1145 <br> Heildesheim, St Albans Psalter
File:Seal King Alexander of Scotland (Hewitt 1885).jpg| 1107-1124 <br> Seal of Alexander I of Scotland
</gallery>
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===Triangular Banners===
A type of banner supported by the banner pole and a horizontal beam and similar in shape to the Viking weather vanes.
<gallery heights=150px mode="Packed" style="text-align:left">
File:Banner Girona, Beatus Of Girona f.242r.jpg| 976AD <br> Girona, Beatus Of Girona f.242r
File:Banner Boulogne MS20 f.29v.jpg| 1000AD Ottonian <br> Boulogne MS20 f.29v
File:Banner Bayeux Tapestry 65a.jpg| c.1076AD <br> Bayeux Tapestry
File:Coin BM 1915,0507.767 Anlaf Guthfrithsson 939-941AD.jpg| 939-941AD <br> Anlaf Guthfrithsson, King of York
File:Coin Cnut.jpg| 1016-1035<br> Cnut, King of England
</gallery>
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:<span style="font-style: italic; color: green">White and blue and vermilion were the gonfalons they bore." [BACON 1914]
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==Late Roman Draco Standards==
{{evidence
|Art =
<galleryheights=150px mode="Packed" style="text-align:left">
File:Banner St. Gallen Cod.22 140.jpg | c.883-900AD Carolingian <br> St. Gallen Cod.22 140
File:Banner Bayeux Tapestry 71a.jpg | c.1076AD English <br> Bayeux Tapestry
*About Witikind, an adversary of Charlemagne
:<span style="font-style: italic; color: 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
:<span 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,....” [BOHN 1853:p.194]
|Archaeology
|Discussion =
}}
The idea of a 'Dragon of Wessex' is an invention of E. A. Freeman in the C19th. [CHANEY 1970:p.128]<br>Oakeshott refers to "... be the end would have been different. But Harold was struck, and cut down by a Norman sword when William's knights burst through the Huscarles to trample down the Dragon standard and Harold's banner of the Fighting Man." [OAKESHOTT 1960:p.180]but we are unable to find anything that this reference to a dragon standard could be based on.
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{{evidence
|Art =
<galleryheights=150px mode="Packed" style="text-align:left">
File:Banner Bayeux Tapestry 53b.jpg | c.1076AD English <br> Bayeux Tapestry
</gallery>
====The Annals of St Neots (1120-1140AD)====
:<span style="font-style: italic; color: green">""<br>
Although written in the C12th, The Annals of St Neots was based in part on a now missing early version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. [SWANTON2000]
====Saga of Olaf, Tryggvi's Son. (c.1260AD)====
}}
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==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 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 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 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 the sharpest of conflicts, in which many Englishmen fell, and they were near to taking flight." [LAING 1907]
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== Viking Weather Vanes ==
7 'weather vanes' have been found and a depiction of them can be found on a carving from Bergen.
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==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, 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 Kings of England''' (Gesta Regum Anglorum) c.1125AD
:*
::<span style="font-style: italic; color: green">"The king himself on foot, stood with his 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 precious stones, in the form of a '''man fighting'''." [GILES 1847:p.276]
* '''Master Wace, The Chronicle of the 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.” [TAYLOR 1837]</span><br>
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==The Papal Banner==
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==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]
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== The Caroccium ==
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==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}}
<HarvardReferences />
