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This article's completion rating is 2 out of 5. Article structure and content is subject to change as data is still being collected.

This article's completion rating is 2 out of 5. Article structure and content is subject to change as data is still being collected.

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.

From Art

Pennons

These are triangular flags or streamers.

• 

  1000-1025AD English
  BL Harley 603

• 

  1025-1050AD English
  BL Harley 603

• 

  1050-1075AD English
  BL Harley 603

• 

  c.1073AD English
  BL Cotton Caligula A XV f123r

• 

  1125-1150AD English
  BL Harley 603

Banners

These are rectangular flags ending in ‘swallowtails’.

Before 1066AD

• Banner Leiden I Maccabees f.15v.jpg

  850-950AD Carolingian
  Leiden I Maccabees f.15v

• Banner Leiden I Maccabees f.22r.jpg

  850-950AD Carolingian
  Leiden I Maccabees f.22r

• Banner Aachen Liuthar Gospels a.jpg

  990AD Ottonian
  Aachen Liuthar Gospels

• Banner Aachen Liuthar Gospels b.jpg

  990AD Ottonian
  Aachen Liuthar Gospels

• 

  1025-10505AD English
  BL Vatican lat.12 f.37v

• 

  1025-10505AD English
  Paris Lat. 8824 f.1v

• Banner BL Cotton Tiberius C VI f.8v.jpg

  1050AD English
  BL Cotton Tiberius C VI f.8v

• Banner BL Cotton Tiberius C VI f.9r.jpg

  1050AD English
  BL Cotton Tiberius C VI f.9r

The Bayeux Tapestry

After 1066AD

• Banner Dijon MS14 f.13v a.jpg

  1109-1111AD French
  Dijon MS14 f.13v

• Banner Dijon MS14 f.13v b.jpg

  1109-1111AD French
  Dijon MS14 f.13v

• 

  1101-1133 French
  Dijon MS173 f133v 'Moralia in Job'

• 

  1100-1135AD English
  Great Seal of Henry I

From Literature

For a full list of banners mentioned in primary sources see Banners from Literature

Late Roman Draco Standards

Art

• 

  c.883-900AD Carolingian
  St. Gallen Cod.22 140

• 

  c.1076AD English
  Bayeux Tapestry

Literature

"Hic arripiens signum quod apud eo habebatur sacrum, leonis atque draconis desuper aquilae volantis insignitum effigie ..."

About Witikind, an adversary of Charlemagne. [OAKESHOTT 1960:p178]

Archaeology
--
Discussion

"... 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]

References

<nocite> BACON1914 GILES1847 GUMMERE1910 HEWITT1885 LAING1907 OAKESHOTT1960 SELLAR1907 SWANTON2000 TAYLOR1837 </nocite> <biblio force=false>#Template:Bib</biblio>