[MR] Wikipedia: The Oriflamme

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

It's been a slow news week, medieval-wise, so this morning I pulled the
topic of The Oriflamme out of my memory.

The Oriflamme ("Golden Flame") was a French war banner used when the King
of France personally was on the battlefield. It was associated with Saint
Denis, patron saint of Paris, and was  generally kept in the Abbey of St.
Denis. It was supposed to guarantee absolute victory to the French, and
when it was raised, no quarter to the enemy would be given. It didn't
always work out that way, and the Oriflamme was lost at least four times
(of course, not the same banner). It's capture by the English at Crécy in
1346 and Poitiers in 1347 were particularly . . . uh . . . galling to the
French. Doubly at Poitiers, as both King John II and his 14 year-old son
Philip were also captured along with the flag (despite there being 17 decoy
"doubles" of the king on the field).

You can read more about The Oriflamme at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriflamme .

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆