Golden Welsh Dragon Flag

Description of the Product

This Welsh banner, a golden dragon on a white background, is called “Y Ddraig Aur", The Gold Dragon. It is famous for being the battle banner which Owain Glyndŵr raised at the battle of Twthil (Tuthill), Caernarfon in 1401. He was revolting against the occupation of Wales by the English crown, and the flag is still often used in a similar sense. Owain Glyndŵr chose the golden dragon as his banner, as it symbolized and represented Uther Pendragon and King Arthur. Uther’s name Pendragon is an epithet which Arthur inherited from his father, meaning head-dragon, or chief leader. Geoffrey of Monmouth (the “inventor” of the Arthurian legends) in his 1136 opus Historia Regum Britanniae writes that Uther got the name when he witnessed a dragon-shaped comet, a firedrake, which inspired him to use dragons on his standards.

In reality it was most likely the Romans who had brought the dragon emblem to Britain during their reign, as a Roman military cohort standard. Dragons or similar serpentine creatures were often venerated by ancient peoples, including Celts in Britain. The oldest known use of the dragon to represent Wales is from Historia Brittonum, written around 830.

The original war standards of Romans, Celts and Anglo-Saxons were “windsocks” held aloft on a spear, serpentine in form, with small wings. Such dragon standards are also seen borne by the English army on the Bayeux tapestry. With the development of heraldry in the ensuing centuries, physical objects, such as windsocks, were replaced by illustrations on cloth, which a flag or a banner from 1400 already would have been.

Owain Glyndŵr chose the golden dragon as his banner, as he knew it would bring to people’s minds the Arthurian legends where Saxons had been stopped, and remind them of a golden age of Welsh national unity. In the end he was not successful in his revolt against the English. His cousins the Tudors would eventually end up succeeding not in getting rid of the English, but ruling them instead. Riding to battle with a Red Dragon instead of a golden one, Henry Tudor emerged victorious from the battle of Bosworth, and won the English crown.

• Flag is double sided with metal grommets
• Size: 93 cm x 150 cm
• For indoor/outdoor use
• Material: Polyester