joanne_matt (flickr), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
On 24th February 2018 you could hear the roar of the Scottish rugby fans at Murrayfield in Edinburgh. Exuberant and passionate singing erupted from the supporters who celebrated a sporting victory over England. All over the stadium the national Scottish flag was waved by thousands of the faithful, many of whom depicted the same saltire image of a white cross on a blue background on their faces. But where does our national flag come from?
In AD 832 King Angus Mac Fergus of the Picts and Eochaidh of the Scots – the grandfather of Kenneth Mac Alpin – turned around after fleeing, and faced their enemy. It was a desperate situation, their combined armies being easily outnumbered by King Athelstan’s Anglo-Saxon soldiers. Almost as an echo of Constantine’s stand at Milvian Bridge near Rome, King Angus of the Picts cried out to God for his deliverance. That night, Fordun tells us, he had a dream of St Andrew appearing to him, saying: ‘Tomorrow [God] shall give thee a gladsome victory… for an angel, bearing the banner of the Lord’s cross, shall go before thee in the sight of many.’ The next day, according to Hector Boece, the Canon of Aberdeen, in his History and Chronicles of Scotland: ‘… a shiny cross was seen in the sky, straight above the army of the Picts, not unlike the same cross that the apostle died on.’ Both Fordun and Boece took their records from earlier manuscripts of the twelfth century, now in the British Museum, although one of these accounts has Andrew speaking from heaven with a bright light.
When the Picts and Scots heard about the dream and saw the satire in the sky, their fear turned to boldness, believing that God was on their side. As the battle commenced, they fought so fiercely that the Anglo-Saxons were defeated, and King Athelstan’s head was severed from his body and impaled on a pole. This battle took place just outside today’s village of Athelstaneford in the Lothians. It seems that after this great victory Andrew became the most popular saint in Scotland, replacing Columba. The symbol of a white saltire cross on a blue sky background was adopted as a national emblem, depicted on one of Europe’s oldest flags. Just as Constantine’s Roman soldiers placed the Chi-Rho on their shields, so did the armies of Scotland adopt the saltire in the centuries ahead.