St George was killed during the last and most terrible of the Roman persecutions of Christians, under Emperor Diocletian, lasting from AD 302-5. Around ten years after his death, a Christian emperor, Constantine, came to power, and George was now one of many martyrs revered as a saint. He was a popular saint in the east, and a Church in his honour was built at the site of his grave, in Lydda, Palestine.

The cult of the saint was given a huge boost during the First Crusade, when he was said to have appeared to the crusading armies at the Battle of Dorylaeum, in 1097, and the Siege of Antioch, in 1198. Both were great crusading victories, and so St George came to be seen as a protector of Christian soldiery.

Dragon killer

The story of St George killing the dragon was first told, in the east, in the 11th century. It was popularised in Europe by the Italian writer, Jacobus de Voragine (1229-1281) in his collection of saints' lives, The Golden Legend. In the late 15th century, this was the most widely printed book in Europe. According to Jacobus, a town called Sylene in Libya was terrorised by a dragon. The local people had to provide the monster with a female victim every day, chosen by lot. When St George visited the town, he discovered that the king's daughter was the chosen victim. St George wounded the dragon, and then led it back to Sylene, where he told the people that he would kill the monster if they converted to Christianity. When they agreed, he chopped off its head.

Read the life of Saint George in The Golden Legend here

A Saint for England

In the early Middle Ages, England had two patron saints who were both kings: St Edmund the Martyr, the ninth century king of East Anglia, and St Edward the Confessor (reigned 1042-66). Neither were military figures. Edmund was defeated and killed by the Vikings in 870, and Edward was a man of peace, who never fought a battle.

It was England's growth as a powerful military nation, from the late 14th century, that led to the adoption of the soldier saint as a patron. King Edward I (reigned 1272-1307), a great warrior, was the first monarch to display St George's cross on his royal banners, alongside the arms of Saints Edmund and Edward. It is not known how the red cross came to be identified with Saint George, though one theory is that it derives from the red cross worn by the crusading order of the Knights Templar.

Edward I's grandson, Edward III (reigned 1312-77), another soldier king, was even more devoted to St George. In 1348, following his great victory over the French at Crécy, he founded the chivalric Order of the Garter, whose main patron was St George. At his royal castle in Windsor, he founded the Chapel of St George to serve as the Order's ceremonial home. It had its own religious brotherhood of canons, to serve the saint.

King Henry V (reigned 1413-22) used the cult of St George to promote his own image as a soldier of Christ. When Henry invaded France, in 1415, he ordered his soldiers to wear a large red cross of St George on their chests and backs. His battle cry at Agincourt was, "Cry God for Harry England and St George!" On his return to England, Henry held a victory parade through London, marching through a triumphal arch topped with a statue of St George in armour, wearing a laurel wreath of victory.

In 1416, the German Emperor Sigismund gave Henry a prized relic, the supposed heart of St George. For safekeeping, Henry gave this to the Saint's Chapel at Windsor, where it joined other relics acquired by earlier kings - part of St George's arm, a piece of his head, and two of his fingers. The Saint now had a physical presence in England, and the canons of the Chapel proudly carried his relics in religious processions.

An English Saint

The Saint was also popular with ordinary people, and the story of his fight wth the dragon was acted in mummers' plays, still performed on St George's Day. Many people came to believe that that Saint was an Englishman, and the ancient chalk figure of a White Horse at Uffington in Berkshire was reinterpreted as an image of the dragon. A hill nearby, called Dragon Hill, was believed to be the place where the Saint fought the monster. There is an area on top of the hill where grass never grows, supposedly because it was here that the dragon's poisonous blood was spilled.

Find out more about Dragon Hill here