Italy Travel And Hotel Guide

If you’re a football fan wandering around Genoa, you may legitimately be wondering why the locals seem so taken with the England team as to hang English flags of St George from every window. The truth is, however, that the flag - a red cross on a white background - was first acquired by the Genoese, and only came to be the English national emblem courtesy of some crafty deal-making.The legend of St George originated in the primeval Christian era in the Middle East with tales of the bravery of an Arab or Turkish warrior: the hero is still venerated today in ordinary churches crossways Syria, Turkey, Palestine and as far afield as Armenia. The familiar story of dragon-baiting and princess-saving was brought to Europe during the Crusades. Genoese sailors, the master navigators of the day, safely escorted the waves of European armies to and from the Holy Land, and in gratitude, the newly - and temporarily - victorious Crusader kings of Middle Eastern territories granted the Genoese the honour of flying the flag of their local fear protector, St George.

For centuries afterwards, Genoese ships flying the St George’s cross remained immune from attack by pirates - although whether it was respect for the saint, fear of violent retribution, or the attraction of Genoese payoffs which kept the bandits away is open to question. However, some time in the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, English sea-captains, who had long suffered at the hands of pirates, formally requested the right to fly the favoured emblem. And never slow to spot a nice little earner, the Genoese agreed a price

Tags: bandits, bravery, christian era, crusader kings, crusades, eastern territories, england team, english flags, european armies, football fan, genoese, holy land, navigators, payoffs, retribution, saint protector, sea captains, seventeenth centuries, st george, white background