How To Build A Saint Andrews Cross

Heraldic and vexillogical symbol in the course of a diagonal cross

"10-cross" redirects here. For the flick, meet X-Cross.

A diagonal cross (decussate cantankerous, saltire, St. Andrew's Cantankerous)

A saltire, too called Saint Andrew'due south Cross or the crux decussata,^[1] is a heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross, like the shape of the letter X in Roman blazon. The word comes from the Eye French sautoir, Medieval Latin saltatoria ("stirrup").^[2]

From its use as field sign, the saltire came to exist used in a number of flags, in the 16th century for Scotland and Burgundy, in the 18th century besides equally the ensign of the Russian Navy, and for Ireland. Notable 19th-century usage includes some of the flags of the Amalgamated States of America. It is also used in the flag of Jamaica and on seals, and as a heraldic charge in coats of arms.

The term saltirewise or in saltire refers to heraldic charges bundled as a diagonal cross. The shield may likewise exist divided per saltire, i.e. diagonally.

A warning sign in the shape of a saltire is too used to signal the point at which a railway line intersects a road at a level crossing.

Heraldry and vexillology [edit]

The saltire is important both in heraldry, being found in many coats of arms, and in vexillology, being establish as the dominant characteristic of multiple flags.

Coat of arms of the counts of Ötingen (Oettingen): Azure a bordure vair ancien gules and or, a saltire silver over all (attested from every bit early as 1180,^[3] here in the delineation in the Zürich armorial, c. 1340).

The saltire is i of the and then-called ordinaries, geometric charges that bridge throughout (from edge to edge of) the shield. Equally suggested by the name saltire ("stirrup"; in French: sautoir, in German language: Schragen), the ordinary in its early use was not intended as representing a Christian cantankerous symbol. The clan with Saint Andrew is a development of the 15th to 16th centuries. The Cantankerous of Burgundy emblem originates in the 15th century, as a field sign, and as the Saint Andrew's Cross of Scotland was used in flags or banners (only non in coats of arms) from the 16th century, and used equally naval ensign during the Age of Sail.

When two or more saltires appear, they are ordinarily blazoned as couped (cut off). For example, contrast the unmarried saltire in the artillery granted to G. M. W. Anderson^[a]—with the three saltires couped in the coat of Kemble Greenwood.^[b]

Diminutive forms include the fillet saltire,^[c] usually considered half or less the width of the saltire, and the saltorel, a narrow or couped saltire.

A field (party) per saltire is divided into four areas by a saltire-shaped "cutting". If 2 tinctures are specified, the first refers to the areas to a higher place (in master) and below (in base) the crossing, and the second refers to the ones on either side (in the flanks).^[d] Otherwise, each of the 4 divisions may be blazoned separately.

The phrase in saltire or saltirewise is used in two ways:

1. Ii long narrow charges "in saltire" are placed to cantankerous each other diagonally. Common forms include the crossed keys found in the arms of many entities associated with Saint Peter and paired arrows.^[e]
2. When v or more meaty charges are "in saltire", they are arranged with 1 in the middle and the others along the arms of an invisible saltire.^{[f] [g]}

Sectionalisation of the field per saltire was notably used past the Aragonese kings of Sicily beginning in the 14th century (Frederick the Simple), showing the pales of Aragon and the "Hohenstaufen" eagle (silverish an eagle sable).

Scotland [edit]

The Flag of Scotland, called The Saltire or Saint Andrew's Cross, is a blueish field with a white saltire. According to tradition, it represents Saint Andrew, who is supposed to have been crucified on a cross of that form (called a crux decussata) at Patras, Greece.

The Saint Andrew's Cross was worn equally a badge on hats in Scotland, on the day of the banquet of Saint Andrew.^[1]

In the politics of Scotland, both the Scottish National Party and Scottish Bourgeois Party use stylised saltires as their party logos, deriving from the flag of Scotland.

Prior to the Union the Royal Scots Navy used a reddish ensign incorporating the St Andrew'due south Cross; this ensign is now sometimes flown as function of an unofficial ceremonious ensign in Scottish waters. With its colours exchanged (and a lighter blue), the same blueprint forms part of the arms and flag of Nova Scotia (whose name means "New Scotland").

Cross of Burgundy [edit]

The Cross of Burgundy, a form of the Saint Andrew's Cross, is used in numerous flags beyond Europe and the Americas. It was beginning used in the 15th century as an keepsake by the Valois Dukes of Burgundy. The Duchy of Burgundy, forming a big part of eastern French republic and the Low Countries, was inherited by the House of Habsburg on the extinction of the Valois ducal line. The emblem was therefore assumed by the monarchs of Spain every bit a effect of the Habsburgs bringing together, in the early 16th century, their Burgundian inheritance with the other extensive possessions they inherited throughout Europe and the Americas, including the crowns of Castile and Aragon. As a result, the Cantankerous of Burgundy has appeared in a wide variety of flags connected with territories formerly office of the Burgundian or Habsburg inheritance. Examples of such diversity include the Castilian naval ensign (1506-1701), the flag of Carlism (a nineteenth century Spanish conservative movement), the flag of the Dutch capital of Amsterdam and municipality of Eijsden, the flag of Chuquisaca in Republic of bolivia and the flags of the US states of Florida and Alabama.

Gascony [edit]

Gascony has non had any institutional unity since the 11th century, hence several flags are currently used in the territory. Fable says that this flag appeared in the fourth dimension of Pope Clement III to gather the Gascons during the Tertiary Cause (12th century). That flag, sometimes called "Union Gascona" (Gascon Union), contains the St Andrew's cross, the patron saint of Bordeaux and the red color of English kingdom, which reigned over Gascony from 12th to mid-15th century.

In Tome xiv of the Grande Encyclopédie, published in French republic between 1886 and 1902 past Henri Lamirault, information technology says

during the difficult times of the Hundred Years' War and the terrible struggles between the Armagnacs, representing the national party (white cross) and the Burgundians, allied to the English (red cross and scarlet Saint Andrew'due south cross), the flag of the victorious English ends upward gathering, in 1422, under Henri 6, on its field the white and red crosses of French republic and England, the white and cerise Saint Andrew's crosses of Guyenne and Burgundy.^[ten]

That saltire is too represented in the pattern of some talenquères in many bullrings in Gascony.^[11]

Maritime flags [edit]

The naval ensign of the Imperial Russian (1696–1917) and Russian navies (1991–present) is a blue saltire on a white field.

The international maritime signal flag for G is a white saltire on a blue background, and indicates a stopped vessel. A red saltire on a white background denotes the alphabetic character V and the message "I crave help".

Others [edit]

The flags of the Colombian archipelago of San Andrés and Providencia and the Spanish isle of Tenerife as well employ a white saltire on a blue field. The Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza too use a blue saltire on a white field, with their coats-of-arms at the hub.

Saltires are besides seen in several other flags, including the flags of Grenada, Jamaica, Alabama, Florida, Bailiwick of jersey, Logroño, Vitoria, Amsterdam, Breda, Katwijk, Potchefstroom, The Bierzo and Valdivia, as well every bit the quondam Indian princely states of Khairpur, Rajkot and Jaora.

The design is too part of the Amalgamated Boxing Flag and Naval Jack used during the American Civil War (see Flags of the Amalgamated States of America). Arthur L. Rogers, designer of the concluding version of the Confederate National flag, claimed that it was based on the saltire of Scotland.^[12] The saltire is used on modern-mean solar day Southern U.S. state flags to laurels the old Confederacy.^[13]

Christian symbol [edit]

Anne Roes (1937) identifies a design consisting of two crossing diagonal lines in a rectangle, sometimes with four dots or balls in the four quarters, as an keepsake or vexillum (standard) of Persepolis during the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC. Roes too finds the design in Argive vase painting, and nevertheless earlier in push seals of the Iranian Chalcolithic. Roes likewise notes the occurrence of a very like if not identical vexillum which repeatedly occurs in Gaulish coins of c. the 2nd to 1st century BC, in a recurring blueprint where it is held by a charioteer in front of his homo-headed horse.^[14] A large number of coins of this type (118 out of 152 items) forms part of the Les Sablons hoard of the 1st century BC, discovered in Le Mans between 1991 and 1997, associated with the Cenomani.^[15]

The aforementioned blueprint is found on coins of Christian Roman emperors of the quaternary to fifth centuries (Constantius II, Valentinian, Jovian, Gratianus, Valens, Arcadius, Constantine III, Jovinus, Theodosius I, Eugenius and Theodosius II). The letter Χ (Chi) was from an early time used as a symbol for Christ (unrelated to the Christian cross symbol, which at the fourth dimension was given a T-shape). The vexillum on imperial coins from the 4th century was sometimes shown every bit the Labarum, surmounted by or displaying the Chi-Rho monogram rather than just the crux decussata. The emblem of the crux decussata in a rectangle, sometimes with four dots or balls, re-appears in coins the Byzantine Empire, in the 9th to tenth centuries. Roes suggested that early on Christians endorsed its solar symbolism equally advisable to Christ.^[16]

• 

  Aureate stater of the Cenomani, on the reverse an androcephalous horse led by a charioteer extending a vexillum in front of it, riding over a fallen enemy.

• 

  Coin of Theodosius I (393–395), with a vexillum displaying a crux decussata

• 

  Coin of Theodosius Ii (425–429), showing the emperor with globus cruciger and with the aforementioned vexillum

The association with Saint Andrew develops in the late medieval menses. The tradition according to which this saint was crucified on a decussate cantankerous is not institute in early hagiography. Depictions of Saint Andrew beingness crucified in this manner first appear in the 10th century, just practise not become standard earlier the 17th century.^[17] Reference to the saltire as "St Andrew'due south Cantankerous" is made by the Parliament of Scotland (where Andrew had been adopted every bit patron saint) in 1385, in a decree to the event that every Scottish and French soldier (fighting against the English under Richard Two) "shall have a sign before and behind, namely a white St. Andrew's Cross".^[xviii]

• 

  Saint Andrew martyred on a decussate cantankerous (miniature from an Eastward Anglian missal, c. 1320)

• 

Other [edit]

The diagonal cross (decussate cross) or Ten mark is called "saltire" in heraldic and vexillological contexts.

A black diagonal cross was used in an sometime Eu standard as the hazard symbol for irritants (11) or harmful chemicals (Xn). Information technology indicated a hazard less astringent than skull and crossbones, used for poisons, or the corrosive sign.

The Maria Theresa thaler has a Roman numeral ten to symbolize the 1750 debasement of the coinage, from ix to x thalers to the Vienna marking (a weight of silver).

A diagonal cross known as "crossbuck" is used as the conventional road sign used to point the point at which a railway line intersects a road at a level crossing, chosen a in this context. A white diagonal cantankerous on a blue background (or black on yellow for temporary signs) is displayed in UK railway signalling as a "cancelling indicator" for the Automated Alarm System (AWS), informing the driver that the received warning tin can be disregarded.

In Cameroon, a red "10" placed on illegally constructed buildings scheduled for demolition is occasionally referred to as a "St Andrew's Cross". It is usually accompanied by the letters "A.D." ("à détruire"—French for "to be demolished") and a date or deadline. During a campaign of urban renewal by the Yaoundé Urban Council in Republic of cameroon, the cantankerous was popularly referred to as "Tsimi's Cross" later on the Authorities Delegate to the council, Gilbert Tsimi Evouna.^[19]

In traditional timber framing a pair of crossing braces is sometimes called a saltire or a St. Andrew's Cross.^[20] Half-timbering, especially in French republic and Germany, has patterns of framing members forming many dissimilar symbols known as ornamental bracing.^[21]

Unicode encoded various decussate crosses under the proper noun of saltire, they are U+2613 ☓ SALTIRE, U+1F7A8 🞨 THIN SALTIRE, U+1F7A9 🞩 LIGHT SALTIRE, U+1F7AA 🞪 MEDIUM SALTIRE, U+1F7AB 🞫 BOLD SALTIRE, U+1F7AC 🞬 HEAVY SALTIRE, U+1F7AD 🞭 VERY HEAVY SALTIRE and U+1F7AE 🞮 EXTREMELY HEAVY SALTIRE.

Gallery [edit]

Coats of arms [edit]

• 

  Quarterly 1st & 4th: Barry of six [7] vair and gules; 2d & tertiary: Gules, a saltire vair (Henry Beaumont of Devon, d.1591)

• 

  Argent a saltire floretty gules (Busséol)

• 

saltirewise

• 

• 

  Gules a cross saltire and orle of chains linked together or, in the fess point an emerald vert (Kingdom of Navarre)

• 

  Argent 5 martlets saltirewise sable on a chief azure three ducal crowns or (Bodley)

in supporters

• 

• 

• 

• 

  Coat of arms of Barbados with Sugar Cane held saltirewise.

Flags [edit]

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

  Tercio de la Liga (1571)

• 

• 

• 

• 

  Unknown Tercio flag (appears most commander Ambrogio Spinola in the painting "The Give up of Breda" of Diego Velázquez) (1621)

• 

  Tercio de Alburquerque (1643)

• 

  Tercio Morados Viejos (1670)

• 

  Tercio Amarillos Viejos (1680)

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

  Flag of Shanghai Municipal Quango, Shanghai International Settlement (c. 1917 – 1943)

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

  Flag of the Federal Customs Service of Russia (1994)

• 

  Battle ensign of the Coast Baby-sit of Georgia (2004)

• 

  Naval Ensign of Georgia (2004–2009)

• 

• 

• 

• 

International Lawmaking of Signals

• 

• 

Usa states

• 

• 

• 

• 

War machine insignia [edit]

• 

• 

Orders [edit]

• 

• 

• 

• 

See too [edit]

• Christian cross
• Cantankerous of Saint Peter
• Crossbuck
• Nordic cross
• Saint George'southward Cross
• Saint Patrick's Saltire
• X marking

Notes [edit]

1. ^ Or on a saltire engrailed Azure two quill pens in saltire Argent enfiling a Loyalist military coronet Or ^[iv]
2. ^ Sable a chevron Erminois cotised between three saltires couped Or ^[5]
3. ^ The coat of the S African National Cultural and Open-air Museum: Or; an ogress charged with a fillet saltire surmounted past an eight spoked bike or, and ensigned of a barracks sable; a principal nowy gabled, Sable
4. ^ The coat of the Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Quango: Per saltire Vert and Or four Fers de Moline counterchanged in fess point a Fountain. ^[6]
5. ^ Suffolk County Council's Gules a Base of operations barry wavy enarched Argent and Azure issuant therefrom a Sunburst in chief two Aboriginal Crowns enfiled by a pair of Arrows in saltire points downwards all Or ^[7]
6. ^ Winchester City Council: Gules five castles triple towered, in saltire, silverish, masoned proper the portcullis of each part-raised, or, and on either side of the castle in fess point a lion passant guardant that to the dexter contourny Or ^[8]
7. ^ The arms of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America: Silvery; a quarter azure charged with nine cross crosslets in saltire argent, overall a cross gules ^[nine]

References [edit]

1. ^ "Crux decussata". Merriam-Webster Lexicon. Merriam-Webster, Inc. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
2. ^ Heraldic employ 13th century (attested 1235, Huon de Méry, Tournoiemenz Antecrist, 5. 654). In 1352 likewise of a item form of stirrup (Comput. Steph. de la Fontaine argent, du Cange s.v. "saltatoria"). 15th-century apply in the sense of a barrier of wooden pegs arranged crosswise, preventing the passage of livestock that can yet be jumped by people. "sautoire" in TLFi; see also "saltire" at etymonline.com.
3. ^ Berhard Peter, Die Wappen des Hauses Oettingen (2010–2016).
4. ^ "Anderson, George Milton William [Private]". Archive.gg.ca. 2005-07-28. Retrieved 2012-09-09 .
5. ^ "Greenwood, Kemble [Individual]". Archive.gg.ca. 2005-07-28. Retrieved 2013-x-25 .
6. ^ "Civic Heraldry Of England And Wales-West Midlands". Civicheraldry.co.u.k.. Retrieved 2012-09-09 .
7. ^ "Civic Heraldry Of England And Wales - East Anglia And Essex Area". Civicheraldry.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2009-08-28. Retrieved 2012-09-09 .
8. ^ "Civic Heraldry Of England And Wales - Cornwall And Wessex Surface area". Civicheraldry.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-09-09 .
9. ^ "Logos, Shields & Graphics".
10. ^ ^{a b} La grande encyclopédie : Inventaire raisonné des sciences, des lettres et des arts. Tome 14 / Par une société de savants et de gens de lettres ; sous la dir. De MM. Berthelot,... Hartwig Derenbourg,... F.-Camille Dreyfus,... A. Giry,... [et al.].
11. ^ @Pickwicq (21 Feb 2016). "Amandine derrière la talenquère pour pentecôte à Samadet 2015" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
12. ^ Coski, John K. (2005). The Confederate Battle Flag: America's Virtually Embattled Keepsake. U.s.: First Harvard University Press. pp. 17–eighteen. ISBN978-0-674-01722-1.
13. ^ Coski, John M. (2005). The Confederate Battle Flag: America'southward About Embattled Emblem. U.s.a. of America: Showtime Harvard University Press. p. 79. ISBN978-0-674-01722-1.
14. ^ Roes (1937), footnote 15, citing Henri de La Bout, Atlas de monnaies gauloises (1892), plates xxi, xxiii, coins of the Aulerci Diablintes, Aulerci Cenomani and Osismii.
15. ^ Trésors monétaires, volume XXIV, BNF, 2011.
16. ^ Roes, Anne (1937). "An Iranian standard used as a Christian symbol". The Journal of Hellenic Studies. 57 (2): 248–51. doi:10.2307/627151.
17. ^ Cudith Calvert, "The Iconography of the St. Andrew Auckland Cross", The Art Bulletin 66.4 (Dec 1984:543–555) p. 545, note 12, citing Louis Réau, Iconographie de l'fine art chrétien III.1 (Paris) 1958:79.
18. ^ The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707, K.M. Brown et al. (eds.), St Andrews (2007-2019), 1385/half-dozen/4 "ordinance fabricated in council concerning the French army": Particular, que tout homme, Francois et Escot, ait un signe devant et derrere cest assavoir une croiz blanche Saint Andrieu et se son jacque soit blanc ou sa cote blanche il portera la dicte croiz blanche en une slice de drap noir ronde ou quarree.
19. ^ "Célestin Obama. Tsimi Evouna due south'attaque aux édifices publics, Le Messager, 23 Sept 2008". Archived from the original on December 17, 2008.
20. ^ Hansen, Hans Jürgen, and Arne Berg. Architecture in wood; a history of wood building and its techniques in Europe and North America. New York: Viking Printing, 1971. Print.
21. ^ Rudolf Huber and Renate Rieth, Glossarium Artis, x, Holzbaukunst - Architecture en Bois - Architecture in Wood. Munich, Germany: Saur. 1997. 55. ISBN 3-598-10461-8
22. ^ "Borough HERALDRY OF ENGLAND AND WALES - HERTFORDSHIRE". www.civicheraldry.co.uk.
23. ^ ^{a b} *Álvarez Abeilhé, Juan. 50a bandera de España. El origen militar de los símbolos de España. Revista de Historia Militar Año LIV (2010). Núm extraord. Madrid: Ministerio de Defensa. ISSN 0482-5748. PP. 37-69.
24. ^ Every bit a naval flag for the carrack Swell Michael. As foursquare flag carried by heraldic supporters c. 1542. National Library of Scotland (1542). "Plate from the Lindsay Armorial". Scran. Purple Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Retrieved 2009-12-09 .

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:Chambers, Ephraim, ed. (1728). "Saltier". Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1st ed.). James and John Knapton, et al.

External links [edit]

• Media related to Saint Andrew's crosses at Wikimedia Eatables

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltire

Share this post