Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

The king, seeing the threefold standard from afar, inquires of a deserter what it means; whereupon he replies, in the words of the ballad:

A mast of a ship it is so high,
All bedeck’d with gold so gay;
And on its top is a Holy Cross,
That shines as bright as day.

Around it hang the holy banners
Of many a blessed saint:
St Peter, and John of Beverley,
And St Wilfrid there they paint.

The king begins to have misgivings, and rejoins:

Oh! had I but yon holy rood
That there so bright doth show,
I would not care for yon English host,
Nor the worst that they could do.

But in vain: the Yorkshire blood was up, no quarter was given, and ten thousand Scotchmen bit the dust. So complete was the victory, that the oppressed Saxons boasted of it as an indemnity for their former sufferings; and the Battle of the Standard remains memorable among the greatest battles of Yorkshire, and the Standard Hill among her historical places.

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Original

Never was the saint’s influence more triumphantly felt than when Thurstan’s fiery eloquence roused the citizens of York to march against David of Scotland. The Scottish king, to support Maud’s claim against Stephen, ravaged Northumbria with such ferocious devastation, that it seemed but a repetition of the Norman havoc, and provoked the Saxon part of the population to join in repelling the invader. After threatening York, David moved northwards, followed by the Yorkshire army, which had rendezvoused at the castle of Thirsk. To inspire their patriotism, a great pole, topped by a crucifix, and hung with the standards of St. John of Beverley, St. Peter of York, and St. Wilfred of Ripon, was mounted on wheels, and placed where every eye could behold it. The Scottish army was overtaken three miles beyond Northallerton, on the 22nd of August, 1138. The king, seeing the threefold standard from afar, inquires of a deserter what it means; whereupon he replies, in the words of the ballad:

A mast of a ship it is so high,
All bedeck’d with gold so gay;
And on its top is a Holy Cross,
That shines as bright as day.

Around it hang the holy banners
Of many a blessed saint:
St Peter, and John of Beverley,
And St. Wilfrid there they paint.

The king begins to have misgivings, and rejoins:

Oh! had I but yon Holy Rood
That there so bright doth show,
I would not care for yon English host,
Nor the worst that they could do.[Pg 38]

But in vain: the Yorkshire blood was up, no quarter was given, and ten thousand Scotchmen bit the dust. So complete was the victory, that the oppressed Saxons boasted of it as an indemnity for their former sufferings; and the Battle of the Standard remains memorable among the greatest battles of Yorkshire, and the Standard Hill among her historical places.

340 words.

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• Ballad (18) ·
• Battle of the Standard (22 August 1138) (2), also the Battle of Northallerton, Cowton Moor near Northallerton: English forces under William of Aumale repelled a Scottish army led by King David I of Scotland ·
• David I of Scotland (1) ·
• Empress Matilda (1) ·
• England (12) ·
• John of Beverley (?-721) (2), bishop of Hexham and of York, canonised 1037, feast 7 May, but see also 25 October ·
• Military of Scotland (4) ·
• Normandy (1) ·
• Northallerton (6) ·
• Relatio de Standardo (1) ·
• Saint Peter (1) ·
• Scotland (37) ·
• Stephen of England (1) ·
• The Anarchy (1) ·
• Thirsk (14) ·
• Thurstan (2) ·
• White, Walter (10), writer ·
• Wilfrid (ca. 633-709/710) (4), cleric influential in imposing Roman over Celtic influences in the Anglo-Saxon church, politically powerful abbot and bishop, posthumously revered as a saint ·

All tags.

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