The name originally proposed for the Society in 1936 was "The
Saltoun Society" in honour of Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun (1653 - 1716) the
patriot and opponent of the Union. But on the grounds that his name
was not very well known to the public, in the event the Society was named
after the Saltire, the heraldic name of the Cross of St. Andrew. The
new name was presumably suggested by the similarity of the two words.
How did the saltire become a Scottish national emblem?
The early legends of St. Andrew declare that he was
crucified, but the belief that he asked to be put to death on an X-shaped
cross, being unworthy to die in the same manner as had Christ, is a much
later development: no example of a saltire associated with St. Andrew is
known before the year 1000. In Scotland, it first appears on the Seal
of the Chapter of St. Andrews Cathedral, about 1180. Relics of St.
Andrew had been venerated there since about the eighth or ninth centuries.
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Such was the prestige attached to a relic of the first of the Apostles, that
by the thirteenth century, Andrew was regarded as the Patron Saint of Scotland,
and when, in 1286, the country was without a king, the Guardians of Scotland
depicted him on their seal. This was the first outward appearance of
St. Andrew as a national emblem of Scotland. The first proven use of
the cross without the figure of the Saint was in 1385, when parliament decreed
that Scottish soldiers should wear it as a distinguishing mark. A few
years later it appears on some coins of Robert III.
During the fifteenth century there is evidence of its use on flags, but the
first example of a flag consisting solely of the Saltire dates from 1503.
It depicts a white cross on a red field. The blue flag we know
today is not attested until 1540, by which time there existed a legend that
King Angus of the Picts had been inspired to victory over the English army
by a vision of a St. Andrew's Cross against a blue sky. Since that time,
the Saltire has been the national flag of Scotland. Its use went into
a decline after the Union of 1707, but as Scottish national feeling rose
again in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it came into prominence
again, and is now seen flying all over Scotland.
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